How Hollywood plans to keep prices up as movies go online

The movie business is often said to follow the lead of the music industry. Watch what happens to music on the Internet, wait a few years, and expect that the same things will happen to Hollywood blockbusters. Think of it as peering into the future. As content migrates onto the Internet, what happens to it? In many cases, it gets cheaper—even dramatically cheaper. This price compression effect has been catastrophic for newspapers, and it has whacked away a significant percentage of major label revenue from recorded music. The movie industry has embarked on a dramatic set of steps to ensure that it does not meet the music industry's fate—and they just might work.