madcougar

I understand why some movies get a second release (early DVD with bad transfer, originally had no extras, popular movie, etc...). However it seems that every movie is now getting a "special edition." I use quotes because many of these SE don't seem very special at all. In my mind they are just a studio's attempt to fleece the flock as it were.

As a comic book enthuisiast, I can't help to remember the 90s when speculation (in response to greedy comic book companies' efforts) almost brought down the entire medium. Comic book companies would inundate the market with "special editions" featuring alternate covers, cover enhancements, polybags, and what not. Eventually collectors stopped buying all these covers, casual fans left the hobby, and the speculators eventually all went broke.

While the comparison isn't great, I wonder at what point consumers will begin to resent the double dip every movie studio mentality and either not buy the first edition of a movie, or even any edition of a movie.

Again, I understand that speculation is what brought down the comic book market, but I can't help but see disturbing similarities between both mediums.

Any thoughts?

Altimus Prime

I know I'm often a sucker for special editions, anniversary editions, director's editions and the like. I'll often buy them, but conversely, I've held off buying some old favs just to wait for such "updates."

Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes not. Usually it's worth it for the older releases. But for example, I have the one-disc release of Star Trek Nemesis. Despite a few more extra features, I saw no reason to buy the two-disc that came out recently. The original had plenty of extras, and there was no way the audio and video was going to get any better because it's such a new release.

GrimTangent

You make a good point. Rarely will a buy a DVD of a movie that was in theatres within the past year or two. I typically go for the new releases of older movies because I know they're not going to release another version anytime soon.
I will buy the DVD of a new movie if it is already quite "special" though, which usually entails commentary and a (necessary) second disc.

With the decline in DVD sales over the past year I fear that studios will increase double-dipping in a futile attempt to increase revenue; I think producing quality first releases would be more effective though.

Cameron

well I think the diffrence is Dvd doesn't seem to have the gotta get em all mentality. Most people wanted every version of a comic, while very few seek out all four slip sleeves for sin city. Most people either don't rebuy, or they trade up. sell off the barebones edition. Only a select few get more than one release in several households.

Ravid

Out of about 60 DVDs I've only double-dipped on the Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection and Gone With The Wind, which were among the very first DVDs I bought in 1999. I have plenty of special editions that were preceded by regular editions, but I only bought the SE of those.

mndtrp

There are so many movies that I want to see, that I hardly ever buy a movie when it first comes out. By doing this, I end up waiting to see if there is a second edition coming out or not. Very few movies make me feel like I have to have them when they are first released.

I don't think that dvd's will follow the comic book trend you are describing. Some may wait for the special editions, but many people just want the movie. My parents couldn't care less about the extras, and many of my friends never watch them either.

caligulathegod

Apples and Oranges. Closest comparison would be the multiple slipcover crap, like Reservoir Dogs and Sin City. The SE actually have added content which, in most cases, couldn't be made ready in time for the quick release after theatrical exhibition. Those are for the fans.

Mr. Cinema

Sony has rereleased Mask of Zorro 4 times, with very little improvement. Yet, titles like The Game (Universal) and The Abyss (FOX) have yet to get a proper rerelease with a great transfer. This is the most frustrating to me in terms of double dipping. Studios make multiple versions of movies that don't need any improvement and they overlook non-anamorphic titles that desparately need an updgraded 16x9 transfer. From Dusk til Dawn, Armageddon, Scream, Enemy of the State, Ransom, True Lies, etc. At least Crimson Tide is getting an update next year.

marty888

Yes, it does get a little out of hand. The Five Star edition of The Sound of Music is an anamorphic transfer, has a commentary track by Robert Wise, and the 2nd disc has about three hours of extras. I'm completely ignoring the latest release - how much more alive can those hills be?

matome

What, you mean not everyone has been clamoring for Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo - The Little Black Book Edition?

SINGLE104

You hit the nail right on the head! The unessential multiple re-releases of The Mask of Zorro is stringently preposterous, and Touchstone Pictures has re-released a Special Edition of Ransom without an anamorphic transfer, ( same as the original release) which was very insensible.
The titles you've mentioned above, and more, are imperatively requisite.

Quatermass

I've gotten to the point where most of the special features don't appeal to me at all. I love the commentary tracks, and I will usually double dip for a new commentary track (also for significant extended footage). The behind-the-scenes docs have become tiresome after seeing so many. Most of them are just cobbled together excerpts from the movie with short blurbs from the cast and crew. If you look at the actual content, excluding movie clips and credits, most of the "Making of" shows have very little content. The technical documentaries were interesting at first, but have become almost interchangeable after seeing so many.
After having said all that, there are still movies that people, including myself, really love and will continue to double-dip when newer releases come out. I have noticed they are doing this a lot more with music CDs now (re-masters or re-issues with bonus tracks) and I wonder if it's because of the success of the DVD industry.

