Subscription services
Let’s first take a look at the two top paid all-you-can-eat subscription services: Netflix and Amazon Prime (remember that Amazon Prime is different from Amazon VOD in that it follows a model similar to Netflix’s). So how available are the top 100 movies of 2011, movies that were released over a year ago and have gone through the usual release windows of movie theater release, DVD releases, and paid TV releases.:
| Rank | Movie Title | Netflix | Amazon Prime |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | No | No |
| 2 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Yes | Yes |
| 3 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 | No | No |
| 4 | The Hangover Part II | No | No |
| 5 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | No | No |
| 6 | Fast Five | No | No |
| 7 | Cars 2 | No | No |
| 8 | Thor | Yes | Yes |
| 9 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes | No | No |
| 10 | Captain America: The First Avenger | Yes | Yes |
| 11 | The Help | No | No |
| 12 | Bridesmaids | No | No |
| 13 | Kung Fu Panda 2 | No | No |
| 14 | X-Men: First Class | No | No |
| 15 | Puss in Boots | No | No |
| 16 | Rio | No | No |
| 17 | The Smurfs | No | No |
| 18 | Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | Yes | Yes |
| 19 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | No | No |
| 20 | Super 8 | Yes | Yes |
| 21 | Rango | Yes | Yes |
| 22 | Horrible Bosses | No | No |
| 23 | Green Lantern | No | No |
| 24 | Hop | No | No |
| 25 | Paranormal Activity 3 | Yes | No |
| 26 | Just Go With It | No | No |
| 27 | Bad Teacher | No | No |
| 28 | Cowboys & Aliens | No | No |
| 29 | Gnomeo and Juliet | No | No |
| 30 | The Green Hornet | No | No |
| 31 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | No | No |
| 32 | The Lion King (in 3D) | No | No |
| 33 | Real Steel | No | No |
| 34 | Crazy, Stupid, Love. | No | No |
| 35 | The Muppets | No | No |
| 36 | Battle: Los Angeles | No | No |
| 37 | Immortals | Yes | No |
| 38 | Zookeeper | No | No |
| 39 | Limitless | Yes | No |
| 40 | Tower Heist | No | No |
| 41 | Contagion | No | No |
| 42 | Moneyball | No | No |
| 43 | Justin Bieber: Never Say Never | Yes | Yes |
| 44 | Dolphin Tale | No | No |
| 45 | Jack and Jill | No | No |
| 46 | No Strings Attached | Yes | Yes |
| 47 | Mr. Popper’s Penguins | No | No |
| 48 | Unknown | No | No |
| 49 | The Adjustment Bureau | No | No |
| 50 | Happy Feet Two | No | No |
| 51 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) | No | No |
| 52 | Water for Elephants | No | No |
| 53 | The Lincoln Lawyer | Yes | Yes |
| 54 | Midnight in Paris | No | No |
| 55 | Friends with Benefits | No | No |
| 56 | I Am Number Four | No | No |
| 57 | Source Code | No | No |
| 58 | Insidious | Yes | No |
| 59 | Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family | Yes | Yes |
| 60 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules | No | No |
| 61 | Footloose (2011) | Yes | Yes |
| 62 | The Adventures of Tintin | Yes | Yes |
| 63 | Hugo | Yes | Yes |
| 64 | The Dilemma | No | No |
| 65 | New Year’s Eve | No | No |
| 66 | Arthur Christmas | No | No |
| 67 | War Horse | No | No |
| 68 | Hall Pass | No | No |
| 69 | We Bought a Zoo | No | No |
| 70 | Soul Surfer | No | No |
| 71 | Final Destination 5 | No | No |
| 72 | The Ides of March | No | No |
| 73 | The Descendants | No | No |
| 74 | Hanna | No | No |
| 75 | Something Borrowed | No | No |
| 76 | Spy Kids: All the Time in the World | No | No |
| 77 | Scream 4 | No | No |
| 78 | Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son | No | No |
| 79 | Red Riding Hood | No | No |
| 80 | Paul | No | No |
| 81 | The Roommate | No | No |
| 82 | Jumping the Broom | No | No |
| 83 | The Change-Up | No | No |
| 84 | 30 Minutes or Less | No | No |
| 85 | In Time | No | No |
| 86 | Colombiana | No | No |
| 87 | J. Edgar | No | No |
| 88 | Sucker Punch | No | No |
| 89 | Larry Crowne | No | No |
| 90 | 50/50 | No | No |
| 91 | Drive (2011) | Yes | No |
| 92 | A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas | No | No |
| 93 | Courageous | No | No |
| 94 | The Rite | No | No |
| 95 | Arthur (2011) | No | No |
| 96 | The Debt | No | No |
| 97 | Priest | No | No |
| 98 | The Mechanic | No | No |
| 99 | Abduction | Yes | Yes |
| 100 | Beastly | No | No |
There’s a lot of red there, showing that a lot of hit movies are still not available on those services. Netflix has 19 of the top 100 hits of 2011 available and Amazon Prime offers 14 of them. One thing that surprised me here is that, compared to last year, Amazon seems to have made some progress in terms of catching up to Netflix. However, this is still a dismal showing for both services as they present less than one out of five hit movies from over a year ago.
