davidh777

Sounds like a great approach to me.

kd5

While the premise of my post last year still holds true, I'm still finding miscellaneous videos (whether DVD or blu-ray) that I end up buying although the instances are much fewer and further between than they used to be, once again because I already have most everything I ever wanted except for the new releases I know I'll enjoy. Only real difference is that I found Rawhead Rex (bought the Special Edition blu-ray when it was released last year). I am really not interested in down-sizing or attempting to put everything in binders, I like everything just as it is, although I may prune from time to time, albeit rarely. My wife and I enjoy spending our evenings together watching a good movie and/or TV show, we just don't like to try watching anything on live TV, it's so damned frustrating trying to get through all the advertising.

slybone

While flipping thru a stack of unwatched/unopened movies recently I came to the realization that if I could take back my last 20 or so purchases I probably would.

stingermck

Totally feel the same way.

Gizmo

Thats the kicker. For $10 or so a month Netflix has not only original TV and Movies, but a huge back catalog of older titles. Why pay that same price to see 1 single movie in a theater when I can enjoy dozens for the same price?

Sure, I won't see INSERT MOVIE on release day, but eh. Toss in Hulu and early digital releases and it's not really a big deal. I wonder how bad viewership would be down if not for MoviePass.

Its so tough to dump physical media. I was able to sell through a good portion of my 3D BDs on eBay, but I must have at least 1000 more Blu-rays. It seems no one wants them unless they are price at $1-$2. Has anyone had any good look with the scanner-software sites like Gazelle?

Why So Blu?

I still use second spin and Decluttr when selling off stuff I can't do on eBay.

Coral

I think more and more people don't feel as "pressured" to see a movie on release day because nowadays you only have to wait 2 or 3 months for it's release on streaming sites and DVD/BD.

And in the meantime, there's so many other movies that are available on Netflix, etc. that people didn't get to see in theatres either. Let's not forget shows. I honestly think it play a huge part in people's overall decline in buying/watching movies. I know they've taken a lot of my time.

orangerunner

I think this was, in some ways, a mistake on the studio's part. They shortened the theatrical release to video window to 3 months instead of 6 or more which never gave the movies any resonance or sense of lasting value.

By releasing them on video after 3 months the studios made their home video revenue quicker but I think consequently, this model also helped reduce the attendance in theatres.

In the 1980s and 90s, there used to be a sense that if you didn't see a movie within a few weeks of release, you were out-of-the-loop. There was also a sense of discovery and exclusivity of having seen a movie like "Goodfellas", "Clerks" or "Dazed and Confused" in a theatre long before everyone talked about them when they became widely recognized on home video.

For better or worse, that era is gone.

PhantomStranger

I'm not sure how a big movie fan can solely rely on Netflix's catalog. If all you had access to each month was Netflix's limited selection, you are missing a vast swath of quality entertainment. Frankly, I think Netflix's catalog is more miss than hit.

morriscroy

At times I wonder if these movie companies are now run by accountants (ie. number crunchers), who know very little to nothing about marketing movies.

starseed1981

The appeal of having a collection is long gone. Streaming is just way too convenient. I only have about 50 discs left which I'm keeping for sentimental reasons.

orangerunner

Yeah you have to wonder if they've micro-marketed every movie to a point where they've lost sight of things.

For instance, in the late 80s/90s I went with a few buddies to see films like "A League of Their Own", "When Harry Met Sally" or "Ghost" etc.

In this day and age those films would be compartmentalized as "chick flicks" thus reducing an audience that might otherwise go see it.

They're trying to market movies in the same vein as marketing laundry detergent. "This brand will appeal to white males between the ages of 14-23, an annual salary of $23,453 per year, drinks 4.3 cups of coffee a day and has .87 different girlfriends per year"

I'm always amazed at how the pundits can predict a film's opening weekend three weeks in advance and almost get it bang-on every time. Again, you have to wonder whether their predictions unfairly dictate the opening weekend outcome without letting audiences decide what they might like.

PhantomStranger

It's the rise of ticket pre-sales that gives the industry such predictive power over the box office. That really wasn't a factor 20 years ago.

Alan Smithee

Working at a theater, me and lots of other people there thought Titanic was going to be a huge bomb. I stopped predicting after that. Still don’t think it’s a great movie.

