Josh-da-man

Not surprising this Black Friday was a bust. Very slim offerings, and many were 4K UHD, which a lot of people still haven't upgraded to.

Adam Tyner

On the boutique side of things:

milo bloom

I’ve been saying for a while that the boutique labels will be what keeps physical media going.

Although I still wish Disney would release shows like The Mandalorian out on disc, maybe in a nice set with an art book or something.

morriscroy

Similar to the vinyl market propping up indie record companies ?

Alan Smithee

I remember when the Friday the 13th set went up for order, you couldn't even get onto their website without trying several times because they got slammed with orders. It's good that people still get excited about these kinds of releases. Some of the lesser-known titles that boutique labels put out though, I don't know how they even break even on them but I guess they wouldn't put them out if they were losing money on them. It's got to be hurting them that stores like Tower and Borders are gone, leaving mail order as just about the only way to get those kind of titles.

BuckNaked2k

Is anyone else surprised by the massive number of titles which have been released on 4K? In spite of the rapid and undeniable drop-off in overall sales volume, an amazing number of boutique and catalog titles continue to be released on 4K. I am truly shocked every time I look on the other site and see the announcements for upcoming releases.

PhantomStranger

The niche labels realize UHD is their last shot at monetizing genre films they own.

Inhumans99

Buck, I have just recently started to get back into occasionally buying physical media again and it has indeed been a pleasant surprise regarding what films are popping up in UHD/4K, and as noted in the Shout thread, you could knock me over with a feather over how surprised I was that a Holy Grail title of mine like Alligator is being released in 4K.

Some of these long-awaited films or hidden gems that get released by the boutique labels will be what prevents me from only going streaming all the time. The Shawscope set, Alligator, even something current and a series of films that is going through a triple dip Blu/UHD release like the Ultimate Ghostbusters set will soon be in my collection. The nice thing is that I have no plans to resell the Shaw set, Ultimate Ghostbusters, or Alligator, as these are releases I want to keep.

To be fair, over the past 18 months some additional surprise releases for me were Split Second on Blu, and the Arrow ultimate Gamera set that I was lucky enough to purchase (well, actually my Dad was the buyer and it was gifted to this very happy camper) before it went OOP. It is still a fun time to be a fan of physical media releases.

I remember that it was not all that long ago when folks were declaring that physical media is dead, but even though I am not a fan, releases like the Halloween films from Shout, and their Friday The 13th box set show that the market for physical releases is alive and well. Oh yeah, as noted in the GB thread, Amazon is sold out of their initial allotment of Ultimate GB sets (which I ordered on the 1st), so long live physical media even though I also love how much content we can consume via the streamers.

I may not buy a lot of titles, but I really do appreciate that the option remains to buy them and not only having to rely on certain films hitting streamers to be able to view them.

BuckNaked2k

milo bloom

A bump for Christmas and the days after. Not too surprising.

I wonder if Dune will move enough units to move the needle.

Inhumans99

I did not realize that this thread has been inactive for over 2 months, I was on that other blu ray site and they had a link to a brief post about weekly/monthly dvd sales and mentioned that Alligator made it up to number 13 on the list of reported sales when it was first released, which is pretty darn impressive and further proof that Shout took the time to create a release of this film that folks would want to purchase. So yeah, dvd/blu/UHD is far from gone and as someone who has declared in other threads that I am pretty chill that so much stuff is only available on streaming sites, I do admit that it is still nice that so many titles from when I was a kid/teen/young adult (so from 1971 to the mid 1990s, when I was in my mid-twenties) are making their way onto a home video release.

Heck, Alligator is just more proof that so many films have yet to be released or are still not available to stream. I love that I can stream so much content, but yes, there are a lot of fun movies like Alligator that have yet to see the light of day in the form of being streamed in 4K picture quality, or getting a nice blu/uhd release.

Gizmo

The fact that Alligator made it that high just shows no one is buying physical media except die hard collectors....the ones that buy an ancient, overpriced movie on UHD.

Like, where do you even buy Alligator in an actual store from? Target and Walmart are not stocking it on the shelves, probably not Best Buy which is now more of a "we stock super hero and Disney movies only" store.

Adam Tyner

There are some specialty stores that still stock this stuff, like Orbit DVD in Asheville and Grindhouse Video which is soon to reopen in Knoxville.

