Transformers to be the First Movie to debut on Pay-Per-View? Update!

Canned Pasta, that's a good point. I wonder if the pirates will be able to record it from Pay-Per-View, or if the signal will disable any recording.

i take it Sky Box Office will be doing this? hopefully?

Hell no I wan to see this badboy in a theater then let it come out on DVD a few months later then cable about a year later

The way it ought to be

Payperview?

Ummm.... bad idea?

Well, I'm seeing it in the theaters at midnight July 3rd, but I would watch it at home too since I have off the 4th. I'm sure my cable won't be carrying it though.

wow! ON TV ALREADY?!?!

$50 my ass...

Can you say "bootleg"?

Can't say I'm really a fan of this idea. I mean, the jokes about it being on "TV already" are coming in already! Plus, I really don't see what there is to gain from this (besides money, of course). I mean, unless you have an expensive setup, how could this compare to the theatrical experience?

I'd rather pay $25 and see it with a bunch of excited Transfans early at Botcon - in a theater~!

Frak that man im seeing it on the really big screen with really big speakers. Now if i had a DVD recorder than yeah maybe. I know my friends would chip in to see it and get a DVD but seeing as how i dont have the DVDR im going to see it at the movies. Its a good idea though. It should be a little cheaper. Maybe $30-$40 not $50.

Autobot032 wrote:http://www.uberpulse.com/
I don't have the direct link to the article, but it says TransFormers will be on PPV on July 3rd! $49.99

Info courtesy of Hooks @ CorvusChatter

why would they charge $50. mostly new movies that are ppv are at $3. this is a lie a total lie.

This is one of those movies that should be enjoyed in the theater on the big screen, even better IMAX in 3D!

Canned Pasta wrote:If you have a DVD recorder or DVR, then I would think it's worth it.

hahaha i dont have to buy this movie on dvd later i just record it for a small price of 49 dollars but im still going to see it at the movie 2

I'd rather see it in the theater for the full experience. Besides, I don't have cable or PPV.

It's 50 bucks because they go with the assumption that you won't be watching it alone. So if you get 15 people in your house around your big ass TV then you've saved money from going to the theater. I'm still watching it at the Theater. I can't imaging someone not bootlegging this straight to a digital format. Hell even if they shoot it on camera, they have all the time in the world to set up and shoot it off a clean LCD monitor, which will be only next to a clean DVD rip, and beats the crap that people put on the net, shot off the Theater screen. I don't know if it's a great idea.

Hah, I preordered tickets over Fandango for all my family for the 8PM showing on July 2nd... and it still didn't set me back $50. I mean going to the theatre is half the experience!

Mr.RobotAutoMan wrote:

Autobot032 wrote:http://www.uberpulse.com/
I don't have the direct link to the article, but it says TransFormers will be on PPV on July 3rd! $49.99

Info courtesy of Hooks @ CorvusChatter

why would they charge $50. mostly new movies that are ppv are at $3. this is a lie a total lie.

Because new PPV movies are already released on DVD and no longer competing with the theaters. The high price is to deter to many people from using this option as a way to cheap out of going to the theater and thus hurting th theaters even more.

But if you have a 60" HDTV with a nice 5.1 surround sound system why wouldn't you? Theaters suck, you have loud audience members, sticky floors, expensive stale popcorn. There is a reason many people will wait for the DVD and why theaters are losing a lot of business lately. Many people do have nice home theaters and the theater experience when compared just isn't worth the hassle. It isn't the rare weekend treat it used to be 20+ years ago.

I expect the net will be flooded with downloads 5 mins after the credits have rolled...

i agree this is one of those movies that pretty much requires to be in a big theater to enjoy..

then again my new sony 1080p tv with my very expensive surround sound setup is a pretty f**king amazing place to watch a movie.

i bought 4 tix for the 8pm July2 showing. 8.75 per.

for a few bucks more to have it at my house w/ the ability to pause and rewind??? i might have considered the alternative.

i think its great to have this as a choice.

Boy this news will steam up the movie theater business! Seeing as people will get to start enjoying movies right in their own home instead of theaters to avoid the rude people the concession sales will probably go down.

Certainly there are movies I think 100% should be seen in theaters first, like Transformers, BUT... Can anyone agree with me that there are those movies you do want to see here and there, but worry you're going to get a bunch on inconsiderate jerks sitting near you who will be rattling wrappers or talking or texting on those bright displays while you are trying to enjoy your movie when you'd rather pay a bit of a premium to not deal with that at all?

