How much on average do you spend on Blu Ray movies?
 

I've told myself I would not spend over $15 for any blu ray, since that's about the price you would get new releases on SD.

So far I've bought (all under $15 each)
Pirates 1-3
Ratatioulle
Harry Potter 5
Shoot Em Up
Die Hard 4
The Rock

Do you have a price limit, or just buy when they're $25-$30 each

First just want to say I am not directing this at you specifically crow.

I see this kind of thinking a lot and I don't understand it.

It's one thing to say one doesn't want to spend more than $15 for any movie. That's understandable.

But I don't understand why people expect to get a film with 6x the resolution of the DVD and better audio for the same price they can pay for the DVD. Not to mention, the cost to produce Blu-Ray's is much more than DVD right now.

I'm not saying I like paying $20-$25 for Blu-Ray's, but the format is young. It's just like with DVD. You buy for more $ the release day or you wait for a while until the prices drop. With DVD, price drops have gotten very frequent and pretty much expected. It wasn't always that way. It used to take a year or more for a 26.99 list movie to drop to a 19.99 list. Now it seems like that happens in 4-6 months on average.

Hell when I watched Ratatouille on Blu, I felt like I got every penny's worth of my 23.95. YMMV.

Generally, I will try to snag anything I feel is a good deal, such as the J&R.com sale a week and a half ago. Got a few at $7.99, it's great. I used a few of those $5 off Blu coupons last week when some movies were $20. The week before Target had B1G1, so I picked up a few titles then. A few I bought with Gift cards. I will pay $30 at maximum If I really want a movie, but so far, I haven't had to do that with all the coupons I manage to snag.

My price limit for BDs is $23.95, which pretty much includes all Disney titles and excludes all Fox titles (via Amazon's 30% off). But even then, I hesitate and try mostly wait for sales/price drops, and have largely succeeded.

It doesn't matter to me how many more X the resolution is with regard to the price. How many times am I going to watch a movie? At $25 I could rent the movie at new-release pricing a least 5 times. Or rent it three times including the late fees I'd likely get. Or have 2 months of 2-disc out Netflix.

To me, $15 is really the threshold I'll pay for any movie that isn't an absolute favorite. Maybe a new-release movie I really want - I paid $23 for 300 on HD-DVD last year and that was the most expensive disc I bought all year. Everything else was $15-$16 or less (mostly $10-$13).

And upgrading a DVD has even less value to me - say, $10 or so after SD trade-in value. And I'm only upgrading movies I REALLY enjoy. Action-flick fodder like Rambo and Terminator stay as SDs on my shelf...the threshold there is about $5-$6 cost to upgrade IMO. I almost bit on the $7.99 Terminator 2 BD but shipping killed it.

$13.33 on average, but I don't have many:

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: AWE + Ratatouille = $24.99 = ~12.50 a piece
Casino Royale + Cars = $24.99 = ~ 12.50 a piece
Hellboy = $14
Paprika = $18
Weeds (S1) = $11
Weeds (S2) = $14
Stargate = $8
+ $5 shipping for the last 3

Are you saying an HD version of the film is not inherently worth more than a standard definition version of the same film (assuming extras are identical)?

Again, I realize many people are thriftier than I am when it comes to BD upgrades and new purchases, but the point I am trying to make is the HD presentation is worth more $ than an SD presentation, regardless of how many times the disc is watched.

I'm not trying to sound like I am justifying studios gouging customers. I'm just trying to apply simple logic to the comparison. I don't intend to pay ~$18-$25 per disc forever, but for the first couple years as an early adopter, it is not unreasonable IMO. The only difference between now and 8 years ago is DVD has spoiled us with dirt-cheap prices.

I will also mention that I would not own 220-something Blu-Ray's if I had to pay over $20 for all of them . Many of them came from BOGO's. But at the same time, I have absolutely no qualms about paying $24 for No Country For Old Men.

Hell I was paying $25 a pop in the year 2000 money for barebones discs like Groundhog Day and My Cousin Vinny.

Look at it from another POV, the studios are just playing catch-up with the new TV display technology (16x9, 1080p, large sized screens) by releasing BDs/HDM, but the extra viewing enjoyment derived from a BD over a DVD isn't even worth 2x the cost of a DVD to many people, not when the DVD does a sufficient job in pre-occupying the same amount of time while the film entertains them for that short period of time.

