May I be frank?

Here’s another movie that I really want to see, called May I be Frank?

It looks amazing. Moving. I’m ready to click “Buy”. I want this thing. I’ll happily pay $5, $10, $15, maybe even $20 or $30 to see it (though I think that is a little stiff, but okay).

But … I can’t.

I can buy the DVD, which costs $30 plus shipping (I’m in Denmark right now, so add probably at least $10 and then 1-4 weeks to have it delivered).

Or I can rent it to watch online. Now the rental is really cheap. It’s only $3. And I even get a copy I can give away to a friend. That’s generous.

But I don’t know when I’ll get around to watching it. I know that I do want to watch it, but not when. So I’m a hot prospect right now, but I’m not going to buy. I’m going to try to remember to buy later. What are the chances that I’ll forget and never get around to it? Pretty high.

This particular site is pretty generous with the rental time. You get a week to watch it. Most rentals are just 24-48 hours. I don’t know about you, but I can easily chop a movie up over many days. We’ll start one night in bed, but stop 10-15 minutes in and go to sleep. Next evening we don’t get around to it. Then we’ll watch a bit more. And so on. Rental sucks, because it puts this deadline, and now I feel stress around it.

The irony is that I’d rather pay $10 and not have the stress, than pay $3 and then have the stress. Even though I rationally know I can just pay for another $3 and still be $4 ahead of having bought. But I’m still feeling the stress.

Anyway. Once again:

Please just sell the damn movie as a download for $5-15 and let me buy when I’m hot and watch it when I want to.

I’m absolutely convinced it’s much better for business.

Again, look at the CK.