We knew it was coming: A new trend in standard vs SE pricing?

In the case of Polar Express, the SE is only $2 more than the barebones at deepdiscountdvd.com. On Amazon they're listed at the same price.

I doubt this will really work out the way Warners intends. Maybe the B&Ms can get away with that.

Since I primarily buy catalog stuff, I guess I don't 'worry' that much about this possibly growing trend. I really could only see the biggest of the big new titles (although probably alot of kids movies) getting two releases at the same time. I know that's not a rule (look at the I Heart Huckabees 2 disc) but I think it's a somewhat safe generalization.

So even with a new movie like The Devil's Rejects, I won't be seeing two versions of it... not on the same day anyway

I imagine this trend will have the opposite effect than they planned. For most serious fans, they know that usually the best prices for catalog titles and TV on DVD are already on-line. Now first run movies may be getting cheaper on-line as well.

This may be the final nail that drives me from retail stores if online sites like Amazon continue to issue sweet deals on WB's 2-disc SEs like Batman Begins. I figure the retail price on that one will be at least $19.99 (similar to prices on Phantom of the Opera), but Amazon is selling for $15.98, same price as the 1 disc.

this has been happeong for the last year or so.
some examples.
i heart huckabees
kinsey
mystic river
phantom.

i'm sure there are others.
not a new trend but is becoming more prevalent.

OH Ok i see that noW.
I DIdint see that before.
the only a dollar or so differnce i guess isnt such a bad idea compared to the previous tactic.

I really hate this trend and think it has something to do with sagging boxoffice revenue.

Studios realize that home video is now (sadly for us) where they need to make their money.

Started with Master & Commander 2-disc being priced far beyond the barebones version.

Mystic River SE suffered the same fate.

Fox released a slew of light releases (Man on fire) and DDed almost immediately.

Constantine barebones doesn't even have the commentary from the 2-disc version.

That's what bugs me the most. When the studio actually strips the Disc One features from the standard package. This seems to be common with the 1 and 2 disc releases from WB.

That's a backfire to the studios. When the expensive SE thing comes up, I just don't buy it. I wait for a pricedrop like I do on video games, or a DDD 20% sale. It took almost a year for me to get Mystic River SE (from the DDD sale). I wasn't buying the cheapie snapper case version, but neither did I want to pay the big $ for the SE. So I bought neither. Constantine was the same way, I skipped it in the theater figuring to buy the DVD instead with the money, but I didn't like the price on the SE. So I still haven't seen it.

I suggest you do the same. My wife's got like 600 DVDs (40% anime) anyway and I've got 200 or so (50% anime). We can wait. I'm sure a lot of you are in a similiar situation...if you really think about it, you can wait.



you, studios!

This is a great idea, especially since I always go for the bigger set anyway.

Tony, I would like to know where you got your Huckabees set, everywhere in town had the SE for about $10 more than the barebones disc.

Ryan

i realize that ryan. thats exactly what i was referring to in that first post.

i was corrected to what this thread is more specifically about in the next post.

I really don't see anything to sinister about this. Before, the barebones would ususally have an MSRP of around $30 and SEs around $40. Now both are around $30. I don't recall seeing blowouts on SE releases when a barebones was available along side of it or had be released a while before anyway.

The only real change I see is that retailers will keep more money from the sales of the SEs online retailers who do blanket discounts may offer lower prices on them.

I think the real frustration people are having is that extra features that used to be standard are now being limited to more expensive seperate releases. I think that people's mentality of either paying more or not leaving the store with lesser release is more of what will backfire on the studios. I agree that release structure is a step backwards, but I'll take this over Fox's manipulative double-dipping tactics anyday.

If I'm going to buy a DVD, I want the best version available. Pure and simple. So this doesn't really affect me since the SE prices are not being jacked up.

I'm a special edition nut as I love to revisit special features when taking in a movie. If anything this really sucks for people who only want the movie, but it all works out for other people.

I find this frustrating mostly because B&M retailers don't seem to discount the SE versions at all.

