Selling VOD

[Frank Cox]

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

http://melvilletheatre.com/playing.html

Since none of these movies will ever be in my theatre anyway, I might as well sell tickets to watch them online.

I don't think I'll do this after I can re-open though. Seems kind of opposite to what I want to be encouraging people to do.

[Marcel Birgelen]

So, what kind of kickbacks do you get for each "VOD ticket" sold? Pennies I guess?

[Frank Cox]

Something around $3 per ticket sold, but we'll see what that turns into when it's time to issue the cheque.

I'm not using the webpage to advertise anything else at the moment anyway, so anything that I get from this is more-or-less free money. I don't imagine many people will actually buy a "ticket" for that anyway, but it's not costing me anything to do it and if I sell anything at all this way, I'm ahead.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Well, that's more than I expected, but at $9 a pop, I don't expect you're going to fill any virtual theater real soon. I've been involved with a few "VOD streaming services" over the years and I've never seen it fly. People may be willing to spend $9 for a cinema ticket, but selling a streaming experience for the same amount is a though job. Maybe if it is THE ultimate hot new release, but for anything different, people just wait until it pops up in their flat-fee streaming, at least that's my experience.

PS: The URL you posted in your first message is broken, at least the href/click-thru thingy is.

[Frank Cox]

I see that the colon after the http got lost somewhere.

http://melvilletheatre.com/playing.html

That should work with a click now.

I agree about how many people are likely going to actually buy a ticket for this but if even one person does I'm ahead, and if nobody does then I'm really not out anything.

I'm not going to continue doing that after I can re-open, though. Encouraging people to stay home and watch a movie there isn't in my usual business model.

[Frank Cox]

I just got an email from Elevation Pictures stating that I sold one "ticket" for Blood Quantum last week. So I won't be getting rich selling VOD.

Oh well. I'm not using the Now Playing section of my website for anything else right now so anything is more than nothing at all.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yeah, maybe it's something for the long term. After a few thousand years of selling VOD you probably can retire.

I was wondering what would happen if you'd put in some Google Ads... What I've seen over the years, when it comes down to web-based sales, those ads are about the only thing that will bring in some real on-line business. The problem though, advertising on e.g. Google's ad network isn't particularly cheap, so chances are, the advertising will probably eat away most of your margins.