What Would Alex Bosika Do?

#Why I Hate #Hollywood For #Movies!

Hollywood will never get it. They’re so petrified at killing the ‘perceived value’ for their content that they will go to great lengths to discourage you from buying digital content.

As a huge Batman and Toronto Batman (lol) fan, my jaw dropped when I saw the ridiculous pricing for a digital only version of The Dark Knight Rises on Apple Canada’s iTunes Store. This price isn’t set by Apple but the death star called Hollywood.

That’s $24.99 for the Digital HD version of the epic finale to an amazing trilogy.

Now let’s look at deals for physical media from Walmart (Best Buy Canada and Amazon Canada were “roughly” the same).

The Dark Knight Rises 2-DISC BLU-RAY + DVD

The Dark Knight Rises DVD

The Trilogy - Limited Edition Set

The Dark Knight Rises (BLU-RAY)

Am I going to buy a iTunes Digital version (encrypted and limited to 5 Apple iDevices - the limitation doesn’t really bother me) for that price when we all know the physical media offers just a bit more in the value department? Further, I’ve already experienced “iTunes in the Cloud” and I assumed my content was safe but based on a recent incident with Yuma 3:10 (re-make), I discovered that if such content is kept in the cloud, and the movie peeps “re-modify” the movie (whatever that means), I lose the content forever. Can you believe it? Apple’s iTunes was kind enough to explain this and offered me a free rental credit and encouraged me to send feedback to them — obviously, to pool the complaints by their customers for Hollywood.

Why should we bother? Hollywood is fully aware of this. And they don’t listen. So customers are faced with limited, cost-reasonable choices and unfortunately will go out of their way to acquire the content in the manner they desire. As well, it is bothersome that iTunes Canada doesn’t have a full movie catalogue like an old brick-and-mortar Blockbuster - but that isn’t Apple. That’s movie licensing. We will never see a packed catalogue on Netflix or iTunes because of Hollywood’s pathetic money-grabbing windowing system. If I could find the classic George C. Scott “The Changeling” on ITunes, I’d probably pay a bit more for the digital copy rather than try to dig it out of a DVD bargain bin at Walmart and and then clear the dust off the DVD player to see it.

What if I bought the iTunes HD version of #TDKR through iTunes but somehow got the physical version in return? Would this drive sales? My gut instinct says yes. Or why not offer a digital version with the physical media — I read up on something called “Ultraviolet Edition” but I don’t know if that’s the same thing. Anyone know?

Hollywood. Grow some….and stop being so damn greedy.