Movies have long been used to sell technology. When the first Betamax came out it was an expensive novelty. It wasn’t until people could easily rent movies to watch on them that everyone had to have a VCR. Cable TV took off when people could get uncut movies on HBO.

Now, Hollywood is hoping technology can sell movies.

Last week marked the launch of UltraViolet, the movie industry’s coordinated attempt make buying and owning movies more attractive by allowing consumers to stream movies they have purchased to multiple devices once they have registered their purchase in a cloud-based rights locker. The first UV-compatible titles were Warner Bros.’ Horrible Bosses and Green Lantern, both released last week. Sony Pictures will offer UV versions of Smurfs and Friends With Benefits in December, followed by Universal with Cowboys and Aliens.

The UltraViolet rollout comes on the heels of Amazon’s unveiling of the Kindle Fire, its new tablet that comes with unlimited cloud-based storage for movies purchased from Amazon and other media content. Last week also brought rumors that Apple is in talks with the major studios about a cloud-based movie service that would allow iPad, iPhone and Apple TV owners to store iTunes movies in the cloud and sync them across their various Apple devices.

The studios embrace of cloud storage and access, however tentative, marks a notable evolution in Hollywood’s thinking about technology. For a change, the studios are looking to use technology to add value to the experience of watching and, more importantly, owning movies. Historically, they’ve tended to view new technology as a threat to existing business models that needed to be contained, or worse, a cause of piracy.

The studios need to do something, however, if they hope to get people buying movies again. As shown in the table below, compiled by BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield, consumer behavior in recent years has shifted sharply away from purchasing movies in favor of renting them, which yields far lower gross margins for the studios.

As Greenfield notes, that shift has been driven in large measure by the explosion in low-priced rental options, including new digital platforms as well as low-priced DVD rental options from Netflix and Redbox. But it also reflects the studios’ failure to respond competitively to the new market realities.

At the time the DVD format was introduced, consumers’ main option for watching a new release movie at home was to drive to Blockbuster to rent it, then drive back a few days later to return it, always under the threat of late fees. When $20 DVDs came along, consumers could suddenly buy movies at a reasonable price and not have to worry about returns or late fees. That combination of price and convenience — the value proposition represented by DVDs — led to a sea-change in consumer behavior.

Over time, however, some of that value eroded. Netflix allowed consumers to avoid late fees without going to the store at all. Redbox made renting easy and cheap enough that it offered value even if you end up paying for an extra night.

Rather than making purchasing DVDs more competitive with rentals, however, the studios largely held the line on pricing while they worked to make Netflix and Redbox less convenient by imposing a 30-day window on rentals. While that may have blunted Redbox’s growth somewhat it hasn’t fundamentally changed consumer behavior.

Early indications are that they’re about to make the same mistake in the cloud. To access the UV copy of Horrible Bosses, for instance, consumers first have to buy the Blu-ray for $25.

Cloud-based storage and access could help restore some of the convenience that owning movies once provided. But unless the studios are prepared to make purchases more competitive with rentals the added convenience of the cloud likely will restore enough value to owning to shift consumer behavior significantly.

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