BVHE Press Release: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (4k UHD) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

I suspect that the 3D version of the film was included per the request of James Gunn. I know he was very involved with the conversion and that he likes it, which is why it only came to IMAX in 3D format. (IMAX has been doing an increasing number of 2D screenings, including Beauty and the Beast and Marvel's Spider-Man.)

That being said, if it is per James Gunn's request that a 3D version is available, I doubt he is aware how limited it is, or that he would be happy about that. He did a Facebook Live Q&A yesterday in support of the Blu-ray release in which he said "You can go buy it online at Amazon," which indicates that he is probably not aware of the ongoing Disney-Amazon war. And really, why should he be?

It's his job to deliver the movie and to support the home release, which he has done. He probably leaves the distribution to the Disney home video execs and assumes they will make the product available, as he's busy writing Vol. 3 and exec-producing Infinity War at the same time. So he's got more to do than worry about home video availability for his movies.

Josh, I agree with you about the unfortunate handling of this release. However, why would steelbook fans who don't need the 3D version go with anything other than the $24.99 standard Blu-ray+DVD steelbook version? Scalpers, of course, will clean out whatever they can. I feel like this might be a good reason for Best Buy to institute a purchase minimum of one copy per customer on release day (or maybe two if they're feeling generous, as I have occasionally given new movies as gifts, and one for me + one as gift would be understandable.)

But they probably won't do that, even though they should...and even if they did, it wouldn't solve the problem that they always stock less copies than they need to meet demand.

 

[David Norman]

I misphrased it. By "Disney store exclusives," I meant to say "Disney releases that are exclusive to specific stores," like the steelbook is to Best Buy or the animated classic digibooks often are to Target, not "Disney Store" as in the Disney Store chain.
s.

Got it -- I did get my word grouping/modifier on the wrong word. Disney 'store exclusive' instead of 'Disney Store' exclusive

There's always Britain to look to in the end though interestingly I find the French releases seem to be having a lot of 4K/3D combos not really available anywhere else
RE: The Final Chapter
King Arthur
Wonder Woman

not Disney yet though.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That being said, if it is per James Gunn's request that a 3D version is available, I doubt he is aware how limited it is, or that he would be happy about that.

I suspect you're right that the 3D was included at least in part at Gunn's request. When he made his Facebook post announcing the release of the UHD version, he also mentioned that 3D would also be available for those who liked it. He often responds to comments on his page, so I thought I'd bring to his attention how limited this version was going to be, compared to the release of Guardians 1. Unfortunately, he either did not see my comment or chose not to address it.

Josh, I agree with you about the unfortunate handling of this release. However, why would steelbook fans who don't need the 3D version go with anything other than the $24.99 standard Blu-ray+DVD steelbook version? Scalpers, of course, will clean out whatever they can. I feel like this might be a good reason for Best Buy to institute a purchase minimum of one copy per customer on release day (or maybe two if they're feeling generous, as I have occasionally given new movies as gifts, and one for me + one as gift would be understandable.)

But they probably won't do that, even though they should...

I wouldn't hold my breath on that either. I can't help but think Best Buy is very happy with these selling out in a day. They get to move all of their stock for an immediate return, and then don't have to worry about carrying it again or trying to push sales for it.

 

[Jake Lipson]

He often responds to comments on his page, so I thought I'd bring to his attention how limited this version was going to be, compared to the release of Guardians 1. Unfortunately, he either did not see my comment or chose not to address it.

How long ago did you share this with him? He may find it later. I'm sure he is a busy guy. Also, there may be a limit to what he can say in response to that, as I doubt he wants to be perceived as being critical of his partners at Marvel or Disney, who are of course still his employers on Vol. 3. and Infinity War as well as any other projects they may have in development together. But he might bring it up with them behind-the-scenes, so it's good that you posted it.

I can't help but think Best Buy is very happy with these selling out in a day.

Oh, I completely agree with this, too. As long as they make their money, they don't care how they get it or to whom the item is sold. On the release date for Beauty and the Beast, I knew I couldn't be at the store at 10am and the website wasn't permitting store pickup at my store, so I called them as soon as they opened, hoping they would hold one for pickup later in the day. They didn't answer for 45 minutes, during which time all the copies sold out. This is when I essentially gave up on the idea of ever getting a Best Buy steelbook again and came to the decision that it's not worth my time, effort or stress to worry about getting one. (Of course, Guardians is a different case because of the inclusion of 3D, which I don't personally need, but I feel the pain of those of you who want it, and agree it should be easier for you to obtain.)

