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Sounds Legit

Hollywood Is Testing Out $30 “Premium” Video Rental, Because Of Course It Is

by Robert Quigley | 5:16 pm, March 31st, 2011

Hollywood may play hardball when Netflix tries to get new movies to its customers for cheap, but never fear. Next month, major studios including Warner Bros., Sony, Universal, and 20th Century Fox will team up with DirecTV to launch something called Home Premiere, which will allow consumers to view films on-demand that had stopped playing in theaters just two months beforehand. For the privilege of seeing such films as Unknown and Just Go With It from the comfort of their own homes, viewers will be charged a mere $30 for a two- to three-day rental.

This scheme may sound insanely greedy, but Hollywood thinks it could make sense to “audiences who aren’t making the trip to the megaplex because of the size of their families or the expense to hire babysitters or pay for food and other concessions.” Hopefully, this will all prove to be a step towards a future with shorter windows between theatrical and video-on-demand release and much lower rental fees, but then, Hollywood seems to relish taking very, very small steps towards any such new ventures.

(Variety via All Things D)

  • Anonymous

    $30.00 is a round number looks way too high, they should had stick to $29.99. and even then why would you pay that much for a movie that is not longer in theaters? might as well wait for the dvd

  • http://www.bradleyfarless.com/ Brad F.

    I think they’ve lost their minds. I’d rather wait. You can buy the DVD for less than that. Or just wait and get it on Netflix as part of the monthly subscription rate.

  • http://www.facebook.com/amedeus8 Nick Gotshall

    Blockbuster charged $25 less for a rental that was 2 days longer, and THEY went out of business. Suck it, Hollywood.

    And really, if you’re going to offer that? Offer films that are still IN theaters. Two months later, and I could care less. If I absolutely still have to see it, I’ll find a camrip, and $30 isn’t exactly going to convince me to give that up. I could buy several games off XBL and Steam for that kind of cash, and they’ll last me a lot longer.


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