Also, I have Comcast cable, and to get to HDTV level of service, I'm paying $8/month over the extended basic rate, that's about 15% more over my previous rate. Obviously I thought the extra cost was worth it, but it was getting close to my pain threshhold of cost/entertainment ratio. Shouldn't Comcast be able to change so much more for HD content? They don't because content cost is mainly a function of time of entertainment (and demand for it), not how many pixels/frame of video. And again, getting to HD content is playing catch-up to the new world order of digital TV that has started for the past 3-4 years, and will finally get going in ernest in 2009.

In a decade of DVD, we are now conditioned to look for DVD bargains around $5 a pop when the studios put the popular titles on their clearance/cheap lists. Is anyone really all that jazzed to be pumped at the $40 MSRP level for a Fox BD? Even $24 street prices of Disney BDs are tough to justify in today's climate of $3.50/gallon of gas. It's tough for me to shell out even $15/BD these days (so my purchases are relegated to when a bargain shows up), and I would rather spend no more than $10/BD (or HD DVD) nowadays.

My average is $8.64, not counting the 39 BDs I purchased for resale. If I counted the profits from those sales, my average BD cost would be a negative number since I have kept very few of my purchases, because I don't have a player yet.

My limit is $10 and I am willing to be patient and work deals to get the best price. I never understood the "gotta have it NOW!" mentality, although I understand that it is quite common here.

So this is what it comes down to? We're now supposed to compare the clearance prices of DVDs that have been languishing on store shelves for five or six years (because they are usually titles that most people wouldn't even consider renting, let alone buying) to new releases on a new format? That seems more than a little disingenuous to me.

If you don't want to pay more than X dollars for a title, then don't pay it. But please don't say that new release Blu-ray titles need to be priced the same as clearance DVDs. That's just ridiculous. I don't see anyone in this thread complaining that DVD new releases are still at or near $20 for most titles, even at discount stores such as Walmart.

I'd be happy with $15.99 BDs on launch day at retailers.

The $29.99 launch price standard has to stop.

15.99 for launch BD's would almost certainly be losing money for all involved. I'm all for BD's becoming loss leaders, but let's not forget that even DVD's priced at ~$15 on release day for a day and date are loss leaders. I don't think the retailers and studios are being unreasonable in wanting to make *some* money.

I blame it all on the Walmart dump bin. :)

$20-$25 is what I expect to pay for a BD right now, especially when production costs are high. The big increase in video and audio quality is worth it, imo. I don't think we will see $5 bargain bins for BD. They have de-valued dvd and I'm sure studios don't want the same thing to happen to BD. I know it's insane to think, but studios want to make money on their releases. Pricing of BD software is in line with the pricing of DVD when it first came out. DVDs would be released with 0 features, non-anamorphic laserdisc transfers, and list pricing of $29.99-$34.99. Why would anyone expect BD to be cheaper in its infancy compared to DVD?

People have different priorities. There's no way I would pay $60 for a PS3 game, but I'll pay $30 for a BD.

Also, it's not like this pricing is new to BD like others have mentioned.

Studios successfully splintered day and date releases into 1-disc and 2-disc editions a few years ago. While the 1-disc and mostly featureless disc are still discounted nearly 50% off list for loss leading, the more feature-packed editions with 2-discs are going for the more traditional 25-30% off list. Many of these 2-disc editions have list prices near or identical to current BD day and date list prices.

Now Best Buy and the like have their heads up their asses with this $5 off list crap - no doubt there.

But if they come around and start charging the more reasonable ~30% for BD day and date releases, it will definitely help the format.

drops in MSRP (creating the Bargain bins you speak of) is a large reason why the DVD market is so much stronger than the music market. CDs never changing in price is part of the problem there.

Sure it is. I pay $6-$10 for an SD-DVD and a VERY rare new release at $15.

Normally Columbia House deals for the $6 ones :D. I pay $10-$15 or so for hi-def. And a VERY rare new release title for $20-$25.

That is a premium. Just not working off the same baseline as some of you.

The point is, you are creating a baseline that BD is a better value than a DVD. But you think a DVD is worth $15-$20 whereas they aren't really worth that to me any more (especially with how quickly the prices drop). It's a very rare movie that I pay $15 for any more.


