WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Fred Rosen, the retired Ticketmaster tycoon, was eating a melted ham-and-brie sandwich at the exclusive San Vicente Bungalows and spouting forth about belts.

Yes, what people use to hold up their pants. You can buy one at Walmart for $4, he noted. Or you can get one at Gucci for $1,500. “Every product I can think of has a luxury version, which got me thinking,” Mr. Rosen said. “Why not movies?”

It’s an idea that has captivated one entrepreneur after another over the years: For a high price, allow tech billionaires, Wall Street titans, professional athletes, Russian oligarchs and other ultra-wealthy people to rent movies — as soon as they come out in theaters — for viewing at home. Think of it like Netflix for one-percenters. But such upstarts have always sputtered, including one backed by Best Buy in 2013 that charged $500 per movie on top of $35,000 in setup costs. Film studios, fearful of angering theater chains, have been reluctant to participate. Piracy has also been a concern.

Mr. Rosen, 75, and a septuagenarian golfing buddy, Dan Fellman, who is Hollywood’s foremost film distribution expert, may have finally figured out how to make it work. They have quietly founded Red Carpet Home Cinema, which rents first-run films for $1,500 to $3,000 each. Red Carpet has contracts with Warner Bros., Paramount, Lionsgate, Annapurna and Disney’s 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight divisions — resulting in some 40 movies annually, including blockbusters like “Aquaman” and “A Star Is Born.”