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Warners lowers Blu Ray Pricing in 4th Q 2008 - Page 2

post #31 of 35
3/10/09 at 6:03am

re: Warners lowers Blu Ray Pricing in 4th Q 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Brooks
I work at Walmart, and I can tell you the VAST majority of customers think that $19.95 is way too much to pay for a brand new movie on regular old DVD. They'll buy it, but they'll make sure somebody hears how unhappy they are. I can't blame them really.....I mis the good old days of $14 new releases as much as anyone else.

Bottom line, anyone who seriously thinks the general public will ever get used to paying $30 for a single movie is out of their gourd.

I'm not defending the studios' current pricing trend, but I do think people will always complain about pricing (unless they get it super cheap like $5 each and then they might find something else to complain about ). It's just human nature, IMHO.

I'm saying this because a lot of things really haven't risen much, if at all, in price over the years despite substantial rises in income for a lot of folks, but people often complain about their pricing anyway. I mean consider the price of a movie ticket. Sure, it's gone up over the years, but has it really gone up *that* much relative to people's incomes? Maybe it's just me I guess. Of course, I don't care that much to go to the theaters myself since I'd rather just wait and buy the BD instead, except on rare occasions. For us, it's probably the rising babysitting costs that would kill all incentive to go to the theaters, except for kid-friendly movies.

_Man_
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post #32 of 35
3/10/09 at 6:17am

re: Warners lowers Blu Ray Pricing in 4th Q 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong
Of course, I don't care that much to go to the theaters myself since I'd rather just wait and buy the BD instead, except on rare occasions. For us, it's probably the rising babysitting costs that would kill all incentive to go to the theaters, except for kid-friendly movies.

_Man_
Our local theatre charges $8 a ticket for regular shows, $6 for matinees and has a $4 Tuesday. Babysitting is no longer an issue now that our oldest is 14. The bigger issue is finding a movie that both my wife and I want to see. She'd rather go out for dinner than go to a movie, so in the case of a movie like The Dark Knight or Watchmen, I'm on my own. I should also note that our local theatre is not the typical small town 2-screener. Although it has 2 screens, it's also equipped with stadium seating and digital sound. Pretty good for $8 a ticket.
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post #33 of 35
3/10/09 at 10:04am

Re: Warners lowers Blu Ray Pricing in 4th Q 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Brooks
Bottom line, anyone who seriously thinks the general public will ever get used to paying $30 for a single movie is out of their gourd.

I agree. Prices will come down though. I think it was Universal who were charging around $34.95 or $39.95 for their "Collector Editions" like THE THING and ANIMAL HOUSE when DVD first hit. However, if studios know DVD skyrocketed when the prices went down I'm not sure what the hold up is with HD unless they just want to milk some more out of the early adopters.
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post #34 of 35
3/10/09 at 3:09pm

Re: Warners lowers Blu Ray Pricing in 4th Q 2008

You just hit the nail on the head.
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post #35 of 35
3/10/09 at 8:19pm

Re: Warners lowers Blu Ray Pricing in 4th Q 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen_J_H
Our local theatre charges $8 a ticket for regular shows, $6 for matinees and has a $4 Tuesday. Babysitting is no longer an issue now that our oldest is 14. The bigger issue is finding a movie that both my wife and I want to see. She'd rather go out for dinner than go to a movie, so in the case of a movie like The Dark Knight or Watchmen, I'm on my own. I should also note that our local theatre is not the typical small town 2-screener. Although it has 2 screens, it's also equipped with stadium seating and digital sound. Pretty good for $8 a ticket.

It's now ~$12.50 per ticket over here in the NYC area (though our neighborhood theater does have a first-show matinee for just one movie on weekdays that usually starts between 11am-to-noon). But considering it's been >=$10 in the area for ages now -- ie. more than 10 years, IIRC -- that's really not a bad increase. You get $8 a ticket now, but I seem to remember it hitting $8 over here back in the late 80's.

So the average release day best price of a BD title right now is really no worse than the standard price of 2 movie tickets in the NYC area. But I still need to wait another few years before our oldest reaches 14 and can reliably babysit the youngest one.

Again, I'm not trying to defend the studios, but sometimes, people are gonna complain about something anyway. There's always the option of simply buying less (or not buying at all) since this is just a luxury item afterall.

Personally, I think what makes the most business sense is to go for a multi-tier structure of some sort to cater to different market segments. I don't know how many tiers would actually work best, but I'm pretty sure the one-size-fits-all approach is probably not it for maximum $$$-making. Of course, multi-tier is basically what we already have now, ie. BD, SE DVD, barebones DVD, plus whatever VOD/download/etc rental replacement scheme on top of BD/DVD rentals...

_Man_
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