morriscroy

I use to think exactly the same way too!

(One of several reasons why I started buying a lot of dvds/blurays, back in 2011).

Though in the process since 2011, I gradually came to the realization that I wasn't a tv/movie person at all either.

BobO'Link

Exactly. Every point. We do not watch sports in my house. Ever. I've regularly (about every 2-3 months) told my cable provider they need to move the sports channels to subscription tiers, let it pay its own way, and stop forcing people who have no interest into subsidizing it for those who do want it. If I had my way we'd drop cable entirely as I no longer watch anything on it but my wife won't let me (she watches some of the women's channels).

Coral

I remember reading back in 2005 Alliance Atlantis (in Canada) included a forced commercial on the "Finding Neverland" DVD. It was a commercial for a truck or car and you couldn't skip past it either.

The thought of being subjected to a commercial, one in which you couldn't bypass, on something that you actually bought had me fuming (was concerned it was going to be a standard practice after this test phase). Massive complaints killed it from happening again, but it's pretty low of them to even attempt it. Can you imagine popping in a DVD 10 years later and have no choice but to watch a commercial... and for a product that you could no longer purchase to boot?

I rarely go to the theatres, but I went last year and was surprised and pissed that they had commercials before the movie started. I don't know when they started that, but trailers are fine - standard commercials are unacceptable. $13 for the ticket should be enough to avoid it.

Adam Tyner

The overwhelming majority of channels are each getting a couple of dimes or sometimes even just a couple of pennies from your cable/satellite bill.

Josh-da-man

Doctor Strange, I presume?

orangerunner

Support for 4K UHD does seem to be getting stronger.

I've noticed TV ads for the movie "Passengers" touting 4K UHD first, then Blu-ray and Digital with no mention of DVD.

Store flyers seem to be mixed bag with some of them advertising the DVD because of the lower price and some of them pushing the 4K version.

Sub-Zero

March 11:

mattysemo247

Moana helped

arbogast777

I think it's still amazing that DVD sales dropped in a week with a Disney release. It's not like the kids care about the quality...

mattysemo247

Parents might spring an extra couple bucks for the blu for the digital copy.

Sing this week should help the next report.

Alan Smithee

I bought the 3D disc on day 1 just to show support, even when Target had it close to full price. I saw some other people at another Target buying that edition also. Who says NOBODY buys 3D?

I pre-ordered Sing along with Assassin's Creed (both in 3D) from Amazon a few weeks ago when they had a coupon, but they haven't shipped yet!

bruceames

This. Disney's DVDs don't have digital copies and it's getting to where most kids are watching the digital copy instead of the DVD. So it's worth the extra $5 to get both the Blu-ray and DC.

bruceames

I bought the 3D. It's only a few bucks more anyway. Would have bought the 4K instead but obviously it's not available. I've been getting into 3D again (especially the older ones like It Came from Outer Space), but my grandkid hates the glasses so we watch the 2D instead. With a 4K version it would be a win-win for both (although she probably wouldn't appreciate the difference between 4K and Blu-ray, at least she doesn't need glasses).

arbogast777

mattysemo247

Ouch. It doesn't look like Sing and Assassin's Creed set the charts on fire.

bruceames

Sing will be in next week's chart.

WeeBey

The RIAA just released 2016 music sales data. Streaming made up the majority of music revenue in the US for the first time in 2016. Streaming is killing paid digital downloads and physical at the same time. CDs way down and LPs saw small growth. Because of streaming the music industry saw it's first double digit growth in 20 years. You can come to your own conclusions about what these music trends mean for the future of movies.






Paid subscriptions are UP UP UP:






Digital Downloads are DOWN DOWN DOWN:




Physical not doing so hot:



Just to be clear: Left column is 2015, followed by 2016, followed by percent change year over year. It looks like CDs will be under a billion in revenue this year, won't be long until they're not worth making anymore for many companies. I wonder how many years until they earn less than LPs. I also wonder whether LPs best days (in this resurgence period) are behind it. LP growth averaged 38% a year from 2012 through 2015, so 2016 represents a major slowdown. Now possible it will start shrinking like the rest of the physical media in music.

BuckNaked2k

Hipsters tired of vinyl already?

milo bloom

We do mostly streaming these days but if I do buy something, even a movie for my kid, I'm going to almost always buy the Bluray. Now that we have an Xboxone in the bedroom, I don't even need the DVD anymore.

WeeBey

I was curious, so I made a chart from the debut of CDs to last year to see what the curve looks like. Here it is:



Some points of reference: First music CDs came out 1982, Napster released in 1999, the iTunes Store in 2003, YouTube in 2005, Spotify in 2006, and Apple Music in 2015.

I'm sure DVD/BD will end up with a similar looking curve, I wonder where on that curve they are right now. I'll try to make one of these for them tomorrow.

E Unit

Congrats, you trended basically every piece of tech and media in the history of tech, from VHS to blu and more than likely UHD. Not sure what you're point is. Only differentiator is that CD plays music (for the most part), whereas DVD blu many times contain a ton of extras including audio commentaries and whatnot. Does it affect sales? Sometimes perhaps. Of course streaming has affected sales of media, but the important thing to call out is that they still sell and will continue to remain available. Will they go the way of VHS? Doubtful.

bruceames

Physical media would be down even more if they didn't include a digital code. Lots of people prefer to get their digital movies through a physical purchase (better value, almost the same price anyway), but it counts 100 percent towards physical.

Do some new release DVDs still come with digital codes? I see most (like Sing and Moana) don't have them (according to the back cover). I wonder what the DVD shares would be if it came with a code just like the BLu-ray. For example Sing DVD was only $2 less with no code so no wonder why the Blu-ray got a 65% share (it's amazing it wasn't even higher).

Alan Smithee

I think I bought more CDs in 1985 (first year I had access to a player) than I did in 2000. Funny that sales peaked long after I'd grown tired of them, mainly from price increases. In the early to mid 90s I'd buy a ton of CDs every time I got paid, but by the end of the decade I hardly bought any. When paying for music these days I'd still rather buy a CD, I've still never paid for any online music. There's enough of that available for free (mainly ad-supported Spotify).

PerryD

It feels like streaming is here to stay for music. It satisfies those of us that like to create our own playlists, and those that just like to stream pre-made playlists (like radio).

Vinyl had a good run for 50+ years, and I enjoyed making my mix tapes to share with friends or play in my car or boombox. Making CD playlists seemed more difficult having to burn CDs. Once we moved to mp3s, I was enjoying putting together playlists again. But now with Spotify, it's really easy to drag and drop to create playlists and playback at work, in the car, etc. I can't imagine going back.

For streaming movies, until the technology catches up with the quality of the current physical medium, it's better to own the physical copy. If Netflix had everything like Spotify has everything, and were to stream Atmos audio with 4K video on all new releases, I would switch over to streaming. But we're not there now.

bruceames

I never subscribed to those music streaming channels. Do they have the latest hits on it?

Netflix doesn't have the latest movies and only gets them after the physical sell-through window runs dry. So that alone will keep physical media going strong for a long time.