Long story short, I looked everywhere for this obscure film. Netflix did not have it. Redbox did not have it. My girlfriend was calling every Blockbuster in a ten mile radius and they did not have it! I spent about 45 minutes on this fruitless pursuit.

Eventually, I realized I could probably just download a digital version online. Of course I could! I didn’t even know you could download a movie from Amazon, but you can, and I did. And what a piece of garbage it was (which has nothing to do with this story)!

The point is, resources are getting ever more expensive and physical retailers (in my opinion) have become more and more disappointing (they never have what we’re looking for). Randomly searching for something can waste a lot of gasoline, time, and energy. Why not just turn on the computer, and download what you want.

NPD Group monitors trends in rentals and guess what they found out? That’s right, people don’t like to drive to Blockbuster! In fact, more people rent from Redbox, probably because it’s closer (in most cases) and it’s cheaper (come on folks, $1 versus $5). Less surprising is that even more people simply just download their movies.

Senior vice president and industry analysis for The NPD Group Russ Crupnick had this to say about the trend:

“The movie-rental market is clearly undergoing a sea change, as consumers become better equipped to access on-demand and streamed movies and are more comfortable with available delivery options”

But old habits die hard and the movie rental business has not completely transformed. 37% of rentals go to Redbox, 31% go to digital and streaming formats, and the remainder go to physical retailers (like Blockbuster). I’m sure this will continue to change as consumers become more comfortable renting online.

Eisener, who directed the upcoming Hobo With A Shotgun, an independent movie done in the grindhouse style, did just that by creating an account at the Pirate Bay in order to address those who were downloading his movie. Actually, “address” is the wrong word. Eisener pleaded with them, asking them not download his movie, and he did so in the comments section of the movie’s download page:

Image courtesy of the official site

Please don’t steal my movie. I never stole anything from you guys. The writer and the producers and myself, put our pay checks back into this film, so we could make it happen. If your gonna steal it, at least come to my home and try to steal it from here.

This, as expected, set off a firestorm of responses, many of which doubted the legitimacy of Eisener’s comment. Then there were those who defended their actions with comments like the following (the mistakes have been left intact):

You say that where stealing your film, but if your apart of the Movie and Entertainment business aren’t you constantly stealing from us with your over priced CD’s,DVD’s, Theatre ticket prices, PPV movies and all the film merchandise you sell with every movie that’s produced… If Charlie Sheen got 1.8 million dollars for every episode of Two and a Half Men, then your industry must have money to fuc***g burn. there’s certainly no recession or credit crunch in the Entertainment business.

And:

if it wasn´t for a place like here i never would have stumbled over it anyways.
you should be thankful for the promotion.
if it´s any good i will give the movie a good rank at imdb or rt for you and your guys rep. if it´s as good as you think i will buy the dvd, promise.

The discussion goes on for nine pages.

Other members indicated The Pirate Bay actually helped them discover the film and that it would help with promotion. While the accuracy of that particular sentiment is open for debate — it’s hard to consider bittorrent sites as tools for promotion, but then again, maybe it’s time to change that approach — that didn’t stop Eisener from expressing confidence towards those replies:

I’m new to this, this is my first film. I hope you guys are right, and that you spread the word, and hopefully pick the film up when it comes out.

Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but if these members admit to downloading a bootleg copy of Hobo’s theatrical release, odds are if they are presented with an option of buying the Blu-Ray DVD for $30 or download a rip of it, they would go for the download.

According to Eisener, Hobo With a Shotgun is already available in Video On Demand and iTunes formats, and it’s (limited) theatrical release is scheduled for May 6th.

You wouldn’t go to a clothing store and buy a shirt if you didn’t know if it would fit; I wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it, and I feel exactly the same way about movies. If you produce a piece of garbage and you waste my time, then that is all the payment you will get. If however, it ‘fits me’ and I like it, then I’ll buy it to support and have it to watch when I want to again.

With that in mind, perhaps a movie test drive web site is just what we need. Studios could release 10 minutes or so, as opposed to a slickly-edited two minute trailer, and give the would-be consumers a little more to go on.

It’s obviously time for a fresh approach when it comes to marketing and releasing movies because the current one is outdated. Discussions like the above from Pirate Bay indicates as much.

According to the survey downloading movies is more convenient and environmentally friendly then driving to a local video store. Sixty-four percent said the biggest advantage of downloading online was not having to drive to get a movie or wait for a movie in the mail.

"With the hike in gas prices, it’s not surprising that a significant number of movie-lovers are changing old habits like driving down to the local video store," said Ashley Woodworth, senior vice president of marketing, CinemaNow.

The survey found the adoption of digital sharing features such as streaming to an IP-enabled TV or loading content onto an MP3 player lags in comparison to burning DVDs. More than half (51%) of Americans say they have tried burning digital movies onto a DVD compared to 18 percent who have tried connecting them to set-top-boxes or a cable box.
 

"People want to watch films they’ve downloaded on their large screen televisions and home entertainment systems," said Arash Amel, Screen Digest senior analyst. 

"To do that, they need a device which can link their broadband connection to the TV," Mr. Amel said. "It will take time to reach a wider market penetration with these new devices, and we believe that this will start to become more mainstream beyond 2011."

Screen Digest estimates that studio wholesale prices on movie downloads to service providers are from 70 percent to 105 percent of what consumers pay.

 This makes movie downloads a low-margin business. While Apple has promoted music downloading to sell iPods, so may other hardware makers benefit from movie downloads as much as studios.

Other projections of U.S. movie download revenues include an AccuStream iMedia Research study that put the 2007 figures at $60 million, and an Emerging Media Dynamics estimate that says revenues of $534 million in 2010, up form $37 million in 2005.