Would You Pay $20,000 to Watch a Movie?
Prima Cinema Inc. has plans to bring first-run movies to consumers' homes, but they plan to charge $20,000 for it.
No, you didn't miscount the number of zeroes in that figure: Prima Cinema plans to charge $20,000 to watch a movie in your home on the day it is released and $500 for every viewing after that.
"We're not here to replace anything. We are trying to create new revenue streams for studios and new viewing opportunities for moviegoers," Jason Pang, president of Prima Cinema, told the Wall Street Journal.
Is there really anyone who hates the movie theater and absolutely loves a movie so much that they're willing to pay $20,000 in order to see it before it comes out on DVD? People already complain about the rising price of movie tickets. Seems like an incredible stretch, even if there wasn't a recession.
Prima Cinema plans to launch this new service in late 2011 and make it available to 250,000 homes within five years. While it would take almost a tenth of the price to buy out an entire theater showing, Prima Cinema thinks that watching in the comfort of home will entice people to pay the $20,000. Presumably, the people who can afford to drop $20k on a single movie would have a pretty nice home theater. The rest of us will be forced to brave the sticky floors of the Cineplex.
