Apple announced today that new movie releases from major film studios as well as some top indy studios are now (or will be) available for purchase on iTunes day and date with their DVD releases. Studios attached to the agreement 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.
Pricing remains the same with new titles at $14.99 and most catalog titles at $9.99.
“We’re thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date with the DVD release,†said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think movie fans will love being able to buy their favorites from major and independent studios.â€
New releases available for purchase this week include “American Gangster†and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.†Other popular titles that have just recently been released on DVD that are now available in iTunes include “Juno,†“Cloverfield,†“I Am Legend,†“There Will Be Blood,†“Alvin and the Chipmunks†and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.â€
These titles are not yet available for rent, and they are not in HD.
4 thoughts on “Apple adds New Movies for Purchase in iTunes Day and Date w/ DVD”
A step in the right direction but not quite there yet. Same day for rentals would be ideal but that would likely butcher sales as more movies these days don’t justify buying it. Plus they need to lower the prices, granted 15, and 10 are nice even numbers I don’t think people like paying close to the same amount for a physical product as they do for a digital file. Not to mention packaging and shipping costs are nonexistent so they are already saving a hell of a lot more on a per movie basis. Then again why do I even care, I can’t even buy movies from iTunes in Canada. Yay for Apple!
I don’t mind paying that much for the movies, since I’m going to take it and put it on a hard drive anyway. The DVD cases just take up space. I don’t miss out on the special features since most of them are over-hyped and I don’t watch those more than once anyway. I think of it this way–I’m paying for the convenience of being able to buy or rent a movie 24 hours a day, rain or shine (Wal-Mart nor Amazon.com are getting my money), and I’m not having to use any GAS to drive my car to the store. If I REALLY like a movie then sure, I’ll get the physical product, but for most of my movies, I’m happy getting a copy from iTunes. As long as they offer Rent/Buy on ALL movies in the library, that’s what matters to me. Just my 2 cents…
Maybe it’s different in your area, but Wal-Mart is selling DVD’s for about $20+. $5 less for no case or physical DVD for my kids to scratch the hell out of makes sense to me…
@Bryan
Wal-Mart.com has “American Gangster” for $14.87 (It’s the same price in my local store too)
https://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8400482
Amazon has it for $14.99
https://www.amazon.com/American-Gangster-2-Disc-Unrated-Extended/dp/B0011HOEY4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1209668154&sr=8-1
This is becoming more common for big movie releases when they debut. In a few weeks the price may go up to $19.95, but Wal-mart rarely goes above that for a standard DVD release.
and I have to say that my 4 year old doesn’t scratch our DVDs at all, so that’s not something I have considered as a problem.