Studios selling movies on Web
Hollywood studios will start selling digital versions of films such as “Brokeback Mountain” and “King Kong” on the Internet this week, the first time major movies have been available online to own.
The films can’t yet be burned onto a disc for viewing on a DVD player. Still, the move is seen as a step toward full digital distribution of movies over the Internet.
Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and MGM will offer some first-run and older titles on Movielink, a Web site jointly owned by five of the studios.
New films will be priced similar to DVDs – between $20 and $30 – while older titles will sell for $10 to $20.
In a separate announcement, Sony and Lionsgate said they will sell films through the CinemaNow site.
Films from The Walt Disney Co. will not be immediately available, although talks are ongoing.
Studios will sell some new films online the same day they become available on DVD. Most films will be made available within 45 days.
Studios began renting films online several years ago as a way to combat illegal downloading. Digital delivery of video grew rapidly after Apple Computer Inc. began selling episodes of TV shows through its iTunes online store last October.
Devices powered by new Intel computer chips and TV service delivered over the Internet will allow more consumers to watch Web video on their TVs instead of their computer screens, a key factor in downloading to own, analysts said.
The films available on Movielink can be stored indefinitely on a computer hard drive or transferred to as many as two other computers. The movies can be played on a TV if the computer is part of a home network.
Consumers will not be able to transfer the films to a handheld portable viewing device, but that capability should be available sometime within the next year, Movielink executives said.
Films on CinemaNow will be playable on just one computer.
‘Kong’ king on DVD
It took heat during the holidays for failing to reach the blockbuster status that many predicted, but “King Kong” can do some supersized chest-thumping now.
Released as both a single DVD and two-disc set last week, the Peter Jackson film logged Universal’s best first-week sales in studio history, selling 6.5 million copies in six days for a take of more than $100 million.
The film’s brisk DVD sales add to its worldwide box-office haul of $550 million. Its ticket sales make “King Kong” the fourth highest-grossing film in Universal’s history, following “Jurassic Park,” “E.T.” and “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.”