DRG

I used to be a sucker for features-packed re-releases, but frankly nowadays I have piles of DVDs that have never yet been inside my DVD player, plus a lot of movies I still don't own that need to be in my collection. I reserve double-dipping for my absolute favorites, really only if I know I'm going to love the extras.

exharrison

What a coincidence. I was watching Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked last night and this was posted right about when they got to this whole collector's craze of comics.
BUT, I don't really think there are enough people buying dvds as investments. The comic boom and overproduction was fed by people who thought they would get rich off of the comics. What may happen is that people who want the features will wait. The people who really want it when it comes out will buy it. There will be some who wait or rebuy for the transfer as well. But I think it will even itself out. Production runs will fit the buying patterns to continue profit. Also, before it would happen, I think that the new movie media will come along and people will rebuy it for that.

dvd_luver

I have noticed over the last year that there seems to be more and more of these special editions, directors cuts, collectors editions of movies already previously made available. This is getting out of control, and the studios need to focus their efforts on releasing films they have that have not been made available. The recent announcement by Sony of "13 going on 30: SE" sums up where all this double-dipping is going, IMO. It's a very disturbing trend for dvd buyers everywhere, knowing that what they buy most likely will not remain the definitive edition or version on the dvd format.

It definitly makes you feel the need to not buy some of these newer releases.

gbub

The one that really ticked me off was AvP. After holding out for an "unrated edition", I eventually bought the regular one when the rumors of there being extended footage was pretty well dismissed.

I feel like I was conned into buying that first version (although I don't remember if Fox specifically dismissed the footage).

bboisvert

I think what you're seeing now is studios getting a little nervous that (a) the market growth for DVD has dried up and (b) they've released all of their A-list catalog (and most of their B-list as well). They're frantic to "repackage" their titles with new flashy covers to draw attention.

We are going to see A LOT of stupid special editions in 2006, like "13 Going on 30" (which is essentially a new cover to get people to notice it around Valentine's Day). I plan on ignoring all of these unless they include something of substance. The days of buying a new DVD because of an added featurette are over for me -- add significant extras or improve the audio/video and I'll be first in line. Otherwise... meh.

Qui Gon Jim

13 going on 30 is basically just a repack, isn't it? I would rather see them release the same disc with new packaging to "re-market" the item then add one or two features to the mix. I would rather see a full blown SE (maybe not in this specific case, but in general) than incremental OK releases.

We will see more "repackaging" like this as studios are running out of mainstream titles to release. I read a figure that 50% of the sales of any given release are made the first week. It makes perfect sense to re-introduce a DVD to cash in. It doesn't mean you have to buy it. Take a disc like Fight Club. I would have no problem with them re-marketing the same set every few years to cash in a little as long as they don't add one or two little extras to the mix. However if they went a full blown 3-disc SE with tons of new extras, I'd be all over it like a cheap sweater.

Mr. Cinema

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a film that begs for a nice 2-disc SE, yet Sony continues to ignore it in favor of a second go around of "13 Going on 30" and others.

jl22

Hahahaha. I might actually buy that now since I don't own a copy of that movie.

nightmaster

I'm all for double dips to replace movies that have only seen a release at the beginning of DVD, mainly because a large number of them look like crap, absolute garbage...or they didn't bother to give us anamorphic or OAR. I'd be more than happy to pick up rereleases of Outland, Somewhere In Time, Armageddon, etc., if they clean up the print and we get a good looking disc. I've double dipped on stuff like John Carpenter's The Thing, Escape From New York, Goodfellas, and The Batman Movie Anthology set because they were obvious improvements over what was released before. I've also bit on my share of Superbits for the same reason, improved sound and picture.
I'll go for that type of double dip over one that has extra footage or extras, so most new barebones releases are fine with me because they most always look and sound great and give us what we saw at the theater. I might make an exception here and there (the Sin City extended edition is awfully tempting) if there promises to be alot of new footage brought to the movie.

If I find a great deal used in a pawn shop I have no qualms about doubledipping since it winds up costing a few dollars doing so.

lmwong1977

With the average DVD costing about $5 a pop, its so much cheaper to rerelease a movie than to invest in a 10 million dollar film. Anything from before the DVD age or even the VCR age, the studios doesnt have to pay a dime in residues or royalties, giving them an even bigger profit potential. Unless the film stock is really old, some don't even bother cleaning up the transfer. Its a double revenue stream - rentals and DVd buyers from existing stock. Easy money and pads the studio if they have a run of duds in the theaters.

That said I've only started buying dvds in the past 5 years so havent had any that I've double dipped on yet. Theres about 5 that have newer editions out there which I bought early in my DVD buying years. I'd upgrade if those newer ones go on sale, but I'm pretty satisfied with the versions I have.

I only have one on order: The Yards. I wondered if Gray would ever do a director's edition when I read he had reshot the ending and then the LA Times letters he and Miramax wrote back n forth, figured there was so much bad blood it would never happen. Thought about buying the French version - which has the cast interviews and making of, but one of the Wahlberg french fans told me it wasnt worth the import price.

I've held back on Trainspotting and was inches away from buying the UK import. Luckily someone bought the last copy at Virgin so temptation was gone. And 6 months later I heard we'd get the CE with much of the missing extras.

Based on that experience, I'm waitng for the Velvet Goldmine CE. (the R2 had a longish extra while the R1 got the bare bones and 4 minutes cut) It made just about as much as The Yards (meaning not much) and has some pedigree (Ewan MacGregor/Christian Bale/Jonathan Rhys-Meyers/Todd Haynes) to sprout a Special edition dont you think? I'd double dip on that, and if they could get Bowie/Iggy to talk about it...well girl can dream right?