By
Rick Aristotle Munarriz
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October 13, 2011
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Exhibitors: 1, ridiculous Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA ) (Nasdaq: CMCSK ) scheme: 0
Movie theater owners apparently didn't have to protest too hard to get the cable giant to back away from its plan to offer fresh pay-per-views at a mind-boggling $59.99 price point.
I had earlier given three reasons why next month's test on offering Tower Heist -- a new comedic action flick starring Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller -- to Comcast subscribers three weeks after its box office debut wouldn't work:
- The price is ridiculous.
- Three weeks is too late -- at that price point.
- Studio promotion won't be there, since there's no point in throwing more marketing dollars on a movie several weeks into its cinematic run.
A fourth reason killed the silly experiment before Comcast even got to test it out in two cities: Exhibitors threatened a boycott.
Several theater chains -- including Cinemark (NYSE: CNK ) and Sumner Redstone's National Amusements -- claimed that they would not show the movie in their theaters if Comcast was going to potentially eat into their attendance with the test.
I really can't imagine how Comcast's move made exhibitors feel endangered. Surely they must be self-conscious about their value proposition if they feel that Comcast charging $60 for a rental on a movie that's already been screening for 21 days would eat into their business. Multiplex operators are actually doing Comcast a favor by saving it from embarrassing itself here.
Release windows are changing. Movies are already hitting the DVD market sooner than they did a few years ago. We're also seeing some companies test more sensible offerings. DIRECTV (Nasdaq: DTV ) is now offering $30 rentals for movies 60 days after their multiplex debut. Sony's (NYSE: SNE ) Bad Teacher is available now as a digital purchase, ahead of next week's availability as a digital rental and on DVD.
It's OK to tweak with the model, especially this year where even more screens suiting up to offer premium IMAX (NYSE: IMAX ) and RealD (NYSE: RLD ) experiences still hasn't been enough to prevent a dip in box office receipts. However, Comcast just wasn't thinking by exploiting its ownership of Tower Heist studio Universal in its thankfully botched attempt at couch-potato robbery.
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