Blimpoy06
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2015
- Messages
- 1,279
- Real Name
- Darin
The studios happy, yes. But will this effect ticket sales? It's the theater owners who stand to loose I'd think.
With the fairly recent bottom falling out of the disc resale market I've begun considering rentals via streaming as a viable option for newer movies. In the past I'd just wait for it to go on sale, purchase a copy, and if I didn't like it, sell it. It was rare that I didn't mostly break even with that process, at most paying a couple of dollars for the "rental." With many new movies not being worth a rewatching, at least for me, it's becoming more attractive to do a streaming rental and should I want to watch it again make a physical purchase at that point. If I like a movie enough to watch it a 2nd time I'll usually watch it several more. Of course there's still that nagging feeling that I could just purchase a disc copy for $5 or less and still be out little more, if any at all, than a rental.I think that's generally been true for most people for most of movie history, though. I think, like you pointed out, that for a brief period, buying a DVD was cheaper than renting a movie, so for a short while, people went that route for convenience. The side effect was that they wound up with a pile of movies that they weren't likely to watch again, and as soon as streaming became cheaper and more convenient, they were happy to go to that. I think streaming is actually quite wonderful, particularly as a rental medium. I'd prefer to purchase a physical hard copy for anything I want to own, but it can be great to open up Vudu or iTunes or Netflix and try something on a whim, rather than having to put on my shoes, leave the house, and hope that the video store has what I'm looking for. But the film industry needs fans who simply want to watch things in order to keep going, so I'm not sure it's such a bad thing that there are so many casual viewers who love the practice of watching a movie but aren't as into the level of detail and history that we are.
With the fairly recent bottom falling out of the disc resale market I've begun considering rentals via streaming as a viable option for newer movies. In the past I'd just wait for it to go on sale, purchase a copy, and if I didn't like it, sell it. It was rare that I didn't mostly break even with that process, at most paying a couple of dollars for the "rental." With many new movies not being worth a rewatching, at least for me, it's becoming more attractive to do a streaming rental and should I want to watch it again make a physical purchase at that point.
These are often people who will not watch a BW movie *because* it's BW as that makes it old and/or not as good. I know people my age who feel this way and we grew up in the era of BW TV, seeing most movies, color and BW, on those BW sets.
Jeremy Lancaster said:Depending on the source, there are typically only nine (9) plots. Why do we not get bored with our best literature and films?
But a painfully predictable plot may not be the plot, but the overall story-telling. Imagine a remake where we loved the original actor and were left disappointed because of the novice presentation of both a poor director, poor set design, and poor acting.
I just wanted to say thank you soooo much for saying later gen millennial. I am an early gen millennial and I truly appreciate that you noticed there is a distinction between our experiences in this generation. Not many people acknowledge or understand it so I really love that you made that distinction.It's been mentioned several times about how quickly a theatrical release can now be purchased for home viewing. I grew up in the days of it taking a year, or longer, before a movie *might* show up on TV. I know the studios are trying to get those sales while the movie is still fresh in people's minds, that whole "That was a good movie. I'll buy it." mentality. Based on today's offerings I can't say that's a bad thing as most are pretty forgettable and after a year just don't seem to look as good. I also think that practice is hurting theatrical attendance.
The movies that just left the theater appear to mostly be what's keeping physical alive as people just don't seem to care for catalog titles, especially anything made before they were born (ask a later gen Millennial if they've seen a pre-1990 movie and the answer will likely be along the lines of "No - there were no good movies back then"). Even then, the younger demographic is often purchasing digital over physical. They don't see, or just don't care about, the pitfalls many of us who've "been around a while" see in that delivery method.
It's not much different than when VHS/Beta came out. A few people purchased a personal copy but most would just rather rent. They're content to see a movie, or TV show, whenever a network or cable channel decides to air it, or just rent a copy at the local video store for a one-off viewing. Streaming is taking the place of that local video store. People like streaming because it's cheap and convenient (no more driving to the video store or Redbox kiosk) and there are no late fees.
Most of this group absolutely do not care about quality and are generally not true movie lovers. Sure they love to watch a movie, and may see lots of them, but they don't dissect a movie to see what makes it work, or watch to see a classic performance, or seek out catalog titles to get a historical slant or just watch an old master (actor, director, or other participant) for a better perspective of current movies. These are often people who will not watch a BW movie *because* it's BW as that makes it old and/or not as good. I know people my age who feel this way and we grew up in the era of BW TV, seeing most movies, color and BW, on those BW sets.
When DVDs finally made ownership rather affordable, with a far more sturdy product, they purchased a few favorites, got a few more for the kids (good, inexpensive, keeps 'em occupied) and realized they didn't rewatch those favorites after all. Now that attitude has changed to "They're available for streaming somewhere, so why keep buying?" They've likely not experienced that favorite disappearing... yet... People are returning to a rental model but now it's streaming instead of going to the video store. The video stores were partially responsible for keeping physical sales higher. After all, they, too, had to purchase a physical copy, multiples for new titles, for you to rent. With streaming, they're gone and along with them those extra sales.