Since I was looking, I figured I would also investigate how movies from 2010, when I first started this series, fared. These are movies that have gone, without a doubt, through all possible release window you can imagine. So what does it look like? Let’s see:
| Rank | Movie Title | Netflix | Amazon Prime |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toy Story 3 | No | No |
| 2 | Alice in Wonderland | No | No |
| 3 | Iron Man 2 | No | No |
| 4 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | No | No |
| 5 | Inception | No | No |
| 6 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | No | No |
| 7 | Despicable Me | No | No |
| 8 | Shrek Forever After | No | No |
| 9 | How to Train Your Dragon | No | No |
| 10 | Tangled | No | No |
| 11 | The Karate Kid | No | No |
| 12 | Clash of the Titans | No | No |
| 13 | Grown Ups | No | No |
| 14 | Tron Legacy | No | No |
| 15 | Megamind | No | No |
| 16 | Little Fockers | No | No |
| 17 | The Last Airbender | No | No |
| 18 | True Grit | Yes | Yes |
| 19 | Shutter Island | No | No |
| 20 | The Other Guys | No | No |
| 21 | Salt | No | No |
| 22 | Jackass 3D | Yes | No |
| 23 | Valentine’s Day | No | No |
| 24 | Robin Hood | No | No |
| 25 | The Expendables | Yes | Yes |
| 26 | Due Date | No | No |
| 27 | The Chronicle of Narnia: Voyage of the DawnTreader | No | No |
| 28 | Date Night | No | No |
| 29 | Sex and the City 2 | No | No |
| 30 | The Social Network | No | No |
| 31 | The Book of Eli | No | No |
| 32 | The Town | No | No |
| 33 | Prince of Persia: Sands of time | No | No |
| 34 | Red | No | No |
| 35 | Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief | No | No |
| 36 | Paranormal Activity 2 | Yes | Yes |
| 37 | Yogi Bear | No | No |
| 38 | Eat Pray Love | No | No |
| 39 | Unstoppable | No | No |
| 40 | Dear John | No | No |
| 41 | The A-team | No | No |
| 42 | Knight & Day | No | No |
| 43 | Black Swan | No | No |
| 44 | Dinner for Schmucks | No | No |
| 45 | The Fighter | No | No |
| 46 | The Bounty Hunter | No | No |
| 47 | The Tourist | No | No |
| 48 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid | No | No |
| 49 | The Sorcerer’s Apprentice | No | No |
| 50 | A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) | No | No |
| 51 | The Last Song | No | No |
| 52 | The Wolfman | No | No |
| 53 | Get him to the Greek | No | No |
| 54 | Resident Evil: Afterlife | No | No |
| 55 | Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too | No | No |
| 56 | Tooth Fairy | No | No |
| 57 | Secretariat | No | No |
| 58 | Easy A | No | No |
| 59 | Takers | No | No |
| 60 | Legend of the Guardians | No | No |
| 61 | Life as We Know It | No | No |
| 62 | Letters to Juliet | No | No |
| 63 | Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps | No | No |
| 64 | Predators | No | No |
| 65 | Hot Tub Time Machine | No | No |
| 66 | Kick-Ass | No | No |
| 67 | The King’s Speech | Yes | No |
| 68 | Killers | No | No |
| 69 | Saw 3D | No | No |
| 70 | Cop Out | No | No |
| 71 | Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore | No | No |
| 72 | Edge of Darkness | No | No |
| 73 | Death at a Funeral | No | No |
| 74 | Step-Up 3D | No | No |
| 75 | The Last Exorcism | Yes | Yes |
| 76 | Legion | No | No |
| 77 | The Crazies | No | No |
| 78 | Gulliver’s Travels | No | No |
| 79 | Burlesque | No | No |
| 80 | For Colored Girls | Yes | Yes |
| 81 | The Back-up Plan | No | No |
| 82 | Vampires Suck | No | No |
| 83 | The American | No | No |
| 84 | Green Zone | No | No |
| 85 | Marmaduke | No | No |
| 86 | Devil | No | No |
| 87 | Hereafter | No | No |
| 88 | When in Rome | No | No |
| 89 | Love and Other Drugs | No | No |
| 90 | She’s Out of My League | No | No |
| 91 | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | No | No |
| 92 | Charlie St. Cloud | No | No |
| 93 | Morning Glory | Yes | Yes |
| 94 | Daybreakers | No | No |
| 95 | How Do You Know | No | No |
| 96 | Nanny McPhee Returns | No | No |
| 97 | The Switch | No | No |
| 98 | Brooklyn’s Finest | No | No |
| 99 | Machete | No | No |
| 100 | Ramona and Beezus | No | No |
You would think that hit movies from 2010 would be available on services like Netflix and Amazon Prime in 2013. But, by the look of it, there is still much work to be done here. Netflix has 8 titles, while Amazon Prime has 6. In other words, it appears that the deeper you go into the catalog, the fewer hits you get.
