Another choice find I ran across while yard saleing was the animated movie Animalympics(VHS Only) It's been out-of-print for quite some time, go over to The Big River to see how much this little bugger costs. Last summer I picked up a copy of this movie for the wallet-busting price of $0.25!

Decline for one format but an increase in a newer one that has a higher price than the older one.

"Big things" ....Like redbox slashing the typical price of DVD rentals, from $3.00 to $1.25 (about 60%).

Let's see. Do I want to rent this title for $1.25 or do I want to purchase it for $15.00 ??? I can rent ten different movies for a little less than purchasing just one movie. Tough choice. .....LOL

Like the music industry before it, the movie industry is digging it's own grave. I assume we'll watch them crash and burn for a few more years, before they finally get it.

Typical consumers are not going to purchase digital copies for 14.99 either. Most of these "young consumers", who are your future, are pretty much broke and in debt. Get a clue.

Just FYI. . . there is no "alternate version". The Eurythmics music was pulled from the film prior to its theatrical release because the director thought it didn't go well with the film design and substituted Dominic Muldowney's score instead. I saw 1984 in the theater when it was released, and I can guarantee the DVD version (which I own) is the original.

If you are a genuine film fan, streaming is a poor substitute for the look and sound of HD physical media, but the vast majority of people just don't care. There will likely be a niche market for those of us who want the best possible quality when we watch movies, but the market as a whole has been dying since 2006.

Huh? Redbox was $1 and increased to $1.50.

People are currently buying new releases for around $20, depending on the format. You can go to the what will you buy threads to see that people are still buying. You can also go into HD Talk and look at the thread where a few guys track the weekly sales stats of DVD and BR.

People could rent multiple movies for the price of a new release but they are still buying new releases. The same could be said back in the 90s when you could rent a movie on VHS or just buy it. They could rent it for a fraction of the cost of buying it for $15-$20 but they still both bought and rented.

If they all stopped buying and went with the cheaper option to rent, then people would have done the same with DVD when that came out and again with BR. People are still buying, no matter how many times you bring up that renting is cheaper than buying and implying that nobody is buying new, even though people are.

Popular movies frequently sell out at certain stores on release day. Go to the threads regarding a particular movie coming out on a date and people are running around trying to find the best deal on the film. Sometimes a store runs out and they go to the next one. They aren't all saying, the redbox at location 938 is out so we should all hurry to location 1034 before that runs out.

Plus like I said earlier, it's more than just the movie industry that isn't going to just let new prices go down super cheap. Businesses that skim off 3rd party sellers aren't going to want to lose all those profits. If the prices are too low, nobody will sell.

WB titles at amazon are frequently restricted to certain sellers to help keep the prices higher than what they could be if 3rd party sellers were allowed to sell the titles. This isn't just for new releases, this includes older titles as well.

I did not state or "imply" that nobody is buying new. To each his own. Whatever makes them happy.

What I did say, was 25% to 50% of $1.25 rentals could be $5.00 sales. And digital purchases will never take off.

Destroying the DVD/BR market makes it sound like people aren't buying as subscriptions destroyed them. That's just a bad thread title combined with my sleepiness, throwing me off.

I think digital purchases are going to be more popular as rentals and not for owning but the option isn't going to go away. Renting is still overpriced but odds are you won't lose your movie due to a rights issue before you've had the time to watch it.

Who else has a large virtual stack of movie credits at amazon? I have $83.96 because if there's a digital code with a movie that gives me the option to use the code at amazon for the movie, I always just enter the code but never buy the movie.

I also usually let any free credit expire before I use it, since I'm usually not wanting to watch something really bad and can't wait to just rent it on DVD to watch on something other than a computer and I also know I'm going to have surround sound on a DVD since it's sometimes a gamble on what the digital rental offers. Looking at the prices of buying it digitally or the physical copy is also usually similar, so it feels like a waste to buy something I could lose at anytime.

I have no interest in buying CDs or DVDs for $10 & $15. You can pick them up for a $1 on craigslist. If I want to see a new release, I rent it from redbox. I predict the movie industry goes the way of the music industry. No one to blame but themselves.

Google just started doing what Microsoft used to offer. Unlimited music online for $8 a month.

Sounds like netflix It's a good example of how far the music industry has declined. ...And a good example where the movie industry is headed.

The studios have lots of options. They could sell 10 movie packs of catalog titles and make a small fortune. 10 movies for $15 to $25 and their sales would sky rocket.

Mill Creek sells public domain garbage ($10 to $20 for 50 movies) and makes a profit.

The problems with the movie industry are self inflicted. I hope the dumb asses follow the music industry into the land of streaming. They're too stupid to save themselves.