In the long run, it seems that the studios want streaming to better control access to their content. But they also seem to realize that the current streaming model is costing them revenue in sales. Digital "ownership" seems to be the answer they've been looking for as you can't pass along any part of your collection which opens the door for sales they feel they'd have otherwise lost. It also provides them with the system to fully control distribution, eliminating the middle-man and giving them maximum profits.
My grandson said it quite well just yesterday, although about video games rather than movies. He was telling me about a friend who wouldn't purchase a physical copy of a game because he "prefers digital." The physical copy, with bonus material, was on sale for $15. The stipped down digital version was $60. My grandson said his friend was rather dumb for making that purchase. I can understand why his friend would prefer digital for gaming (after all, there's no disc to lose or damage and kids just don't know how to properly treat media), but not at that price difference. I see the same thing with physical over digital purchases of movies with the physical copy often being much less than the digital, yet people purchase that digital copy instead thinking it's better. I think that group is in for a rather rude awakening one of these days.
The movies that just left the theater appear to mostly be what's keeping physical alive as people just don't seem to care for catalog titles, especially anything made before they were born (ask a later gen Millennial if they've seen a pre-1990 movie and the answer will likely be along the lines of "No - there were no good movies back then"). Even then, the younger demographic is often purchasing digital over physical. They don't see, or just don't care about, the pitfalls many of us who've "been around a while" see in that delivery method.
I'm with you on this. I have thousands of Blu-rays in my library, and am seeing that many of them now look exceptionally better on an LG 65" Oled TV versus my previous LED tv. Absolute gold has been found in my collection. As for buying 4K disks, I own two (2), both produced in Native 4k and not an Upscaled 4k edition. Buying 4K requires to make a study of the online reviews to determine if the money deserves to be spent and if the gain is worth the purchase.
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers grew up with open syndication on television. A huge proportion of what we watched on daytime TV was stuff made before we were born, or when we were infants. Since they restricted the syndication rules in the 90's that doesn't exist anymore. Most Millennials (the younger ones at least) and iGen kids have never had occasion to see an episode of TV from before they were born, unless they happen to channel-surf past TVLand and see part of their 24/7/365 airings of The Andy Griffith Show.
When channels such as these phased out classic TV programming, in favor of infomercials, talk shows and endless reruns of Friends and Seinfeld, subsequent generations lost the opportunity to be exposed to older shows and movies, and so had no chance to gain any appreciation for them.
The Spartanburg BBY (I live in Boiling Springs SC) is like most now. Still have some disks in stock but nothing compared to the heyday. I bought my new 4k TV there last month, but I haven't bought a disk in store for several years due to the convenience (and generally cheaper pricing) at Amazon.Have you been to the Spartanburg BBY? I'd like to get an opinion compared to Greenville since I rarely get down that far.
I've always been surprised at that store compared to even most of the Charlotte stores with their stock.
It's certainly nothing like 2005-2010, but the store to store variation seems quite high I'm sure for a reason.
The only real advantage of 4K discs from 2K sources is HDR, for superior contrast and colour.Maybe this is a stupid question, but I've never seen it asked. Since HDTVs will upscale DVD to HD (not true HD, but interpolated HD), I'm assuming that 4K sets will upscale HD to UHD (again, not true UHD, but interpolated UHD). If that's the case, why bother with a 4K disk that's upscaled 2K? Is there a visible difference between an upscaled 2K disc and just letting the set do the upscaling itself?
The Spartanburg BBY (I live in Boiling Springs SC) is like most now. Still have some disks in stock but nothing compared to the heyday. I bought my new 4k TV there last month, but I haven't bought a disk in store for several years due to the convenience (and generally cheaper pricing) at Amazon.
I think you have some good points but there is a major one that is missed. Many younger people flat out refuse to watch older movies/tv shows, particularly ones in black and white. If it is not in color or the special effects are not current it does not exist (with a select few exceptions). There is no desire at all for anything “old.” It is not just a limited exposure starting in the second half of the 90s (there were plenty of channels showing old movies and tv shows for me anyway in the first half of the 90s) but also there is literally no desire for any of this by some younger millennials and those younger than that.I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers grew up with open syndication on television. A huge proportion of what we watched on daytime TV was stuff made before we were born, or when we were infants. Since they restricted the syndication rules in the 90's that doesn't exist anymore. Most Millennials (the younger ones at least) and iGen kids have never had occasion to see an episode of TV from before they were born, unless they happen to channel-surf past TVLand and see part of their 24/7/365 airings of The Andy Griffith Show.
This pop culture disconnect is the biggest one between generations since that between the Baby Boomers (first generation to grow up with television) and their parents. It's like the Steely Dan song says... "We've got nothing in common... no, we can't talk at all."
If anything saves physical media, it will be corporate greed. When broadband Internet companies start metering data and charging people exorbitant rates for heavy usage, people might start seeing the advantage of owning offline media again. Until we get to the point where the same tiny handful of mega-corporations own both the media and the means of delivery, in which case they'll have us boxed in. Maybe that would be a good time to start reading books again, if we can find any.
This pop culture disconnect is the biggest one between generations since that between the Baby Boomers (first generation to grow up with television) and their parents. It's like the Steely Dan song says... "We've got nothing in common... no, we can't talk at all."