Industry push for home rentals of movies still in theater continues, studios mulling $30 price

Late last year, it was rumored that Apple was in talks with movie studios to offer home rentals of movies that were still in theaters. A new report from Variety offers more details on this industry push, noting how much studios are considering charging for in-home movie rentals…

The report claims that six of the seven big Hollywood studios are currently working towards offering movies in the home “mere weeks after their theatrical debuts.”

As for price, Warner Brothers was originally reportedly pushing for a $50 rental price and planning to make films available 17 days after they opened in theaters. Other studios, however, including Fox and Universal, felt that $50 was too steep and pushed for a $30 price tag per rental.

With the lower price in mind, Fox and Warner Brothers are reportedly considering making films available between 30 and 45 days after their premiere in theater. Universal, on the other hand, seems to be the most aggressive and hopes to make movies available some 20 days after their theatrical debut.

Currently, movies typically become available for rent 90 days after their debut in theater, though some studios offer films for sale 70 days after the reveal.

Studios have to work with theater chains to come to this deals. According to today’s report, Lionsgate, Paramount, and Sony have also been talking to a group of theaters including AMC, Regal, and Cineplex.

One major holdout for these negotiations, however, is Disney. Today’s report explains that Disney movies have such long runs in theaters, they have a size and a scope that works well on the big screen:

Disney is not interested in shortening the release window, the industry term for the amount of time a film runs exclusively in theaters. That’s unsurprising because Disney releases Marvel, Star Wars, and animated movies that tend to have long runs in theaters and have a size and scope that tends to work well on the big screen.

Ultimately, however, the report notes that “no deal is imminent” and that there are a variety of different ideas being considered. Some studios reportedly want to make films available for rent when they drop to a certain number of theater screens, while others want to vary release based on platform.

It’s possible that with Apple pushing movement in this area, we might see some sort of announcement sooner rather than later, but that remains to be seen.

How much would you pay to rent a movie that was still in theaters?