However, I find more and more that I wonder if I should slow my DVD buying in favor of whatever Hi-Def format will be winning next year.

I think it's fine. It's better than what other companies like SONY or UNIVERSAL do by releasing a bare bones disc and then an SE a year later. If both releases are simultaneous, the consumer has a choice and Amazon or DDD will provide great discounts.

It's also not price gouging like Fox on MASTER & COMMANDER.

These prices are fair, and are in no way (IMHO) indicative of laser-like prices.

Dome
I don't get this logic. Maybe I read the initial posts better.


Again, I don't think you guys read carefully. SE prices are being jacked up - by not discounting the % off MSRP on them, and only deeply discounting the barebones disc.

Barebones: MSRP $29
SE: MSRP $30

Barebones: discounted, maybe $16
SE: barely discounted, maybe $23.

That sucks for those of us that want the best version available, i.e., the SE. Effectively an $8 price raise on the SE. That's why I didn't get Mystic River for so long, I wasn't paying $23ish, that's frickin anime pricing, I spend enough on those as it is.

Okay, so I am reading it wrong. I was under the impression that special edition pricing wasn't really changing. Oh well. I have no idea what's going on anymore.

I've not gotten many 2-Disc SE's before for less than $20-23 anyway (except for used on DVD Talk), so I don't really see what you're saying. That is my comfort zone as a SE-loving consumer. And I go even higher for 3- and 4-disc stuff. Luckily, there are some instances that break this trend: I got the Gladiator 3-disc EE at Nebraska Furniture Mart this week for $17.99.

Now an example of price gouging is Universal's Limited Editions. While the Seabiscuit package was top-notch and worth it, the extra content on Ray was not enough to warrant the huge asking price (which is the same price as the upcoming Cinderella Man, though I'll be buying that anyway). The second disc content on Ray was scant at best. Could have probably fit it all on disc 1.

This issue doesn't bother me because the examples of the
bare bones and SEs already mentioned were released on the
same day. The consumers have an immediate choice of which
version to purchase. The thing that really pisses me off
about DVD collecting these days is the dishonest double
dipping for greed practice by the studios (a special
edition or "director's cut" will be announced shortly
after the original DVD is released). Eternal Sunshine Of
The Spotless Mind is the perfect example of dishonesty
by Universal. The MAR and Widescreen versions were put
out on the same day, then the 2 disc was announced just
weeks after the release date, and the 2 disc came out
within 4 months of the originals.

It's all gouging plain and simple. It's designed to get more money out of people, that's all it is. If not, the studios would just release the Special Edition and be done with it. Or, the bare bones would be available for $10-$12 and the SE would be at the "standard" $15-$20 price point which would make the "Cheaper Alternative" claim more valid. The only question is, who is the most fair with this practice. I would say WB is because the MSRP of the 2 disc is often only a couple of dollars apart from the bare bones. The problem is, as others have pointed out, is that the small gap ususally translates into several dollars more at the B&Ms because they usually don't discount the deluxe editions as they do for the bare bones. The other problem is that often the deluxe editions become hard to find at stores as well. You won't find them at blockbuster. Costco probably won't carry them either (in some cases, they have, but there certainly is no guarantee)

I'll go against the grain and actually vote for double dipping as opposed to premium priced SEs, because I think most of us around here can smell a double dip coming and can hold off on buying the initial version (although, yes there are some instances when the studios are very deceptive about it like the "Eternal Sunshine" double dip. But a very unpredictable double dip like that I think is still rare. Also, I do not count re-releases that occur years after the first edition in all of this.) With the premium priced SE all you can really do is hope you can find a good discount online or wait for a sale like the DDD 20% off which is essentially the same thing as waiting for the double dip to be released anyway.

Those who buy barebones new releases (Sin City, Man on Fire) should know what they're buying.

Budget movie-only releases after the SE, like 1-disc Close Encounters are OK too.

However, I wish studios would stop with the same day barebones release because it significantly drives up the cost of the SE (by intention no doubt).