Having looked at the position of 300 titles, which gives us a pretty decent data set, let’s see what availability of blockbuster hits on rental services looks like:
| Year | Netflix | Amazon Prime |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 8 | 6 |
| 2011 | 19 | 14 |
| 2012 | 5 | 2 |
| Total | 32 | 22 |
So looking at a 3 year range, Netflix offer 10.6% of the top titles to come out that year and Amazon Prime offers 7.3%. If they are to compete with regular cable TV, they might have some catching up to do.
Internet Video on Demand
Of course, the subscription model is not the only one to exist in the online space. Many services like Amazon, iTunes, and Vudu, now offer internet video-on-demand, charging a per-movie fee to either purchase either a short-term (generally 24 to 48 hours) or permanent license to stream a specific titles. Short term licenses, also known as rentals, typically sell for $3.99 to $7.99; permanent license retail for $9.99 and up. Last week, I looked at availability of 2012 blockbusters on those services. But what about older titles? Let’s take a look at the top 100 titles to hit the box office in 2011:
| Rank | Movie Title | Amazon | iTunes | Vudu |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | No | No | No |
| 2 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 3 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 4 | The Hangover Part II | No | No | No |
| 5 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 6 | Fast Five | No | No | No |
| 7 | Cars 2 | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 8 | Thor | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 9 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 10 | Captain America: The First Avenger | No | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 11 | The Help | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 12 | Bridesmaids | No | Purchase only | No |
| 13 | Kung Fu Panda 2 | No | No | No |
| 14 | X-Men: First Class | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 15 | Puss in Boots | No | No | No |
| 16 | Rio | Purchase only | Yes | Purchase only |
| 17 | The Smurfs | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 18 | Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | No | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 19 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | No | No | No |
| 20 | Super 8 | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 21 | Rango | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 22 | Horrible Bosses | No | No | No |
| 23 | Green Lantern | No | No | No |
| 24 | Hop | No | No | No |
| 25 | Paranormal Activity 3 | No | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 26 | Just Go With It | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 27 | Bad Teacher | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 28 | Cowboys & Aliens | No | No | No |
| 29 | Gnomeo and Juliet | Yes | Yes | No |
| 30 | The Green Hornet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 31 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 32 | The Lion King (in 3D) | No | No | Purchase only |
| 33 | Real Steel | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 34 | Crazy, Stupid, Love. | No | No | No |
| 35 | The Muppets | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 36 | Battle: Los Angeles | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 37 | Immortals | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 38 | Zookeeper | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 39 | Limitless | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 40 | Tower Heist | No | No | No |
| 41 | Contagion | No | No | No |
| 42 | Moneyball | No | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 43 | Justin Bieber: Never Say Never | No | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 44 | Dolphin Tale | No | No | No |
| 45 | Jack and Jill | Purchase only | Purchase only | No |
| 46 | No Strings Attached | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 47 | Mr. Popper’s Penguins | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 48 | Unknown | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 49 | The Adjustment Bureau | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 50 | Happy Feet Two | No | No | No |
| 51 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 52 | Water for Elephants | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 53 | The Lincoln Lawyer | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 54 | Midnight in Paris | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 55 | Friends with Benefits | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 56 | I Am Number Four | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 57 | Source Code | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 58 | Insidious | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 59 | Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family | Purchase only | Purchase only | No |
| 60 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules | No | No | Yes |
| 61 | Footloose (2011) | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 62 | The Adventures of Tintin | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 63 | Hugo | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 64 | The Dilemma | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 65 | New Year’s Eve | No | No | No |
| 66 | Arthur Christmas | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 67 | War Horse | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 68 | Hall Pass | No | No | No |
| 69 | We Bought a Zoo | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 70 | Soul Surfer | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 71 | Final Destination 5 | No | No | No |
| 72 | The Ides of March | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 73 | The Descendants | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 74 | Hanna | No | Purchase only | No |
| 75 | Something Borrowed | No | No | No |
| 76 | Spy Kids: All the Time in the World | No | No | No |
| 77 | Scream 4 | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 78 | Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son | No | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 79 | Red Riding Hood | Yes | Yes | No |
