I think Netflix should look into releasing some of their stuff to the Cinema while not taking advantage of them like that.
Netflix is an even better vector than piracy because people actually pay royalties to Hollywood to watch movies at home. How can they be so blind?
I’m pretty sure that if they could come up with a combined subscription Netflix+Theaters for around $30 sales would skyrocket. Actually I think it’s what will happen anyway, depending on how it turn out it will be a cross deal or Netflix will just start to buyback theaters at some point.
I like this idea a lot. Netflix subscribers can pay a fixed premium ($4?) per showing of new/exclusive films that are held off of Netflix for a week or two.
One could buy a "Comedy" pass for a specific theater hall that will only air comedies back-to-back with schedules published in advance. Given pure digital distribution, Netflix could even set up a local CDN and refresh content every day if they wanted to.
Lots of possibilities!
If theater attendance disappeared, it would help Netflix as those ex theater goers sought replacement content. Therefore, it makes little sense for Netflix to try and save theaters. Also, saving theaters send money to competitors like Disney who are going to be competitive in the streaming space in the future.
I'd be sad to see cinemas dying. It's possible that VR might offer an alternative but cinemas are one of the social thing we can do nowadays.
Plus, seeing the Netflix logo on the big screen would boost their brand imo and double as an advertisement.