re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Digital sell through potential will ultimately rely on favorable release windows, IMO. As DVD/Blu-ray new release sales dwindle, then they will begin to offer the digital movie sale a few weeks early. They have done it on a few experimental movies, but eventually they'll do it with major releases.

After all, timing is where most of the value of new releases lie to begin with. After a few months you can get most of them for much less than what it cost during release week, and by the following year many will be in the bargain bin.

Digital sell through should do better for TV shows than movies because there's a greater convenience upgrade. Catalog will do poorly except for obscure titles that haven't yet been released on DVD and those won't get many sales anyway.

Like Gizmo said, digital is more suited for rental than sell through. I think packaged media will always be around because that's what collectors want. Personally I love deluxe packaging such as digibooks and disc loaded with special features. Besides, I don't think digital 1080p will be as good as Blu-ray (I think the UV specs have lower bandwidths and bitrate limitations) and many collectors got to have the best available version and it's not going to be digital.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Universal had a different mix of movies to offer (in general) than did Sony or Disney. The quality of the movies were fine, it's just that they released more older dramas and comedies than anyone else. The Blu-ray exclusive studios had more newer hits available to release that catered to the format better. More action/adventure/comic book/CGI movies that PS3 owners wanted and that took advantage more of the benefits of HD. But Universal did release quite a few HD-favorable titles, especially early on.

Universal also took some heat for some sub par PQ releases, but it was more due to the movies as a whole being older, than to any other factor. Ironically, some of the initial HD DVD releases that have subsequently been released on BLu-ray (perhaps 15-20 of the total) are superior because Universal felt the need to scrub more of the grain/fine detail away.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

And again, that's one reason why catalog titles "don't sell"- SO many times, they intentionally mess them up with edge-enhancement, DNR, wrong sound mixes (like phony 5.1 when the original release was in mono, sometimes accidentally losing some dialogue and sound effects along with it!) and replacing the studio openings in some cases (United Artists has always been the worst offender in that regard, and Warner has been doing it lately too). I've upgraded many older titles but have avoided several others because of the intentional tinkering.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

The average consumer has no idea what edge-enhancement is, or what the correct sound mixes are, etc. These short-comings only effect an extremely small minority of people who visit forums like this - hardly enough to make a major difference in sales.

The biggest reason catalog titles aren't selling either people already have it on DVD and it's "good enough" or they'll just stream it with Netflix or wherever.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Catalog titles don't sell because there isn't a lot of interest in them.

The simple fact is that there have been tens of thousands of movies made, and the vast majority of them just don't hold any interest to the general public. This is why you see those 4, 6, and 8 movie packs in the bargain racks. Most movies aren't worth the shelf space in stores. For every big catalog movie like Star Wars, there are thousands that nobody gives a shit about.

We saw an interesting phenomenon in the early days of DVD where there was a confluence of factors that caused an unrealistic and unsustainable frenzy with DVD. It was a hot new technology, it existed for people who didn't want to bother with laser disc, companies like Reel and 800 were burning through investment capital, people were snapping up any DVD that they were even marginally interested in seeing.

Now that all of that has cooled off, we're seeing sales drop to a more realistic level.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Right. I think lower than expected catalog sales are partly responsible for the great Black Friday deals and the fact that we see so much price erosion, so many cheap multi-movie sets and Dollar Tree Blu-rays.

Blu-ray sales have always been dominated by new theatrical releases, and perhaps around 2/3 of it's sales are from new and recent movie releases. That's why we see such wild fluctuations in the weekly pie chart for Blu-ray. DVD on the other hand probably has only about 1/3 of its sales depend on new theatrical movies, since that format has so much depth in releases in general. Although catalog on DVD doesn't sell well anymore, the format still releases a ton of TV shows and other content. According to the DVD Release Report, DVD still releases about 5-6 times as many titles as does Blu-ray. So if this is happening over six years after launch and Blu-ray sales show signs of peaking, it would seem that Blu-ray is destined to be a supplemental format rather than a replacement format.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Yup, this was me for far too long. I'd see people on forums like this gushing over all manner of movies and I'd think about how I should expand my tastes and I just ended up not caring and selling off a ton of my DVDs unwatched.

Now I've narrowed my focus considerably, using Netflix and such to quench any desire to see something unusual and only buying titles I'm more specifically interested in like kaiju films and Doctor Who (with the caveat that I've been grabbing cheap used Criterion DVDs that I've been finding lately).

