Hollywood to Roll Out $30 New Movie Rentals

Hollywood studios are working on a way to combat declining box-office revenue, video rentals of relatively new movies, only 60 days after they hit the theaters. Several major studios are already on board with the plan to offer new movies to watch in two or three days for $30 a pop.

Warner Bros., Sony, Universal and 20th Century Fox have already signed up, Variety says, and the Home Premiere service will become available soon in the US.

Satellite TV provider DirecTV will be the first to offer the service to its 20 million or so subscribers. Cable provider Comcast is said to follow, though it will only offer Home Premiere in a few locations, at first.

Giving viewers the possibility to see movies at home very soon after they've been launched can only be a good thing. But there are a few caveats and questions left unanswered.

The biggest, of course, is the price. At $30 per movie (a movie you rent, not own) Home Premiere doesn't look like the most tempting offer. After all, movie tickets are usually less than $10 a piece.

Likewise, video-on-demand online rental services offer movies at 10 times less than what the new service is asking for. Even most DVDs are cheaper.

There is a case to be made for the price point when comparing it to going to a movie theater. While the tickets may be cheaper, people rarely go alone. Cab fare, parking fees and other expenses factored in, a movie is going to set you back more than $30.

But you get to enjoy the theater experience in exchange, a big part of the draw. Home Premiere is more comparable to video on demand services, which are significantly cheaper.

Of course, Hollywood may be able to get away with the price since it has mastered the art of the viewing 'window.' Basically, each medium has a period of exclusivity during which studios can as more for a movie.

Flicks get cheaper as they move from theaters to premium cable channels to DVDs to cheap all-you-can-eat subscription services like Netflix. Seeing a movie just 60 days after it's out for $30 may make sense in that context. 

But it remains to be seen if the new service will be able to compete with the growing number of online services. Netflix may be the poster child, but Amazon and others are making good progress.