How To Be Smart About Film Rental Windows
It's a bitter truth that love can be fleeting. Here today, gone tomorrow -- especially among the younger millennial generation not yet tied down by marriage, mortgages, and money problems.
So, too, digital home movies about millennial romances don't stick around forever, so we wanted to alert you that one of our favorite new relationship films, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, won't be available for rent after 2/12 (however, it will still be available for sale through at least October, and it's certainly worth owning for those emergency love film fests at home). Why does this happen? Why does love flee from the online film stores? It's because the studios that distribute these films create demand (and revenue) by shifting the "windows" in which it is available.
A digital film "window" refers to the span of time between a film's first availability and its disappearance from the digital feed; these windows are set by the distributors, not by Film Fresh. And different retailers could have different windows for the same film; for instance, Film Fresh gets digital rights for new and pre-theatrical films before a subscription digital service does (that's why you don't have to wait to watch ROBOT & FRANK online at Film Fresh but you do at other places). There are equivalent sales windows on DVDs and Blu-rays as well, but the digital stream can be cut off more abruptly than the inventory of plastic discs in stores and disc-subscription services.
These windows have advantages as well as the disadvantage of rentals that disappear -- the digital option is how we can offer films before they're in theaters, as with the comedy IF I WERE YOU, which you can watch right now for a few weeks before it disappears for a few months when it will be available in movie theaters and on cable TV, then we'll get it back again. Increasingly, distributors are experimenting with pre-theatrical options, or with making a film available on the same day and date it opens in theaters, as with SOUND CITY. Sure, there's a slight premium price set by distributors for these early releases, but that is minimal compared to the cost of a theater ticket and transportation (although we also love going to the movie theater, too, but on a work night, a digital rental can be a pretty sweet alternative).
Digital windows mean there are pleasant surprises, too, like the fact that 3 of the 4 the TWILIGHT movies are for rent this month, in time for Valentine's Day, as Lionsgate builds up to release THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2 on March 2 -- when you'll be able to get it here at Film Fresh.
So go beyond being just a romantic date and be a smart Valentine -- rent SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED today since it won't be for rent tomorrow. Your rentals stay active in your account for 30 days, so you'll have until mid-March to watch it (but why wait, it's a fresh, fun film about the risks required by romance, so maybe you should watch it before February 14).
Happy Valentine's Day!
