Informal Brain

strategic thinking from Shawn Smith

Archive for the ‘movies’ tag

louisgray.com: Think Apple Would Dare To Take On the Movie Theaters?

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Louis Gray published this great idea tonight…

The movie theater industry has already lost me as a customer, for the most part. But they can get some of my revenue back if they strike a deal with Apple, and make new releases available on iTunes the day they debut in the theater.

I propose the following pricing for a 24-hour new movie rental:
$9.99 for viewing in the first two weeks.
$7.99 for viewing in weeks three through six.
$5.99 for viewing in weeks six through twelve.
Standard iTunes pricing for all weeks afterward.

[From louisgray.com: Think Apple Would Dare To Take On the Movie Theaters?]

I was thinking of this exact solution the other night as I was sitting there thinking “how can I see Iron Man”, when I have two small kids to take care of. I suspect if the movie studios could cut a deal to create a model where theater releases were priced at roughly the same cost as 2 people going to a movie (perhaps more then the 9.99 suggested by Louis), then they would still get the same kind of revenue but give the consumer choice.

As I mentioned I suspect the first 2 week cost could be even more. Maybe $16 even. Movie tickets now cost in the $8 range each. New releases would typically be watched by two members of a family so perhaps $18 is not outrageous. Maybe at that cost there is an option to apply your new release rental charge to a DVD purchase when it gets released.

Written by Shawn Smith

May 7th, 2008 at 6:23 am

Posted in 365, apple

Tagged with , ,