Apple Movie Store Info Coming To Light
Author: Stephen Gerding
September 6th, 2006
According to iPodHub.net, Apple’s got a list of films from Disney, Touchstone, Miramax and Lionsgate all lined up for next week’s big announcement. Apple’s stock took off yesterday based on speculation over this news and some iPod hardware updates, so they better have something up their sleeve. Hopefully the only thing inaccurate are the prices - I’m not about to pay $9.99-14.99 to download a movie I can buy on DVD for the same or less.
Apart from Disney and Pixar, Lion’s Gate Entertainment will make the following, mostly horror, movies available: American Psycho, Dogma, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Open Water, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, The Punisher, Fahrenheit 9/11, Crash, Alone in the Dark, Hostel, Saw 1 and 2.
Not all of the above will be available for download immediately but instead see a slow roll out over the first six months during which they will be joined by ever newer releases. Pricing is expected to be from $9.99 to $14.99. In this writer’s opinion customers might find those prices too dear. Could a subscription model work better?
One studio that definitely won’t be coming on board will be competitor Sony Pictures Entertainment whose holdings include Columbia Pictures (The Da Vinci Code, the Spiderman movies), TriStar Pictures (Jerry Maguire, Anaconda), Destination Films, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (the Rocky series, the James Bond series, Stargate).
- Related Articles:
6 Responses to “Apple Movie Store Info Coming To Light”
September 6th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Why in god’s name would I do that when I can buy the DVD for about that much and then rip it?
It’s 1.99 for hour long eps. of TV shows. Such a price hike is ridiculous. 3.99-5.99 is reasonable.
September 6th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
I still wouldn’t pay $3.99 to see “Alone in the Dark.”
September 7th, 2006 at 5:39 am
What WOULD be cool is if there’s a way to take the ipod video, synch it up with a RiffTrax. that would be a perfect long-car ride time-passer.
September 7th, 2006 at 7:37 am
Andrew, or Ghost Ship, Date Movie, Dude Where’s my Car, Moulin Rogue, Hulk, Crash, Land of the Dead, Meet the Parents, the Cell… you get the idea…
September 7th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Well, they certainly know what audience they’re after, that’s for sure.
September 8th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Given how much the music industry has squealed like a stuck pig about being held to Apple’s originally negotiated music prices, I imagine that this higher price point, if it turns out to be accurate, was the movie industry demanding this, worried about losing out on big bucks.
Apparently entertainment execs never read The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg in Aesop’s Fables. They’ll kill that son of a bitch goose and get ALL the eggs out, no matter what some damn hippies say!
That said, I’m mildly amused that this is such a big deal. Most people I know other than my brother-in-law download one or two TV shows to their iPod, watch them once, and go back to using it as a music player. I just don’t buy there’s a big market for a TV the size of a pack of cards. The fact that no one’s had that size portable TV take off — and lord knows we’ve seen enough attempts in the past 18 months — suggests to me that the market simply isn’t there.