BTW: The aforementioned splintering of the heavily-discounted 1-disc and the hardly-discounted 2-disc led to me buying tons less new releases. It used to be the best price for a year or so was on release week. Not so any longer, and not so on the SEs. So I just buy neither, and wait for a deal on the 2-disc. Which has led me to patience in general on new discs.

Agreed. I have definitely slashed my home video purchases since getting a Blu-ray. I only buy certain movies that I really, really want (e.g. Blade Runner, Enchanted) and just Netflix the rest. Honestly I've just rented and watched The Warriors, The Wild Bunch, Appleseed Ex Machina, Gone Baby Gone and POTC: At World's End. While all were good (well except POTC), I'm certainly glad I rented them. I was able to turn around all those titles for less than the price of buying JUST ONE of them on Blu-ray.

I bow to your superior shrewdness and bargain hunting skillz. ;)

And you're right - I do think some DVD's are worth more than $15. Depends on the title, but if I want it release week, I get it. I just paid $22 for The Mist. Worth every penny. I could have waited and got it for $15 in 6 months, but that's not my style.

See, but you could rent it once. When's the next time you will watch it? A year? Two? What will the price be then? I already have a backlog of at least 40 movies and a few TV shows, and likely about 50 that I haven't rewatched since the first time, and a backlog of games to play, too. Part of it is that threshold of "I already have an awful lot". I looked through the DVDs last year and found like 20 I hadn't even taken the shrinkwrap off of.

My wife used to buy tons of DVDs (she has about 1,000). But even she's wound down on it quite a bit and uses the Netflix account and VOD more.

There's only a certain number of movies you need around.

to me, $29.99 at launch or ever $24.99 pricing is just going to encourage people to do other things to get their movies.

Many software companies learned that if you make the product cheep enough, people will buy it rather than "borrow" it.

The other thing it will do is make people very selective on what they get blu verses the normal dvd.

I am not the type who wants to wait for Netflix when I decide I want to see something. I also don't even consider VOD an option.

I like the titles to be there whenever the urge strikes, and I pay a premium for that. Sure I have many discs that I don't wind up watching until after they price drop, but I also don't want to spend time keeping track of price drops and waiting for deals. Life's too short. I get what I want when I want. Most stuff I keep for my collection, as I never know how soon I'll want to see something again.

There will always be unviewed discs in my collection - I'm at peace with it. I used to try and race to finish everything I had, but now I just enjoy my collection and know there will always be something new on my shelf for me to watch no matter what my mood is, and I won't have to drive to the store or wait 2 days for it to come from Netflix.

Sometimes you just have to pay more than $15 for a Blu-ray, but I manage to get my average for all titles owned at about $14. Not bad. Just keep doing a bunch of B1G1 deals (I have gotten in on Amazon, Target and Columbia House deals in the past 2 months), take advantage of Amazon price adjustments, buy used from trusted traders on forums like these, and use coupons & reward program deals to lower your average cost per disc and you will be fine. Just because I only average $14 per disc doesn't mean my collection lacks titles like Superbad, Close Encounters, etc. -- I've got 'em. There are always deals to be had.

I've got the same line of thinking as you do.

I know I don't always find the best deals for newly released Blu-ray discs or DVDs (the US - Canada prices are pretty much the same now), but I really don't feel disappointed about it or feel some weird guilt for paying full price. I've never rented a DVD in my life, mainly because I think renting something (although Netflix is pretty cheap) is throwing away money. I know people, who rent all the time, and they've spent way more money on renting a year then I've spent buying discs.

Someone I know rents at Blockbuster sometimes and he's paying $7 for a week rental. That's just crazy as far as I'm concerned. When you buy the BD or DVD you can watch it whenever you want and you don't have a time limit. If you really, really hated the disc you bought and don't even want it in your house; your local video store will usually give you a decent amount for your disc. Sure, I might lose a few dollars more than if I would've rented it, but it's only a few dollars.

People can do what they want with their own money, however.

This is pretty much my philosophy, except I'm patient enough to look for the BOGOs and other sales.

Since I have unwatched films in my collection, it won't kill me to wait for a deal to pop up in the near future.

The max I will pay is 20 but I usually pay around 15 and occasionally 10.

NOT counting any screeners/review copies....about $12-$14 each. Its gotten higher now that HD DVD is dead and there are very few to none BOGOs anymore. I miss the days of getting catalog titles for $10-$12 at Fry's days after they come out.