akwarner

I was just over at Target to pick up a copy of The Scorpion King (pricematched to Kmart @ $14.95 and using the $5 coupon from scorpionking.com) and saw a disturbing thing. On the display where they had the new releases they had two signs. One said Scorpion King Fullscreen $16.99 and the other said Scorpion King Widescreen $17.99. I've never seen this before and I sincerely hope this is not the start of something bad. For what it's worth, the widescreen rang up as $16.99 anyway before the pricematch and coupon but this really concerns me.

A.

waskydiver

Question is are they jacking up the Widescreen price or dropping the fullscreen price.

Either way, it could be interpretted that supply and demand is dictating the lower price for the fullscreen version, because no one wants the crap.

BravesMG

There's another thread talking about this, supposedly Target misprinted the widescreen price and the individual stores were supposed to correct the signs. Apparently some chose not to or didn't get the instructions so some are selling the WS for more than the FS. I wonder if it rings up correctly or not.

Cornelius1047

This is more anti-bargain than bargain.

Here: http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=240637

moocher

Nothing against your thread AK, but I don't believe one incident denotes a "trend" (even if it wasn't a misprint). I have not seen any difference in FS vs WS pricing anywhere. Once in a while an anomally will pop up and it is posted here but it usually turns out to be just what this incident was - a mistake.

bardevious

Saw the same thing at Circuit City a few days ago:

Grease P&S $16.99
Grease WS $19.99

Not sure it's indicative of a trend, per se, but it did strike me as interesting.

Timelord

At CC it was reversed, the WS was $16.99 and the PS was $19.99

Aaron Amos

At my job we price both versions of the DVD the same price. I wonder if making the PS more expensive(which I dread stocking) would make the PS people go over to WS?

collven

I guess no one remembers, they did this with Lord of the Rings as well. Widescreen version was $5 more. Well, at least it was a couple of weeks after release.

hardtack

I would argue that supply and demand are indeed dictating the lower price - they can afford to sell the P&S cheaper as they know they are going to shift far more units... that is the sad reality.

renaldow

Where was this at? I never saw that at any retailer I've been in.

renaldow

Will people stop it with this myth?! WS DVD's far out sell their FS counterparts. If you look at the figures for DVD sales in the US, it's a fact. There was an oddity that made news last month when one film (LOTR, maybe, I forget the title) had one week where the FS version was ahead of WS. Since then, the FS version has dropped way down the chart while the WS version still remains in the top 10.

If you follow the weekly national DVD sales, you'll notice that the FS version of a film may be in the top 10 the first week of release, but it's a rarity to see it after the 3rd, while the WS version may be in the top 10 for weeks at a time. Sales figures do not lie. Why people get upset at seeing FS versions being sold in stores with 'mart' in their name that pander to the lowest common denominator of customer is beyond me. FS DVD's, and their buyers, will always remain a niche market.

HistoryProf

Amen Brother! (or sister ) Sometimes I wonder if folks around here would start bitching if everyone started buying widescreen....for then they'd have to stop bitching and moaning about conspiracies and how the 'public' doesn't get it....geez.

captmuggy

I managed a music store for many, many years that had a great stock of VHS. Guess what! The large majority of the time the widescreen version of the movie was in fact a few dollars more than the P&S version! Also, the widescreen version was rarely on sale when the P&S version was. So, is this becoming a trend because of a few incidents? Let's hope not for our sake!

hardtack

I would hardly say that I was bitching about people buying WS or P&S... I was simply making a comment that related to how I perceived the situation. I couldn't care less what format people have a preference for - except when it results in situations such as occurred here in Australia where Harry Potter was released in P&S only format as they considered there to be not a big enough market for it in widescreen format (they have since relented and will release the ws version soon).

However, I would certainly be interested in seeing the sales figures that compare the sales of P&S vs Widescreen for titles that are released in both - LotR, Hatty Potter, Star Wars etc etc. I asume that renaldow is able to point me in the right direction (a URL would be nice) as he seems to be rather certain of the current state of affairs regarding sales. The only mention of comparisons I could find was atDVDFile.com for Phantom Menace figures that put the P&S version of that title selling at approximately three times the rate of the widescreen release after the first week of sales (something in the order of 1.7m P&S to 660,000 widescreen).

