Movie buyers find a deal a day on app
Fox banks on flash-sale mentality for digital download push
“Marketing on mobile is not only a priority but a necessity in our industry.”
Mary Daily, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment chief marketing officer
Consumers have embraced digital movies via streaming services and digital downloads, but studios continue to experiment with ways to stoke the business.
No question, streaming is the fan favorite, but digital sales, also called electronic sellthrough in the home entertainment industry, are on the rise, too. Digital sales rose 22% in the first quarter of 2015, compared with the same period last year, surpassing $430 million, according to preliminary statistics from DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, the Hollywood studio trade group.
But that pales compared with subscription streaming from services such as Netflix, which rose 23% to $1.1 billion. Streaming subscriptions brought in $4 billion in 2014, compared with $1.6 billion for digital sales.
So Hollywood is trying new strategies to entice movie lovers. The latest example: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Movie of the Day app, which offers a digital copy of a movie like recent release The Fault in Our Stars for $6.99 rather than $19.99, or older favorites such as Office Space and Mrs. Doubtfire at similar savings.
Available on Apple iPads and iPhones, the Movie of the Day app offers up a new deal at 12:01 a.m. ET daily. You can see a clip, check the cast and director, and read a synopsis and reviews. To test out the app, I bought
Bride Wars, a 2009 romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. (I knew it was a movie that my wife would wholeheartedly join me in watching.) After tapping the “Get it on iTunes” button, I was taken to the store and completed the transaction. (The credit card on file in iTunes is charged.)
In minutes, the movie showed up on my iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. The video is high definition, just as if you had bought any studio’s Digital HD download.
I chose not to share my purchase on Facebook and Twitter — to avoid ribbing from my online buddies — but I could see where you might want to. Other friends might want to get in on the deal.
By the way, Bride Wars was not available to stream on Netflix, but could be bought in HD in Amazon Instant Video for $5.99.
Up next: Die Hard (today) and
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Monday) $7.99 each.
A mix of movies is meant to increase impulse buying and onthe-go planning for upcoming movie nights. “Marketing on mobile is not only a priority but a necessity in our industry,” said Mary Daily, the company’s president and chief marketing officer for worldwide marketing.
“Consumers are searching, purchasing and enjoying their entertainment across all their mobile devices. The app gives consumers the convenience of purchasing movies through the value of a flash sale that we hope will bring them back again and again.”
That flash-sale mentality could succeed for Fox. When I told my wife about my purchase and the app, she said, “This could be dangerous, because I could see myself buying a lot of movies.”
Exactly. So, buyer beware.