Which is why I buy my two disc sets online. You can usually find a better deal, and another plus is that a lot of these two disc sets now are just coming with card board slip covers and not shrinkwrapped, so store stickers can actually damage the case if I peel them off wrong, or leave residue behind even if I don't tear the card board. Ordering online assures me I get a two disc set with the card board case sticker free. And I usually save more than I ever would at a brick and mortar store.

Which is really puzzling that the brick and mortars are doing this, because the people interested in these expanded editions are probably more likely to know about sites such as this and have already spent time researching the best prices online. Get Joe Six Pack to pay the extra bucks, not the collector who knows better!

Uh.

Magnolia is anamorphic.

And the second disc has a 90 minute documentary as it's "main" extra. I don't know about you, but most DVDs usually don't contain a 90 minute production diary.

It's not a bonus feature if you don't watch it!

It's a bit like french fries: nobody complains about paying to have them "supersized".

I think everyone understands the idea behind charging more for more... but it's hard to take because of A) the disparity between the prices on the retailer's part, and B) it didn't used to be that way.

I agree this is indeed stupid. From what I've heard they might be charging more for the 2 disc Devil's Rejects which will piss me off if true. And then of course the recent Wizard of Oz the 3 disc was twice as much as the 2 disc...pissed me off!

Don't buy them!

Exactly! When I got Escape From New York as a big beautiful special edition for ten bucks I didn't grump because I got alot for cheap! I think this is their way of trying to get back some of the ridiculous amount of profit they were getting selling titles for more money and having more classic movies to release......then again now they have TV seasons that rake in enormous cash.....eh, who am I kidding, they just found a new angle and they're taking advantage of it!

It definitely sucks. They should just keep making only 2 disc versions as in the past. Now you have the 1 disc and 2 disc version that are generally with in 2 or 3 bucks of each other in MSRP (see the Corpse Bride thread here for examples). Then the retailers use the crappy barebones single disc as the loss leader and sell it for $15 bucks release week, and keep the price on the 2 disc one up more and sell it for $22-30. A gap wider than the gap in MSRP.

Annoying as hell and causes me to pass on something like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that I was on the fence about.

Not to mention you still have some studies putting out kick ass 2 disc dvds that get sold for $15. i.e. Star Wars Episode 3.

Which makes it that much harder to swallow paying more for similar product from other studios.

Same here. You lose WB!

When I find Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for five bucks in a pawn shop I'll pick it up then. So they lose the sale....I'm not paying more for 2 disc editions, I can live just fine with their movie only loss leader (such as Batman Begins) myself.

I'm not!

Huh? When was it ever a "given" that the studio would release a 2-disc and a 1-disc at the same price?

Never was. Used to be there would be the 2 disc edition or a 1 disc and that would be all she wrote. Ya bought what was on the rack, and there were no other choices.

As was mentioned earlier, it IS nice that studios are releasing 1,2 and 3 disc sets at the same time, at their first release, rather than waiting 3 months and slapping the sucker on the street again for double-dippage, ala' Sin City, Electra, Hellboy and the likes. IF releasing a deluxe 2 disc set would curtail the practice of doing so, a 2-3 disc uber edition for a little more money at first release would be an improvement.

Why do you keep trolling this forum with the claim that Magnolia is non-anamorphic?

How many times are you going to keep posting that?

How many times do people have to correct you before you stop?

Is there some kind of joke I'm not getting? Or do you just like spreading misinformation and ignoring people that correct you?

Enough already. Yeesh.

DJ

We used to just get one or the other. i.e. in the past we probably would have just gotten the Batman Begins 2-disc, and that would have been the loss leader selling for $15-16 release week.

Now we get these crappy double releases with nearly identical MSRPs and retailers make the 1 disc the loss leader and we're stuck shelling out $20-25 for the 2 disc that would have been the only option (and thus the loss leader) for these major mainstream releases in the past.

This sounds like you're saying that the deciding factor for your purchases is the extras, not the movie.

Seems like you should be angry at the retailers, who set the discounts, not the studios.

If paying extra for a 90 minute production diary upsets people, imagine paying over $20 for a production diary, and you don't even get the movie with it!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BMSUJK/

Don't forget that in the beginning of DVDs, animated menus and scene selections were marketed as Extras and they were priced between 30 and 40 dollars!! They have always been suckering the consumer.

DVDs are also coming out fast after theatrical release dates, than in the past. So, I would rather have the two versions with the 10 dollar difference than wait longer for a fully-packed DVD. A lot of DVD stores that sell DVDs before release date often put the 1-disk version out first and then put the 2-disk/special edition later on (usually on release date).

I think you hit upon it with "They had us spoiled," although I would abandon the past-tense. We're still spoiled. But then again, so are the studios. DVD has spoiled everyone.

it is kind of annoying. Especially when you still see current releases like Star Wars Ep.III where you got a nice 2nd disc full of extras and was available for about $15 on release day. You know if they had gone the WB rout the $15 would have been for the barebones release while the 2 discer would have been $20+.

Notice I said for movies I'm on the fence about. In those cases many times the extras are the deciding factor on buying or passing.

For a film I love, obviously the A/V quality is all that matters as the film alone warrants a purchase.

When the only version of a movie available was a 2-disk version and it still went for the same price as the other 1-disk movies.

Yeah, but we also had enough notice that there would be a 2-disk version of Sin City to where I waited and didn't buy the 1-disk.

We should go back to rental pricing where everything cost $99.99. Then these kinds of pricing disparities would disappear.

Has any looked at Amazon's prices on The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (R-Rated Edition) (2005) - $15.98
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Unrated Edition) (2005) - $15.98
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (2005) - $20.99

It look like you you will be paying an extra $5.01 just to get OAR