Would You Pay $50 to Watch Theatrical Releases at Home?
A new company wants to iterate on the day-and-date model. But will studios and exhibitors jump on board?
In the summer of 1999, a man named Sean Parker thought he could revolutionize the music industry. With Napster, the file-sharing era was born. Now, that same man intends to disrupt the box office.
According to Variety, Parker's new venture, The Screening Room, hopes to ease tension between theaters and video-on-demand providers by allowing everyone to have their cake and eat it, too. The company's anti-piracy technology, built into home box office systems for a one-time charge of $150, will provide a secure platform for new theatrical releases to be screened from the comfort of your home — at up to $50 a pop.
The Screening Room is luring exhibitors and distributors into its model by cutting each a significant percentage of revenue, sometimes up to 50%. Variety reports that AMC, Universal, Fox, and Sony are currently interested, while Disney is not.Â
Would you pay $50 not to go to the theaters? Would you want to screen your film with The Screening Room? Let us know in the comments.
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