Well, people are apparently willing to pay $50 for pay-per-view WWE event -- not me I can assure you. Something about that is that the $50 is typically spread over several viewers. I suppose the film cos. are believing the same will be true for early release film viewers.

But I have felt for quite a while that media orignators have a distorted view of what people should, and are actually willing, to pay for their crap. E.g. we've had long debates with Sir Terrence on the subject of whether $0.99/song download justfied can be justfied vs. a $10 phyisical CD. An industry insider, Sir T. lives in a la-la land where this makes sense but most of us have a more rational perspective.

What? the flick as been the theatre for 2 months? Let me tell you it has also probably been available via bit torrent for several weeks. The same is true for the music too, obviously. We're seen growing rich-poor disparity in North American, but the entertainment industry is pricing its products for rich only. At least up 'till the poor can get their commodity for free, (unlike some other commodities such as food or a place to live).