DVD Sales Officially in a Slump?

Kester Pelagius · February 18, 2009, 11:48:08 PM

Hollywood movies are not making the money their parent corporations feel they oughta off their brilliant market strategy of re-re-re-re-releasing the same handful of titles in budgeted barebones, special editions, director's cuts, ultimate editions, unrated editions, et al across every format they can concieve of to try to wring blood out of consumers so, yep, it's now apparently official DVD sales are in a slump.

D'oh!

CheezeFlixz · February 19, 2009, 12:21:04 AM

When the economy tanks, or more like people are told it's tanking long enough that is does. Then the first thing to go is the toys and at the end of the day DVD's are a luxury.

I know I'm not going to change over my collection to Blu-Ray, I'll give them a couple of years and you'll be able to get them at Big Lots for $3.00 just like DVD's. More importantly the number of movies you can watch online for free or at a minimal fee like Netflix offers far more variety than most stores can carry.

Anyone that runs out and orders a new release DVD for $20-$30 is just nuts! As you'll be able to buy a pre-viewed at places like Blockbuster for $5 in a month or so. I'll wait a month for $25.00

I to get sick of the sheer number of different variations of DVD releases, uncut, unrated, extended cut, directors cut, 2 disc set, 3 disc set, full screen, wide screen, etc etc. I can't remember the movie but I was looking at it some tie ago and the EXTENDED CUT was ONE FULL minute longer than the original release. 1 minute, what did they do roll the credits slower?

There are enough movie in my own collection I haven't seen to keep be busy for quite a while without buying another one. so I really don't care if Hollywood is hurting, maybe they shouldn't pay actors $20,000,000 to make a crappy film.

Rev. Powell · February 19, 2009, 12:23:23 AM

I blame:

1. The recession
2. Torrents
3. Youtube

We knew techno-piracy would hit the movie market sooner rather than later, and have the same effect it did on CD sales.

Captain Tars Tarkas · February 19, 2009, 02:29:40 AM

I checked and I bought 1 DVD in 2008. (I did buy several VCDs, but they were from Thailand and India)
I stopped buying DVD sets when I went to grad school, and any film I get now either has to be super rare or something I'll watch more than three times. I have a whole giant shelf filled with DVDs I collected over the years (though a lot of them were gotten used or on super sales) so it is not like I never bought films.

Trevor · February 19, 2009, 02:55:31 AM

Quote from: CheezeFlixz on February 19, 2009, 12:21:04 AM
1 minute, what did they do roll the credits slower?

Jack · February 19, 2009, 09:10:08 AM

I buy all my DVD's online. Almost everything I get is used, about one-quarter of the new price, and still plays like new. I go into a store like K-Mart or Target and they have a large quantity of DVD's, but nothing I'm interested in. I go into Barnes and Noble, they have a lot of stuff I like, but I take one look at the full retail prices they're asking, chuckle, and leave. I don't really see Blu-ray helping out much, I'm a big fan of movies and I'm not planning on buying a Blu-ray player for at least a year or two. I suppose I'm a fairly typical consumer - I just got an HDTV two months ago and I just love the way all my standard DVD's look on it. They couldn't have picked a more lousy time to try to get me to buy something more expensive. I paid $500 for a 32" TV, now I see them advertised in the Sunday sales brochures for $350. I can get a 42" for $50 more than I paid for my 32" back in December. Think I'll wait a while on Blu-ray lol.

meQal · February 19, 2009, 12:29:40 PM

Quote from: CheezeFlixz on February 19, 2009, 12:21:04 AM
I to get sick of the sheer number of different variations of DVD releases, uncut, unrated, extended cut, directors cut, 2 disc set, 3 disc set, full screen, wide screen, etc etc. I can't remember the movie but I was looking at it some tie ago and the EXTENDED CUT was ONE FULL minute longer than the original release. 1 minute, what did they do roll the credits slower?

I agree with you for the most part except for the full screen vs wide screen part. I like wide screen over full screen cause I like to pick out details. Also wide screen fits better on the new HDTVs. The rest is just overmarketed crap.
The Rev. is right about the three things to blame. Granted I would add a fourth which is about 99% of movies being made these days suck.
I also suspect that maybe the claim is being made at this point in time because maybe studios are looking to get in on all the bailout money the government is handing out. Guess they figure they need to get in line with everyone else from Wall Street to the porn industry with their hand out.

CheezeFlixz · February 19, 2009, 04:15:55 PM

Quote from: meQal on February 19, 2009, 12:29:40 PMI agree with you for the most part except for the full screen vs wide screen part. I like wide screen over full screen cause I like to pick out details. Also wide screen fits better on the new HDTVs. The rest is just overmarketed crap.

I only get movies in their original aspect ratio, if available. I do not do pan and scan.

The Burgomaster · February 19, 2009, 04:20:14 PM

DVD Sales Officially in a Slump?

Not at my house.

ghouck · February 19, 2009, 04:21:48 PM

Hollywood's greed and there own stupidity are the only thing to blame IMO. Look at some of the actors they repeatedly pay TONS of money to make horrible performances. Look at some of the crap Tom Cruise has made tens of millions on and tell me his performance was worth that price, tell me with a straight face they couldn't have found someone to do just as good of a job for tons less. Look at the movies he's made $50mil on, and then look a the total DVD sales of that movie, see what the math works out as. $25 for a movie was good when things were made that were re-watchable, now it's just mostly crap that has no entertainment value, since they lowballed on the writers and such.

People blame torrent, and I do agree, that has to be part of it, but there is so much on there that gets downloaded, that the people that did download it would never pay $25.00.

The whole system is flawed IMO. I mean really, where else in life but music, movies, and games do similar products of various genre and quality cost the same? It's an inherently retarded system.

The worst part is that people talk about how "every download takes money out of the producer's hands". Well, that's BS, because I have never, and I know people who have never, downloaded ANYTHING and kept it. It's either download it and it is junk, or download it, like it, and buy it. I know at least one person that employs an "if you can stick it out until the end, buy it" policy.

Mr. DS · February 19, 2009, 05:13:39 PM

For me personally, its online rentals. There used to be a point in my life where I'd drop money on movies constantly. However as I get older, I don't see a point (personally) in spending over ten bucks for a movie I'm probably going to watch once every few years. I just opt to have it delivered in a few days. As I get older, I notice most films (sadly even the ones I love) have less and less of a rewatch value.