Jeffrey Katzenberg predicts that everyone will soon “pay by the inch” for media

By Katie Rife | May 1, 2014 | 2:36pm

Aux Features Film

The future of cinema distribution is uncertain, mostly (at least according to studios) due to everyone being glued to their damn phones all the time. But DreamWorks chief Jeffrey Katzenberg has a plan, and it involves scaling movie prices to the size of the device they’re intended to be watched on. Katzenberg spoke at the Milken Global Conference earlier this week in Beverly Hills, where he and a bunch of other rich guys got together to discuss the future of everything from Chinese manufacturing to cryptocurrency. During the “Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Corporate World” panel, Katzenberg laid out his vision for how future generations will consume media on their hoverphones or whatever:

“A movie will come out [in theaters] and you will have 17 days, that’s exactly three weekends, which is 95% of the revenue for 98% of movies. On the 18th day, these movies will be available everywhere ubiquitously and you will pay for the size. A movie screen will be $15. A 75” TV will be $4.00. A smartphone will be $1.99.”

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Katzenberg, who apparently has never heard of Chromecast and similar devices that allow you to pick your own screen size relatively inexpensively, says this model will be in place within the next 10 years.