The Movie Industry Needs To Stop Whining

The short version is that, yeah, the greedy entertainment industry needs to change with the times.

The longer version:

I, too, have an awesome home theater setup. Recently, my best friend of 30 years visited and we enjoyed MANY Blu-Ray movies, all of which were legitimately purchased. I'd buy EVEN MORE if they were released via Blu-Ray and/or high-quality download at the same time that they are released in theaters, and IF they were priced @ the same amount that I'd pay to take myself and a date to the movies...well...I'd even buy the new crappy flicks too. The industry would make an even greater profit margin on these movies, since the middleman (theater) has been eliminated.

Unfortunately, we only tend to buy the Blu-Ray disks of something we've seen before, and know to be good. Why? They're expensive, and come out far too late after the theater release. Although normal DVDs look AWESOME on my HD setup, I'd prefer the Blu-Ray, IF they were available...but often times, they're not, depending on the genre of the film. (Action movies seem to dominate the high-def disk market for obvious reasons.)

The theater experience, despite increased technical quality, isn't what it used to be, thanks to cell phones and ill-mannered children (who invariably grow up to be ill-mannered adults.) Also, the convenience and comfort of home has no substitute in the theaters.

It's not about honesty; the issue is one of convenience and accessibility. Sure, piracy in some form or another exists, but it always has, and always will. The best way to deal with it is to put out a timely product, easily purchased and viewed, and priced competitively, which would keep honest people honest. (True pirates will NEVER change their behavior; it's not the product they seek, but the thrill of getting away with it.)

Of course, the industry that would suffer is the movie theaters themselves, but there are still plenty of non-techies out there to support them, considering that these movie goers will pay for the overpriced food and drink that the theater really makes their money on.

Besides, who SAYS that inefficient and archaic institutions have a right to continue because of nostalgic tradition without consideration to change?

they want more money. -nuff said.

Originally Posted by demingo

I hate to say it, but this is completely false.

I'd much rather watch at home.

At home, I have a VERY comfortable leather couch to sit on. I have a 50" 1080P TV which has very good picture quality. My 7.1 surround sound system is well setup and sounds awesome. And the media center PC displays everything brilliantly via HDMI.

At home, I don't have to deal with annoying kids. I don't have to find a babysitter. I don't have to pay $5 for a popcorn and $3 for a coke. I can pause the movie to goto the bathroom and not miss anything.

Frankly, going to the movies in most theaters is a far worse experience than watching it at home for me. Some of the new LUX Level showings at Showcase are very nice, but at $19 a ticket, a night out with the wife can break $60. I'd much rather put that money towards a nice dinner out then watch a movie in our home theater.

The MPAA is so ignorant it hurts. I would GLADLY pay $15 for a 24 hour rental of a new release movie in 1080p. This way I avoid all the hastle of going to the movies and can enjoy it in my home. I actually had this discussion with my wife recently.

We haven't been to the movies in about a year. So they got $0 from us. If they offered home rentals the same day as theater releaase, we'd probably rent 2-3 movies a month. Thats $360 a year they are missing out because they are too stubborn to realize not everyone wishes to enjoy movies the way they want.

Cost is not the issues, I have money. I spent thousands on my home theater, I just simply do not enjoy the theater and would rather watch movies at home. They are narrowminded and therefore losing bigtime.

There is a reason I've been a Netflix customer for a long time now....

+1.

Originally Posted by demingo

I hate to say it, but this is completely false.

I'd much rather watch at home.

At home, I have a VERY comfortable leather couch to sit on. I have a 50" 1080P TV which has very good picture quality. My 7.1 surround sound system is well setup and sounds awesome. And the media center PC displays everything brilliantly via HDMI.

At home, I don't have to deal with annoying kids. I don't have to find a babysitter. I don't have to pay $5 for a popcorn and $3 for a coke. I can pause the movie to goto the bathroom and not miss anything.

Frankly, going to the movies in most theaters is a far worse experience than watching it at home for me. Some of the new LUX Level showings at Showcase are very nice, but at $19 a ticket, a night out with the wife can break $60. I'd much rather put that money towards a nice dinner out then watch a movie in our home theater.

The MPAA is so ignorant it hurts. I would GLADLY pay $15 for a 24 hour rental of a new release movie in 1080p. This way I avoid all the hastle of going to the movies and can enjoy it in my home. I actually had this discussion with my wife recently.

We haven't been to the movies in about a year. So they got $0 from us. If they offered home rentals the same day as theater releaase, we'd probably rent 2-3 movies a month. Thats $360 a year they are missing out because they are too stubborn to realize not everyone wishes to enjoy movies the way they want.

Cost is not the issues, I have money. I spent thousands on my home theater, I just simply do not enjoy the theater and would rather watch movies at home. They are narrowminded and therefore losing bigtime.

There is a reason I've been a Netflix customer for a long time now....

I am pretty much in the same boat. I use the HTPC to watch instantly and netflix has a warehouse in town so it only take about 2-3 days to get movies. I dont even have cable. I dont want to spend money on that either. Last 3 times I have been to a theater is because my step daughter co-manages a theater and I can get in for free when I visit her. Most recent one was Zombieland.

