Buried in all this is a great point.
Deep in this article is a great point:
"Some critics invoke a Hollywood analogy: If audiences of record-breaking size were lining up to see the latest Harry Potter film, would hard-pressed theater owners then slash ticket prices in half to lure customers?"
I'm much more interested in reading the seventh book than I am in seeing the fifth movie. It's interesting that the book sellers all raced to offer the most popular book of its time at a steep discount. Can you imagine the final episode of Star Wars being discounted to $4.50? Not a chance - the movie industry raises admission prices on its most popular fare.
The book world should take note, and sell their product more like the entertainment that it is, and less like a product to manufactured, distributed and displayed.
Deep in this article is a great point:
"Some critics invoke a Hollywood analogy: If audiences of record-breaking size were lining up to see the latest Harry Potter film, would hard-pressed theater owners then slash ticket prices in half to lure customers?"
I'm much more interested in reading the seventh book than I am in seeing the fifth movie. It's interesting that the book sellers all raced to offer the most popular book of its time at a steep discount. Can you imagine the final episode of Star Wars being discounted to $4.50? Not a chance - the movie industry raises admission prices on its most popular fare.
The book world should take note, and sell their product more like the entertainment that it is, and less like a product to manufactured, distributed and displayed.
posted by Lou Schwing at 10:25 AM
1 Comments:
There's a basic economic difference between the movie and the book, though. Movies are distributed in a way that limits the number of places you can conveniently go to catch the current hot films.
I live in a dense market, and there is not one theatre within walking distance of my house playing HP5. And you can't order them from Amazon months in advance (Well, you can order the DVDs, but you know what I mean: if you want to see it in the theatre, Amazon ain't providing that.) or pick it up at Costco.
Contrariwise, there are at least ten places I can think of offhand within (long but reasonable) walking distance where I can buy HP7 on Saturday, and hundreds within the distance I had to go to see HP5 last Sunday.
The physical book is a commodity. So is the physical DVD or CD: but nobody's selling mass-copied xeroxes of hit books. Nobody's pirating HP7, but I'll bet you could download the HP5 movie from the Web right now.
Print books are currently less susceptible to the economic problems brought about by the New Media than are music and film. Their main area of vulnerability is crosselasticity, the fact that a lot of people are putting up good stuff to read for free in the Web.
Post a Comment
<< Home