| 80 | Paul | No | Purchase only | No |
| 81 | The Roommate | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 82 | Jumping the Broom | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 83 | The Change-Up | No | No | No |
| 84 | 30 Minutes or Less | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 85 | In Time | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 86 | Colombiana | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 87 | J. Edgar | No | No | No |
| 88 | Sucker Punch | Yes | Yes | No |
| 89 | Larry Crowne | No | No | No |
| 90 | 50/50 | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 91 | Drive (2011) | Yes | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 92 | A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas | No | No | No |
| 93 | Courageous | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 94 | The Rite | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 95 | Arthur (2011) | Yes | Yes | No |
| 96 | The Debt | Yes | No | No |
| 97 | Priest | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 98 | The Mechanic | No | No | No |
| 99 | Abduction | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 100 | Beastly | No | Purchase only | Yes |
What I find particularly interesting about this chart is how it breaks down. While a lot of titles used to be available for short term rentals, Hollywood seems to be pushing providers to move to unlimited licenses and keep users from buying single use licenses to content.
| Type | Amazon | iTunes | Vudu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short term license (aka rental) | 16 | 15 | 12 |
| Long term license (aka purchase) | 47 | 57 | 53 |
| Not available | 37 | 28 | 35 |
While it is surprising that over 1/3rd of all titles are still not available for streaming (with Apple iTunes faring a little better as it can claim to have 62% of the titles), the majority of the titles are only available under long-term licenses, the more expensive kind of offering in the online space. Granted, when compared with the price of a movie ticket, these may be considered relatively cheap but when compared with the price of a short term license, we’re looking at prices that are two to three times higher. It seems Hollywood and online VOD providers have come to an agreement that older titles ought to be put in the sales bucket instead of the rental one.
Assuming that this were the case, we should see the same pattern on 2010 titles, which are now over 2 years old and well beyond any release window dates. Let’s take a look:
| Rank | Movie Title | Amazon | iTunes | Vudu |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toy Story 3 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2 | Alice in Wonderland | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 3 | Iron Man 2 | Yes | Purchase only | Yes |
| 4 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 5 | Inception | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 6 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 7 | Despicable Me | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 8 | Shrek Forever After | Purchase only | Yes | Purchase only |
| 9 | How to Train Your Dragon | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 10 | Tangled | Yes | Yes | Purchase only |
| 11 | The Karate Kid | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 12 | Clash of the Titans | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 13 | Grown Ups | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 14 | Tron Legacy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 15 | Megamind | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 16 | Little Fockers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 17 | The Last Airbender | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 18 | True Grit | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 19 | Shutter Island | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 20 | The Other Guys | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 21 | Salt | Purchase only | Yes | Purchase only |
| 22 | Jackass 3D | No | No | No |
| 23 | Valentine’s Day | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 24 | Robin Hood | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 25 | The Expendables | Yes | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 26 | Due Date | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 27 | The Chronicle of Narnia: Voyage of the DawnTreader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 28 | Date Night | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 29 | Sex and the City 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 30 | The Social Network | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 31 | The Book of Eli | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 32 | The Town | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 33 | Prince of Persia: Sands of time | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 34 | Red | Yes | No | No |
| 35 | Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief | Yes | Yes | No |
| 36 | Paranormal Activity 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 37 | Yogi Bear | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 38 | Eat Pray Love | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 39 | Unstoppable | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 40 | Dear John | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 41 | The A-team | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 42 | Knight & Day | No | Yes | Yes |
| 43 | Black Swan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 44 | Dinner for Schmucks | No | Yes | No |
| 45 | The Fighter | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 46 | The Bounty Hunter | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 47 | The Tourist | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 48 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 49 | The Sorcerer’s Apprentice | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 50 | A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 51 | The Last Song | Yes | Yes | Purchase only |
| 52 | The Wolfman | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 53 | Get him to the Greek | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 54 | Resident Evil: Afterlife | Yes | Yes | Purchase only |
