Star Wars greed or just Disney.
2So I posted on facebook about what a few of us have had issues with. Star Wars isn't available to rent online. It's available to buy digitally but not to rent. As with most Disney films. It went back and forth a bit but I came to this realization. Renting movies used to be brick and mortar stores. You'd go pay about 1/4 of the price of buying for the privilege of watching it for anywhere from 1-5 days then had to return it. Well Netflix and redbox and online streaming services have broken that model. Now we fire up Netflix find a movie. Or go to iTunes/Amazon/windows store/android/whatever digital video store) and find a movie to rent pay you money to get one (sometimes more) view within the next 24 hours to 1 month.
But Disney is still absent from the digital presence. Why? Seriously why? I can buy the movie get the digital copy. Probably sell off the physical disc for most of what I paid for (I haven't checked the Eula about keeping the physical media after redeeming the digital copy so not sure on legality) and now I "own" the streaming copy probably for less than renting it. But still is a big pain in the ass! Why not just offer streaming rentals Disney? Also it's too bad someone can't just operate digital market place like the physical one had been I know some of the discs that end up on old stores were just retail purchased copies but not sure how the whole rental fee went to what.
On a side note. I did say I wasn't going to pay $80-$100 to watch Star Wars but was fully willing to pay $30 for digital copies that were legally obtained on a rental. (I know for less than 3 times that I can own. But still I don't care.) Now I can alter that... If they were to release 3D versions! I'd gladly pay $100 for 3D versions of the 6 films. I doubt I'd pay much more than that though.
Tl;dr?
You can't rent star wars. Digitally I don't want to buy it unless it comes out in 3D.
- 8 comments, 5 replies
- Comment
So. Too late to edit. But looking online for the legality of renting DVDs. Apparently you can rent DVDs without a license saying you can. Interesting as I thought the movie creators got a piece of the action. That was for physical DVDs and Vhs (not digital and not audio or computer software)
Either way. I don't think renting physical media will live on forever renting but it would be nice if there were still some dvd rental options for things like this.
@sohmageek the good ol' "First Sale Doctrine" lets them rent them, no matter how upset it makes the movie companies. :)
@thismyusername yes. Makes me think of owning a rental store. But they are failing. I really wonder why/how they are failing. Other than physical rental only stores aren't pulling the numbers and redbox is less labor for about the same profit.
@sohmageek netflix killed the rental stores... and even at the end they got rid of the stupid fees but it was too late.... then coinstar and mcdonalds said "hey lets make a netflix vending machine" and you have redbox... which isn't helping the few holdouts. :)
Hah! You never own the streaming copy, you get a licence to view it...
same for all digital not just movies... books, songs, games, apps, operating systems... you never own them, you have the rights to use them.
I don't think Disney is singling out star wars... they do this with all of their properties... I think they want to continue to drive physical sales since (they think) it has the greatest profit margin (the status quo fears change).
One thing I will give disney kudos for is.... all of their dvd/blurays let you skip the commercials and get right to the movie!!!! I wish the other companies would get on board with that. :)
@thismyusername but at the cost of missing the rental market. Where they make the physical once? I really think they should get on the train of $5-7 for a 24 hour rental. It would be far greater profit. You would get suckers like me that would do a marathon 4-8 times in a lifetime but would prefer to not have a physical copy (yes the digital own would be cheaper but they seem to re-release it with another 2 mins of footage. Or whatever.
@sohmageek it has to be old school thinking... which is really odd from a company like disney...
That's one thing that Disney has always done with their brand - they put it up on a prized pedestal that's hard to obtain at times. It makes them feel more important. Because of that, they can charge a higher price, while keeping the importance of their brand intact.
How many times do we see Disney films on sale? Even when they are, they are still the priciest of on sale films.
Was it Lion King that you couldn't even purchase on DVD/Bluray for years? Even doing a search for it on Amazon, the only way that I can find it is an imported copy from the UK.
while i understand, and 100% concur with the OP, aren't the Marvel Movies available on VOD services ? (netflix/amazon/etc? - I haven't looked recently, but i swear they mostly are)
Remember that Disney bought Marvel not long after Marvel studios started(IIRC after Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton), but before Captain America), with an initial intent to market the shit out of the Heroes to boys like they were already doing with the Disney Princesses to the girls.
so even the Current Marvel Netflix Original "TV" Series "Daredevil" and "Jessica Jones" are Disney Properties.
so to answer the the title of this thread,"Starwars Greed, or Just Disney?"
Disney. They know a Cash Cow when they buy one, and are all to happy to wring it dry.
Disney loves to control everything. They do/did that whole "in the Disney video vault" nonsense for the longest time. Amazon/eBay disrupted that model.
Netflix by DVD is awesome. The Star Wars movies are on it.
I don't know how much profit Disney actually sees from a $5 rental, but I imagine it isn't as much as they want it to be, or they'd be on that train.
Disney has its own streaming service for Disney, marvel and Star Wars. Disneymoviesanywhere.com
Like someone said, they like to control everything. They are in the streaming business though. Although I think you still buy the movie, not a rental. Likely think they would not profit enough with deals with Netflix, etc..
Also pretty sure I saw the iron man movies on Amazon prime.
Just noticed they are all on Google Play movies now... but purchase only, no rent... but you can get all 6 of the older ones for only $90 (or $20 each individually) ;)
https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Star_Wars_The_Digital_Movie_Collection?id=sxvuhqcICJg&hl=en
Yea I'm thinking they think people will break down and pay the $20 a unit... which is better for them than the one time 3.99 (minus the renters cut)... of course we know that people wont pay $20 each for I, II, and III... maybe $20 for all 3... maybe... ;)
I would pay $300 for the original theatrical releases on bluray; the Special Edition edits take me out of the experience too much. Harmy's Despecialized was a lifesaver before Force Awakens came out.