DJariya

It certainly doesn't help that there's been a dry spell of new theatrical content for the last 9-10 months. Sure, a few titles here and there got released in theatres and are now coming to video, but most of them aren't hot big name movies.

Also, I think some people here aren't really keen on spending $20-25 on new catalogue titles on Criterion, Shout, Kino etc.

With HBO Max, Disney +, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock and many many more, there's an endless supply on new and old movies to just turn on with a remote. No need to run to Best Buy or Target to buy something you'll likely only watch once.

BuckNaked2k

BuckNaked2k

Gizmo

YoY vs Covid will be interesting to see

WeeBey

The decline of physical media globally in 2020 was mostly on trend but streaming really blew up.

Also: Considering these are global numbers, it's crazy how small the physical market has become.






Here are the percentages for 2020:





These graphs are from the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...a-theme-report


From the article:

PhantomStranger

New releases drive physical media sales. There were virtually no big movie releases during 2020 because of the pandemic and studios almost unilaterally pushed everything back. The problem is that one major studio (Disney) is actively trying to gut their own media sales for their streaming venture, while retail is moving away from media altogether.

slop101

Yeah, if Disney put out Mandalorian on blu/4K, it would sell like crazy, but they're not, because they'd rather have people sign up for Disney+

Josh-da-man

$12B seems kind of high for theatrical revenue considering theaters were only open for about 2 1/2 months in 2020. And that's even without the summer blockbuster season and the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, unless the big end-of-year releases carry over into January and February.

That $7B disc sales seem to compare favorably to $8.8B in 2019, considering new releases were probably used up by the summer. Even Spider-Man: Far From Home came out on disc in October 2019, so they didn't even have any big Marvel movies released on disc in 2020. That $1.8B drop from the previous year is the smallest one on the chart. Makes me wonder what titles were actually selling without new releases.

Adam Tyner

It wasn’t the same story globally, though. US box office was only $2.2B, according to the MPA. China was the world’s largest market last year.

WeeBey

2020 Box Office:

China - $3.3B
North America - $2.2B
Japan - $1.37
France - $542M
South Korea - $469M
UK & Ireland - $454M
German - $379M
Australia - $306M
Denmark - $101M
Sweden - $80.7M
Norway - $65.1M
Finland - $52.7M
Iceland - $5.2M


These countries plus Italy, Spain, Russia, and the rest of the world easily ads up to $12B.

JeffTheAlpaca

There will probably be less disc releases and that would suck if you had to get Apple + and Hulu and pay monthly fees if you wanted to see Greyhound and Palm Springs more than once.

BuckNaked2k

Alan Smithee

milo bloom

OK, so what came out that week in March that made DVD numbers jump? One of the Disney flicks?

Adam Tyner

Since there wasn't an enormous jump in revenue numbers (actually down a bit week-over-week), I wonder if it's the opposite -- not that DVD did especially well that week, but just that it was worse this time last year.

Ish Kabbible

You're now up against last years almost complete shut down of brick & mortar stores and folks afraid to leave their homes (mostly in the large cities on the east and west coast). Things are much looser now and yet just a 1.6% increase. Well, there hasn't been much in new releases this past year as well

PhantomStranger

I remember seeing media sales jumped a little early during the lockdown's early months since many non-streamers were getting bored with television/theaters/sports all shutting down at the same time. Media sales didn't collapse or anything last year when the Pandemic first hit.

Gizmo

I thought disc sales jumped around the early part because people were panic buying DVD players or some crap like that.

WeeBey

Last week of March 2020 was brutal so being up only 1.6% in 2021 is pretty bad. The challenge this year is the lack of major new movie releases. There was Wonder Woman 1984 in the first week of April but now there's nothing on the horizon for months.





Physical media sales didn't really pick up last year until the last week of April to mid May before they collapsed again until November. Also, keep in mind there have been seismic changes to the home media market since last year with Disney+ coming up on 100 million subscribers and HBO Max coming up on 50 million. I believe the average American pays for 3 streaming services now and that's expected to grow. This obviously eats into in DVD/BD budgets.

I used to think that as physical media became more niche we would see Blu-ray start to win over DVD as only the enthusiasts remain in the market but now I wonder if it's the opposite. Maybe people who don't want to or can't subscribe to streaming choose DVD over BD either because they're low income or they just want to watch a movie but their internet sucks. Everyone else subscribes to streaming services and the few who are into boutique labels are too small in number to put dents in sales figures. It will be interesting to see how these numbers trend this decade.

BuckNaked2k

Is bruceames still around these parts? He always posted a good EOY chart.

PhantomStranger

The problem now is that large retail chains like Best Buy and Target are severely cutting back on carrying media in stores. That puts a cap on how much media could even sell these days.

Gizmo

They are cutting back because it’s not selling and that space can be used for more valuable items.

orangerunner

When it comes to new releases, the enthusiast market has moved to 4K (which usually include a Blu-ray) and the budget-minded/bargain-bin market has stuck with DVD leaving Blu-ray in no-man's-land. Other than catalogue niche titles that are Blu-ray only, it's becoming the unwanted middle-child of the format tier. This is just among the small minority who actually still buy physical discs.

morriscroy

Even if bluray is the unwanted middle-child, the primary reason I can see bluray still being around is if too much 2nd tier (and lower) catalog titles do not have 4K + hdr resoluton transfers. Either due to laziness and/or the original movie companies don't give a damn anymore about long forgotten titles.

At this time, I doubt a bottom feeder like Mill Creek would be paying for their own 4K restorations.

BuckNaked2k