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This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Topic: Incredibly low Blu-Ray disc prices
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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover
Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 01-01-2011 09:21 PM
quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
In addition to GONE WITH THE WIND, CASABLANCA is also on sale at Costco for $12.98
Well, would you pay $13 for Casablanca on DVD? Not me, maybe $9.99. With DVD still around, how can one honestly command more that $20 for a blu-ray classic?
quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
Are you trying to say the reason these movies are priced so low is because they are not worth more than what they are selling for on sale?.
Seriously? Who would pay more than $15 for Troy Or Shawshank.
I paid a $1 for my Shawshank Laserdisc
quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
For your information, Smarty Pants, this was not the first time I bought the Dirty Harry movies on video.
Look Smarty Hat, even Criterion Blu Rays are having a hard time commnanding top dollar. The days of paying more than $20 for a movie are done.
With DVD still aroumd, blu ray, on line streaming, redbox, and mail ins, it really is hard to command a lot for a title.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-01-2011 03:30 PM
The other factor driving the price of 'legit' retail media down is illegal copying: be that 'rent, rip and return' copying from the likes of Netflix, or illegally downloading ISOs from dodgy torrent sites. I'm not suggesting that the practice is morally or ethically acceptable; just noting that it happens, and on a vast scale. The fact that the price of pre-pressed movies on BD is following the price of blank BD media down (this time last year, a 50gb double layer BD-R would cost you £20; now you can get brand name ones for £3 and no-name ones for a quid) is no coincidence, IMO.
Specialist DVD/BD publishers like Criterion, Milestone, the British Film Institute etc. are playing a clever game, I think, by including chunky booklets with some decent articles in them, nice packaging and all sorts of other stuff you won't get if you acquire the disc itself through a rent, rip and return. Combined with the fact that their target audience are committed film buffs who are much more likely to object to copying on ethical grounds, they're providing a carrot as well as a stick when it comes to buying a legit copy.
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 03-03-2011 12:42 PM
Increasing the value of ownership is one big aspect of the lost opportunity that studios are ignoring with the BD-Live functionality.
They could be providing something to those that buy and hold on to those movies, but they often don't. When studios do use BD-Live, it's merely to get you onto the TV equivalent of a marketing web site.
To their credit, they've tried director chats, user-submitted video commentary, group viewings, and at least back in the HD DVD days, they even had custom clips of the movie from the director/stars where they had short comments about their favorite scenes or group of scenes.
Nothing has stuck, but they shouldn't stop trying. If Webkinz can make a kid really happy that Mom & Dad bought them a $13 stuffed animal that would otherwise cost $5 by offering an online component that is compelling (for them), you would think all these creative types in the industry could figure something out that would strike a chord with audiences.
For example, if it were announced that there was going to be some very cool, but exclusive, ongoing content related to the last Harry Potter movie, but it's only available via BD-Live that's on the other Harry Potter releases, how many people would buy a copy of the disc instead of renting it?
Another example would be the Hobbit movies coming up. How about a weekly or monthly video blog from Peter Jackson that is accessible when you put in the Blu-ray for the LOTR movies? If he's too busy, then get the guys that are building the content for the inevitable Blu-ray extras for the Hobbit movies. Some quick and dirty editing of their footage, and they have exclusive content that fans would eat up, and it would whet their appetites for the extras that will appear on the Blu-ray releases when the time comes.
As a way to encourage purchases, the Netflix and Redbox copies of the movies would not have the BD-Live component, or it would be stunted so that only purchasers would benefit from a full experience.
Network connectivity is a huge feature, and so far, it has not been used anywhere near its potential.
If this were done, I would buy many more Blu-ray releases. Given Netflix's tendency to love streaming, as well as their pricing that has been rising, I'd be willing to make more purchases if there was more value to the purchase over the one-time rental.
With prices for new releases finally reaching sub-$20 levels, I'm not at all complaining about the cost of the purchases. For the movies that are worth buying, the pricing is acceptable to me. But a lot of people choose to rent and/or stream instead of purchase. The only way to turn that around is to add more value to the purchase.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 10-19-2011 09:55 AM
I think the relative quality of movies (with so many of them being re-makes, sequels, etc.) is a big part of what's driving down the prices. Too many have the stink of corporate board room "play it safe" blah quality. With a lot of these movies if you watched the movie trailer you pretty much watched the movie itself. Most new movies just don't stand up to repeat viewings, which basically makes them worthless as something to buy. Why buy a mediocre movie if you're only going to watch it once?