Say you do have a home theater, ok? You have pretty freakin nice setup... Say you want to see a film like "Knocked Up." But you know there's going to be some idiot there who is going to ruin it for you because you know there are just some people out there who seem to love blowing $10 to get into a film and ruin it for others. You're going with 3 or so other people who want to see the movie and you have the opportunity to see it at home with no disturbances. Would you watch it with the jerks and on the big screen, or on a really nice home theater with a few of your friends (at a higher price) but absolutely no disturbances? These less-bigger event films should get the opportunity to be viewed at home at the higher price. HUGE movies I would see in a heartbeat on the big screen as I always do.

I know it's the experience of going to a movie that is great and all, but it's really great if everyone is going for the same reason. Some are there to just have it be a social event while other crowds are there because they WANT to see the movie. This is why I always try to catch those midnight shows on opening day because chances are very little someone's gonna be there to ruin it for you.

I remember one time I went to see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for the 2nd or 3rd time and some idiot brought their baby in. The baby cried right at the beginning of the film while the Smoegel story was being revealed. A guy yelled, "Shut the baby up!" and there was a bit of an exchange of words. It's stuff like that that ruins the experience and just makes you hate going to movies sometimes. I get really into movies when I go to the theaters and don't like people talking or making noise. If people would just learn to SHUT UP during the movies all the time I'd refute the whole pay per view idea, but that's really not a bad idea.

I will repeat what I said though in that huge anticiptaed movies I will always see in theaters first. no question. As long as I get to see it on that opening show it's usually fine.

Whether you like it or not, PPV/DVD/home viewing is the future of cinema. Theaters are already beginning to see the trend to their detriment. If I could download or PPV all new movies, I would never go to the dirty, stinky, kid infested theater ever again. Neither would most people with a large TV and surround sound.

Also, I would never have bought tickets for TF at the theater if I knew they were offering this.

Koloth wrote:

Mr.RobotAutoMan wrote:

Autobot032 wrote:http://www.uberpulse.com/
I don't have the direct link to the article, but it says TransFormers will be on PPV on July 3rd! $49.99

Info courtesy of Hooks @ CorvusChatter

why would they charge $50. mostly new movies that are ppv are at $3. this is a lie a total lie.

Because new PPV movies are already released on DVD and no longer competing with the theaters. The high price is to deter to many people from using this option as a way to cheap out of going to the theater and thus hurting th theaters even more.

But if you have a 60" HDTV with a nice 5.1 surround sound system why wouldn't you? Theaters suck, you have loud audience members, sticky floors, expensive stale popcorn. There is a reason many people will wait for the DVD and why theaters are losing a lot of business lately. Many people do have nice home theaters and the theater experience when compared just isn't worth the hassle. It isn't the rare weekend treat it used to be 20+ years ago.

not my theater. my theater has digital projectors. that means digital picture and sound. its the only theater in las vegas with digital written all around it. no more roll of films. can a 60'' HDTV with 5.1 top that?

HaHaha, Im so Going to Buy it on Pay-per-view I Will Just Record it on my DVR!Sure It will cut back on My Tf purchases but Whatever!

Now that is interesting. Not sure how I feel about this. Happy that TF is the first, but I still think it'll be a shame if we all lose the movie going experience in the next 10 or 20 years.

From Bay: "Total bullshit. Probally a scam putting old movie on."

Nelson hast spoken.

Mr.RobotAutoMan wrote:not my theater. my theater has digital projectors. that means digital picture and sound. its the only theater in las vegas with digital written all around it. no more roll of films. can a 60'' HDTV with 5.1 top that?

Actually the film rolls provide a better picture since the digital projectors by design have to utilize pixels and the film is an actual picture with no pixelization. The difference is digital is (literally) cleaner because it doesn't get dirty like film.

So yes a 60" HDTV would do as well as a digital projector. Assuming that Paramount releases the PPV in HD of course. It would just be a bit smaller. I'm less concerned about the picture quality when going to a movie than the experience itself. I know for a fact that the picture quality film or digital is going to be better on the big screen than an SDTV. What bothers me is the people and the theater itself.

If the ushers are doing their job well then some can seem nice and clean. But I worked as an usher in highschool. I know just how hard it is to clean a 500 seat theater in 15 minutes. The worst is if someone spills a drink. All you can really do then is throw down some paper towels to soak it up and pick them up on th way out. Mopping is not an option. Thus you are left with a sticky floor.