To bad no one in the industry gets it...

that's a great article.. thanks for posting it.

sorry for double post, but another good read on this subject

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/200...18186751.shtml

Give us good movies that are worthy of the theater and we'll go. Give us dreck like Transformers 2, Saw 46 - Jigsaw goes to Disneyland etc and we'll stay home. Look at Paranormal Activity, $15,000 budget and it's brought in what, about $80 million at the box office?

Here's the problem - I don't really care about cost of the product is worth it. But the fact of the matter is that oftentimes pirated versions are higher quality! I've seen ripped episodes of House in 720P quality that is FAR beyond what Time Warner offered in my area at the time (highly compressed and grainy "HD"). They have no ads, and are professionally edited.

Why would I pay for an inferior quality product?

Also, when a company does a shitty job encoding their Java blu-rays so it doesn't play on most players or takes 20 minutes to start up, why would I pay $20 for that shitty experience vs a free beautiful, high quality, trouble free rip?

Give me the quality and I'll gladly pay. I have many thousands into my home theater and audio gear, and I have NO problem paying for high quality movies (I have compulsive blu-ray purchasing syndrome). But when some 16 year old in his moms basement can make a better quality release than the TV and movie networks can, well that's just sad.

agreed... the movie industry has been so conservative and just happy to funnel gobs and gobs of money into remaking movies and doing sequels rather than going out on a limb and doing more original flicks.. I think Rob Zombie said this exact thing some where recently.. and while I think he's being a bit of a hypocrite in saying it, I agree with it.

everything he said is exactly what ive been saying for YEARS!!!


thanks for the article..

Originally Posted by computerpro3

Here's the problem - I don't really care about cost of the product is worth it. But the fact of the matter is that oftentimes pirated versions are higher quality! I've seen ripped episodes of House in 720P quality that is FAR beyond what Time Warner offered in my area at the time (highly compressed and grainy "HD"). They have no ads, and are professionally edited.

Why would I pay for an inferior quality product?

Sadly, cable mediums are bandwidth limited and what they call HD is really code for horse!@#$.

I don't know if you've considered it, but I am planning to rid myself of TW and any tv service. I'll download the rips and watch broadcasts which is real HD unlike the compressed cable feeds. Costs savings for me would be a bit over 1K a year. It's crazy that I pay over 100 bucks for tv. In retrospect we don't the time to watch all the crap anyways so it's a waste anyways.

Originally Posted by thesmokingman

Sadly, cable mediums are bandwidth limited and what they call HD is really code for horse!@#$.

I don't know if you've considered it, but I am planning to rid myself of TW and any tv service. I'll download the rips and watch broadcasts which is real HD unlike the compressed cable feeds. Costs savings for me would be a bit over 1K a year. It's crazy that I pay over 100 bucks for tv. In retrospect we don't the time to watch all the crap anyways so it's a waste anyways.

I have Fiber to the home via Cincinnati Bell now so my HD is great.

My concern is, do we live in a society that has the ability to make the same quality as the good films we end up still buying today. Movies like Terminator 2, The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, The Lion King. These movies were good, because while they were fun to watch, they were also very serious. There was a lesson to learn, and the characters had a real purpose in their world.

One of the reasons I really enjoyed the recent Batman movies was simply because they were very serious movies. The scenario and characters felt real, like thats how they would actually react in those situations. I like comedy, but in scenarios like what Transformers or GI Joe presented why did the characters joke around all the time? Why do you joke when its the end of the world?!?!?! War of Worlds....the tension between father and son was irrelavent, in that situation you say "look, I know we havent gotten along before but we really need to work togther right now, we can be mad at each other later." Not that stupid crap they turned it into.

This predicted revenue versus actual. Wal-Mart does this... they make money hand over fist. But not enough in there opinion... I saw it first hand miss; your anticipated revenue by $50k and you are "losing" money... confusing... the heyday of Hollywood is over and the elite of Hollywood can't come to grips with it... blaming anything but themselves (aka denial).

Haha people think that they would make more money if they allowed people to buy/rent the movies the same time as they are released in the theatres? They would be pirated day one and no one would need to go to the theatres.

Originally Posted by CryingGod

Haha people think that they would make more money if they allowed people to buy/rent the movies the same time as they are released in the theatres? They would be pirated day one and no one would need to go to the theatres.

FUD is FUD?

I would argue that they made so much because they jacked up ticket prices over the summer. They've raised prices twice in the last year

Originally Posted by CryingGod

Haha people think that they would make more money if they allowed people to buy/rent the movies the same time as they are released in the theatres? They would be pirated day one and no one would need to go to the theatres.

Here's the problem with that statement: I rarely go to theaters anyway due to my projector based home theater.

Thus established that they aren't getting any of my money on the bigscreen, the question becomes how can they get it otherwise?

As it stands now, I actually pay $30 a month to Giganews, plus $15 every three months for internet search. You read that correctly - I pay about $400 a year for those services.

As I said, I'm not cheap. I pay that because it's simply better quality than commercial releases.

If I had the capability of renting a bluray or streaming a true 1080P version of a movie the day it was released for $5, why the HELL would I ever pirate? Instead of getting zero of my money, they would get hundreds of it per year, and newsbin providers (who I'm sure the movie industry can't stand) would go bankrupt.

As I said earlier, give me a quality product and I'll pay.