Hollywood, Apple Said to Mull Rental Plan, Defying Theaters

Megalith

Megalith

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Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, and other major movie studios are continuing their talks with Apple and Comcast about introducing premium digital rentals for new movies only a few weeks after their theatrical debut. We’ve heard a little bit about this before, but the latest reports suggest that interested parties will move forward with or without the theater industry’s blessing. $30 to $50 for a movie sounds pretty crazy, though.

The leading Hollywood studios, except for Walt Disney Co., are eager to introduce a new product to make up for declining sales of DVDs and other home entertainment in the age of Netflix. They have discussed sharing a split of the revenue from premium video on demand, or PVOD, with the cinema chains if they give their blessing to the concept. But the exhibitors have sought a long-term commitment of as much as 10 years for that revenue split, which the studios have rejected, the people said.
 
That is some messed up stuff...

From what I have read theaters get something like 20% of ticket sales the first couple weeks, more later on a sliding scale. Thus why concessions cost so much and are the primary money maker for theaters.

If distributors decide to start renting right after their "prime" money earning cutting the theater income, I would be pissed as a theater owner.

They should just lower ticket sales and charge a parking fee on each ticket to give a finger to the movie producers.
 
Wait.... $50 per viewing of a single movie, or $50 per month of access to this service?

Both ways are equally harsh.
 
OldGator said:
Still cheaper to just wait and own the physical movie on Bluray.
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This.

The point of getting an expensive movie ticket is to also experience the movie on a massive screen with a very impressive sound system that has been professionally calibrated. I doubt most have anything other than TV speakers and/or BOSE.
 
Trimlock said:
This.

The point of getting an expensive movie ticket is to also experience the movie on a massive screen with a very impressive sound system that has been professionally calibrated. I doubt most have anything other than TV speakers and/or BOSE.
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I would pay $50 if they sent me a 4k a Blu-ray as I have an 10k+ ht setup that sounds way better then any theater. So what if the screen is smaller I can pause the moives and no jack asses can text or keep talking to each other
 
tunatime said:
I would pay $50 if they sent me a 4k a Blu-ray as I have an 10k+ ht setup that sounds way better then any theater. So what if the screen is smaller I can pause the moives and no jack asses can text or keep talking to each other
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even if you spent 10k on your sound system I doubt it sounds better than a theaters.
 
I would pay $30 to $50 but they better guarantee me 4k quality and not some horse shit where it downscales it to 480p for half the movie. I don't mind downloading, I don't mind pausing at the beginning to buffer for like 5 to 10 min. But I want one consistent quality experience the whole way through.
 
glutto said:
Wait.... $50 per viewing of a single movie, or $50 per month of access to this service?

Both ways are equally harsh.
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It's per viewing and 50/month is not a lot to get tons of first run movies.

That said, I wouldn't buy this, because the video quality (especially from Comcast) would be atrocious. I guess if you have kids and a great home theater, it might make sense, but I'd rather go to a theater with a 70' screen than watch it on a 40-100" screen at home. That and I HATE stopping the movie and that shit happens when you watch at home.
 
tunatime said:
I would pay $50 if they sent me a 4k a Blu-ray as I have an 10k+ ht setup that sounds way better then any theater. So what if the screen is smaller I can pause the moives and no jack asses can text or keep talking to each other
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Yes, because daddy pausing the film so he can take a leak, get a cup of coffee or answer the phone is so much better than the theater experience. Also, and I say this in every one of these threads, you guys must go to a crappy theater. I don't care if I go to UA's Galaxy, Look Cinemas or AMC, I don't have these issues with talking (unless it's a kids film and I'm near a young child...which takes me back to the Jungle Book last year) and while I can't say I've never seen anyone look at their phone it's uncommon and the last time I saw it the person did it just as the movie was starting and that was it. Before that? I can't remember. I don't know how everyone on [H] has all these issues and I go to multiple cinemas regularly and have none.
 
Trimlock said:
The point of getting an expensive movie ticket is to also experience the movie on a massive screen with a very impressive sound system that has been professionally calibrated. I doubt most have anything other than TV speakers and/or BOSE.
Click to expand...

