Some of Hollywood’s biggest directors are backing a home-movie streaming service which would allow audiences to watch movies at home as soon as they hit theaters for a hefty price.
Variety reports Sean Parker, known for being the first president of Facebook, has co-founded Screening Room with Prem Akkaraju, a home-movie service which would allow anyone to watch new movies at home as soon as they’re released in theaters.
While it sounds a bit like a pipe dream, the start-up has some of the biggest directors in the business as backers, and according to reports some of them have invested in the company, making them shareholders in what could be a game-changing service for the movie industry.
Variety reports that Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, and Peter Jackson are some of the biggest names behind the new service, which will reportedly cost $50 to stream each new movie at home the same day they hit theaters.
Screening Room is a start-up that has yet to convince movie studios to get behind the project, but with some of the biggest directors in Hollywood backing the project, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see this become a real possibility in the future.
Sony Pictures’ previous vice chairman, Jeff Blake, has been working with Screening Room “for months and [is] helping lead the charge.” He is said to be championing the company’s attempts to get movie studios to warm up to the idea of allowing movies to be available at home as soon as they hit theaters.
The company will charge $150 for access to an anti-piracy equipped box that would stream the films to your home television, and customers would then have 48 hours to watch the films they pay for each time one is released. The report suggests that the service is attempting to “capture an audience older than teens and young adults, who might have responsibilities such as children that prevent them from going to the theater.”
This seems like such a drastic change to the movie industry that it will never get off the ground, but with so many big names behind the project, it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s just going to sputter out after any resistance from studios that don’t want to see less people heading to the theaters.
In an attempt to convince studios and distributors that this type of service can be profitable, the company is offering them a “significant percentage of the revenue.” Even with high prices and offering studios a large cut, it seems like a difficult sell to the studios and even their targeted audience.
There’s always been a concern about releasing movies anywhere outside of a theater too soon, as any attempt to change the current model will cause less and less people to go to the movie theater, something that has already started happening with so many home-viewing options already available.
While it seems like a natural step in the movie industry to allow those who wish to pay a premium to watch new movies in the comfort of their own home, it feels like they’re going to face an uphill battle, as theaters and studios will probably feel any change will likely result in a loss at the box office.
But, as more and more people watch Netflix and stream movies-on-demand at home, it may become an easier pill to swallow for the studios to allow a pricey option for those who wish to stay home and watch new movies in the comfort of their own homes.
As a life-long movie fan, I personally think this will be very difficult to gather a large following. Not just because of the price, but because the experience of going to the theater and enjoying a movie with an audience is something that seems impossible to replicate at home, no matter how great our home-screening experiences have become.