BuckNaked2k

No, I just stopped at the end of last year as my posts seemed to generate very little discussion.

Alan Smithee

I was watching them, but usually didn't have anything to add other than the stats were just sad most of the time. Again I have to wonder at this point how much decline in sales is due to stores not stocking as many movies? Perhaps it's for the best as I'm out of shelf space, but I made tons of impulse buys at Target when going there to buy everyday stuff. With that coming to an end, I'm going to other stores that never had movies but do have a better selection of food and other stuff than Target, so they're really losing my business now.

PhantomStranger

I definitely visit Target less these days than the glory days of media.

Coral

I'm sure the stores not stocking many movies only accounts for a very small reason for the sales decline. It's strictly supply and demand. The stores always had the supply, but kept reducing it to match the decreasing demand. If it were profitable, they'd keep stocking the movies. The only loss of sales are from the niche market for physical formats - and there's just not enough of that market to justify the cost of carrying a wide selection.

Gizmo

You are definitely in the minority. One of my Best Buys flat-out removed all physical media and the other one has a "wall" worth, which is usually 100 or so random new releases/evergreens/disney.

Retailers will continue to shrink an area that brings in little to no revenue. Target gladly cobbled up that physical media space at my stores as well, which now features more seasonal crap.

Gizmo

I do too, but not due to physical media, but inflation and the fact I can get it cheaper elsewhere or not bother with barely stocked stores with no employees where I check myself out.

Alan Smithee

One thing Best Buy has done right is no longer stocking new titles on standard DVD. The only DVDs they have now are older TV shows that were shot on standard-def video. But I don't know what's been making up for my not going in nearly as often as I used to. Are they going to start selling "As seen on TV" stuff like Blockbuster did in its last years?

Gizmo

Profit margins are probably terrible on new release DVDs, and at this point almost 2 decades since Blu-ray was introduced, they can just sell the BD + Digital copy and be done with it.

Alan, nearly everyone is streaming in the US. You might think the world needs to see a 50GB Blu-ray movie in all its glory, but everyone else is satisfied with streaming on their expendable $350 "4k" TV that is mounted with no disc player in sight (unless they use their gaming consoles to play movies).

How cheap are TVs now? It's crazy I can buy a 4K one for less than the price of a PS5. I have a 55" 2017 LG TV that still looks great, but damn, time to get an OLED at these prices. Like, WTF happened to make them SO CHEAP?

PhantomStranger

As far as I can tell, Best Buy mostly sells smartphones and appliances these days. Their stores are way too big for what they carry now in stores.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, streaming has taken over. Most people are more than happy to watch stuff on Disney+ or Netflix. They don't want to live in homes filled with DVDs, blu-rays, and 4K UHDs they bought once and won't watch again.

We had about fifteen or so years where people were snapping up movies and tv series on optical discs like crazy, but that has cooled down with the advent of streaming. The simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority of people would rather pay a small monthly fee for an all you can eat buffet of content rather than buy up a bunch of DVDs. And the content providers seem happy enough to have a recurring revenue stream that doesn't require them to manufacture and distribute a physical product.

morriscroy

It is not "done right". It goes straight into the dumpbin without ever showing up in the "new releases" rack.

morriscroy

He/she is entitled to believe whatever they want, regardless of what anybody else does with their entertainment dollars/euros/rubles/shekels/pesos/yens etc ...

Nevertheless, such similar folks in their own "echo chambers" are an endless source of entertainment, and a confirmation of the phenomenon studied by psychologists about doubling down on debunked beliefs. For example, such as in the book "When Prophecy Fails".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails


It is even more entertaining, than watching actual real movies !

Coral

If that's the case, then DVDs are outselling BD/UH-BD unit-wise by a larger margin than I thought. Maybe representing 70-80% of unit sales each week.

Adam Tyner

Surely this stuff is tracked at point-of-sale, right? I’m not sure how bypassing a new release shelf means its sales are not being accounted for.

Coral

I mean that if it's going straight to the dumpbin on release, then it's immediately set at bargain-bin prices... which means to account for the revenue they've generated, they must've sold more titles than thought.

morriscroy

Garbage titles showing up doa into the dumpbins.

Not-garbage titles takes a few months to show up in dumpbins, even if they never show up on the new-release racks. In the past, it would take over a year or longer for non-garbage titles to start showing up in dumpbins.

