to be shocked at this price!

[UpAndGoing]

Was going to take dd to the cinema to see the new Trolls movie, but for obvious reasons we can't. I heard it was going to be available to rent on Amazon Prime for a one time view, and expected it to be 5 pounds at the most. Turns out the bloody thing costs 16 pounds to view ONCE.
No way in hell am I paying 16 quid for a kids movie you don't even get to keep.

AIBU to be shocked at this price?

I think £16 is quite reasonable for a new release film, by the time us lot have gone to the cinema we’re looking at an easy £30-£40 per visit. Plus of course I got to watch it in my pyjamas which is worth so much more!

It’s a good way of maintaining some sort of normality to this madness though, lots of children would have been looking forward to the film coming out and it’s good they have the opportunity to still see it; there’s no point comparing it to a previous cinema release available on DVD at the supermarket for the same reason- it’s a new film!

I am trying quite hard not to get irritated by those people condoning watching it for free however. Not those with discount vouchers for various media outlets I hasten to add. But just because there’s a “legal” app on your smart tv doesn’t make it morally right to watch it as far as I’m concerned. Would you sneak into the cinema to watch a film for free? It is the same principle whether you choose to acknowledge, or try to convince yourself otherwise. Companies still have to make money if we want to continue to have new films, new programmes, new entertainment- there are still people behind these things, trying to provide entertainment for us and I’m happy to support them to do it.

We paid £16 to watch Star Wars today

You do realise that the Disney channel is £5.99 a month and it has all of the Star wars films...

Yanbu... I was shocked too and chose not to purchase it. Its just me and my little one and it's not the same as the cinema. So to me isn't comparable.

Massive rip off and poor decision making by the distributors. They would get far more legal downloads if they sold at £6.99 instead of £16.

Now they’ll get a few thousand legal downloads and far more illegal ones. They would make more money selling at a lower price point. People are worried about jobs etc and won’t want to shell out. You can watch older movies far cheaper with them and have money left over for popcorn.

Maybe they’re testing the market to see how much it can bear, hopefully when this one flops during opening week, it will be reduced by 50% following week and the next new release will be far cheaper. If enough people get sucked in, the top movies will start off at £20.

I think that's extortionate! It wouldn't cost that for three people at any of the cinemas near me. Cinemas seem to be extremely cheap now.

We did an at home cinema experience the other day with Trolls. I made tickets, a cinema sign, a pick ‘n’ mix table and some other stuff and we rented Trolls for £16, the kids LOVED it.
They were so excited for it coming out at the cinema so this was a perfect alternative, they’ve told all the family about it during our FaceTime calls. It was so worth the money and we’d have spent far more on a cinema trip as we’d have gone for food too probably.

I’ve also bought Frozen 2 on SkyStore during lockdown but we get to keep that.

Wish I’d have looked on Virgin first though for Trolls if it was a tenner!

It really cheered everyone up doing the home cinema though OP, go for it if you can. Lots of home cinema ideas on Pinterest.

That sounds really lovely @TruJay, I might do that with a film from Netflix.

We were looking at watching it when it was released but can't convince ourselves to pay £16 to watch this film at home!

The kids had seen that we could watch it but weren't too bothered when we said we wouldn't pay that for it.

However, we do have Disney+ so between that, Netflix and DVDs there isn't a shortage of film available.

We might have paid that for Peter Rabbit 2 which is the film we planned to watch in what should have been the Easter holidays, so I think it depends on the film for us.

I am going to have an upset 5 year old come her birthday though when we tell her that Minions 2 has been delayed as well and it won't be out for her birthday party :(

Only me and dd in this house - we have a cinema where we get tickets for £5 each locally, so I baulked at the cost too. I guess they think most families are 2.5 children + parents.

I wanted to watch that military wives film and that was £16 also. Our local cinema is £5 a ticket and we usually go on a Wednesday for meercat movies so 4 of us go for £10.

Am amazed at the lack of common sense here. Does the cost of production of the film lessen because it's not at the Cinema? No! The film industry is taking a massive hit. My colleagues have no work. Not future work. The studio could have just delayed release but it's allowing people who were excited to rent it for a home cinema experience. If you don't want to then don't. But it's a fraction of the cost of a trip for a family of four to the cinema and the industry can hopefully sustain itself. This pays for the cameramen, the gaffers, catering staff, sound recordists etc. Think bigger picture here (literally).

@upandgoing that is is stealing and putting the very precarious livelihoods of professional film crew at risk. Well fucking done.

I wouldn't pay it, as someone mentioned above they charge it because people are silly enough to pay.

@unchienandalusia again... our tickets are £4 so no, not a fraction of the cost. Part of our ticket cost would also go towards the cinema overheads so that £16 would not all go to the film makers.

I think at a time when so many people are furloughed, out of work or trying to save their businesses it’s a lot of money to ask for one film.

YANBU and the 'well that's how much you'd pay at the cinema' argument is tiring. The cinema is an experience, with bills to pay. Is any of the money even going to cinemas? Or just the big movie companies?

I pay maximum £7 for a ticket. Without the cinema, thankfully there are other ways of watching.

Some of Amazon's prices are utterly ridiculous at the moment - they or their suppliers are really taking advantage at the moment.

Can’t compare the £16 to kids cub prices as they show older films. It’s because it should have gone straight to the cinema and obviously can’t. Be interesting to see what happens with the new James Bond film.

It’s rubbish, don’t waste your money.

Well it certainly sounds on this thread like more people would rent it if it was a tenner - 20 mumsnetters at £10 each is more than 5 mumsnetters at £16 each...

We loved it and watched it loads in 48 hours! I feel like it's worth it if you make a thing of it and they know it's not a regular movie but a special one. I watched it more for me as I wanted to see it and had seen the Netflix trolls episodes 100 times each

We bought it, easter treat. I haven't spent money on anything but food for 3 weeks now. We all watched it last night, the kids watched it twice this morning (I enjoyed a hot cup of tea without constant interruptions) DH and kids watched it again tonight and they'll probably watch it again tomorrow.
I get a discount at odeon through my work, for 2 adults and 2 kids it would cost around £25 for something not in kids club. But it's a long wait for things to come to kids club.

We paid for it. It was a way of adding a bit of an "event " into the monotony of lockdown and the children made tickets and posters and popcorn etc.
We have 4 children so it was cheaper than the cinema and a nice chance to all sit down together as they don't agree on many films

I'm more annoyed how rubbish it was compared to the first film than by the price.

Our cinema is £5 a ticket so for us two it would be well over . Shame I would have paid £9.99 too.

"The cinema is an experience"

Well, off you go to your cinema then. Enjoy your film.

Can't help but think people are being deliberately dense with some of these arguments.

"They would get far more legal downloads if they sold at £6.99 instead of £16."

It will be 6.99 when the film enters the usual rental/purchase period.

Films cost money to make. Big release make a lot of money at the cinema. Cinemas are closed, ergo they are offering people the chance to see films at home for a price compariable to a couple of cinema tickets at most cinemas. Don't think you can expect more than that.

Or you can wait until it hits rental or stream services.