
The Weird World of Hollywood Finance (2001) - jackchristopher
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2001/aug/31/artsfeatures
======
zandorg
I have a question for anyone who knows: What does Netflix pay to the _studios_
for renting out the DVDs? It can't be the same as we pay in the shop, or
they'd make pennies per 100 rentals. Is it a kind of royalty system or - as in
video shops - the 'tape' itself is very expensive?

Also, I have an old original (paid) Carolco bond (!) used to pay for
Terminator 2, as a kind of 'good luck' charm.

~~~
anigbrowl
The exact # I don't know, but the rental copy of a movie is usually about 4x
the retail cost of a consumer DVD - so around $80 - split between distributor
and studio in a ratio that varies considerably, but returns about 50% for a
major studio and maybe 20% for an indie flick.

Interesting though this is (I work in this field), I'm not sure what the
relevance of this (slightly inaccurate) 8 year old article is to HN. Although
it'd be great if there was a HN/YC for film...

~~~
ghshephard
In the United States, this is not the case. First sale doctrine allows one to
resell, lend, or rent a DVD once one purchases it.

~~~
anigbrowl
Yes it is, for practical rather than legal reasons. The rental version of a
movie is issued to video wholesalers before the consumer DVD becomes
available. If you just bought the consumer copy and rented that out to your
customers, you'd never have new releases at the same time as other video
rental services.

