Quote:
Originally Posted by Bama
I do go to the theaters and watch movies but when I do, those are trips with my daughter and the movies she chooses usually involve (one or all of) animation, flowers, ponies or singing 
But here's the thing and you may or may not agree with me here..
My watching a movie from a download costs the studios no monetary loss. In fact, they still make money off of me and here's why...
Movie releases in theater - go watch - pay $15 per set of eyeballs
Movie releases in rentals - go rent dvd - pay $7.99 per movie - unlimited # of eyeballs
Now - stop right there. If the studios only released their movie into those 2 markets then yes, I would be costing them revenue and would agree with anyone that downloading a movie is wrong but the studios release their movie into a 3rd market....
Movie release on cable - free - unlimited # of eyeballs
I pay for cable and subscribe to all the premium channels so when it is released, I'll be able to see it no matter what network the studio pens the deal with. Cable takes a portion of their subscriber's revenue to pay the studios with - my money.
Renting a DVD or going to the theater... even by doing neither of those, I'd still get to watch the movie. I only watch a small portion of the movies released on cable even though my cable company pays the studios for the right to broadcast all of the movies they purchase the rights to so actually, the studio makes money on movies I don't even watch.
Watch it today or in 4 months when it's released to the cable company, one way or another I'd still see it and the money the studio makes or would make from me doesn't change.
And before you try to equate that analogy to the porn industry... paysites don't run for a year and then allow unfettered access to their members sections.... |
Try looking at it like this.
When a movie comes out in the theater you pay to see it for two reasons. 1. You get to watch it on the big screen and 2. You get the convenience of seeing it now, not in 4,6,8 or however many months it takes to get to HBO or TNT or wherever on cable.
When you do watch it on cable later you are trading a service for a price. If you watch it on HBO or some other premium channel you are paying for access to that movie (and their other content) so you get to watch it. If you watch it on one of the non premium channels you are exchanging your time to watch it. There is an implied agreement that you get to see the movie for free in exchange for putting up with some commercial breaks.
By downloading it you can be taking money from the studio and all parties involved. Many movies end up having their future earnings based on how well they preform at the box office. If you have a movie that does 150 million at the box office it will likely sell more DVDs, rent more DVDs, sell more pay per views and command a higher fee from both premium and basic cable channels when it is later sold to those markets than if your movie made 50 million. So by downloading it you are, in effect, causing it to preform worse at the box office than it otherwise may have and that could cause them a loss of revenue down the stream.