And with your expensive ticket you get to wait in line greeted by unfriendly people in a smelly theater that is filled with God-knows-what sticky crap in the ancient seats, noisy chatty assholes texting and talking on their iPhone while the movie is playing, babies crying, kids climbing all over seats, and stale popcorn with flat drinks. All for the low, low, low price of about $60-$75 for a few people.
 
nilepez said:
Yes, because daddy pausing the film so he can take a leak, get a cup of coffee or answer the phone is so much better than the theater experience. Also, and I say this in every one of these threads, you guys must go to a crappy theater. I don't care if I go to UA's Galaxy, Look Cinemas or AMC, I don't have these issues with talking (unless it's a kids film and I'm near a young child...which takes me back to the Jungle Book last year) and while I can't say I've never seen anyone look at their phone it's uncommon and the last time I saw it the person did it just as the movie was starting and that was it. Before that? I can't remember. I don't know how everyone on [H] has all these issues and I go to multiple cinemas regularly and have none.
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Everyone on [H] must go to the same $1 theater.
 
OldGator said:
And with your expensive ticket you get to wait in line greeted by unfriendly people in a smelly theater that is filled with God-knows-what sticky crap in the ancient seats, noisy chatty assholes texting and talking on their iPhone while the movie is playing, babies crying, kids climbing all over seats, and stale popcorn with flat drinks. All for the low, low, low price of about $60-$75 for a few people.
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Not my experience, and I doubt most as well.

I seriously challenge the fact that you have ever been to a theater if this is your "experience."
 
All for the concept but the price is insane. I try to avoid bashing but with Apple's involvement the A-tax is pretty obvious and they've plenty enough loyal sheep who'll try to experience whatever label Apple throws on it and proclaim how its so much better.

Honestly if it was a full 4k/Atmos stream I might, seriously might, consider it for something special and have friends or family over for but anything less isn't even an option. Either way I have a hard time believing this approach will be a true threat to the theaters, yet.
 
lostin3d said:
All for the concept but the price is insane. I try to avoid bashing but with Apple's involvement the A-tax is pretty obvious and they've plenty enough loyal sheep who'll try to experience whatever label Apple throws on it and proclaim how its so much better.

Honestly if it was a full 4k/Atmos stream I might, seriously might, consider it for something special and have friends or family over for but anything less isn't even an option. Either way I have a hard time believing this approach will be a true threat to the theaters, yet.
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Price is dictated by Hollywood not Apple. Apple would be an avenue to get the stream.
 
OldGator said:
And with your expensive ticket you get to wait in line greeted by unfriendly people in a smelly theater that is filled with God-knows-what sticky crap in the ancient seats, noisy chatty assholes texting and talking on their iPhone while the movie is playing, babies crying, kids climbing all over seats, and stale popcorn with flat drinks. All for the low, low, low price of about $60-$75 for a few people.
Click to expand...

What kind of shithole are you going to? If your experiences are typical, it sounds like you could easily make your money back if you uploaded and monetized the footage of your theater outings.
 
Trimlock said:
Not my experience, and I doubt most as well.

I seriously challenge the fact that you have ever been to a theater if this is your "experience."
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That was/is my experience as well. Jackasses wont stop talking or playing with their phones. People putting their feet on your chair.

That said, I absolutely will not buy into this if it uses itunes and such. itunes barely works consistently as it is and I will not put it on my pc for anyone/anything.
 
Trimlock said:
Not my experience, and I doubt most as well.

I seriously challenge the fact that you have ever been to a theater if this is your "experience."
Click to expand...

Yeah, because there's a motivation for those of us with this common experience to collectively lie about it.

Oh, here's a final morsel of food for thought: Aunt Jean is having a bad month and happens to leak a bit during that time. She goes to the theater and leaks into the seat. Still want to go to the theater? Be my guest.
 
nilepez said:
Yes, because daddy pausing the film so he can take a leak, get a cup of coffee or answer the phone is so much better than the theater experience. Also, and I say this in every one of these threads, you guys must go to a crappy theater. I don't care if I go to UA's Galaxy, Look Cinemas or AMC, I don't have these issues with talking (unless it's a kids film and I'm near a young child...which takes me back to the Jungle Book last year) and while I can't say I've never seen anyone look at their phone it's uncommon and the last time I saw it the person did it just as the movie was starting and that was it. Before that? I can't remember. I don't know how everyone on [H] has all these issues and I go to multiple cinemas regularly and have none.
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Yep, I go to Cinemark theaters and I usually go at 10am. There is usually no more than 5 people at that time and no one has been a problem. Although, once I did have an issue at an MJR theater with a guy( he might have been mentally ill) that was screaming random shit. I went and told management, they told him to stay quiet. I enjoyed the rest of the movie while he sat staring back at me in anger.
 
OldGator said:
Yeah, because there's a motivation for those of us with this common experience to collectively lie about it.

