jgorow

this from home video magazine-
The weed-like emergence of Redbox’s $1-per-day DVD rental kiosks across the country could render DVD movies below commodity-priced status, according to Pali Capital analyst Richard Greenfield.
Greenfield, in a research note, cited an online banner ad from Albertsons that offered five free one-day Redbox rentals in addition to a $5-off Albertsons coupon with the purchase of more than $25 worth of Proctor & Gamble products.
“Movie studios rely on the sale of DVDs, yet it would appear increasingly difficult to sell DVDs at $15-$20 a piece, if consumers believe movies are only worth $1/day, let alone ‘free’ with some groceries,” Greenfield wrote.
The analyst said studios and cable operators banking on increased margins via day-and-date video-on-demand (VOD) offerings (including iTunes) on new release titles priced from $3.99 to $4.99 could create the impression among consumers that other forms of home entertainment (notably sellthrough) are “terribly” mispriced. “Worse yet, both VOD and iTunes often do not even have movies available the same day they hit Redbox,” Greenfield wrote.

gee- hard time getting $15-$20 for new movies, and $4.99 for pay per view, maybe competition has made it time they re-think thier pricing, that they cant just "fix thier pricing" like they used to. oh-poor blockbuster, drove out all the mom and pop stores back in the 80s and now they got competition on thier $5.50 video rentals from $1 a day redbox. and customers would rather buy a movie from the walmart $5 bin instead of a $15-$20 new release. oh-poor-poor corporate them, my heart just bleeds for them-lol

Superdaddy

The studios must really hate me then, since I basically don't rent anymore. I generally buy movies that interest me; if I'm not intrigued enough to buy, I borrow them from the local library system. I can get just about any DVD from there.

And when I purchase, it's mostly catalog titles. In the recent DD/Barnes and Noble/Big Lots madness, all but two titles purchased were catalog titles--old movies or TV, not current multiplex fare, which interests me very little.

As fate would have it, now is the time when many studios seem to be retreating on catalog releases. Even Warner, who it seemed would release everything in their vaults at one time, have now relegated many catalog titles to the Archive Collection: DVD-R's with interlaced, mostly non-restored transfers and sold for $20.00 a pop. (NOTE: I don't think the archive idea is bad per se, but I do think it's bad at $20 a disc. At half that price, I'd buy at least five titles right now).

Certainly I'm not the only person here who contributes to the studios' rental "woes." But I can make up for that with the DVDs that I buy. Yes, the economy has been bad, but there are signs of a recovery starting. (All of us who bought from the recent DVD sales online did our part to help ).

The growth days in the DVD industry are basically over. Once practically every household had a player, there was nowhere to go but down. But the studios still have a lot of gold in their vaults. If they don't think they can make enough profit by marketing it themselves, or through current rental models, maybe they can make more by licensing it to someone like Criterion, who genuinely loves and cares about these old movies. I just added a dozen or so more Criterions to my collection in the recent sales, and I am happy to support their mission of rescuing classics from obscurity and destruction.

highclassrob

If those warner archive titles were BluRays I'd pay $20.

Jacoby Ellsbury

Nice deal, Im in for severalteen

Zbu

Agreed. Sadly, if the companies would put out more of their obscure titles instead of going back to the trough with their hits, people might put down some money to see them. Instead, we see DVDs stagnate because companies re-release the same things over and over again and then put out new discs at outrageous prices ($23-$27 for an extra disc). When DVD exploded, a lot of people were willing to blind buy a lot of discs because the prices dropped. Now companies are trying to put the genie back in the bottle and are bitching that people will wait until they go down in price. Sorry, that's not going to happen. Sorry they can't meet their overheads, but everybody is suffering. Tough.

As for Warner, there's no reason their archives should be $20. They're not remastering anything and are using cheap media. $10 a pop would be good enough.

clappj

Blockbuster said what?

chris_sc77

Boo-hoo for the movie studios. Maybe if they started releasing good dvd's again they'd get more of my money.

SuperJim88

Boohoo, so instead of paying Julia Robert some crazy 10 millions for a cameo on Ocean 12, now producers can only pay her 2 millions. If she doesn't want it, I'm sure there are a lot more deserving actors who'll take those roles.

chris_sc77

OH and anotherr thing. i have never (and prob. will never use redbox.) i use netflix so for $18 a month i get at least 20 movies a month. so less than a buck a movie. i dont know what the problem is.