I have tried searching Google on every combination of terms I could think of in an effort to find more comprehensive figures but alas, with no success. Does someone have a link to one of the companies responsible for recording such information such as VideoScan (do they even have a site - if so, I was unable to find it or any reference to it)?

regards, Tim...

renaldow

A number of magazines and newspapers carry Vidtrac or Billboards top 10 (or 40) DVD sales for the week. Entertainment Weekly and USA Today, for example. It sounds like you're in Australia, these are for the US.

I don't mean to criticize, but you must not have looked very hard. Going to yahoo and searching on 'top 10 DVD sales' I get:

http://movies.excite.com/top_video.html
http://www.billboard.com/billboard/c...videos/dvd.jsp
http://www.etonline.com/movie/boxoffice/
http://hometheaterinfo.com/topvideo.htm
http://www.dvdfile.com/news/sales_statistics/

For the most part those represent Billboard's sales figures, which has The Rookie (FS) in at #10. The problem with Billboard is that it's not 'real time' sales, it's projected sales about a week in advance. Check the date on Billboard's site. A more reliable (and harder to get for free) top 10 comes from Vidtrac. Vidtrac rental data can be found, but actual sales data is usually at a membership type site, or in a magazine like EW.

Here's Vidtrac's current top 10 DVD sales, compare how it varies to BB's.

1 Monsters Inc
2 Panic Room
3 Blade II
4 The Count of Monte Cristo
5 Changing Lanes
6 40 days & 40 nights
7 Frailty
8 We Were Soldiers
9 LOTR (WS)
10 Van Wilder

Sc0rPs

It's the opposite usually around my area, A&B has the widescreens on special meanwhile the full screen version of that same movie if a few dollars more.

MarkHarrill

We usually charge more for Pan and Scam/Full Screen titles than the Widescreen releases. In our experience Widescreen outsells Pan and Scan 50 to 1.

I really see no need to perpetuate the ignorance.

jim_cook87

Why should they charge full price for P&S, they're only selling part of the movie.

hardtack

renaldow, thanks for the info...however, and perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough, but I was actually after figures that compared the overall "to-date" figures for sales of P&S and WS - not weekly top 10's.

Also, Digital Eyes (I assume you represent the Digital Eyes online store), with all due respect, I would imagine that online sales do not necessarily mirror the sales at B&M establishments. I would argue that the online shopper is generally far more educated in the world of DVD thanks to sites like this, whereas your average punter in the street with a 4:3 TV is probably not (and I would bet London to a brick that they vastly outnumber the rest of us). Additionally, I fail to see how having a healthy discussion in this forum helps to "perpetuate the ignorance".

Do not for one minute think that I am a proponent of P&S (that could not be further from the truth), but just let me say that I have a great deal of difficulty in understanding why people on this forum and others like it, become almost evangelistic in their crusade against P&S - if both formats are available then be happy with that.

regards, Tim...

renaldow

If you're looking for all time sales for DVD's, that data is not free, which is why you haven't had much luck. I believe Billboard supplies it on their website, but to registered members only, which ranges in price from $155 to $849.

From my original search I did find some pages by the Australian government that looked like it had that type of info, since I believe you're in Australia you might want to check that out. Also, www.videobusiness.com has free registration. It has the top 20 DVD sellers of the week, along with the top 20 DVDs sold by the top 9 DVD retailers (both B&M and etail.) If anyone cares to check it out they'll notice that no store w/ 'mart' in their name appears on the list, as they are a minority seller of DVD.

If you want to look at the lifetime stats to see if a FS version beats a WS version after it falls of the top charts, chances are it won't. In a scenario where FS versions were only printed after an initial release of a WS, then you might see it; but if you're talking an equal representation of FS and WS in the marketplace it would be an anomaly to see it (perhaps on a children's title, I could see that.)

There are so many units required to be sold to hit a top 20 spot that if a WS title stays there for a few weeks the FS version (even if it did initially chart) would never be able to catch up to it. The band The Violent Femmes has the only record to ever go Gold without ever hitting the top 40 (or top 100, I forget.) It's their first album, and it went gold 10 years after it was initially released because while it missed the charts it was a popular album with consistent sales over the years. They got a special Gold Album because it was such an oddity. A FS DVD would basically have to do the same thing, and if the WS charted, it would probably take more years than DVD has been around for it to happen.

So, looking at a 10 year path, maybe a FS title could eventually outsell a P&S, but all releases being equal, I don't see it happening.

I think that FS DVDs are basically like edited CD's. They are made to be sold as a niche product in certain retailers and for a minority audience. If anyone does have reliable lifetime sales data, please post a link, it would be interesting to see.