Hollywood Reporter on the possible resurrection of blu ray and DVD (1 Viewer)

[Capt D McMars]

There was a lot of old and obscure stuff on Netflix when they started.

Oh how things have changed at Netflix since then my Friend!!

 

[David Weicker]

I've never equated Brick and Mortar sales to the health of the industry.
A large percentage of people purchase online.

Best Buy existing or not existing doesn't change the number of orders at Amazon/Deep Discount/MovieZyng, etc.
It's like saying that groceries are obsolete because there are cash-less lines at a store. Just as plastic/apps have largely replaced cash, Online has replaced physical for a high percentage of media purchases. The fact that people aren't paying with cash doesn't mean they aren't buying.

Its a migration, not necessarily a decline (or death).

For me personally, the last time I purchased a disc in a store was Black Friday 2019. Yet I've purchased hundreds of titles since then.

 

[ahollis]

I can't remember the last time I purchased a DVD or Blu-ray in a store. I guess it was sometime around 2012. Since then it's been on line from various sites.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

There have been a lot of these articles lately and there’s a lot of wishful thinking and misunderstanding of where the marketplace and consumers are today in them.

Twenty years ago, physical media was a $20+ billion a year business hitting its peak.

Today, physical media is a $1.5 - $2 billion a year business that declined further each year.

Subscription streaming is a $30 billion a year business that continues to increase.

Digital purchases streaming is a $2 - $3 billion a year business that has been holding pretty steady.

This indicates two separate but complementary things to me: one, that the overwhelming majority of home entertainment viewers have shifted away from using physical objects to view the content they consume, and two, that the majority of those viewers prefer not to own the content they consume.

We’re seeing that in every type of media: people now prefer digital books to hardcovers, people prefer news subscriptions over newspaper delivery, people prefer music subscriptions over vinyl/CD and iTunes purchases.

That’s a sea change that’s unlikely to be turned back.

Where does that leave physical media? As a niche market. Is there anything wrong with a niche market? No. In fact, as I have been arguing, recalibrating industry expectations for physical media to match the actual size of its audience is the best thing that can happen for physical media. Physical media cannot survive if it is being mass marketed as a product that generates $20 billion in revenue as it once did. Physical media can survive if all parties involved, from the studios that own the content to the boutique labels that produce discs to the audiences that buy them, understand that it is a limited audience, if the studios don’t ask for more in licensing fees than the releases can recoup, and the labels don’t produce more copies than the audience demands. On the audience side, physical media fans need to understand their hobby is no longer being subsidized by mass market consumers and stores using them as loss leaders, and that costs will go up, and that it is necessary to pay these higher prices in order for their niche to survive. As part of this, it no longer makes sense for most stores to carry this kind of material - that just drives up distribution costs and none of these releases can be profitable if they have to be shipped to hundreds or thousands of locations to occasionally sell a copy at one.

Best way to support physical media now? Preorder the titles you most want as they are announced or purchase them as soon as they are released at whatever the release date price is. Worst way to support physical media now? Declare that you are “waiting for a sale” when titles you want are announced.

The reason vinyl has thrived as a niche is because a much more limited numbers of copies are produced that is appropriate for the limited number of music listeners overall who listen to vinyl, and are priced accordingly. Vinyl fans are paying $30 for new records of music they could listen to for free on a subscription service or buy for only $10 on iTunes. They are putting their money where their mouths are.

Anyone who is telling you that physical media is on the verge of overtaking streaming is not being honest with you.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Best way to support physical media now? Preorder the titles you most want as they are announced or purchase them as soon as they are released at whatever the release date price is. Worst way to support physical media now? Declare that you are “waiting for a sale” when titles you want are announced.

People buying physical media only when it’s on sale at 40-50% off are not helping the survival of physical media because the studios aren’t making a huge enough profit margin to make a difference to their revenue streams. George Feltenstein has noted that reality a few times during The Extras podcasts.

 

[Thomas T]

People buying physical media only when it’s on sale at 40-50% off are not helping the survival of physical media because the studios aren’t making a huge enough profit margin to make a difference to their revenue streams. George Feltenstein has noted that reality a few times during The Extras podcasts.

I buy blu rays/DVDs all the time at full price. Granted I look around for the best price but I don't wait on sales for titles I really want. For instance, I've paid full price for all Kino Lorber's film noir sets. I must confess however that I rarely buy Criterion titles at full price, waiting for discounts or the B&N twice a year sales. Nothing irritates me more than "collectors" who scream for more catalog titles then wait for sales or the price to come down. We film collectors need to put our money where our mouth is.

 

[titch]

For anyone on this site, still entertaining the idea that physical media will be unobtainable for collectors, during their lifetime: a new VHS release of Evil Dead II.

Vice Press Brings Sam Raimi Classic ‘Evil Dead II’ Back to VHS! [Exclusive]

While many would argue that VHS is a long-dead format, horror fans know better. And here in 2023, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II is about to make its groovy return to videocassette! Over the past few years, Vice Press have specialized in creating officially licensed, limited edition fine art movie...

bloody-disgusting.com

 

[Douglas R]

I buy blu rays/DVDs all the time at full price. Granted I look around for the best price but I don't wait on sales for titles I really want. For instance, I've paid full price for all Kino Lorber's film noir sets. I must confess however that I rarely buy Criterion titles at full price, waiting for discounts or the B&N twice a year sales. Nothing irritates me more than "collectors" who scream for more catalog titles then wait for sales or the price to come down. We film collectors need to put our money where our mouth is.