Canis Firebrand

What did they think was going to happen when the economy hit the crapper and people aren't spending as much as they were in the past?

People are using services like Netflix and Redbox now for a majority of their DVD viewing. I know that I am. I do buy some movies still, but those are things I know I'll re-watch again and again. For casual viewings, instead of buying a dvd on sale on release day, I'll Netflix or go to a Redbox and view it.

naitram

Redbox only starts off cheap so they can jack it up later - see: Netflix, Blockbuster, Hollywood ($5.79 for a Blu-ray rental?!)...

BTW - nice bargain

chris_sc77

my Netflix has gotten cheaper so I dont know what u are talking about.

rxtian

I pay $3.00 to $5.00 for new SD DVDs. $10.00 for new Blu-ray. That's all I will ever pay.

For me, a Rental is worth $1.00 to $2.00. I've never rented a DVD.

The Bus

I'd like to buy The Dark Knight or El Norte for $10. Where can I get them?

Trevor

Except for Criterions, you can easily average $5 SD/$10 BD on everything, using CH and other bargains found here.

El Norte and every other Criterion BD were $13 (or less), the most I've ever paid for any of my near 175 BDs.

critterdvd

That's exactly what I've been doing. I used to purchase at least one if not three or four DVDs a week (especially TV), but now I find myself making maybe 2-3 purchases a month. But my netflix queue is finally get used or major movies and I've more or less become a regular at my local video shop (its a mom/pop place that has $1 rentals sun-wed; $3 on the weekends)

orangerunner

The market for DVD has changed. I use the "DVD Play" kiosk in Canada and it's $1.79/night.

The Blockbuster across the street is $4.99.

I'm surprised these kiosks didn't start popping up five or six years ago. I remember VHS vending machines in the early ninties.

The days of Joe Average blind buying $23 DVDs are over. I don't think it's just the economy, either. The novelty of DVD has passed just like it did with CDs.

People were happy to shell our $18.99 for the new "Spin Doctors" CD in the early 90s. Everyone got caught up in the rush of a new technology
and money was no object.

Now, no one wants CDs.

As a movie fan, it's sad to see films become so worthless and disposable to the general public.

In the 80s, if you had a 100 pre-recorded tapes in your VHS collection, it was pretty impressive. Now they're so cheap and readily available that there isn't that same sense of having a unique hobby.

jjcool

I couldnt tell you the last time I rented a dvd before last tuesday. I was sick of renting a disc and getting the dirtiest most scratched up disc I had ever seen. Betwen the cost of renting, the aggravation of the disc freezing on me, and the time to exchange that copy for another copy that hopefully would play straight through, renting wasnt wiorth it for me. Last tuesday I tried redbox for the first time. Had a code, so the rental didnt cost me anything. And you know what? The disc froze in the middle. For $5 a disc, I am going to keep buying.

riotinmyskull

i've averaged about 20 dvds from netflix a month for the past 6 years and never once have i had a dvd freeze up on me...at the most 1 in 20 will skip for a second. maybe it's your dvd player.

Trevor

I've had maybe 1 out of a 100 freeze on me. But I've had about 1 out of 12 or so arrive broken, often the disc is completely snapped in half. You ever have that problem?

critterdvd

I've had netflix for a good 5 years now and maybe three times I've gotten an unplayable disc. Although I've NEVER had one arrive in pieces...

Superdaddy

I agree with everything here, except that I find myself blind buying more DVDs now than ever...but, as others have said, not for anywhere near $23. Or even $19.99. New DVDs nowadays can be had much, much cheaper...often for not much more than renting if you know where to look, or are patient, or take advantage of discounts and credit card rebates.

For rare events like the recent Criterion sale at B&N, I will make an exception. I was happy to get Criterions in the $12-16 neighborhood. Normally they can't be touched for anything less than the low 20s.

Like I said in my previous post...the technology has peaked, in terms of market penetration. Now there's nowhere to go but down.

I will be sad to see CDs go too, by the way. I like physical media, although I do download some stuff. Probably still buy 97-98% of my audio content on disc. But the writing, it seems, is on the wall.

Trevor

I must have some angry postmen and women between my home and the Netflix center 5 miles away.

jgorow

it seems to me that the studios new practice of having used rental discs destroyed rather than selling them off used at a discount is yet another attempt by the studios at "price fixing"

josepotato

Soon we'll have new anti-Redbox ads at the beginning of DVDs "You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a hand-bag, you wouldn't rent a DVD for a dollar".