| 55 | Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too | No | No | No |
| 56 | Tooth Fairy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 57 | Secretariat | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 58 | Easy A | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 59 | Takers | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 60 | Legend of the Guardians | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 61 | Life as We Know It | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 62 | Letters to Juliet | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 63 | Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 64 | Predators | Yes | Yes | Purchase only |
| 65 | Hot Tub Time Machine | Yes | Yes | Purchase only |
| 66 | Kick-Ass | Yes | Purchase only | Yes |
| 67 | The King’s Speech | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 68 | Killers | Yes | Yes | Purchase only |
| 69 | Saw 3D | No | No | No |
| 70 | Cop Out | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 71 | Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 72 | Edge of Darkness | Yes | No | Yes |
| 73 | Death at a Funeral | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 74 | Step-Up 3D | No | No | No |
| 75 | The Last Exorcism | Yes | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 76 | Legion | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 77 | The Crazies | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 78 | Gulliver’s Travels | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 79 | Burlesque | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 80 | For Colored Girls | Yes | Purchase only | Yes |
| 81 | The Back-up Plan | No | Yes | No |
| 82 | Vampires Suck | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 83 | The American | No | No | No |
| 84 | Green Zone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 85 | Marmaduke | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 86 | Devil | No | No | No |
| 87 | Hereafter | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 88 | When in Rome | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 89 | Love and Other Drugs | No | No | Purchase only |
| 90 | She’s Out of My League | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 91 | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 92 | Charlie St. Cloud | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 93 | Morning Glory | Purchase only | Yes | Purchase only |
| 94 | Daybreakers | Yes | Yes | Purchase only |
| 95 | How Do You Know | Purchase only | Purchase only | Purchase only |
| 96 | Nanny McPhee Returns | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 97 | The Switch | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 98 | Brooklyn’s Finest | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 99 | Machete | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 100 | Ramona and Beezus | Yes | Yes | No |
But here, something strange is happening. Apparently, we see a reversal back to the rental model when a title is over two years old.
| Type | Amazon | iTunes | Vudu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short term license (aka rental) | 68 | 67 | 57 |
| Long term license (aka purchase) | 22 | 24 | 32 |
| Not available | 10 | 9 | 11 |
It’s an odd reversal of the model as long term licenses for a lot of those titles cannot be bought but short term ones (ie. rentals) are more readily available than long term ones. But what about total availability? Is it any better than what we witnessed on a-la-carte service? Let’s do a recap and see if we’re seeing progress there.
| Year | Amazon | iTunes | Vudu |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 90 | 91 | 89 |
| 2011 | 63 | 72 | 65 |
| 2012 | 57 | 59 | 59 |
| Total | 210 | 222 | 213 |
Here, we see some improvements as roughly two thirds of all blockbusters of the last three years appear to be available in some form as legal streams (Amazon: 70%, iTunes: 74%, Vudu: 71%) thanks to substantial increase in back-catalog. However, in a world where 92% of those titles are available on DVD, there are still questions as to why a 20% gap continues to exist between pieces of plastic and electronic streams. That gap will, unfortunately, be filled by consumers through alternate means, most of which involve getting such content illegally. If Hollywood wants to stem the flow of piracy, its best option is to establish parity between BluRay/DVD and online streams
Another important thing we can see is that the all-you-can-eat subscription model is not the best way to access mainstream movies. The studios have voted and it is clear that they prefer a model where fees are established at run time instead of in an all you can eat approach. One can only assume that the revenue envisioned under the traditional VOD model is something that is still more appealing to movie studios than new models where a stream may or may not happen. This could call into question the long term viability of the subscription model, unless we see new “premium” type of offerings emerging.
Conclusion
When it comes to finding legal streams for movies on the internet, the situation is improving from year to year but there is still much work to be done. Hollywood is still clinging on to the concept of selling physical goods like BluRay and DVD disks and giving those formats an advantage over legal streams. The result of such decision will undoubtedly be that consumers looking for such content in the online world may be driven to piracy. This observation is not a mere toss-away but rather a belief that what we witnessed in the music industry over a decade ago, with consumers opting for illegal but free MP3 downloads over legal equivalent is now starting to happen in the movie industry. The movie industry, however, has learned somewhat from the lessons of the music industry and is slowly trying to adapt. The gap in their adoption speed is where most of the piracy will sit today. Whether the studios want to stamp out piracy or not is really in their hands as it’s been shown that providing legal alternatives generally ends up undercutting illegal efforts. Will Hollywood be smart enough to evolve to the new format? The jury is still open on that but signs point to some chances for progress.