Coral

That's why I said "becoming" - my "if it isn't already" comment was mostly sarcastic. But it's definitely headed towards niche.
And you can't just look at the money aspect, since niche really refers to the size of the market in terms of consumers. Luxury yachts bring in billions of dollars in revenue, but it's still a niche market.

Telling people that you're playing a movie or listening to music from a disc gets me the same reaction that you'd get 10 years ago when saying that you're using dial-up to get to the internet.

Adam Tyner

Divide the $4.7 billion in revenue in the U.S. by the average price of a DVD/BD (which, I think you'll agree, is considerably less than a luxury yacht). You're still talking about significantly north of 100 million units, and, again, that's excluding the rest of the world. I just can't consider that to be a niche.

Coral

... yet.

PhantomStranger

I saw retail forces conspire to more or less kill off CD sales over the past three years. The music industry let it happen because they like the easy money of streaming revenue. The intense corporate consolidation of the past two decades in music didn't help much, either.

Once Hollywood thinks streaming revenue is big enough, they will help finish off physical media themselves. The endgame is permanently finishing off the concept of "personal ownership" by consumers. You don't own that film or song when you buy it, you paid a monthly fee to license it. That is where all entertainment industries are headed.

This may not happen in the next five years but it's a strong possibility by 2030.

Gizmo

I don’t really care about “owning” a film physically or digitally. If I want to watch it I can stream it somewhere/rent it.

I know the “but what if its not available anywhere to stream?!?” Comments, but really, not every film is readily available on disc either.

Spiderbite

That may be the case but if you bought it when it was available, you have it at your fingertips when you want it. And you don;t have to worry about bootlegs or streaming illegally.

I have many out of print movies and CDs that I hope never get hit by rot or broken because a ton of stuff is just not out there like the "just stream it" crowd claims it is.

morriscroy

I'm pretty much at the point where I can live with not accessing a particular piece of music, video, movie, tv show, book, etc ... regardless of the circumstances.

I've come to the realization and accept fully that I am not a tv/movie person at heart. I now know that most of my interest in dvd/bluray, had more to do with OCD compulsive buying/collecting than any actual genuine interest in movies + tv shows.

Gizmo

I would have to be collecting discs for 20 years to be able to not worry about that. Movies come and go so fast sometimes. Want to see Dawn of the Dead 1978? Good luck!

I own my favorites on discs so I’m fine. Maybe I miss a few catalog titles, but the ones I’m primary interested in are likely expensive or limited anyway (if I don’t already own them)

Coral

Streaming is the big reason ownership isn't as important to most people as it once was, but not just because you can theoretically watch it whenever you want on a streaming service.

Streaming services give people access to so many movies and shows that why bother watching something you already saw (whether streaming or on physical disc) when you can watch something new you haven't seen before?

When I was buying DVDs I found myself skipping the supplements more and more because I had so many other movies to watch and was falling behind. Now with streaming, it's a lot harder for me to watch the same movie over again when there's just so many other movies/shows I haven't watched before. I think this is a becoming a big factor with ownership. Movies are disposable to most people... watch it and move on.

Coral

I'm somewhat in the same boat. I liked the idea of having a great movie sitting on my shelf available to watch whenever I wanted - but realized that most would just sit there after one viewing only - so I figured what was the point of having it if I'm not going to watch it for many years?

Many were caught up in the OCD/collecting in the early DVD days. I remember during the early DVD years (when LaserDiscs still had some value), that someone wouldn't sell off a LD after the DVD came out simply because the DVD didn't come with the movies trailer in the supplements which the LD had. Even then I was amazed at someone turning down the money he would've gotten from selling the LD all because of a movie trailer. Who takes a movie from the shelf, pops it into their player just to watch the trailer?

Adam Tyner

coughcough

Gizmo

He has Dark Man on 9 different movie formats. Ya know, just in case he really wants to watch it on Laserdisc or HD DVD.

Coral

I don't believe it, because he would have to first find the shelf... then the movie... then his DVD/BD player. No way he finds all three of those things in his apartment.

WeeBey

Global numbers are in and physical media is continuing to shrink, this time down 50% year on year. Streaming media is up a whopping 161% which means it's likely to be the biggest source of revenue for Hollywood either this year or next year. Theatrical revenue has been growing outside of the US but is mostly flat overall.






https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.ph...&id=1527584684

Adam Tyner

That's not year over year.

The graph shows a 15.5% decline for physical media between 2016 and 2017. Also, streaming media is up 30.9% from 2016, not 161%.

BuckNaked2k

Dear Gawd!

Josh-da-man

Black Panther, I presume...

WeeBey

Yes, sorry, I misread.

Alan Smithee

Don't know if this article has been brought up, but it states the obvious- regardless of market trends, there are people who love this stuff and will continue to spend money on it as long as there's things worth buying.
https://www.mediaplaynews.com/super-...sc-dvd-market/

morriscroy

Heh.

A market which is highly dependent on hardcore fanatics and/or OCD compulsive completionist collectors?

E Unit

Ugh, quite a mis-read.

And as long as money can be made via physical media, the studios will continue to release stuff this way. That’s why it will never fully go away. Just because we don’t see countless aisles at Target anymore carrying it, it still exists and can be purchased rather easily.

PhantomStranger

But once a product space loses its mass market appeal, prices quickly go up and everything starts falling apart. It's much easier being a superconsumer when the market supports millions of others in it.

Studios may start licensing everything out to labels like Shout Factory. We are already seeing things like that happen.

DJariya

Wow, those are some huge bumps in sales. it must be Black Panther. That was the biggest release in the last 2 weeks.

bruceames

I can't see new theatrical disc releases losing mass market appeal (especially with the digital code included), and catalog has been niche for many years now but the prices have not gone up.

TheBang

That's never going to happen. It'll always have a price premium over BD, and never have the depth of titles.