Coral

That's the thing - most people aren't "big movie fans". The average person has a very limited range of movies they're interesting in, and Netflix covers that range very well.

MLBFan24

I cut back mostly because I realized I only watched my purchased DVDs/BDs only a couple of times.

Now I only purchase two things:

The TV show "24" (which is over now, so no more purchases). If they ever release high def versions of the earlier seasons, I have no interest in upgrading.

and San Francisco Giants World Series films, which obviously only happens when they win the World Series, so that would be a rare purchase.

morriscroy

My experiences have been similar.

The type of movies I end up watching are mostly lousy action and scifi movies, and some superhero, fantasy, etc ... type stuff. So far this can be satisfied with several basic cable channels, if I'm not too interested in current/recent theatrical movies

I've been slowly coming to the realization I'm not really a movie person at all. I'm more of a tv person.

morriscroy

(Along similar lines).

It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out the only dvds I watched a lot were, was the original Dynasty and CSI Cyber.

Both shows are effectively over, and probably not likely to ever be released on bluray in regionA. If they do, I probably won't bother buying them.

I would buy the Dynasty 1991 reunion movie if it ever officially released on dvd. (I've watched it dozens of times already, in spite of being a really lousy movie).

sleepyhead55

It's funny I came to the exact opposite realization. I watch TV series once or maybe twice. My needs are perfectly served by Netflix.

Movies? There are no channels that serves my needs of 70s eurocrime, film/neo-noir, foreign films and whatever else I feel like watching.

I sort of came to this realization to this decision when I was randomly rewatching this BD I had seen on DVD before. I'd forgotten how much I'd genuinely enjoyed watching movies. At that point, I'd watched a ton of tv shows and not that many movies.

Now, I pay attention to film scores a lot more now and find them interesting in relation to the film.

I've been cutting back because of the space issue to answer the question.

DJariya

If I kept buying new movies every Tuesday like 10-12 years ago when it was the thing to do, I would have no money to travel, buy a car, pay my bills or eat. And I would've accumulated decades of stuff I'll never have time to watch.

As mentioned many times in this thread already, there is simply not enough time in the day to do everything I want to like go to the theatre, work, eat, sleep, watch TV, play video games, stream and watch your massive backlog of movies. It's just insanity that I'm sure none of you need.

And I'm sure most here have families and other far more important financial responsibilities than worrying about the entertainment you consume in your limited free time.

DJariya

WTF? This is like the 20th time you've mentioned this show. Is this like your favorite show of all-time. A 2-season shitty spinoff of the original CSI.

morriscroy

I'll agree it is a lousy show. No idea why I like watching it.

If I did have an all-time favorite show, it would probably be the original Battlestar Galactica.

morriscroy

Initially I thought the MacGyver reboot resembled a slightly "less dumb" version of CSI Cyber. Though after season 1, MacGyver started to become another difficult to watch silly/dumb procedural like Scorpion or the later seasons of Blacklist.

I suppose CSI Cyber and season 1 of the MacGyver reboot got the ratio of watchability to silliness/stupidity just right.

Michael Corvin

Pretty much this. It has nothing to do with space, streaming or anything like that. It's about money and time. Collecting is a huge money sink and finding the time to watch everything, spend with family, play games, read, play on DVDtalk, etc. is a exercise in futility.

morriscroy

Here's something else I noticed which may be somewhat tangential on the surface.

I have noticed my father and other older relatives that have accumulated large collections of stuff like music (vinyl, cd, etc ...), movies (vhs, dvds, etc ...), books, etc ... typically ended up spending all their waking hours watching television all day, after they retired. Typically they were watching stuff like sports or 24 hour news channels on cable (or satellite), and not stuff like movies, soaps, scripted/reality tv shows, etc ...

They rarely ever used anything from their collections (ie. cds, dvds, books, etc ...). They didn't even use anything like Netflix. One relative watches the BBC news channels all day, while flipping the channels with some sports channels playing live european soccer games. My father spends all day watching DW.

At times I wonder how many folks accumulated a large collection of music, movies, private library, etc .... thinking they would go through all this stuff after they retire, but end up spending all their time watching tv all day on sports or news channels (or soap operas).