When I broke up with my girlfriend almost 2 years ago, she took about 20-25 DVDs from our collection (which still left me with about 150 at the time). One of the DVDs she took was Mulan, which is a movie that we both really liked. Why the hell did Disney make this OOP? I can understand other movies that are either old, or just cult favorites, but Mulan is fairly recent. I can't imagine that they were losing money by its production.

Now I can't even watch the damn movie because I'm not going to spend $40 on eBay to buy it.

I think its that old Disney strategy of making movies OOP so people will go and buy up all the current inventory. They want people to go and buy every Disney title because you never know when it might be gone from shelves.
I guess they figure keeping people in a panic about missing titles will increase sales.

I think that you have may have to refine your question here . . . Do you want to know why normal DVD's go OOP or why Disney DVD's go OOP? I think you'll get two very different answers depending on which question you ask.

My add-on question would be, why is it that the really good DVD's always go OOP and the junk ones seem to stick around forever?

I am feeling generous. My local Hollywood video has all the OOP Disney Limited Issue dvd's and I have already made hundreds selling many copies of 101 Dalmations on DVD. They have Mulan there though and the price is 24.99 Immortal, if you really want the Mulan dvd, e-mail me at [email protected] If you paypal me or send me a check for shipping and the actual price with tax for the Mulan dvd, I will ship it to you making no money. Let me know.

Actually, just about every DVD eventually goes OOP. It's that the good ones are much harder to find because they're GOOD. Or least good in the mass public's eyes. The junk ones stick around because they're JUNK and mass quantities of copies linger in video stores.

Because making millions of copies of said ______ movie when everyone who already is going to buy it has bought it, it makes no sense to populate the store with more copies.

Exactly!

Disney is basically using the same "moratorium" strategy that worked for them with VHS over the past fifteen years.

Some studios lose the rights to films as well and can end up in limbo as a new distributor gets lined up.

Which is only a slightly modified version of how they released them in movie theaters. As I recall, the "classics" (e.g. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella etc.) were put back in theaters in seven year cycles before the VCR threw a wrench into that scheme.

Well why Disney DVDs go OOP was explained well, but I'm also lost on why some very popular movies go out of print on DVD. I can understand losing a license but on things like The World Is Not Enough... I have no idea why they would stop production on that.

MGM does that for the same reason. They'll re-release the entire set with new packaging every few years. They usually go on "moratorium" - not OOP - until a new movie is on the horizon and then it will come to video in new packaging that matches all the other videos. Believe it or not people WILL repurchase the entire set of 20+ films...

In some cases, it seems like some studios have the decency to stop producing a title when the are producing a new or special edition version . . . for example, I believe that was the case for Animal House.

Of course, I might be giving too much credit by chalking it up to "decency" . . . more likely just the realization that they aren't going to make as much money on the original version once people find out that a special edition is coming out, so they might as well stop producing them.

Zeus,

DVDs are like the McRib....

They disappear, but they'll be back....

Its one thing if the transfer sucks and they are re-releasing it later ala Scarface but to make the Fight Club 2 disc edition OOP is plain stupid IMO. That is regarded as a top 5 in most people's collection and FOX has never had a moratorium strategy. So why are they doing this?

Tony,

If i recall correctly, I believe Fox did that and lowered the MSRP , figuring they'd sell just the movie at a "bargin" price. The "lower the price and sell more at a reduced profit margin yet still make the same total profit" concept.

I think you are giving them too much credit. My guess would be they want to ensure they get rid of existing stock before putting a better product right next to it for sometimes a reduced prices IMO.



David

When Beauty and the Beast Platinum came out, Costco ran a promotion that allowed the buyer to get a free copy of their choice from the Disney Limited collection. This included Little Mermaid, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan etc. My wife bought about 100 copies of the Beauty and the Beast disc and sold them on Ebay at retail. She kept all of the vouchers for the LI discs, sent in for a variety of each movie and sold them for major ducats this year. not so dumb, my wife...

Isn't Fight Club 2-disc SE going to be re-released October 14th, or is that just a rumor? I've noticed that you can get it off of ebay much cheaper now. Usually, around $25-30 for a sealed Fight Club 2-disc set.

Same reason McDonald's will only offer certain products for limited times once every few years--it draws in business they otherwise wouldn't have got.

I learned that in a marketing class a long time ago.

during which year will you go oop? legal issues, defective issues and format advancement seem to help titles vanish for a time....ususally always making a return trip in some form. when they dont....harder to find. if a dvd wont sell well....why keep it wasting space in retail? everything will go oop on dvd....as soon as dvd goes oop.

I REALLY hope that is true. I missed out on the first SE and I don't want to buy the single disc just yet.

Look.. every DVD eventually goes oop. Why? Because the production levels of WB, Disney, and all other DVD companies can't handle the influx of every new DVD title they release and still be able to keep producing the old ones at the same level. It's not very cost effective especially when old ones aren't producing nearly as much profit as the new releases that comes out.

So they can resell them at top dollar. Disney doesnt want their Snow white and Beauty and the Beast, as well as The Little Mermaid(my favorite movie) selling at Walmart in the 5.88 bins. They treat their animated classics as such. As with the Disney Treasures, once their OOP their value goes UP. so the next wave of Disney Treasure sell out, and you dont buy you'll being paying thru the nose if you want it.

That's funny you mentioned Mulan.. I found it at a flea market this weekend for $15. I bought it.. and now I have no idea where it is.. I think I lost it.