I would rather see it in the theaters to get that "movie experience". But there are soem movies that i wouldnt mind watching at home as opposed to going to the theater. But Im not willing to pay $50.00 to watch this movie. Hell, $10.00 is bad enough.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:I'd rather pay $25 and see it with a bunch of excited Transfans early at Botcon - in a theater~!

I hear that!

But I agree, this a bad move on Hasbro's and Dreamwave's part. Good for the pirates, but bad for them. Unless they're employing some new kind of magic, anti-pirating technology, this will be on the net seconds after the credits finish.

So emplore fans, DO NOT PIRATE THIS PPV BROADCAST and don't download a pirated copy! Think about it. If you love Transformers, you do not want to see Hasbro lose money on this. If you want to see a TFTM2, you will not steal the first one. And if you must record it, only do so for your own personal use.

In case you guys missed it, nelson said "From Bay: "Total bullshit. Probally a scam putting old movie on."

Wow... talk about handing it to the pirates on a plate... your going to have dvd quality bootlegs knocking around days after the premier.

Debut on PayPerView?

If that doesn't scream "B-Movie Failure," NOTHING does.

nelson_michaelbay_com wrote:From Bay: "Total bullshit. Probally a scam putting old movie on."

Updated the info with this. Thanks Nelson.

TheMuffin wrote:

nelson_michaelbay_com wrote:From Bay: "Total bullshit. Probally a scam putting old movie on."

Updated the info with this. Thanks Nelson.

Glad to hear it!

arr, the pirates be steelin' my movies!

Lapse Of Reason wrote:I'd rather pay $25 and see it with a bunch of excited(Read: Drunk/Boozed Up/Hung Over) Transfans early at Botcon - in a theater~!

Fixxed. But yeah, I'm going too. 50 bucks is a scam. Yes, PPV would need to rival the theaters, but 25 is even pushing it. Besides, this is practically saying PIRATE ME in the opening credits.

The reasoning for the $50 is that the movie will be avaiable to watch for a couple of weeks after ordering. So the $50 is to make up for you not going to the theater and paying the $10(or whatever the price is by you). They get the money and you get to watch it whenever you want and how many times you want for a limited time.
There is probably some sort of signal in the broadcast that will stop or at least hamper piracy. No movie company would do this and make it easy for piracy without some safegaurds. That would be slicing their own throats.
As for me, I'll go see it in the theater. A really nice theater!

Castle74 wrote:The reasoning for the $50 is that the movie will be avaiable to watch for a couple of weeks after ordering. So the $50 is to make up for you not going to the theater and paying the $10(or whatever the price is by you). They get the money and you get to watch it whenever you want and how many times you want for a limited time.
There is probably some sort of signal in the broadcast that will stop or at least hamper piracy. No movie company would do this and make it easy for piracy without some safegaurds. That would be slicing their own throats.
As for me, I'll go see it in the theater. A really nice theater!

But your still paying-per-view, is that no right? In my experiance, once you change the channel, you gotta pay again.

Seibertron wrote:Now that is interesting. Not sure how I feel about this. Happy that TF is the first, but I still think it'll be a shame if we all lose the movie going experience in the next 10 or 20 years.

I agree. I'm happy TF is the first too, but what if I wanna start going to the theaters again? Only reason I quit is because of how inconvenient it is.


edit: that assumes this is true though, and we dunno if it is or not.

I think that many people missed the update to this news item. The rumor had been debunked by Bay. This isn't going to happen and it makes me happy.

Already prebought tickets for the midnight showing up here in the AK and free popcorn tickets as well all the transfans up here are ready for the showing.
TurboHammer

I'm glad Bay came out and said his piece on this. (I agree with him btw)

And the idea of movies being put on PPV is not a false one. It is in fact true:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... -film.html

My guess is, some overly excited idiot put the two together and posted the story.

So I decided to check iNDEMAND/PPV's website, and got the channel listings for July 3rd. Guess what wasn't on the list? That's right. So it is now fully debunked.

...why the f*ck do people pull this crap? Is it fun or something?

Castle74 wrote:The reasoning for the $50 is that the movie will be avaiable to watch for a couple of weeks after ordering. So the $50 is to make up for you not going to the theater and paying the $10(or whatever the price is by you). They get the money and you get to watch it whenever you want and how many times you want for a limited time.
There is probably some sort of signal in the broadcast that will stop or at least hamper piracy. No movie company would do this and make it easy for piracy without some safegaurds. That would be slicing their own throats.
As for me, I'll go see it in the theater. A really nice theater!

