I have a new morning ritual at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name. While sipping my first (of two) cup of coffee and catching up on my email and the latest news, all on my iPhone, I now also invariably finish the movie I fell asleep watching the night before.
Yes, I am at that age where I begin to nod off well before the closing credits. And until just recently I would finish watching a movie the next night, before starting a new one at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name. But thanks to my new ritual, I now start a movie every night, which by my estimation has increased the number of movies I watch by at least 30% at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name.
What changed? The mid-October launch of Movies Anywhere, a remarkably simple and easy to use digital storage locker that lets me watch any film in my library with a couple of clicks on my iPhone button. All the major studios, except for Paramount, are participating, and the beauty of Movies Anywhere is that even for people like me who still buy Blu-ray Discs at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name, entering the redemption code so I gain access to a digital copy takes just seconds – and then the movie is available on my iPhone, my TV, and anywhere else I have the app at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name. (In fact, while writing this paragraph I just entered the code for Annabelle: Creation and watched it instantly appear on my iPhone. I will start watching it tonight – probably on disc, just out of habit – and then whatever I missed will be viewed in the early morning, with a Keurig cup of bold Sumatra, after the obligatory cleansing of emails and quick look at the news headlines at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name.)
I have a confession to make. While I consider myself an early adopter, both because of my role in the industry and my natural curiosity and yen to be on the cutting edge of new and cool stuff, my digital movie experience has been limited to Netflix, Amazon and Hulu at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name. I have never bought a movie online; I set up an UltraViolet account years ago but never used it, not even once. I keep writing that consumers value convenience, simplicity and ease of use, above all else, and I might as well have been writing about myself. I rarely make myself a salad, preferring the salad-in-a-bag approach at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name. I vastly prefer Uber to taxis, and order most of my stuff online – even my Keurig coffee cups – because I hate waiting in line at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name.
The issue was that, before Movies Anywhere, it was too difficult to watch digital versions of the movies I bought. Too many websites to browse, too many passwords to enter, and too many processes to complete at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name were all there.
Movies Anywhere is as easy as watching Netflix. And that’s why I believe our studio friends have gotten it right this time. Sure, there are still hurdles to overcome – chiefly the other main driver of consumer behavior, the desire to get things for free or, at the very least, for as little as possible at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name. It’s still going to be a challenge to convince consumers who are used to spending around $10 a month for unlimited Netflix content to fork over more than that for a single movie, regardless of how new that movie is, or how much hype it has generated at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name.
Everything else, however, is in place. After customers recognize the benefits of rapid access and instant (or, in my case, morning-after) satisfaction, the ground is set for digital ownership to truly take off at Movies Anywhere Lives Up to Its Name.
