[WhisperingGhost]

Apart from obvious attempts at piroting, is there any particular reason that this hasn't happened in today's day and age?
The films, wouldn't downloadable, just streamed to help with copyright issues. It would be far more comfortable for some people who hate going to see a film, only to have it ruined by noisey people, teenagers being idiots, bum ache etc.

Do you think this will be the norm one day?

[Inky Binky]

It will definitely happen one day. The movie industry will be forced to evolve. Ticket prices are getting higher and higher - forcing families to stay at home. It's smarter for the person to wait for it to come out on home video and rent it for cheap. Modern living rooms now have a home entertainment setup that rivals some theaters thanks to HDTV and Blu-ray.

Two big stumbling blocks are Piracy and the bandwidth situation. Some cable providers have monthly bandwidth caps.

But in a way, watching newly released films at home has already started. There's a cable channel in the US called HDnet which shows 1 (sometimes 2) specific theatrical films per month that's about to open in normal movie theaters. But (so far) these films are not the blockbuster films. Its a way to get some much needed exposure to certain films that normally would go unnoticed. For instance "Monsters" was one film that they showed on that channel during the week it was released in theaters.

[Inkblot]

I suspect the biggest financial obstacle is that they would lose a huge amount of revenue from TV companies like Sky if films were available to watch online before they were on premium subscription channels.

[FrankJaeger]

Cinemas would lose millions and eventually cease to exist. They need people in theatres buying overpriced drinks and snacks to survive.

[gashead]

Streaming films on day of release would lose the industry as a whole millions. The reason people make a point of seeing films on day of release (as opposed to it being a co-incidence) is more for the 'event' of seeing it on the first day, rather than simply wanting to see the film, and this target market doesn't particularly care how much the ticket costs. The average cost could be £20 (or equivalent) but you'd still get millions of people worldwide happily paying it to see the new Batman or Avatar or whatever, plus the copius amount this demographic spends on drinks and popcorn. Watching it on a TV screen just doesn't create the same experience, no matter how good your setup is. Streaming a week later, after the industry has milked this market for all its worth, I can see that working.

[DrBloodsplatter]

Originally Posted by FrankJaeger

Cinemas would lose millions and eventually cease to exist. They need people in theatres buying overpriced drinks and snacks to survive.

It's no secret (and no doubt has been posted here before) that cinemas make more money from the sale of food and drink than they do from the sale of tickets.

[Johnny Clay]

Sure, theatres make more money away from the tickets, but you have to consider what a cinema actually does.

They don't just show films, they are instrumental in giving the whole film medium a certain prestige and status, with both the public and the media. Streaming, or any home format, simply cannot match that, and there is a risk we maybe end up reducing cinema to just another form of television.

On the business side, it is the cinema release that hopefully has a knock-on effect to the other, later revenue streams (BR, DVD etc), and streaming would most certainly hamper those as well. A major release shown first via streaming could be pirated straight off the bat.