Actually, the $50.00 is because it's a one time, special event. The price wouldn't lower. It's "come and get it while it lasts" type of thing. There's another article somewhere online (and I've Googled it for the past 35 minutes to no avail...) and it said the plan was to make it a one time only type of thing, and yes, you could record it. That's part of the reason it was so costly. You were getting the movie going experience, the chance at ownership, all from the comfort of your home and months in advance.

And since it would be Pay-Per-View, once you pay for it (whichever channel it would be on) you get total access to that channel (for repeat viewings as well) for 24 hours from the order date. 7-3-07/7-4-07 at whatever time it would've started.

I have to admit, I'd been one of the first to pay $50.00 for it...hells yeah.

WOW, if I had a big screen I'd definetly take advantage of this, but I'm not getting that till Stupid Fall!

Either way, some things you just need to see in a theater, still, kinda cool though.

Autobot032 wrote:And the idea of movies being put on PPV is not a false one. It is in fact true:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... -film.html

My guess is, some overly excited idiot put the two together and posted the story.

Wait what, Comcast? They still around? I though Time Warner bought them out. At least they did in my area.

As for piracy movie houses basically build that loss into their profit margin somewhat these days. They know people are going to steal, it is just a fact of life. All companies with a product to sell expect and plan for at least some theft.

Oh and I can't forget the aboundant complaints about a lack of a DVD-R in this thread. LOL no one has a DVD-R as if that is the only technology capable of recording visual and audio data now. What happened to VCRs? You know tape is super cheap these days. You could probably pick up a VCR and a pack of tapes for lass than $25 these days. Hell even DVD-Rs are all that expensive. I bought mine about a year ago for $100.

Ah well, not going to happen. Hardly changes my plans anyway. I really did want this to be my 4 year old sons first big screen movie. Heck I haven't been to a movie theater in over two years.

I was iffy on the high price tag to begine with, but the opportunity to see a first run movie on opening night in the comfort of my own home did sound appealing. We know it is coming though. DVDs release closer and closer to teh theater release date. People are going to fewwer and fewwer movies in the theater. Theaters across the nation are complaining about reduced profits. And eventually they will have to do something to entice us back to the theater. Because people will just get tired of going as high end home theater systems catch on more and more. Yes there will always be a few that just have to see it on the big screen. But more and more people will start opting out of it for more convience.

Flashwave wrote:But your still paying-per-view, is that no right? In my experiance, once you change the channel, you gotta pay again.

No. You pay a fee for the privilege to view it at any time, however many times you want within a given time, generally 24 hours.

Koloth wrote:

Mr.RobotAutoMan wrote:not my theater. my theater has digital projectors. that means digital picture and sound. its the only theater in las vegas with digital written all around it. no more roll of films. can a 60'' HDTV with 5.1 top that?

Actually the film rolls provide a better picture since the digital projectors by design have to utilize pixels and the film is an actual picture with no pixelization. The difference is digital is (literally) cleaner because it doesn't get dirty like film.

So yes a 60" HDTV would do as well as a digital projector. Assuming that Paramount releases the PPV in HD of course. It would just be a bit smaller. I'm less concerned about the picture quality when going to a movie than the experience itself. I know for a fact that the picture quality film or digital is going to be better on the big screen than an SDTV. What bothers me is the people and the theater itself.

If the ushers are doing their job well then some can seem nice and clean. But I worked as an usher in highschool. I know just how hard it is to clean a 500 seat theater in 15 minutes. The worst is if someone spills a drink. All you can really do then is throw down some paper towels to soak it up and pick them up on th way out. Mopping is not an option. Thus you are left with a sticky floor.

wow did working in a theater suck? ive had a friend that worked there. and he told me that a week before a new release they get the watch the movie and see if theres anything wrong with it. is that true?

Eh, working in a theater was alright. The management were pricks though.

But no we never got to prescreen any of the movies. That would be a freaking butt load of theater time though. I worked in a 16 screen cinema and we generally had at least 14-15 movies running at any given time. We could occasionally snag a theatrical poster when they were done with them and we could see any movie for free.

i used to screen shit all the time, i saw so many movies from 92 til lwell now watching them a month to a week before they came out.

Unless your set up is bad ass.. and even if it is.

You can not miss this experience on the big screen with the sound a movie theater can give u.. There is no comparison.

i have seen it once in a theater with 10 year old sound.. it kicked ass...

Is anybody actually gonna do this? I'm not stupid enough to pay $49 even to watch this one, much less the 1986 release.

Decepticlone Soundwave wrote:Is anybody actually gonna do this? I'm not stupid enough to pay $49 even to watch this one, much less the 1986 release.

...hello?! It's been debunked. It's not real.