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

I agree with this (and the rest of your post). DVD had the perfect storm of factors that made it wildly successful. Blu-ray will never come close (and wasn't intended to). However, I'll also say that Alan Smithee's comments aren't completely unfounded nor entirely unrelated. For the most part, the type of consumer who would buy (or re-buy) catalog titles on Blu-ray is the type who does pay attention to and cares about the details and technical quality of a release. The studios were used to just shoving out catalog titles on DVD and having them sell regardless of how much effort was put into it. The same approach to catalog titles hasn't worked for Blu-ray, which should be no surprise to anyone, but seems to have surprised the studios anyway.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

However in the early days of DVD we saw all the studios make an effort for DVD with extra's and even in many instances they would revisit a title to put out a better transfer (full frame only release or non anamorphic transfer) or we would get an extra special edition. Yea people complained about double dipping etc...They cared in the early days of DVD because they could make a shitload of money off of it and in some instances they even listened to the consumer. Can't really say that now.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Except for a few, I don't think they're putting much effort at all into Blu-ray catalogs. They can't really afford to anyway. Nearly all of them simply reuse the extras that were on the DVD and in SD as well.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Totally true! In those days, rentals were $4, so to get to own a disc for $5 was a no-brainer. To me, Redbox changed EVERYTHING. I rate everything, even going to the theater starting with whether it is worth more than a buck to see.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

And I love how once again my comments are responded to with "The average consumer doesn't care..." The average consumer isn't going to be the one buying this stuff anyways, it's the people who really CARE that will ultimately keep everyone in business! If they were still making VHS tapes, most people would still be happy with those.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

That and any rental systems were either non-existent or in their infancy and a non-factor. I was one that boughts tons of shit titles and regret wasting the money. It was quantity over quality but I considered it a collection at the time. Now I've seen the error of my ways and am happy with the rental process and will only buy on occasion

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Forgive me if I haven't kept up, but I thought the exact opposite was the problem? All the people posting about keeping the old DVD for some feature that was dropped, even going so far as to buy multi-disc cases to make their own SEs. Has that gotten better?

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

It really takes no effort to port over the extras. The initial effort was putting them on the DVD in the first place.

Aren't the extras that fail to make it to the DVD as a result of contractural reasons or something along those lines? It surely wouldn't be for lack of space or "effort", unless that effort meant more money.

I am interested just as much as anyone else about getting all the extras ported over, but at the same time I thank DVD for being successful enough for making them even exist for them to be ported over.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

November 24:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/fil...rch-121012.jpg

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Looks like all those cheap blu-rays helped.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

There have been secular changes to the home video market that will ever prevent Blu-ray from attaining the market dominance that DVD once had in its heyday. The studios realize this and it's why they've downsized their home video divisions. Blu-rays can still be a healthy market without ever reaching the size of DVD's past market.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

December 1:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/fil...rch-121712.jpg

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

I believe this is the 2nd highest BR dollar total ever.

Number 1 total = Week Ending Dec 24, 2011 for $113.52 Million.

Interesting to see what totals will be for the week of Christmas, not as much is my bet. Not that many titles coming out.

But, there where not 1st release titles that sold that week, it was BR titles that were out for 2 weeks or more.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

Year End - ANOTHER 3 Year update...

DVD Sales is still off "about" 50% per same title over the past 3 years (now from 2009 to 2012):

2012 (F3b 11th) - The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1
DVD Sales Total for the Year = 5,366,152
Dollar amount for Year = $97,200,158


2009 (Mar 21st) - Twilight
DVD Sales Total for the Year = 10,233,407
Dollar amount for Year = $186,123,609

-Same movie title
-Release about the same time each year
-3 year change is around 45%

I am embarrassed on how my prediction on the "Death of DVD" did not even come close. Looks like DVD will be around for a little longer than I ever thought.

BR has made up for "some" of the DVD decline:
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1
...as of March 4, 2012 the BR has made over $33 Million, must have added a few more million since then.

***Looks like "The Hunger Games" is the big winner in the "DVD + BR" sales totals:
DVD Sales Total = 6,098,342
DVD Dollar Total = $107,158,418 (most for this year and last year)

BR Total = 3,113,833
BR $$ Total = $63,472,925

-I thought Avengers would be the top dog by a mile, but Avengers sold very well on BR, but the DVD sales were way off from what THG sold. The BR +DVD total of Avengers did not come close to the HG's BR + DVD totals. This was really surprising.


Avengers
DVD total = 3,639,507
Saels total = $65,814,327

BR total = 4,133,555
BR $$ total = $87,913,740


HG has sold about 1.5 million copies more of DVD/BR and has made about $20 million more than Avengers.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

December 8:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/fil...rch-123112.jpg

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

December 15:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/fil...ch-123112a.jpg

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

The Hunger Games sells to a much less sophisticated demographic from a home video standpoint. It's the difference between young males and young females. Piracy rates are much different between the two genders. Blu-ray is still largely dominated by a techie male consumer base.

re: Blu-ray and DVD sales - #2, but we try harder
 

December 22:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/fil...rch-010713.jpg