Oh, here's a final morsel of food for thought: Aunt Jean is having a bad month and happens to leak a bit during that time. She goes to the theater and leaks into the seat. Still want to go to the theater? Be my guest.
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LOL

Yea I don't think you go to theaters.

KarsusTG said:
That was/is my experience as well. Jackasses wont stop talking or playing with their phones. People putting their feet on your chair.

That said, I absolutely will not buy into this if it uses itunes and such. itunes barely works consistently as it is and I will not put it on my pc for anyone/anything.
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I will say that the feet on the chair has happened, but me asking them to NOT do it has resolved the issue.
 
If we as a world are going to move towards getting rid of public and private jobs in all industries - like movie theaters that need humans to work in them and humans to come to them to watch the actual movies - then sure, this is something that's going to happen as well and we'll see theater chains go out of business because of it while the studios just keep making shitty flicks of all kinds and companies like Apple just keep making money because of it.
 
To the poster above who denies that theaters are nasty:

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Bacterial test results of seats in public accommodations from a test done by GMA:

The SO-Bad Seats: These seats contained high bacteria counts, including E Coli. (The strains of E. coli we found are not the deadly type, but are an indicator of the presence of fecal matter.)

img_bullet_bluedot.gif
Movie theater seat
img_bullet_bluedot.gif
Airport lounge seat
img_bullet_bluedot.gif
Airplane seat
img_bullet_bluedot.gif
Rental car seat
img_bullet_bluedot.gif
Park bench
​
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Cons...-public-seats-full-bacteria/story?id=13697290

​
From another study:

After going to four popular East Texas theaters and swabbing seats, armrests, headrests, the works, it's now showtime.

"This is a typical plate from one of these and all these raised looking things represent individual colonies of bacteria, and there's just thousands and thousands of them on there," Dr. Wallace says pointing out one of the petri dishes.

Those are gram negative rods, the stuff that can really make you sick.

"What I expected was skin organisms, the typical type of staph species things and those were almost universal in all the samples. You expect that because of people laying their hands on the seats," he explains. "What I didn't expect were what we call stool organisms or fecal organisms."

That's right. Hundreds of thousands of colonies of fecal matter.


http://www.kltv.com/story/8319159/the-disgusting-results-to-our-dirty-movie-theater-investigation

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And this is one of many reasons why in addition to the ones I mentioned above I would never go see a movie in a theater when I can watch it and own it for $20 at home. Sitting in other people's poo just for that "slightly" bigger screen or "slightly" better sound isn't worth it.

Streaming for $50 each? Not going to happen. Are they nuts?
 
Right. First They have to come up with a movie that's worth $30-$50 to watch. Me, I'll stick with my Jerry Lewis reruns now that they're definitely classics.
 
It's still only $9 for the theater that is 3 miles away from me, so no thanks. I'm sure that streaming video and audio quality will totally be worth it, though :rolleyes:.
 
OldGator said:
And with your expensive ticket you get to wait in line greeted by unfriendly people in a smelly theater that is filled with God-knows-what sticky crap in the ancient seats, noisy chatty assholes texting and talking on their iPhone while the movie is playing, babies crying, kids climbing all over seats, and stale popcorn with flat drinks. All for the low, low, low price of about $60-$75 for a few people.
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Go to a better movie theater. When I go, I'm in a leather recliner with ample legroom, no sticky floors (across multiple theater complexes) in complete comfort....but even before one of the theaters I go to upgraded, the chairs were comfy and the floors clean.
 
OldGator said:
Yeah, because there's a motivation for those of us with this common experience to collectively lie about it.
Oh, here's a final morsel of food for thought: Aunt Jean is having a bad month and happens to leak a bit during that time. She goes to the theater and leaks into the seat. Still want to go to the theater? Be my guest.
Click to expand...
There's a lot of posts in these threads that when push comes to shove they haven't been to a theater in 10 years (or more). I'm seeing people worried about their chair being kicked...again, something I haven't experienced in 15 or 20 years and with reserved seating it's LITERALLY impossible unless the person is 10 ft tall, because in full recline a person can easily walk in front of your seat without touching you chair or the one in front of you and in some cases, the seat in front of you is well below your seat (as in 3 or 4 feet). But even when I visit my parents and we go to a movie that's not an issue.
 
Nope nope and nope. Fuck you and your $30-50 for a movie. If I can pay $20 and own the movie upon release... and I can rent a movie for $1 after it's been released on redbox, then there has to be a reasonable middle ground... that meaning, somewhere between $8-12 MAX for renting a theatrical release.