Alan Smithee

Definitely haven’t seen a dumpbin at Best Buy recently, I know they had a dumpbin of CDs for a while after they had stopped carrying new titles but they don’t have that anymore.

morriscroy

With that being said, I rarely ever see Marvel and Star Wars dvds in the dumpbin, especially after Disney took complete ownership. Previous titles released by Fox, Sony, Paramount, etc ... were dump bin fodder after many years such as Spiderman, X-Men, Phantom Menace, etc ...

morriscroy

One nearby BB still has a dvd/bluray dumpbin, oddly enough. Somewhat surprising.

milo bloom

We hit Menards over the weekend (I was two edibles deep by that time, so that was certainly interesting) but I always make it a point to check out their DVDs and Blu-rays. They always have a section near food in the back that's stuff on shelves, a lot of westerns and generic action films, but also complete series sets (like Seaquest DSV and the 80s TMNT) and near the front they have a dump bin of shovelware and mockbusters. I don't find anything to buy very often, but it's always fun to look.

ViewAskewbian

It's becoming more difficult to snag blus/4k in Canada I am finding with Best Buy online even not stocking some releases (just tried to get Christmas Vacation 4k and Thor Love and Thunder, both not on the site that I am finding). Also Amazon.ca on more recent releases not selling them themselves and relying on market sellers (Lightyear, for example, is listed at $9.48 but when you click it's actually sold by somebody called MOVIES&GAMES with $7 shipping . . . Thor: Love and Thunder is sold by GAME KINGDOM etc)

ViewAskewbian

I just found A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation 4k on Walmart.ca, added to my cart for a total of $72. Then on the final order page it rang up as $149.16. Double checking, Walmart too online not selling it themselves. Relying on, in this instance, DeepDiscount which is charging $75 (more than the cost of both movies!) to ship.

Urgh!

Brian T

Seeing the stats posted in this thread over the years, I couldn't help but wonder how 4K sales figures stack up against those. Or are they included in the Blu-ray numbers?

Either way, if DVD routinely outsells Blu-ray -- which has never surprised me in the least, even in 2022 -- then surely 4K must be a very small percentage of overall sales in terms of units moved? (Of course, mention in certain threads here that you still [gasp!] buy the occasional DVD – or even [double gasp!] older formats simply to be able to see movies unavailable anywhere else – and some folks automatically think you only collect obsolete formats, or are somehow anti-4K, and so on ).

I do see that Amazon.ca itself directly sells all four titles that you mentioned. Amazon's own offerings just don't seem to occupy the 'Buy Box' (or wherever it's called) in many cases because there's some deal where Marketplace sellers can pay a fee for that privilege. Regardless, you'll pay pretty close to the going rate up here of around $35-40+ for those 4K sets. Puzzles me that people actually happily these prices, especially for old movies that are still funny/compelling/exciting/scary regardless of the format, but to each their own. Mind you, the regular Blu-rays for the two Christmas movies are overpriced enough in Canada compared to what our American friends pay (we're often 2x or 3x higher), which is a primary reason that I continue to maintain shipping addresses over there. It wouldn't be much of a hobby at all if I had to rely solely on Canadian retailers at Canadian prices! Canada vs US pricing on most 4K discs generally seem to be comparable after the exchange is factored in (though the tax up here must surely sting a bit).

ViewAskewbian

Thanks for tipping me off on this. I see now once clicking the NEW tab that a few notches from the top lists AMAZON (though about $10 more expensive in some instances). Interesting.

And, I hear you about US pricing. I finally bit on the Citizen Kane Criterion 4k when I saw it at $24.00 on Amazon.com. With the conversion and shipping, it comes to $47 total Canadian which is still cheaper then the $59.46 Amazon.ca wants for it. Even with the 35% off over a Unobstructed View, Kane is $51.99 before taxes, $4.99 shipping AND their $10 "box set" charge (bringing it to $74.57). Over at Cinema1, where I often purchase cheaper items from, it totals $84.73.

Soooo, yeah, now there's a lot more hunting around to find the best price and it isn't always in our own country.

Adam Tyner

I'm not sure. They only routinely break out UHD when it comes to top selling titles. But the long tail favors DVD, so the longer down the list you go, the more DVD dominates.

A few examples: