I went to see Toy Story last week, in 3-D. It was very good. I went with my family (wife and 2 kids) so it was a bit on pricey side even at a matinee. However, the story was good.. the voices were good..the animation was great.. so it was worth spending the dollars.
One thing I noticed was that every one of the previews was for another 3-D movie. Some looked great, some looked like garbage. This has gotten me thinking.. if every movie is in 3-D, then that is the standard. I should not have to pay an upcharge to see it in 3-D.. it is the standard. In fact, I should actually get a discount to see the 2-D movie since I am settling for an inferior product.
Please do not take this as an excuse to raise the prices on all the movies. I love going to movies. I am willing to pay for the experience of sitting in the theatre with my friends and seeing it. However, you need to realize what Netflix and Red Box have done. Your 2-D movie is worth $1 to me. $1 for my whole family to see it. I am willing to pay more to see it in the theatre. The theatre experience is great, so I should have to pay for it. I get to see the movie sooner in the theatre, so again I can accept an up charge. However, my base price is $1 for a family of 4. So… if you triple the price for the theatre experience, and then triple that price for seeing it sooner you see about where I value the product.
Jul 02, 2010 @ 18:11:58
Yeah, the movie and music industries both have some delusions about the value of their products.
The fact that DVD’s and Blu-Ray discs are still widely sold blows my mind. Who watches a movie more than 10 times ? That’s about how many times you’d need to watch it to break even versus renting. (ok, yes, kids will watch a movie 100 times, but I’m talking about grown-up movies here). There are still many many people who have “movie collections” that do nothing but collect dust. And then the new format comes out and they buy the same movies again!
It’s bizarre behavior like that that gives the movie and music industries the balls to treat its customers as badly as they do. For instance, legitimate movie buyers and renters are forced to watch preachy ads about piracy. While pirates simply remove the ads and never see them.
Jul 02, 2010 @ 19:03:53
Over the long haul, I might. But by then you have to uprade from VHS to DVD to Blue Ray to Digitial. I would rather Pay X dollars per month for content. I am waiting for Netflix to get better content.
Jul 02, 2010 @ 21:52:54
Movie industry makes me so angry. They really do leave you feeling like you’re just being beaten over the head with a ripoff stick. All this time spent fighting piracy and holding back technology when they could be trying to innovate and provide value to customers.