Who else hates bonus discs? (1 Viewer)

[Jonny P]

Jeff...I think you misinterpreted what I was saying (that's probably because I didn't word it very well).

Here's what I meant.

Let's say that 5 stores in my town are selling "Jessie: Season 1" on DVD. ;-)

Let's also say that their prices are pretty similar ($35 or so at all of the stores).

What is going to get me to buy the show at one retailer instead of another?

Well...an "exclusive" disc of some sort that includes an "exclusive" bonus feature might spur me to choose one store over another.

That's what I meant by bonus discs being a "marketing item" for the stores. It gets consumers to purchase at their store instead of another store.

See what I mean?

For example, take the "Beavis and Butt Head" DVD that just came out. A lot of people probably went to Target because of the store-exclusive disc. If it hadn't been for that disc, they might have gone elsewhere.

For Target, it is a great marketing ploy. It means they'll get you to come to their store and while you are there you might purchase other merchandise on your "shopping list."

 

[TravisR]

I wonder how they gauge the success of their exclusives. Do they look at how fast they sell compared to sets that don't have the bonus?

Do they look at what else (if anything) I buy? In other words, if I buy Beavis And Butt-Head and pick up some shaving cream is that a success? And if I only buy the B&B set and nothing else, is that a failure?

And what about the people that don't care or don't know about an exclusive disc and just grab a set?

I guess what I'm saying is that it seems hard to determine if the bonus discs even really do that much for the stores.

 

[AnthonyC]

But why should the studio care where people buy the set? Don't they make the same base price for each set sold?

 

[TravisR]

The set gets more ad space (along with the eye catching word 'Free' ) and better placement on the shelf in the store. In theory, that sells more sets and the studio doesn't have to pay for any of it.

 

[Bob clamer]

Hell of a marketing ploy since they did not seem to have any of these so-called bonus discs. Curious to see if they even have the bonus disc for "Inside Man" tomorrow. (Only reason I'm going there). Don't normally shop at Target and on this particular title, was the only reason I did go. Walked in, picked up the set, paid for it and walked out. No other purchase.

 

[ElijahS]

I generally go by price, and only go for bonus discs if there's something really worth choosing that store for my purchase. The only real example I can think of is Best Buy's deal with Boston Legal, which contained the final four episodes of The Practice that dealt with setting up Boston Legal. Considering that the price at Best Buy was the same as or less than other places, that it bumped up the episode total for the set from 17 to 21, and that The Practice is otherwise unavailable on DVD, it was a worthy purchase.

But that was a really good deal. Most are less of a good deal.

 

[TonyD]

how about the complete dossier of Apoc Now?

it is really not complete to begin with but now it will have an exclusive disc at one retailer, making it more complete there then anywere else.

 

[JamesED]

I've been ignoring bonus disks for a good year or so now. But, I'm not angry with myself after reading your post and hearing of the 4 Practice Episodes. I bought my Boston Legal set at Target instead. I never watched the Practice, so it would have been nice to have those 4 episodes.

 

[Ken Chui]

If I'm unable to secure a copy (and seeing as it's Circuit City that's offering it, it's highly plausible), I would be extremely peeved and disappointed. Normally, it's not a concern as I usually head to the retailer(s) before heading to work, but with my being on training next week, I may not get to a CC until after 5:00, which puts me smack dab in rush hour; I may not get there until 6:00, and with my kind of luck....

 

[MattHR]

The exclusive bonus disc madness continues:

After my frustrating -- and futile -- attempts to secure the Beavis & Butt-head bonus disc from Target, I was reluctant to reward them with my business for their "exclusive" Prison Break release today.

After comparing Best Buy's alternate exclusive disc, I decided Target's was the more interesting choice. I bought the set at Target -- avoiding my usual additional puchases -- as punishment for the B&B fiasco.

Upon opening the set, I immediately noticed the bonus disc was labeled "Mobisodes Series" -- the name of the Best Buy disc, and not "Behind the Walls" -- which is the title clearly labeled as the Target exclusive on the front of the box.

I hoped it was simply a labeling error on the actual disc, so I popped it into the player. You guessed it: it's the Best Buy disc. To make matters even more maddening for Target customers, the program opens with a cast member addressing the viewer with "Thank you for shopping at Best Buy" !!!

I wonder if Best Buy received Target's supply, or, as with B&B, the Target disc will be impossible to obtain.

Just another reason why the trend of these idiotic "exclusive" retail bonus discs needs to stop!

 

[ravma]

Yep, same here. This is a national problem it seems. Someone put BB discs in the Target sets. I've gotten two sets with the BB disc.

The stickers on the outside CLEARLY say Target, and the UPC code on the back is DIFFERENT from the Best Buy one.

 

[AnthonyC]

Gord, you are my hero!

 

[MarcoAD]

I'm definitely part of the "No Exclusive Bonus Disk" camp. Just give us all the extra's available in the DVD set and put it in all stores. Exclusives are becoming ridiculous.

 

[Will_B]

In my estimation there have been two situations where a retailer exclusive bonus disc saved the day.

The Chronicles of Riddick looks very much like it was intended to be a 2-disc set all along. But maybe the film didn't do so well, and Sony nixed the second disc. Fortunately Best Buy stepped in and got that second disc for its exclusive 2-disc set (long since sold out, don't bother looking).

The Island looks like it may have been in the same situation - the film didn't do so well, and a second disc got nixed. WalMart stepped in and for the few who were fortunate enough to find it, they got the 2-disc version. (Again don't bother looking, this was nearly impossible to find even on the day of release).

I could be completely wrong of course. Those movies may have been planned as 2-disc sets for all retailers, but Best Buy and WalMart stepped in and said "if you drop the second disc from all other retailers, we'll buy a million."

But it _feels_ like maybe they did the reverse - restoring a second disc that the studio had decided to drop. Who knows the truth.

 

[Brian Little]

Even I'm sick of this whole "exclusive bonus disc" crap. Include the goods on EVERY copy or don't bother. Especially for someone like me who hates Best Buy with a passion.

 

[Bob clamer]

Cool! Another Best Buy hater!

 

[Bill_Nolan]

I made a large chunk of change ebaying all the Star Trek bonus discs I had a couple of years ago, so I'm sort of a fan... Some went for more or almost as much as an entire set cost. Even the lame book-on-CD one sold for good money.

- Bill

 

[Katherine_K]

I'll add what I thought was an important bonus disc was the ER Season 4 bonus disc at Target had the East Coast version of Ambush. Now you might say that having two copies of the same episode is a waste, but as artifacts of how such things are filmed both versions are valuable. And just for my opinion... the east coast version was better. It was more frantic because they hadn't done it successfully yet and there was one prop that didn't get reset so there is a flaw in the West Coast version which is the one they included on the normal set.

 

[Tarkin The Ewok]

One solution I would like is to have the bonus disc available for sale directly from the studio after a certain amount of time. People are willing to pay outrageous prices for some bonus discs secondhand, so the studios may as well see some of that money.

 

[Bob clamer]

Now that is a good idea. Only flaw I could see is that there would still be specially marked packaging and non specially marked packaging just to continue to confuse the consumer and would have to purchase the SMP's to get a coupon, order form or some kind of voucher to purchase the bonus content from the studios. Look at the "Alien Legacy" bonus material. When I bought the set when it was offered with a discount code from an on-line retailer after it had been out for awhile the coupon to buy the bonus material was expired. Never even knew there was a bonus disc by mail until I saw it in the pack. Nothing was advertised on the packaging. Did finally find on on ebay (of course) and had to pay a somewhat high price for it.