On my end of things, at least The Lion King steelbook they're getting in next week looks terrible, so I won't feel bad not getting that.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

How long ago did you share this with him?

The day he made the post -- I can't remember when this was announced. June? July? Something like that.

This is when I essentially gave up on the idea of ever getting a Best Buy steelbook again.

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the steelbooks. I realize that this is just my own version of collecting OCD coming out, but it's gonna bug me a little that every single Marvel Studios BD 3D that I have comes in the same style plastic case with the same style slipcover, and then I'll just have this steelbook next to it that doesn't match. I wish the people designing the physical packaging cared more about consistency. "Guardians 2" is going to go on the shelf next to "Guardians 1" - it would be nicer if they looked like they were part of the same series. It's a minor complaint at the end of the day, but it's mildly irritating that the studios tend not to care about those things anymore.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I totally agree with that, too. In my case, the majority of my steelbook purchases are for titles that are not part of of an ongoing series and therefore don't need to look uniform. The only exception is that I bought Finding Dory as a steelbook from Target despite not being able to obtain a Finding Nemo steelbook, which bugs me a little, but Dory was just too beautiful to pass up (and an important film for me personally for a number of reasons, so I wanted to designate it as such in my collection.)

Making cover designs and such that match is something that would be easy for the studios to do if they cared about the collectors who power most of their disc sales. But they don't, and they don't have any incentive to, since you're obviously still going to buy Guardians 2 even though it doesn't match, so they're not out any money (and actually probably gain some, since the 4K/3D steelbook was likely more expensive than you would have been able to find a standard release for, if there was one.)

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Just a warning for those who still want the 3D version from Best Buy...it is selling out everywhere. My local store sold out of this within the first hour...luckily I did place a hold on this earlier in the morning and got it in my possession. You can still order for shipping, but even that can go fast.

No longer available online from Bestbuy.com - you gotta just hope your local store has it!

I ordered mine yesterday from MSP Airport and picked up near home today!

 

[sleroi]

I received my pre ordered 4k/3d steelbook today.

Unfortunately the digital code is only for the hdx version. Very disappointing.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I never took Economics courses, but is there a supply-and-demand model where a profit-driven entity chooses not to meet demand due to sheer freaking apathy, inviting acrimony in the process? Because I'm just wondering.

 

[David Norman]

There certainly is a method of intentionally killing a product, but with something like this it would be very simple just to quit making 3D completely. I don't think anybody at Disney is just going to throw away significant profit, but if they can maximize some amt of simple profit by making a LE that is going sell out at a premium and have zero carrying costs, why not.

If they make 50K units with $7-8 proftit per unit guaranteed to sell out in 2 days.
If they make 100-150K units that takes 2 months to sell out and maybe average $2-3/unit profit once warehousing/carrying cost and LOWER average selling price. $350K vs $350-400K with a lot more effort.

If these things keep selling out immediately at basically full price, why put more effort into selling 3-4x as many but take an order of magnitude of increase effort. If things don't sell out immediately people are going to wait for price decreases and the feeding frenzy effect goes away faster than people think. It a little bit bigger effect of what TT had for a while. A few very quick sellouts begat quite a few rapid sellouts for about a dozen items that probably shouldn't have been sellouts. Once things slowed down, a couple encore editions, and a couple 5K units that didn't sell out as fast as they people thought and very quickly TT fairly quickly changed the thought process. There is a bit of razors edge playing a Limited Edition game that if you increase numbers even a little too much it can have really bad results.

The thing I get a kick out of -- "well if I can't buy the US ediiton I'll show Disney and just buy it overseas "That'll show them""
You're going to show North side of the street Disney Corp how they can't kick you around by buying product from South side of the Street Disney Corp.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I don't think anyone who imports it is trying to "show Disney" anything. They simply want it, and can no longer find the equivalent product in the USA.

I also really, really don't think it's about Disney trying to limit 3D or having any qualms about putting out a normal, unlimited 3D edition. I think it just comes down to Best Buy offering $$$$ in order to have the exclusive, and Disney wanting to take that money.

Like I said, Best Buy is always unprepared for the demand for these exclusives. But Disney always wants to take their money (and ours, since the exclusives are typically upcharged.)

