Sony Hunts For Morons Willing To Pay $25 To Rent A Movie
Has Sony got a deal for you if you've got a Sony Bravia HDTV that can connect to the internet: Rent Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 30 days early for the low, low price of $24.95. Movie blogger Colin Boyd gushes about the fantastic offer on his site (citing a ZDNet story), Get the Big Picture:
So first, buy a $1000 TV, and second, cave in to your child's every whining want and spring more than twice as much for a rental than if you just waited a month. Good luck with that, Sony. This one's destined to be a windfall.
I could understand it if this were The Dark Knight or something, but Cloudy didn't do anywhere near that kind of business. Of course, the studio's biggest hit in the US this year has been Paul Blart, so there's not a hell of a lot of choice for this kind of bold and rather silly promotion.
Now Sony just waits for customers to decide to pay more to rent a movie than it costs to buy a DVD or buy two tickets at a movie theater, sits back and watches the profits roll in.
Sony's 'Cloudy' with a Chance of Corporate Stupidity [Get The Big Picture]
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Comments:
Why does this make someone a moron? Ever thought that, maybe, the fact that YOU don't consider paying an extra $20 to rent the movie now rather than later doesn't mean that EVERYBODY doesn't feel the same way? Sure, there will be a low take rate for this, but some people will buy it, and it's another data point toward figuring out what people WILL pay. Maybe the right price point is $10. Maybe it's $8. Who knows.
"technically" its cheaper then the redbox...
Apparently some exec thinks "Well, if they have that tv, then it is just like watching it in the theater, and they probably have some popcorn at home, so we might as well charge them the same price as an adult and 1 child with popcorn."
@Oranges w/ Cheese has 2 cats! ahahaha.: Oh wait. I thought it said $24.95 for a 30 day rental.. nevermind!!!
I've seen better buys, actually.
1. Sony just waits for customers to decide to pay more to rent a movie than it costs to buy a DVD or buy two tickets at a movie theater
2. ???
3. Profit
Who's gonna rent a movie for $25.
For that price, you can go and buy it.
Sony would no doubt argue the high price for the rental is not only related to its early access, but also because it's less than the cost of taking the whole family to the theater (and most renters of this film will be families).
Then they should have done this a month before it came out in theaters not a month before the DVD comes out. Heck, do it right after it stops playing in most theaters for people who ended up missing it. But offering an expensive rental a month before you could buy it for less makes no sense.
I feel like they would really have to come up with something better than "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs." It was kind of smart to pick a kids movie, though. Parents will pay more to shut children up than they will for a movie they themselves intend to watch.
Are they just piping the programming and charges from area hotels? Everyone's a winner!
@NeverLetMeDown: honestly. There has to be a group somewhere who will find this appeals to them. If they buy Sony is + whatever over money they wouldnt have made to begin with. Then they just release the movie to rental as usual in 30 days and make that money. Its an all reward no risk deal
Go get the book at the library! It's free!
You can *buy* the book for less than that.
Of course, the book and the movie have nothing in common besides the title, human characters, and food falling from the sky...
What they're probably thinking is that this is more like a "pay per view event" (e.g., MMA, WWF, boxing) than a movie rental. Price points for those are in the $20s.
They're thinking wrong, since those events happen once in real time. Once the content is created and distributed, watching a movie kinda happens whenever you want.
FWIW, I saw CWACOM in the theaters, dropped $36 on the fam to do so (stupid, mandatory "3D glasses fee", and no theater within 50 miles had 2D). LOL that I'm going to pay more than a $1 in the future, to rent the DVD from redbox, and burn 10 copies of it for my nieghbors and their kids.
@Colonel Jack O'Neill: That's why this probably wouldn't work for Sony. You can buy the movie for less than $25 and have it forever and ever for the rugrats to watch. I'm just not seeing the reason anyone would pay more to rent a movie.
How many kids, even the savvy ones, track when movies come out on DVD? I mean, I do, but I'm an adult. Chances are, most kids won't know the difference if you get it 30 days later, you know, for $1 at Redbox. And Netflix users aren't going to do this when they're already paying for DVD rentals.
