You are in luck — Apple has inked a deal with a hell of a lot of movie studios to distribute their movies on iTunes the same day they are released on DVD.
The list of studios include 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.
The first new release titles to go on sale this week include ‘American Gangster’ and ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’. Other recent movies also available include ‘Juno’, ‘Cloverfield’, ‘I Am Legend’, ‘There Will Be Blood’ and ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks.’
Only US consumers can access the movie downloads area on iTunes at present. New titles are priced at $14.99 and most back catalogue titles at $9.99. The movies can also be rented at $2.99 for a library title and $3.99 for new releases.
The deal could severely change the landscape of the DVD industry, including video rental chains such as Blockbuster, because they will no longer have the window of exclusivity before movies are released online.
Studios previously gave DVD releases a head start of as much as 30 to 45 days over other distribution outlets to help preserve a major income source. I’d sell the stock in Blockbuster tout suite.
Of course, none of this all really matters to those who are in anyway tech savvy — the studios keep ignoring this BitTorrent technology wave. It allows one to get DVD-quality movies downloaded 2-4 weeks before it comes on DVD — and the average movie takes less than an hour to download. (ed note: Now…don’t go out there and actually do it though — that would be illegal and we love our readers too much to get the MPAA after your ass.)
They continue on with the “ignorance is bliss” stance… because that is working out so well.