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Movies of the future will be paid for 'by the inch,' according to DreamWorks Animation boss

Movies of the future will be paid for 'by the inch,' according to DreamWorks Animation boss

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Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation, has this week presented an interesting new idea for the future of the movie business: paying for films according to the size of the screen you watch them on. After a very brief three-week run in theaters, there would be ubiquitous distribution with a variety of tiers to match each screen size: "A movie screen will be $15. A 75-inch TV will be $4. A smartphone will be $1.99," according to Katzenberg's vision.

His comments have come as part of a broader analysis of where the movie industry is heading over the next decade, though he's convinced that this per-inch pricing model will eventually take root. The studio chief believes "movies are not a growth business" and what's necessary is to "reinvent the enterprise of movies." Such a major revision to what the viewer will be paying for would require a quite extensive technical setup for locking down content — given the diversity of video streaming options available today, it's hard to imagine a security system that would reliably recognize the exact size of the screen it's being displayed on.