Would you pay $50 to see a first-run movie at home?

[transmogrifier]

It just seems to me that the type of people who really really care about watching a new release movie the exact moment it comes out are the type of people who would just go to the cinema for less than half the price. Whereas those who hate theatres are more likely the type of people who couldn't give a shit about watching something day and date and would happily wait for a cheaper home option to become available.

I don't know, just my feeling about the $50 price point. I certainly would never pay that much. Ever.

[Skitch]

It just seems to me that the type of people who really really care about watching a new release movie the exact moment it comes out are the type of people who would just go to the cinema for less than half the price. Whereas those who hate theatres are more likely the type of people who couldn't give a shit about watching something day and date and would happily wait for a cheaper home option to become available.

I don't know, just my feeling about the $50 price point. I certainly would never pay that much. Ever.

Good points, and I agree. To be clear, I can't think of a movie I would pay 50$ for just for myself. Maybe Star Wars, but I would have a couple friends over and split it up. Also if there was some kids movie that my kids really wanted to see, 50$ would be a major savings compared to toting the whole family to theater plus popcorn, drinks, etc.

[Spinal]

Man, watching a film with an appreciative audience is the best. Home viewing is for chumps.

Thanks for the update!

[number8]

I'm gonna double down and say that the only people who would pay for this are weirdos and I don't think there are enough weirdos in the US to make this a profitable business model.

[Dukefrukem]

I'm gonna double down and say that the only people who would pay for this are weirdos and I don't think there are enough weirdos in the US to make this a profitable business model.

As opposed to all the weirdos who would want to watch porn in movie theater?

I can't imagine the upkeep on a proprietary box being very expensive, especially when all of your product is basically a PPV priced movie.

And I also don't understand why it's so weird for people who don't want to watch something with the masses? Are people who don't like concerts weird too? Except for some reason both of those options exist. (concerts and PPV concerts)

[DavidSeven]

Premium VOD is already above your price point at $10-15 a pop. Pay-per-view sporting events are many times that.

Live sporting events and VOD aren't comparable, though. That's pretty widely understood at this point. Consumers have already assigned those things two very different values. They will pay a premium and cling onto their expensive cable subs for live sports. They will not do that for prerecorded programming or a bank of movies. Also, I think an event like Mayweather-Pacquiao is much more conducive to the type of living room socializing that this platform thinks it's catering to.

It'll cost nothing to run this, so it might be profitable in a vacuum. But the market will be some tiny Beverly Hills niche, and I wouldn't expect the returns to be good enough to justify pissing off industry partners and further undercutting the essential value of movie theaters.

Just my gut feeling on it.

[Sycophant]

They don't want the under 30s. They want young families. They want dinks (double income, no kids). They want people who go to the movies 6 times a year (the nat'l average) or less.

I can maybe see these people being persuaded to do the $50 per movie thing. But are they also convinced to pay the price of admission at $150 for the box that gets them gives them access to make that choice?

Of course, I also don't understand anything, because no matter what, this isn't targeted at people with my income.

[Winston*]

Thanks for the update!

Thanks man! Appreciated.

[Irish]

I can maybe see these people being persuaded to do the $50 per movie thing. But are they also convinced to pay the price of admission at $150 for the box that gets them gives them access to make that choice?

No, and that's where I think the pitch fails on the consumer side. The market for set-top boxes is shit because cable companies have a monopoly on it. Screening Room is another set-top, and it's a set-top that literally does nothing except allow you the chance to spend more money.

If this product ever goes to market, I'd expect the original $150 price point to be either reduced by 30% or more, or subsidized in some fashion ("Sign up now and enjoy your first 3 movies for free!").

[Dukefrukem]

No, and that's where I think the pitch fails on the consumer side. The market for set-top boxes is shit because cable companies have a monopoly on it. Screening Room is another set-top, and it's a set-top that literally does nothing except allow you the chance to spend more money.

If this product ever goes to market, I'd expect the original $150 price point to be either reduced by 30% or more, or subsidized in some fashion ("Sign up now and enjoy your first 3 movies for free!").

Oooooooor... a monthly subscription.

[Ezee E]

Merge it with Popcorntime, slap a monthly price on it, and get rid of the box.

