Don't want to clutter the other discussion threads regarding the actual films, but it now appears Disney (and Mirimax) has raised MSRP across the board on Day and Dates from $35.99-$39.99 to $44.95. The reason? Who knows.

Titles that arrive with this new price (so far) include Race to Witch Mountain, Adventureland and Monsters Inc (which originally had a MSRP of $40.99).

I spoke to soon -
Disney has raised prices on catalog titles as well. The Waterboy MSRPs for $39.99 when before it would have been $29.99-$34.99

Less day and date purchases, less blind buys from them. Simple as that.

Talk about a studio headed in completely the wrong direction. First it was less catalog coupled with 34.95 list on what catalogs they did put out after a great run of 29.99 catalog titles. Now this.

I would have bought Adventureland blind. Now I'll just find somewhere to rent it.

What do you want bet they justify the price by saying it's a "2-disc" version? Those digital copies weren't going to be free forever methinks.

And 39.99 on catalogs? Didn't Fox just learn their lesson and started taking catalog's lower?

Looking at Disney's very bleak schedule it appears any title announced this month got the $5 bump. Titles like Sling Blade (6/16) announced months ago are $34.99 while just announced The Waterboy (7/28) are $39.99. Even older Day and Dates announced months ago like Santa Buddies (11/24) are still $39.99 while new Day and Dates just announced like Adventureland (8/25) are $44.95.

I didn't follow Disney very much on DVD recently, but it appears they are taking off features from the DVD and making the Blu-ray the "premium" version and adding a Digital Copy in to give the false sense of "2 disc version". Same goes for Warner but they have kept the same MSRP for a while now on Day and Dates.

Hey, they can raise the MSRP on catalogs to $8,995.00 for all it matters- they don't release any!

We're in year 3 of the format. The year BD begins to go mainstream, and Disney raises prices. Does anyone think raising prices will help grow the format? Anyone?

That's very true. Every major studio (including Lionsgate and even MGM) have surpassed them in titles release in 2009.

I wonder if next year, they'll be tossing in a cd sampler of the movie soundtrack and bump the list prices to $49.95 or higher. Actually, go ahead and toss in a little photo book and charge us $59.95.

Well, its an extra $5 in their pockets. While other studios are cutting prices (Warner with their budget releases), Disney decides to raise them. Hell, even MGM got with the program with their June 2nd releases which are $16.99 or so on Amazon. What the hell happened? Now that Blu-ray is "mainstream" they can up the prices? I'm baffled. I was pissed when they went from $29.99 - $34.99 last year right after HD DVD died, but not well over a year later raise again?

BTW, I am looking forward to the response on that other board to your question. I see they've been avoided your previous Disney/Criterion question but answered the Snow White one with

Followedby, of course, a dig at HD DVDers.

Now we have several Day and Dates and Catalog titles with a $5 premium price. While I can somewhat, somewhat, understand a $5 price bump for Platinum/Diamond releases due to the extensive work done on them (Pinocchio), I don't see where The Waterboy would fit into that mold.

They don't like pricing questions. I just asked my Criterion/Disney one again.

So I guess Best Buy, the nation's #1 retailer, will have $34.99 price stickers on all the new Disney day & date titles. That should entice people.

They can raise them all they want for all I care. I refuse to pay more than $29.99 MAX for a BD title, so they can fuck right off until those prices eventually come down.

Awesome.

This means I have less to buy and more money to spend on other stuff.

Additionally, I hardly every buy a title when it releases. Those who do are pretty much taking a hit, and we've seen as much in the Amazon Star Trek threads. I'll just sit back and buy something like this when it sells for half as much this Christmas.

Patience will make your Blu-ray collection grow rather nicely with little budget liability.

And I affirmatively agree with KillerCannibal.

Looking at Jonas Brothers 3D it now carries the $44.95 tag but Amazon discounted it down to $27.99. Normal price, but who knows if it will rise in the coming weeks/months. But like you said, Best Buy is the #1 retailer and it will no doubt be stickered $34.99-$39.99 "on sale" for $32.99. Complete bullshit.

Two words: "Previously Viewed". Given the scratch resistance of BDs, as long as I can still get the original case/art/inserts/etc., I have no problem at all waiting a couple of weeks or months to buy second hand. And I could care less if the stupid Digital Copy has already been claimed.

I suspect it will be a short lived experiment. Just over 25% of our collection is from Disney/Buena Vista, but if the prices go up like that we'll just wait longer for sales or get them used from Amazon Marketplace.

That's funny. My max is $15 but I tend to lean toward $10 to $12. I'll just keep waiting it out and keep renting.

QFT

With pricing like that (as others have mentioned), I can wait for price drops and eventual trips to the used BD bin.

All I can say for Disney is that they often put out the best blurays on the market, so far that reason they could justify the price increase. But when they see sales plummet for blurays being too expensive they will probably change their minds. Did they not learn anything from Fox and their early overpriced blurays.

Gangs of New York and The Sixth Sense beg to differ.

Well, he did say 'often', and I'd agree with him there. They've churned out a few clunkers, but when Disney's doing their best work, they eclipse pretty much everything from every other studio.

Yeah, but to the point where we should be paying $5 more because they do it so well? Not me.

I'll pay a little more for the classic Disney animated and Pixar flicks, but I won't go much over $25. I can wait for price drops for other stuff.

disappointing news for monsters, inc.. i will still pick it up at the cheapest B&M on release (the same goes for up). the rest of the aforementioned titles will be relegated to the rent pile.

I usually don't like to go above $24.99, but if it's something I REALLY want I'll drop $30. But that's on very rare occasions. I think $25 should be the sale price of all BDs.

It depends on where the actual street price ends up. If it amounts to just, say, two bucks at Amazon, then I can deal with that.