Screening Room is seeking to bring movies into your living room – the same day they are released in theaters
Photo courtesy of Jona Park (Flickr)
A new streaming service known as Screening Room has taken Hollywood by storm this past week. This service, backed by Napster founder Sean Parker, wants to charge the consumer a base cost of $150 for a device that will allow them to have access to movies that are released in theaters during the same weekend that they debut. In addition to the initial charge, it would also cost $50Â to rent a movie for two days.
Major Hollywood studios, such as Disney and Warner Brothers, along with many other key players, have spoken out against the idea. They are concerned about piracy. There is no feature that prohibits people from recording the content on Screening Room and then posting it online. Also, with DVD sales making a comeback as well as a seven percent increase in movie sales, they do not see the need to change what is working.
Theater owners should be the most concerned because they rely on profiting from people spending money on concessions with extreme gross margins – and they don’t make their money on the actual movie screenings. If Screening Room gets one of the major six movie studios to agree to this model, it can result in huge losses for the movie theater industry.
While discussing the proposal with peers, all of them were enthusiastic about this development and most agreed that the convenience of watching a movie at home is ideal. Even with what seems like a steep $50 price, it most likely would be a cheaper option after spending money on tickets and food.
However, with the movie industry constantly developing new technologies that are exclusive to theaters such as IMAX, 4-D and dine-in options, it is hard to picture these types of experiences dying down in this technological age.
If this service were to be implemented, it would probably cause the extinction of movie theaters, which would hinder the film-going experience. In my opinion, this new streaming service would take unnecessary hits to the thriving movie industry. With revenues continuing to climb over the recent years, there is no need to bring in alternative modes of competition. Perhaps this would be a viable solution if the industry had figures which showed a decrease in moviegoers.
