It’s been a couple of years since we’ve really heard anything about Apple’s dealings with Hollywood in this area, and we’d generally believed that the idea had mostly died on the negotiating table. Of course, Apple’s strategy is to get studios on board with iTunes specifically for this purpose, so that it would be able to distinguish itself from the competing video-on-demand services out there, like Google and Vudu. Studios are said to be open to the idea of earlier rentals, however, not just because they can make more money on them, but they also wouldn’t have to spend money on a second marketing campaign to re-introduce the movie into the rental market after it’s otherwise faded from the public consciousness. The consensus in the negotiations has generally been that the sooner films become available, the more the rentals should cost, with some studios looking for rental prices of up to $50 for an iTunes rental that would be available 17 days after its theatrical debut, while others suggested a lower price of $30 for an iTunes rental 30–45 days later.īy comparison, most movies now become available for rental 90 days after their release, generally for iTunes’ standard $4.99 price, which is considerably less than a movie ticket.
While we don’t want to minimize the huge cost that the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic has placed on our society as a whole, one small silver lining is that many Hollywood studios have begun to come around to the idea of more timely digital distribution of their major theatrical releases.Īpple and Hollywood have been in a dance for years, with the Cupertino company pushing the studio execs to get rights to release new movies as iTunes rentals, even while they’re still playing in their initial theatrical release, and while many of the studios have reportedly always been at least somewhat amenable to the idea, they’ve never quite been able to come to an agreement on how much they should cost and exactly when it would be most appropriate to release them.