So I was thinking about this today, and I wondered why people preferred to download movies and videos to watch rather than go to the theatres. And I thought back to my Shrek 3 viewing experience, which was ruined by a bunch of about fifteen loudouthed high school kids who talked as loudly as they could through the whole movie. That's far from the first time I've had such experiences. The fact is, people are in general rude, inconsiderate, and selfish. This makes for poor company at a movie, when you have everything from ten-year-olds narrating what happens next in the movie ("And this is where Venom gets the suit!") to people who feel like laughing at the most inappropriate times to demonstrate how cool they are ("What? She just got a pick in the eye? HA HA HA!!"). The rise in ticket prices that brings an evening at the movies to nearly $20 for two isn't helping, either. Why would I pay that much to sit in a room with inconsiderate people, when I could download the movie, put it on a DVD, and watch it on my widescreen TV with surround sound? It has the added benefit of being able to turn off the movie if my girlfriend gets frisky, too Is it wrong to download movies? Yeah, I think so. But at the same time, I can't fault people for wanting to, since the moviegoing experience has been so badly tarnished by high costs and poor company. It made be made up for if the ticket prices dropped, of course. Perhaps if movies lose enough revenue, those high-paid actors will start making less and less. That'd be nice. Thoughts?
Eventually the MPAA will learn the lessons of television and print media, and offer low cost advertiser supported downloads or some similar system that simply makes piracy not worth it. Eventually. But they're trying their darnedest to stave off eventually for as long as possible.
First comes first. They have to realize that there is nothing they can do about it. If it means that doing type of business has been destroyed by modern technology, tough shit. They should be adapting instead of clinging to their crumbling empire. If they think they can outsmart overweight, nerdly hackers, they have another thing coming.
For me there are three reasons. 1) The movie has already been out a couple weeks in the US but won't come out round here for some time. You tell me "I have to wait"? Well, actually you'd be wrong. 2) The only version available round here is the dubbed version. I may go and watch the dubbed version and then get a downloaded version or I may only watch the downloaded version. 3) The movie's no longer availale in cinema but not out on DVD yet and I'd still like to see it (again). The MPAA still gets lots of money from me and whenever they don't, it's their own bloody fault.
The future is of course downloaded entertainment that isn't dependent on any specific sort of physical media (DVD, Tape, Laser Disc, etc..). The MPAA and RIAA know this. They know that we know this. But until they come to the choice of embracing this or going bankrupt they are going to try to do everything within their power to maintain the current distribution infrastructure. Until that time comes they are going to do their damnedest to uphold the existing distribution model to ensure that all the current players get a slice of the pie.
I foresee a glorious day when you buy songs or media strictly online, download them into your TV to watch, or into your stereo to listen to, or into your car. Every major appliance networked and user-friendly. I can dream, eh?
That's almost here. Torrent takes a while, but it beats the hell out of having to check schedules, look for parking et al.
i suspect in another 20 years cinema in its current format will be gone. as part of the upcoming PPV world (another prediction by yours truly), movies will become available on it at the same time they get a cinematic release, thus eventually killing the multiplexes. we'll return to smaller cinemas - community cinemas where people will be able to purchase a group viewing licence and rent out the screen to display it, and since it'll be a community cinema it'll be a more pleasant viewing experience as noisy little bastards will get booted out or barred.
I don't think the larger screen will ever go away, I look for them to eventually wake up and lower the price and see that volume not high price is where the money is at.
Where there's money, there's a way... I have no doubt that the technology that has caused this is in it's infancy and one day, the MPAA will catch up and harness it. Never underestimate the nerdy hacker's capacity to sell out.
That would be contingent on the demand for a free file-sharing program to be less than the demand for a paid counterpart. The only way they can control this is to control the flow of information across the Internet. Nothing else will do.
I usually just wait for the movie to come out on DVD. Torrent quality of a newly released movie is usually kinda shitty because its often someone holding a camcorder.
All they need to do is offer the movies freely... but the download manager plays full-screen interactive ads while you're downloading. Say, 20 minutes of ad time - no 20 minutes of interaction, no movie.
People like to go to the theater. They like watching movies on the big screen. What they don't like is overpriced tickets, overpriced concessions, having to deal with insensitive assholes who talk through the whole film, and bad films. The movie companies and theaters can change all four of those if they wanted to. Lower the rpice of tickets by lowering budgets by either getting rid of extra special effects or star salaries. Lower the price of concessions. Kick unruly audience members out. Quit with remakes and shitty films.
I dunno... not all remakes are bad. Oceans 11, for example. Would you really rather watch the Sinatra version? I wouldn't.
When watching movies in the theater, I hate the stupid black lines and dots that randomly shoot across the screen. I also hate it when the person operating the projector puts the wrong shutter or lens in, so we get to watch the audio track off to the left for most of the movie. Sure, it was cool for the first few minutes or so, but it got annoying fast.
"Universal Tech Support, how can I be of assistance?" "Uh yeah, I think my toaster oven's been hacked, it just sits there and plays heavy metal whenever I try to toast bread." "I see, ma'am. Have you tried any other input to see if maybe it's the bread that's the problem?" "Yes, I tried an English muffin. That was even worse--it started playing the Barney song and now my kids keep yelling at me to make it do it again and again. I'm going nuts here, you've got to help me! . . ."