 

[Jimbo64]

I stopped at the North Haven CT BB on my way home from work on Tuesday and was very surprised to find one copy left of the 4K 3D version. I picked it up with Captain America Civil War 3D and paid $55 plus tax for both, not a bad deal at all

 

[David Norman]

I run into a lot of post over the years who believe importing an item is depriving the company of revenue.
Certainly not all and mostly not here, but shockingly often even after pointing out the error they'll persist.
Almost as many of those posts as people who stubbornly refuse to import at all b/c it's somehow hurting US businesses.

Cheaper certainly even for items readily available in the US, unavailable items it seems it would be an easy alternative.

I would like to know who controls the number of these Exclusives -- maybe one of the closer to insiders here can clarify, but I was under the impression it was Disney who ultimately makes the decision on how many to make. BBY pays there fee for the exclusive rights, but I'm not sure they control the volume.

 

[deepscan]

The selling out of GOTG 2 steel book w/3D is proof that the small niche market that still embraces Blu Ray 3D is willing to get that experience they got in the theatre, and anyone who wants it will get it. It us their way of showing the world, "hey look. 3D in the home is almost dead, but we want to keep it alive by supporting this release, so that other studios can still follow through with 3D the way it was intended to be seen. The more we support, the more 3D titles they can get out there, and if they don't release it in the US we have to turn to imports". I agree with these people. It is sending a message to Disney, and everyone else. I am in that camp of the 3D niche of fans.

BTW second hand sites like eBay now have the steel book up for more than we paid for it. $$$$ talks? Well to those who didn't act fast enough....you snooze, you lose.

 

[David Norman]

Well -- for the time being BBY has it back up for 3rd Wave of shipping orders. No telling if this is the last vestiges of spares saved to make sure all preorders were covered (or canceled orders or >??) or possibly a 2nd delivery of merchandise from teh Replication factory. As mentioned in one of the threads -- often late Thursday- Friday a small number of these exclusives do return for ordering though they don't often last very long.

No reason to hit Ebay quite yet

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thought I would post this here....

Finally got around to watching this film a few days ago. I watched in on my 110" screen projected in 3D.

The Good: Excellent transfer and seamless switching between IMAX and the film's 2.40:1 aspect ratio.

The 3D was quite good, particularly for the fact that the filmmakers used the aspect ratio to let 3D effects spill out of the letterboxed area. I thought that was VERY cool. Additionally, though there was no major pop-out, it was neat seeing Rocket's nose protrude forward in many scenes. Overall, I would say that based on the limitations today's filmmakers' place on 3D, this kind of broke the mold. Not the best 3D I have seen, but who makes great 3D films anyways these days?

The Bad:

This is where I am going to be hated by many of you.

This was such a poor sequel on so many levels.

I really fell in love with the first GOTG film. It was so well done, so charming, and the kind of film that made me laugh out loud in several spots.

Not with this film.

None of that charm is here. I am a huge Kurt Russel fan, but alas, he ruins the film. The pacing is awful. Instead of really fun play between the characters with laugh-out-loud humor, there's just an assortment of bathroom jokes that were certainly geared towards the teenage audience this film was the target for.

It just went on way too long -- or it felt that way. I couldn't wait till it was over.

If you want me to say something encouraging here, I was tapping my feet throughout the film as I love 70s music. However, some of the music choices were rather odd.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I read your original comments on FB and I'm not surprise by them as I think some others have shared your POV. For me, I liked the more serious tone with this film when it comes to the father and son dynamic of the film as well as the sister to sister relationship. Granted, I had more fun with the first film, but I appreciated what the filmmakers were trying to do with this sequel.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Sequels rarely live up to the original. Almost never. I can only think of two off the top of my head: ALIENS and TERMINATOR 2.

Pulling off a sequel that will satisfy moviegoers as much as the original is an almost impossible task. You really have to live up to the expectations of the original. Had GOTG #2 been the original film, it might have been better received by more people. However, it had a tough act to follow.

I agree with you that there was a true attempt to pull off a worthy sequel.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Sequels rarely live up to the original. Almost never. I can only think of two off the top of my head: ALIENS and TERMINATOR 2.

Pulling off a sequel that will satisfy moviegoers as much as the original is an almost impossible task. You really have to live up to the expectations of the original. Had GOTG #2 been the original film, it might have been better received by more people. However, it had a tough act to follow.

I agree with you that there was a true attempt to pull off a worthy sequel.

Godfather 2 is another one while those two you noted had one thing in common, the same director.

 

[dpippel]

Um, let's not forget one of the best sequels in movie history - The Empire Strikes Back - (arguably) superior to the original Star Wars IMO.