Otherwise, continue to enjoy piracy I guess? Whatever, keep shooting yourself in the foot and hoping it doesn't bleed.
 
Sooner or later this is coming. The only questions are when and how much to start.

Apple will probably get it best first because they have the deepest pocket books and for some reason people let them get away with anything. Just like with music the industry will give them some deal and then regret it later. Apple will want this to launch some new product in an exclusive or semi exclusive way, so we can all guess it will be an apple tv box, or a full TV.

Also remember the world runs on profit, not dollars spent, ultimately streaming new movies has the capacity to provide way more profit. You don't need to run a giant theater that is empty the majority of the time. You can concentrate your profit in a much smaller time span and move on to the next thing. Movie theaters are limited by seating capacity on release and then for the rest of the time they are largely empty. People who truly enjoy the aspects of the movie theater will continue to go. What bothers me is how anti choice and freedom so many Americans are.... Basically my question is, how is this a bad thing? You want to go to the theater, by all means go, someone else wants to stream, so let them stream. But instead what we get is a lot of people who like the movie theater whom are hell bent on wanting everyone else to be forced to go there. I get that the theaters want this but why so many other people?

If saving money is what you care about don't go to a new movie. Wait for it to come down in price.

Another interesting aspect of this is we could see companies doing what those like vudu do, where you pay different rates for different quality. Like you can only get surround sound if you pay for a premium rental.
 
While the price is stupid, I know they are trying to make up for family prices. Especially families that don't want to pay for their horde to go to the movies.

If this gets less kids in the movie theater I'm all good with it. My kids are well behaved during the movies I take them but some are not.
 
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I might be in the minority crowd - but I'm ok with paying $50 for some movies. Simple math: I have a few kids + wife. If we go see a movie locally at the cinema, it's going to cost me at least $48 ($12/ticket). I don't get a BluRay or digital download with that ticket price.
I also get to avoid the cinema and probably save $20-30 on drinks/snacks I would be conned into buying. Plus, I can watch from the comfort of my home.
I could wait until the retail version is released - but perhaps you are not living with impatient people who like to badger you all the time.
 
nilepez said:
There's a lot of posts in these threads that when push comes to shove they haven't been to a theater in 10 years (or more). I'm seeing people worried about their chair being kicked...again, something I haven't experienced in 15 or 20 years and with reserved seating it's LITERALLY impossible unless the person is 10 ft tall, because in full recline a person can easily walk in front of your seat without touching you chair or the one in front of you and in some cases, the seat in front of you is well below your seat (as in 3 or 4 feet). But even when I visit my parents and we go to a movie that's not an issue.
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I went to see both recent Star Wars movie in the theater because it's a tradition of mine (going back to seeing the original release in 1977 at a drive-in theater no less) and my experience is exactly what I posted.

Tell me...what is the motivation to lie about it? What possible motivation could a person have to claim that seats are filthy, the floors full of soda and popcorn, overflowing trash cans, people talking/chatting and using their phones during a movie, or, kids screaming/climbing all over the seats?

What is the motivation to make it up?

Know where I had good experiences in the theater? In Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Thailand. Great theaters with in-theater dining, table side service with free refills on popcorn and drinks, some even had sofas and large recliners, many offered beer and spirits, the works - including smiling faces who made you feel welcome instead of making you feel like you're interrupting them as they update Facebook. No complaints about the comfort, noise, or cleanliness.

To me the theater experience overseas matched the airline experience overseas.

But here the theater experience mirrors the poor experience now on all domestic airlines. Overpriced, uncomfortable, and not worth it. At least with a movie I can just wait and buy it and avoid the mess.

048e4be737c1602d2bb0f2af99bd79db--cinema-room-theater-rooms.jpg


When I was a kid/teenager/young adult the so-called theater experience for me in the states was vastly superior to what I have experienced in the past few years here and that has been from coast to coast so it's not just related to a single area. It's a miserable experience dealing with rude people and there's NO motivation to have to deal with that crap when my home setup is better.

When something like this comes here I might reconsider:

bsc_diamond_screen_1.jpg
 
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There's no way it will be as good as I'd want it to justify that price. I'd accept DRM if it would allow me to 100% download the video so I don't have any buffering issues/quality hiccups and it would need to include a full lossless audio track.

I know my setup is nowhere near a theater experience, but a 130" AT screen with 11 speaker surround is still a pretty good place to host a movie night.

Tangent: Finally getting my carpet/acoustic padding installed. Then I'm on to building my panels and hunting my reflection points.
 
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