@NeverLetMeDown: You are probably right that it's unfair to call the 4-year-olds and remote-control-chewing dogs who will be the main customers "morons." Even "cretins" would be inappropriate, but basically accurate.
So this is the kind of thing the MPAA is saying they need Selective Output Control on all of our HD devices in order to implement?
No thanks, I'll keep my composite jacks and wait a month and save $23.95.
@savvy999: I've never seen a 3D movie released on DVD, but I'm guessing that it's no longer 3D once it gets put on DVD or Blu-Ray, right?
@Rectilinear Propagation: You're right. It seems Sony's Marketing Department thought it was opposite day when they decided to do this!
not even if it was available same time as the theater, and i had my own movie theater, and i had 10 buddies to split the price with. still wouldnt touch it with a 10 foot pole.
I didn't read the article above but wasn't there a similar offer out there that if you rented the movie they wanted to disable your analog ports?
@Rectilinear Propagation: Ha, I didn't even catch that last part. Sketchy people are sketchy. It's $1 from Redbox, and there are hundreds of free rental codes out there! Just rent the damn movie - for free! Geesh.
@Rectilinear Propagation: No, not to cheap to rent, but they are too computer-illiterate to copy and burn DVDs.
@pecan 3.14159265: Considering how desperate the industry seems to be for consumers to abandon the idea of owning a copy of their intellectual property, they would be offering up rental deals like this for less than the cost of a DVD. Then, phase out the discs when no one is looking- after that they can try their $30 price point on for size!
@pecan 3.14159265: Most kids, yes.
There were a few movies when I was an obnoxious little kid that I wanted to see NOW! Why weren't they out yet?!? It's embarassing when I think back on it. Mostly because of the movies...
But most kids, yeah they don't know.
@pecan 3.14159265: dunno, but I suspect you're right, never tried to rent or copy a 3D movie. With the "special glasses" required (not the flimsy red/blue ones of yore), I doubt they even bother to make them for consumers.
Do they include a piece of sandpaper and broomstick to shove up your ass too?
they're probably making a list of whatever suckers pay this. that list would be priceless. they could probably sell it to every company hawking credit protection, auto warrantys and any other high margin sucker product imaginable and make a bundle.
Idiots--
You know- if they did this with, say, Star Trek or Harry Potter WHILE IT WAS IN THEATERS it would make perfect sense- but a month early- sorry, I can wait for Santa.
@zandar: Not just the industry, the consumers are also lining up to have their rights stripped from them.
@icodowd: cool, thanks for the link. So depending on the movie, one may need one of 3 different kinds of 'viewers'/extra hardware (LCS, Sensio, anaglyph) to see it?
ummm, not. Standards, people, create a standard...
@savvy999: An industry friend tells me that studios plan to release as many kids' movies 3D-only as they can just because they can charge more for a ticket and the limited releases mean parents will have to pony up if they want the kids to see it in the theater.
@hotdogsunrise: Yeah but when we were kids, movies took a year to come out on video - not this 3 month crap.
@Saboth: Since we're making value judgements. Maybe Sony thought: "Gee, if you're a big enough moron to spend $1000 on a TV, well you're probably stupid enough to spend $25 to rent a movie"
But hey, I'm the guy watching Zoolander every time it comes on TV, so who am I to judge intelligence?
@savvy999: More recent ones just have normal 3D glasses, no special hardware. Blockbuster sells the glasses for $.30 each (30 cents too expensive for renting a 3D movie, but whatever.)
You guys really hate the free market, don't you? Maybe you should tell the U.S. government to tell Sony how to price their products.
@Radi0logy: The studios want you to be able to buy movies BEFORE they are available for rental so that if you just want to have that hot new release NOW you have to pony up and pay to own a copy since you won't be able to rent it for awhile.
@GyroMight: Selectable Output Control.
My theory is that Sony is setting up a straw man here. They'll release this movie a month early. it'll show up on torrents. They'll run crying to congress talking about how unless they plug our analog holes, they can't offer us great services like this in the future.
wow just wow