Anne Thompson on Pricing Digital Movies

Anne Thompson of The Hollywood Reporter writes about how studios might price digital movies in the future, selling through merchants like iTunes, Amazon.com, Guba, CinemaNow, etc.

She quotes Sony executive Ben Feingold, who runs worldwide home entertainment. He seems to be saying that studios are fond of the idea of charging the same price for a digital download as a DVD: "Currently there is basic parity in the electronic or physical landscape. That's what makes sense at this particular time," Feingold says.

And on high-definition downloads, Thompson writes:

What is the right price for a high-resolution movie download? $5? $15? "The studios don't want to figure that out yet," one studio digital executive says, "not until digital downloads make real money, or Wal-Mart wants to get into that business."

The piece also mentions that Amazon's DVD sales represent about 5% of the studios' total DVD sales, and Wal-Mart represents about 35%. "...But Amazon's share is growing fast," Thompson observes. "With the potential for an enormous inventory, Amazon could wind up being the long tail that wags the movie-download dog."