[Irish]

Oooooooor... a monthly subscription.

A subscription based service would likely price Screening Room well out of the consumer market. Would you pay $200 a month for this?

Subscriptions also mean a different relationship with the supplier. SR would be forced to cede even more control to the Big Six if they went with subs. It's a shit business either way because you get squeezed either way, but after what happened with Netflix Streaming, Pandora, and Spotify, I'd avoid subscription based models like the plague (even though investors prefer them).

[bac0n]

As much as I like the movies, getting to see one when you have kids can be a real pain in the ass. You need to find a day where you don't have something going on. You need to line up a babysitter. Yadda yadda yadda. That's the main reason my wife and I see 1-2 movies in the theater a year. If we're going to put in the effort for a date night, it's more often going to be a nice meal at a fancy restaurant, and some performance somewhere.

Being able to pay 50 bucks to watch a first run movie at my house would increase my viewing of such movies more than 10-fold.

[Milky Joe]

Solution: don't have kids.

[bac0n]

Dammit, NOW you tell me.

[Dukefrukem]

A subscription based service would likely price Screening Room well out of the consumer market. Would you pay $200 a month for this?

Subscriptions also mean a different relationship with the supplier. SR would be forced to cede even more control to the Big Six if they went with subs. It's a shit business either way because you get squeezed either way, but after what happened with Netflix Streaming, Pandora, and Spotify, I'd avoid subscription based models like the plague (even though investors prefer them).

I was talking about the box. If it's $150, subsidize it with a subscription. Like we do cell phones. And people pay $200 for a cellphone willingly for a 2 year contract. Boggles my mind.

[Lazlo]

NATO has shot this down. Even with $20 of the $50 going to the theaters, the process of divying it up fairly on that level is too complicated.

[Skitch]

Dammit, NOW you tell me.

Unprotected sex is better. *high 5*

[Dukefrukem]

NATO has shot this down. Even with $20 of the $50 going to the theaters, the process of divying it up fairly on that level is too complicated.

Love the first comment:

"Movie theatres are the next Blockbuster."

[Dukefrukem]

If this happens, I am DONE going to movies.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/texting-may-s...589.1430832638

I share this guy's rant.

http://gizmodo.com/a-psychotic-rant-...ema-1770930634

[Lazlo]

Yeah, it's a pretty outrageous idea but I kind of feel like it won't happen or at least not on a large scale. I don't know who's clamoring for this to be a feature, while there's plenty of people calling for it to never happen. Admittedly AMC has paid for market research and I just read movie nerd websites so my data is skewed. The general public is oblivious and aggressively disrespectful in their movie-going practices.

At a time where AMC is also working to retrofit their theaters with new seats and new Dolby standards through their AMC Prime concept, this seems like a run in the other direction. I'm sure if the texting theater happens it'll be labelled to warn people (I'd imagine most people, but I'm probably wrong) who don't want to deal with that (more than it already happens). There's a couple of problems with that I can think of: some movies already have a limited number of showtimes and this limits the options even further. Also, this normalizes a behavior that shouldn't be rewarded or normalized and there'll be spillover to non-texting theaters. Not that there's such a thing as non-texting theaters currently.

I don't know. It seems shortsighted and really not that big of a problem. Are millenials actually staying away from AMC theaters or theaters in general because they can't text during the movie? I doubt it's in the top ten reasons they might not go.

And I still maintain that 40+ year-old white people are the worst movie patrons.

[number8]

They've been saying this for years. Often at the same convention. It ain't happening.

http://deadline.com/2012/04/is-it-ti...emacon-261789/

[Irish]

Dalian Wanda (a huge Chinese conglomerate) bought AMC in 2012 so I kinda think this might fly, at least at the corporate level.

It also seems like a direct answer to chains like Drafthouse, who is aggressively expanding in a lot of markets.

[Spinal]

Labeling a certain showing a 'texting ok' time doesn't make any sense, because people will still text in the other showings as well.

[Dukefrukem]

Are millenials actually staying away from AMC theaters or theaters in general because they can't text during the movie? I doubt it's in the top ten reasons they might not go.

Ummm yes. They are single handedly destroying the cereal market because you have to "clean up after eating it."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...t-of-laziness/