

Warner Sells Movies as Apps

In its never-ending quest to get consumers to purchase movies rather than rent, Hollywood is turning to Apple’s app store as a new potential revenue stream. Warner has released two of its most popular films in recent years, The Dark Knight and Inception, as apps for Apple’s iPad and iPhone.

The apps themselves are free, and feature the first five minutes of the film, as well as some bonus features such as Twitter and Facebook integration. Users can pay $10-$12 to unlock the full version of the movie.

What do you think of this new way to own content, Insiders? Does the constraint of having your film stuck on an iDevice make this option seem too confining, or will the convenience of it outweigh potential drawbacks?

(via Engadget)

5 Responses to “Warner Sells Movies as Apps”

  1. Visitor [Join Now]
    Jack [visitor]

    Hmmm… $10-$12.00 for a digital copy that you can’t re-sell and may at some point in time stop working if the studio decides to pull your viewing license. NO THANKS. I’ll rent the disk for a buck or wait till they hit the $5.00 walmart bargain bin.

    Don’t buy digital copies people. Just like software licenses have changed in recent years, you don’t own the right to watch it. They’re simply giving you temporary rights to view the material. Demand the physical disk if you want to keep a copy yourself.

  2. Member [Join Now]

    I’m not paying $12 to watch a movie on a little iPhone screen.

  3. Member [Join Now]

    Just another example of how Hollywood doesn’t get it.

    Can you transfer it to better devices? I doubt it since it’s an ap and not a movie purchase. People want the freedoms that discs have, as in take it anywhere, loan it out, and KNOW it will always work.

    For digital purchases to take off “people” need to have viewing rights themselves, not tied into a device. No matter where I am or what device I am in front of I should be able to watch my purchased movies, the same as if I owned the disc.

  4. Visitor [Join Now]
    Gwynne [visitor]

    Movie as app? I don’t think so. I have multiple devices: iPod touch, laptops, etc. Even getting an iPad this weekend. And I love watching movies on all of them. I don’t want to spend $10-$12 and limit my movie watching to one device, when I can spend $15 or so, buy the disc, and watch the movie on any of my devices.