I imagine there are many people that just don't care if stuff comes and goes from netfilx, they will find other things to watch or other ways to watch what is not there. With netflix and the library quite a bit is covered.

Buying books is also a funny idea to me unless they were a dollar or so, library again (if you have a good one) of course I may just be cheap when it comes to a ton of items and like to keep things simple.

Still love comics however at their current prices....not so sure.

Digital rentals are still too expensive along with digital downloads, I don't even want to pay ten dollars for a new release blu-ray let along twice that for a lower quality download.

In the same place, when I had a collection of a few hundred movies along with new films and tv shows reviewing my collection was not happening too much over the last couple years and the more I see something and more time I go between viewings to the point I really do not need to own films anymore or at least not right now.

The pawn shop was nice in in that one to two dollar price range since I am not a fan of spending money on something that drops so quickly (rather just buy it when it goes for less)

This is true. I know, because I buy and sell used DVDs. And the people I buy from tell me why they are selling off their DVD collections and no longer buy discs.

Netflix cost next to nothing and has more titles than most people have time to watch. No reason to buy DVDs when the studios are virtually giving it away for free.

I'm kind of enjoying the price collapse, because I'm picking up virtually everything I want to see for $1 and less. I just purchased 8 hard to find titles at the pawn shop for $1.29

For myself....paying $1.29 is really splurging or paying "top dollar", but these are titles I really wanted to see and rarely run into.

Mill Creek has purchased rights to several real studios--I think they've done Touchstone and Sony so far, and made 4 packs etc. I think it is going to be up to medium sized companies like Mill Creek, Olive, Shout! etc to do what you are saying (Which I agree is the correct path, making it a bargain/value format).

Mill Creek movie packs make more sense than this "experiment/test" with online streaming. This "experiment" only confirms that consumers would rather spend $8 to stream movies/tv all month, than spend $8 to buy one DVD.

Disc sales have dropped 20% in the last year and is still producing 5 times the profit generated from streaming.

I read that online purchases/rentals for individual titles was 8% of total revenue. ...Laughable. If streaming is the future for the movie industry, I believe its going to be bleak.

My beliefs (based on pure observation - no special insight or connections)

1. physical media will not go away in our generation. There are just too many people who like to have something tangible to hang onto. Furthermore, it makes the product seem to have real value. Movie purchases for "cloud" entertainment will NEVER take off. If you buy something, you want something tangible for your money. It's hard to say I've got a movie that's worth $15, but it's in the "cloud"

2. physical media for obscure titles may not go away entirely, but either it will be a part of movie sets released by mediocre companies, or will get the Twilight Time treatment,and be released as overpriced collector's items. Most catalog titles will simply go away entirely and Amazon MP prices will skyrocket.

3. Rentals though will primarily be done through streaming and for the vast majority of people, it will be enough.

4. New releases and classic films (Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, etc) will always have a physical media release. There will always be a market for collectors who want the physical media and the "special packaging" that comes with it.

It will be some time, I believe, for this to change. Though in 20 years or so, it is possible that much physical media will be a thing of the past. It's hard to know what a generation that grew up w/o a media collection will do and what their mindset will be. We are all used to it.

I think that the only way the streaming is going to take over are if they keep the movies on for a lot longer than they do now. And also if they get the streaming to be MUCH better quality than it is. Also, if they get more obscure movies.

I agree with your first point in theory; once enough consumers find that their favorite movie isn't streaming anymore, there will be a hue and cry. Unfortunately, I think that the ruckus will be short-lived, because they've still got thousands of other things to watch. As for your second and third points, I don't agree with you at all. The average consumer (as in, not you or me, but people who treat movies strictly as a way to enjoyably kill a few hours) really doesn't care if he or she's getting a pristine viewing experience. If they did, they wouldn't watch movies on their phones. And do you really think that the average consumer wants obscure stuff cluttering up their Netflix/Hulu Plus/Amazon Prime interface? I feel pretty sure that 95 percent of those who use streaming services would prefer to have the latest season of Family Guy or The Big Bang Theory rather than Children of Paradise, The Pillow Book, or Liquid Sky.

You'll know enough people are clamoring for that when the networks raise their prices too high for hulu to keep their current situation going and the networks, much like the studios are slowly doing, start to roll out their own $20 a month deals and subsequently failing because nobody wants to subscribe to a dozen different places at too high a price, too limited methods of access, and poor service.

Same thing happened when everyone was blaming Netflix for losing some stuff and raising prices. Blame the studios, not Netflix.

I agree 100%. My thought is that the thing that may finally kill streaming (and the old way of thinking in Hollywood in general) is simple greed on the part of the studios. And I can't wait for that to happen--Hollywood's long overdue for a wake-up call.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the Warner Archive streaming service.