When 'Content Delivery' Costs More Than the Content

I don't mind / when you steal the show.
- LAUV, "Steal the Show", as featured in the movie ELEMENTAL.

It's the month that contains Valentine's Day.
Our Securus Grift Store marks down a selection of films that we can rent for a 48 hour watch window; most films must be streamed, and cannot be cached for watching when the Wi-Fi is weak or nonexistent (see count times, a staple of our prison existence).

I was considering an extremely rare movie rental in my case -- the movie ELEMENTAL, because it's $3.99+tax until Friday. I had rented the movie two years ago here, and enjoyed it then, having watched it in both English and French. I was 30 minutes in on a Japanese play through the movie when my rental expired that time.

Fast forward to the last Thursday of the month. I had put just enough cash on to renew my Newsstand subscription and buy a couple of songs to change up my playlist a little bit, and I remembered ELEMENTAL was still available at a discount for another day.

I'm apprehensive about the rental, because the Wi-Fi is very spotty -- it's curbed my ability to watch the videos in Edovo from EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute, so I'm not really wanting to spend money to watch something. However, I pop the rental prompt and immediately recoil:

ELEMENTAL: $1.99
Content Delivery: $2.00
Tax: $0.30

While it should not have surprised me, it did, enough to decide the lackluster Newsstand app would be the better expenditure, even though I wish I had waited three more days to get that.

I can't help but wonder, though, when are they going to tack on the My Office Smells Like Movie Theater Floors fee for making rentals available to us. :')