Even at low prices, the topic of this thread, why buy if the movie is only going to gather dust on a shelf? I was in Wal-Mart the other day and saw an end cap display with a bunch of Blu-ray movies for just $8. Unfortunately nearly all were either old movies I had already seen many times previously or newer shittier ones I didn't want to waste my time watching. In the end either choice would equal a disc taking up more space in the house yet not being used. I guess I'd rather spend that $8 elsewhere.
Honestly, Hollywood studios need to work on their A game seriously. In past decades (20 years or more earlier) feature film was pretty much the only outlet for uncensored, more mature story lines. Today, "R-rated" content can be found in numerous places on cable TV and even the Internet. In at least some cases the TV shows are doing a better job than Hollywood is managing in creating creative story lines. The TV series format isn't bound to the 2 hour limit and isn't quite so badly infected with corporate meddling that demands 100% happy endings and every loose end tied up in a nice sanitary way.
Various TV series could probably do better with Blu-ray sales if it weren't for the ease in which people can watch previous episodes through other outlets. Most premium cable networks have their own on-demand systems with various cable providers. Lately they have been moving things to the Internet (HBO Go, MAX Go, etc.) in order to provide alternatives to Netflix. I could watch every episode of The Sopranos uncut on my computer or Android phone if I wanted. Only seasons 1 and 6 are available on Blu-ray ($50 and $100 respectively at Amazon).
As for extras on Blu-ray helping sell the movie, I think that only works when the movie itself is great and/or does extremely well in theatrical release. Naturally there's going to be more interest in "making of" content with a ground-breaking blockbuster than in the average throw-away movie Hollywood is releasing today. I've been willing to watch how they did "bullet time" in The Matrix. I'm not very interested at all in watching some stuck up actors kiss each others' asses in the typical movie marketing puff piece.
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 10-19-2011 02:25 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
I've been willing to watch how they did "bullet time" in The Matrix. I'm not very interested at all in watching some stuck up actors kiss each others' asses in the typical movie marketing puff piece.
Therein lies the real issue. Typical EPK puff pieces don't have value to anyone except the people who created them and the people who approved them. The in-depth behind-the-scenes stuff appeals to the true die-hard fans of the show or of the technology, but probably not many others.
There are many movies that aren't worth the print run of discs; I will definitely agree to that. Movies like that are ideally suited to streaming where the costs are low and one viewing is all you need.
It might be fashionable to say that all movies are crap and don't deserve anything beyond streaming, and many find it fashionable as well to say that no one cares about extras on the discs. The truth is that there are enough movies released each year that a significant percentage of people are interested in. If there wasn't, there would be no home video market.
I believe that enough people must find value in the extras that are put on discs, because if market research and analysis suggested that such materials were not necessary to sell discs, they wouldn't be made or sold. Enough titles have been sold as dual inventory of bare-bones discs and combo packages that the data must be conclusive.
My sense is that people that don't find value in any of the extras are the prime market for disc rentals and streaming. Basically, one-time consumption. Those people probably have a very low purchase price threshold, one that is so low that selling a disc at that price is not a viable market.
However, there is also a portion of the rental/streaming market that rents/streams because of convenience or because they aren't sure that a title is worth purchasing. Say I rent a copy of the first Sherlock Holmes (w/ Robert Downey Jr.) and I like it enough to peruse the extras on the disc. Because I've got a rental copy, the BD-Live feature shows me that there are lots of extras on the purchase disc, and there is additional exclusive content being added weekly about the upcoming "Game of Shadows" installment if I purchase the first movie on Blu-ray. Maybe I could enter my E-Mail address to get a discount coupon off the purchase.
There's an incentive to purchase the full disc as opposed to just renting it. Converting the customer at one price point into spending more is what marketing is all about. To accomplish that conversion, additional value needs to be perceived on the part of the customer, and that's the part that's mainly lacking in the approaches by most studios so far.
I've gone and gotten on that soapbox again, dangit...
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