But by and large, it's a niche, specialty item that you'll probably have to order online. You can still find some weird, offbeat, random movies at retail (especially Walmart), but if you're looking to buy a boutique release, it's probably not going to be an impulse buy at a big box retailer. (There are some exceptions, but they're rare.) But since hardly anyone was buying boutique releases at big box retailers, there's no real incentive for big box retailers to stock them. I don't think it's a chicken-and-egg problem, where media sales would be rich and robust if only they were better stocked in stores. Greater availability would surely move the needle a bit, but I feel like greatly diminished consumer interest far, far, far more significantly impacted B&M retail support vs. the other way around.

joltman

It actually is in-store at Best Buy, the site says my local store currently has 2 copies in stock

Coral

No doubt. I didn't even know what this movie was.
An old title that not many have heard of and wasn't even popular at the time of release being in the top 20 sales is more proof that physical media in general is slipping into irrelevance.
During DVDs heyday, a title like this wouldn't crack the top 20.

Adam Tyner

Down in the U.S., Alligator was a fixture on TV. It got a whole lot more eyeballs on ABC than it did in theaters (in fact, the film's producer didn't see the point in a "real" theatrical run once ABC had opened their checkbook), and although I was too young to remember that, it was a mainstay on UHF channels growing up. There's a big nostalgic allure, it had been out of circulation on home video for ages, and it's sincerely a good movie -- one of the better "Jaws, only with a _______" knockoffs. It was the same deal with RAD a couple years back, only...well, minus the Jaws comparison.

Gizmo

Gosh that’s probably how I watched it. I’ve seen it several times but never owned it. I feel like this was a USA/TNT/TBS staple.

Josh-da-man

A movie like Alligator probably sold as well now as it would have ten or fifteen years ago.

It's all the stuff around it that's bottomed out.

Alan Smithee

Monty Python and the Holy Grail made the top 10 DVD sellers when it was first released, after that the top 10 was mostly mainstream newer movies.

The top laserdisc sellers often included odd titles. They were priced so high I don’t know how they could have sold many of some movies.

milo bloom

If you can find an old laserdisc catalog, many of the regular titles were MSRP around $40. Not cheap like DVDs now but also not out of reach as a once a month hobby purchase.

The big box sets were a lot more, but those were bought by the hardcore hobbyists.

Josh Z

Yeah, the average movie-only, CLV edition Laserdisc sold for about $34.99 to $39.99, except for Fox Titles, which were often absurdly priced at $59.98 for some reason. Once you start adding bonus features, then you've got a "Special Edition" and the price would escalate.

Josh-da-man

And, keep in mind that a $40 laserdisc (standard definition, most likely pan-and-scan) bought in the late 80s or early 90s would be the equivalent of $80-$100 in current dollars.

Looking through old catalogs, I'm always dumbstruck just how expensive electronics used to be. VCRs were $300+ in the 80s. CD players could run several hundred dollars. And, taking inflation into consideration, you can pretty much double those numbers to compare them to today's dollar value.

A nice stereo rack system would put you back more than a decent used car. And laserdisc players were in neighborhood of $800-$1200 dollars. And a good CRT television like a 27" Trinitron could almost reach $1000 as well.

clckworang

Yep, I purchased my copy for in-store pickup.

An upgrade to Alligator has been long sought after by horror fans. It has been a frequent Blu-ray request, so the fact that it got a UHD was a big deal. And horror fans are one of the few groups who will actually still buy physical releases.

Josh Z

Letterboxing was a standard feature on Laserdisc by the early '90s.That was one of the selling points to distinguish the format from VHS.

My first LD player was an entry-level Pioneer CLD-S201. IIRC, it sold for $399. That was a very basic, no-frills machine. Single-side play only (no auto-flip - I had to manually eject and flip over the disc), no freeze frames on CLV discs, and a pretty noisy picture. At the top end was the CLD-D704 for $1,499.99 with dual-side play, a frame memory for freeze-frames on CLV discs, and NR controls to tame chroma noise.

There were also even more expensive models in Pioneer's "Elite" line, but those were basically just ritzier versions of the blue-collar models with a shinier finish and fancier face plates. Very few differences to the actual electronics inside.

And they weighed a ton! I remember buying a 27" Toshiba at Lechemere (local electronics chain, now defunct), and it took two people to carry. I couldn't even fit it in the backseat of my car without unboxing the damn thing.

E Unit

Ha, I had a 36” tube. It sat in one spot for years, only because of the weight and I needed 5 spare friends at once to move it.

Fox sucked on their prices. Biggest spend on one movie was $100 for The Abyss.