I always pay full price as well. For one thing, I don’t have the patience to wait for a price reduction. I either want or don’t want a particular release. If a disc is released which I want, then I buy it ”now”. Whatever else is released at the same time may come down in price later but if I didn’t want it on release date, why would I want it later simply because it was cheaper?

 

[Keith Cobby]

I've always paid full price for KL and WA titles (except during the moviezyng WA promotion). However, I do understand folks waiting for sales, because the time between release of titles and them going on sale seems to be diminishing. Also, why do distributors have such regular sales (often with big markdowns), this gives a huge advantage to the patient. I can remember my disappointment when Twilight Time announced their first sale, it felt like they had broken the covenant. We want to see our favourites released but we want to pay the minimum for them, it's just business (and more distributors will fail).

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I only buy discs when they go on sale.

Sorry, $30-$50 for a new 4k release is absurd for most people.

I wait till Kino titles go down to $19.95 and then I start picking away at 'em

This past week I was able to pick up ENTER THE DRAGON and CASABLANCA on 4k for $10 each.

 

[Robert Crawford]

How people spend their monies is their business. However, if the physical media business goes away because the studios are not making enough of a profit then that's that.

 

[TravisR]

I'm sort of in the middle. There's movies that I buy as soon as possible but there's some stuff that I can wait until I get it cheaper. I'll be getting Duel this week but I'll keep waiting on Night of The Creeps 2 until I see it on sale.

And apologies to Criterion but when my choice is to pay $30 or $40 to get it immediately or wait two or three months for a sale so guaranteed that people can accurately predict to the day when it will start and only pay $20 or $25, I'll wait.

 

[titch]

And apologies to Criterion but when my choice is to pay $30 or $40 to get it immediately or wait two or three months for a sale so guaranteed that people can accurately predict to the day when it will start and only pay $20 or $25, I'll wait.

Yes, it has always surprised me that Criterion will sell all their product twice a year for half price, for a whole month. And they keep pretty much everything in their catalogue in print. It's not as though they have Limited Editions or Store-exclusive editions either. When word gets around that they suddenly aren't making as much money as before and have to cut costs and supplements, having regular sales on their whole inventory simply doesn't make sense to me. Maybe Criterion are still making enough dough to stay afloat, selling DVDs to thousands of US libraries at regular prices?

 

[jcroy]

The stuff I will make a preorder or buying it the first week or so, are recently ended network or basic cable tv shows which are released as complete series sets.

In practice, I've found that even if I order a catalog title from amazon's own inventory, sometimes the delivered item is a bootleg copy which has been "mixed in" with the legitimate stock. This has happened enough times, that I'm just sick and tired of going through the motions of returning the illicit items to amazon for a refund or exchange. This gets very aggravating for something that is less than $10 or $20, where gas, tolls, parking, etc ... add up very quickly in driving around to a postal, ups, fedex, etc ... shop.

Ever since the dawn of the pandemic, I simply will just pay the first day/week msrp price for a newly released dvd or bluray set. This way it will be almost guaranteed to be a legitimate copy, before the hardcore bootleggers have had a chance to run their illicit disc pressing plants on a title.

 

[Kitchenman1967]

I collected VHS tapes, DVD's, LD and 4K Blu-rays. I was never big on replacing my DVD's with Blu-rays. The upgrade didn't seem to justify the cost. On the other hand, 4K Blu-ray are worth the upgrade.
As a physical media collector, I like to have the disc on my shelf to reach for when I want it and to show my friends. To me, digital media is ok, but it doesn't belong to me. Vudu, Movies Anywhere and others can pull the plug whenever they want.
Let's hope that studios realize there is a market for physical media and will continue to support that market.

 

[SD_Brian]

I already have more discs on my shelves than I'll be able to watch in this lifetime, but I'd trade them all for even more.

 

[JoshZ]

I collected VHS tapes, DVD's, LD and 4K Blu-rays. I was never big on replacing my DVD's with Blu-rays. The upgrade didn't seem to justify the cost. On the other hand, 4K Blu-ray are worth the upgrade.

It's funny how perspective differs from person to person. I've been into home theater since the Laserdisc days, and have been a projector user since the early 2000s. For me, the jump from 480i DVD to true 1080p high-definition Blu-ray was a massive, Grand Canyon-sized leap in quality. I could never go back to standard-def again afterwards.

The move from Blu-ray to 4K, in comparion, is more of a tiny half-step forward. Often not even that much. This is very much a case of diminishing returns for me.

 

[YANG]

this is odd...

...is it about his works in physical medias? or inclusive of other film makers?

 

[Sam Favate]

Sounds like he's admitting that physical media gives you the best sound, picture and bonus materials, and acknowledges that streaming services are only as reliable as their licensing agreements for a home for movies.

 

[Sam Favate]

In addition to Nolan, here we have Guillermo del Toro talking about the value of physical media.

“Physical media is almost a Fahrenheit 451 (where people memorized entire books and thus became the book they loved) level of responsibility,” he said. “If you own a great 4K HD, Blu-ray, DVD etc etc of a film or films you love... you are the custodian of those films for generations to come.”

Guillermo Del Toro Backs Christopher Nolan, Calls Owning Physical Media a 'Responsibility' - IGN

Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has backed Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan in championing physical media amid controversial moves by streamers that have seen some films pulled from availability.

www.ign.com