Hollywood has been very split over Napster wunderkind Sean Parker’s new Screening Room idea, with some seeing it as the salvation of the movie industry and others as its ruination. One pertinent fact seems to have been overlooked by many of the observers: while Screening Room is pretty nifty, it’s also pretty darn pricy. So pricy, we don’t really see it becoming a mass market success. Let’s take a look at the actual product and its costs.

First off, you have to buy a $150 box. Now unless you are very very very into movies, that’s a lot of money. Especially when you likely have a number of other boxes (Roku, Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation, BluRay) that also play movies, albeit second and third run ones. But let’s say you get past that $150 barrier and buy yourself a box. You want to rent a movie. But oops: that movie is $50. That’s a lot of money unless it’s a movie you really, really, really want to see.

Now if you’re thinking “what if you have a couple of kids, isn’t it cheaper than bringing the whole brood to the movies?”

To which I’ll respond, “Maybe. But there just aren’t that many movies the whole family wants to see each year. Maybe five or six. After that, you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel. And even if that doesn’t bother you— there aren’t that many people with small children who are that into movies that they’d go out and spring for one of these devices.”

Especially because of issue number two: if you’re going to spend $50 to rent a movie, you’re not really going to want to watch it on your dinky little 42 inch screen. And again, the number of people with 80-inch plus screens who are really, really, really into movies would also seem to be pretty limited. Certainly not enough to build a movement off of. Ditto the number of families with small children who are really, really, really into movies.

Now if you’re someone who has a screening room in your basement, none of this cost talk is going to matter. But again, how many people out there have their own screening rooms? Even if it’s a few more than you’d think, it’s still not enough to create a strong consumer market and certainly not enough to make a dent in the movie industry.

We’re not really sure what the movie industry is worried about. That a bunch of one-percenters will stop going to see films based on Marvel comics superheroes? Even that’s a stretch. There’s something magical about seeing a movie in a theater with a live audience and there are several chains of upscale theaters that have sprung up, where patrons sit on giant barcaloungers with airline blankets while waiters bring them food and drink.

From where we’re sitting, chains like Regal have far more reason to fear chains like Cinépolis and iPic and their $20 tickets than they do Screening Room. Sure there are some piracy concerns, but unlike music, movies are just better in a theater. Hence the limited appeal of Screening Room.

 What do you think?