Kube

A Blu Ray for a movie, which can contain deleted scenes, commentary, docs etc, can be purchased for as a little as $5. But if you want to "own" a digital copy on iTunes or kindle, you can easily pay twice as much. What gives?

Josh-da-man

Probably because the physical disc is a product that needs to be warehoused and transported, and as such there is a fixed supply of them. When supply is greater than demand, the price will fall to stimulate sales. It's either destroy the surplus, or devalue the product to recoup some of the investment.

With digital there is no actual supply and the price can be more fixed.

BobO'Link

I'd call it greed, and one reason digital isn't taking off as quickly as manufacturers/producers would like.

It's not just supply and demand as newly released product exhibits this trend. The physical media package, often including a "free" digital copy, is usually sold below MSRP upon release while the digital stays at the inflated MSRP, or at best a discount which tends to be a couple of dollars higher than the physical.

I don't understand why any digital content is more expensive than physical *because* it doesn't have to be physically produced, warehoused, or shipped. I can go to Amazon right now and purchase *dozens* of CDs that come *with* a "free" digital copy for *less*, often several dollars less, than the digital copy by itself.

davidh777

I'd say because Blu-ray is a mature format and digital is still evolving. Studios still like the idea of a new-release movie being $20, and that's why they won't put them on subscription streaming. You will still seeing pricing shifts when a title is considered "catalog," around $10-15. That's still more than a BD, but we know that's a product with waning interest. Of course, movie ownership in general has waning interest.

Kube

I think greed and evolving formats seem like good assessments.

I do understand why a new movie would be close to $20. But for catalog titles it just seems strange to me. I'm a big streamer but feel I'm getting an inferior product than Blu-Ray.

And because I'm not an Apple/iPad user a disk and streaming are still two separate purchases.

mndtrp

To pay for the software development that allows THEM to render it useless whenever THEY want.

PhantomStranger

Because Hollywood completely controls the pricing structure of digital movies, while they only have indirect control over retail pricing.

Younger consumers don't know any better but completely digital distribution is the dream of every Hollywood executive. It's the ultimate form of power to extract as much money as possible for each movie from the consumer.

Preterite

Yup, the ultimate goal is pay-per-view for every thing, every time.

Except music. That will be pay-for-listen.

zyzzle

Indeed! Truer words were never spoken.

By 2025, no movies will be released on physical media, consumers won't "own" anything, Millenials will be happily paying $20-$30 for crappy low-bitrate DRM'd digital streaming downloads (of shitty movies!), and Studio Executives will be rolling in dough all the way to the bank.

Progress, eh?

ntnon

No they won't. They'll pirate copies for free, and everything will collapse in on itself..