Originally Posted by Starter

I totally agree... MOO! But what do you think the Hollywood Bulls want to sell us? A hard copy of a movie which they need to spend money manufacturing, or a downloadable file which costs them nothing in overhead?

Right now files are relatively cheap (except for iTunes) because while the general public may be willing to spend $10-$50 on a physical hard-copy, they still view a purchasable download as somehow less than a real product.

But I can guarantee you as downloadable rentals become more popular, and take a larger bite out of the brick-and-mortar rental market, we will see more folks opting just to buy a file of their favorite movie rather than a disc... particularly with the advent of media players with "libraries", which will impart a more tangible feel to the purchased downloads.

As downloads become the norm and discs begin to fade away, the prices for downloads will shoot up to fill the gap left by their physical counterparts... so the Bulls will still make their $20 on new releases- the only difference will be they'll get to pocket more of it due to the even slimmer overhead.