One case where I didn't mind was Raging Bull SE, because the SE was only $2 more if you knew where to go.

But in most cases, a 'same day SE' will run you almost $10 more and while I love extras that's too much for what is often a blind buy anyway.

Another result of 'same day SEs' is that the used market is often flooded with the barebones release with no SEs for the frugal buyer.

For example, I had no problem finding a used copy of The Aviator SE because that's the only release of the film, but good luck finding M&C SE in the used market (aside from Ebay).

I like it quite a bit because if I wanted the movie and didn't care about the extras for it, I could save some money. If I wanted the extras, I could pony up more cash. I know people want their cake and eat it to but that is the way life works sometimes.

I see it all the time here.

I'm not ok with them doing the double dip. If I knew ahead of time like Lord of the Rings, I'm fine with it.

Actually I don't mind it. I buy all of my new releases from a local shop that I like to support (plus I get stuff early ), and I always pay 75% (sometimes 70%) of list price.

Now in the case of WB's two-tier releases, the list prices are usually 28.98 and 30.98. So for me, I'm only spending $1.50 more to get the 2-disc edition. Plus what I'm paying there is what I would have paid (or close to it) for the 2-disc at a place like Best Buy, so no big deal.

Now in the case of releases like War Of The Worlds and Walk The Line, the 1-disc lists for 29.99 and the 2 disc is 39.99. In these cases I still buy the 1-disc. As much as I love the cover art for the Walk The Line 2-disc, nothing on the 2nd disc really interests me, and I can't justify paying an extra $8 just for a different cover.

I think the thing to keep in mind here is that if we didn't get the two-tier releases at the same time, we would either get the 2-disc later on as a double dip, or we wouldn't get it at all. The days of getting a loaded 2-disc new release as a loss leader are gone.

Just wanted to light this thread up again because this practice is certainly becoming the norm. Reading over this thread made me realize just how long this has been going on and it's only getting worse - Batman Begins, Harry Potter 4, Narnia, Walk the Line, Lord of War, Jarhead, the list goes on.

I can understand the studio wanting to get a premium price for premium content. I can buy that - and I often do. But when they put together a kickass 2-disc SE that actually makes use of the space available on 2 DVDs - and then sell a single-disc version completely stripped of those "disc 1 extras" and make it instead, quite literally, JUST the movie - that pisses me off.

Unfortunately, we've become used to getting a quality new release SE for under $20 and now it's gonna have to be closer to $25 if we want the same amount of features. For me, that's going to mean waiting longer before I buy and getting it on sale once it's old news.

All I can say is "thank god for eBay." $7.99 for the 3-disc Mystic River!

Got Batman Begins in a buy-1-get-1-free sale from Columbia House.

This just forces us to be more creative in our bargain-hunting.

I like the standard and SE same day releases, because it gives the consumers a choice on what they want to get (rather than a barebones edition first and then a full-blown 2-disc SE months later). Sure, I don't like the price gouging when I want to get the 2-disc edition (such as the SE for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), but usually I save more money when I preorder online. But I like the choices they give us, which is a plus for me.

And there are plenty of high-profile barebones titles I got because the extras didn't interest me: The Polar Express, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, and Master and Commander. I plan on also getting the single-disc editions of Walk the Line and King Kong.

I look at this way: By giving consumers a choice from the get go it actually saves me money on most titles. Instead of buying the initial release *and* a later lavish special edition, I sometimes spend a bit more initially (Amazon has been killing B&M on pricing some of these releases) and don't have to worry about it later on. The only one who really loses is my family: they don't get the hand me downs!

That's a really good point David. Maybe you spend $16 on a single disc, only to buy the 2-disc for $20 later on. Maybe you can get $8 net for the 1-disc by then. So, you spend $28 in total. or you spend ~$23 upfront.

Of course in my case, I rarely rebuy a recent film as a 2-disc unless there are noticeable improvements in the film presentation, or I love the film so much I want the extras (rare).