Anyone Starting to get Sick of Standard and Deluxe DVD Releases? (1 Viewer)

[Doug_L]

{sigh} You don't like it, don't buy it. Nobody's forcing you to buy the version with the extra content. In fact, I would argue that the fans have created a monster that they can no longer control: by so voiciferously demanding copious extras you have given the studio accountants the resonable belief that many (dare I say most) home theater fanatics will purchase an extra-laden DVD no matter what the price.

I firmly believe until the studios are hurt in their pockets they won't go back to giving you the extras for free.

Be careful what you wish for...

 

[WillG]

Well, no studio is giving away extras for free. You can't separate extras from the DVD you had to pay for to watch said extras. I can't go into a store and remove disc two and walk out without having to pay. It's the question of a trend that could quickly inflate the price of extra content by a relatavely large amount. What if you went out tomorrow and saw that the price of a gallon of gasoline was a whole dollar more than what it is today. I never thought I would be in such a minority on this, but here we are, I guess.

 

[Doug_L]

WillG: Your gasoline analogy is poor. Try this on for size:

What if a new gasoline station opened-up and they gave away a fill-up of your washer fluid with each full tank of gas. Now, most people don't bother to fill their washer fluid until it gets low, or runs out, but it's a nice thing as long as it's free (ie: most people never watch the extras on DVD's). After being in business for a while, they start charging for the washer fluid fill-up, whether you want it or not (extras on a single addition). Now what if they gave you the option to buy just the gas, or the gas and the washer fluid fill-up, provided you paid them extra money.

How about this? My analogy's not perfect, but at least it's a little closer to the situation. We're essentially dealing with linked products, a the "carrot" (extras/washer fluid) has debatable value to many consumers at the time of purchase. Some consumers may eventually come to love the extras/always having full washer fluid, and others may bristle at having to pay more for something that they don't value.

And by the way, gas prices may go up by a dollar or more this summer; it's all about supply and demand.

 

[MarkHastings]

This comparison is similar to TV's. In order to keep TV's at a reasonable price, they started ellimintaing options. I remember back in the early 90's, I bought a decent 19" tv with stereo audio inputs for about $300...In the late 90's, I wanted to replace that TV, but found that none of the $300 models had stereo inputs, they all had mono. I was annoyed because in order to get the stereo inputs, I had to buy a more expensive tv. I could have easily argued that the tv manufacturers were making me spend more money for an option I already had a few years back, but this wasn't the case.

The guy explained that in order to keep the 'lower end' tv's at a reasonable price, they had to eliminate features (like stereo inputs). This made sense to me, I mean, why leave those features on (which people may not want) and charge a higher price? This may drive business away.

This is the same as DVD's. Some of the studios need to make their discs a higher price, so instead of releasing a Special-Edition only version at $30, they are also offering you a 'cheaper' version, without the bells and whistles.

So I don't see it as some evil plan by the studios to raise the price to offer you the extras, I see it as them offering an alternative (i.e. the bare-bones edition) for those who may be turned off by the studios need for a higher priced SE.

 

[WillG]

From the weekly roundup:

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Amazon $19.57 Best Buy $15.99 CirCity $15.99 Target $15.99

TX Chainsaw Massacre: Coll. SE Amazon $27.97 Best Buy $29.99 CirCity $24.99 Target $29.99

Look at these numbers. If I shop at Circuit City, I would have to pay $9.00 over if I want extras. Best Buy and Target are charging almost DOUBLE for the SE. Is there anyone who doesn't understand what I am trying to say here? If this takes off, people who like extras on their DVDs are going to have to spend a lot more money. I'm all about having a choice, but the extra costs involved with having extras in this pricing model seems a bit out of hand. It's not like studios are exactly losing money off DVD and are being forced to make it up this way. Like I said before, if the price for the single disc was $15.99 and the price for the SE was $19.99, I would consider that more reasonable. 2 Disc SEs rarely cost that much before, why should it have to be this way now/in the future. That is why I am thinking that this is a way to grab more money. It seems that a 2-disc edition is being inflated in value by putting it into comparison with a Bare Bones edition being sold at the regular retail price.

 

[Doug_L]

No, we all pretty much get it: you don't want the price attributed to the extras to be as high as it is, and you think you see a trend of it increasing.

What you may or may not understand in many of the replies is a simple lesson in market economics: the studios are pricing these various editions (bear-bones, SE, etc.) based on what they believe to be the maximum profit. Since they've seen in the past that demand for the super-duper special editions is somewhat inelastic (ie: "if the SE has this/that I'll buy it at any price") they believe that they can raise the price even more and not hurt their overall profit; sales may go down by 10%, but who cares if the profit per unit is 20% higher?

Not to lecture you on general market dynamics, but that's it in a nutshell.

If you'd like to see the price attributable to the extras reduced, you and many (many) others should stop buying them when the price is too high. The studios will take a loss, and they'll adjust their pricing structure again. You'll probably lose out though, as it's extremely difficult to get millions of consumers to act in concert, whereas the studios pricing index can be fairly nimble, but... that how the market reaches equilibrium!

 

[Carlo_M]

"Whatever the market will bear, baby."

That's the ticket. The studios are increasing prices on extras - which are a premium service on top of the barebones movie edition. They will continue to raise them, studying what kind of effect it has on sales. The minute sales drop off to the point of unacceptability, they will level off the prices.

That is business. Pure and simple. Sure you may think $9 premium is too high, but some others clearly don't. Once there are more people thinking like you and less actually buying, that's when you will see the trend reverse.

Trust me, having been to a few HTF meets, studio tours, and talking with people who actually create the product (well known DVD producers), I can tell you for a fact it costs substantially more money to produce a true SE (not just trailers, but docs, interviews, etc.) than it does to produce a barebones disc. The studios want to recoup that cost now (whereas in DVD's infancy they were swallowing the costs in order to entice people just to enter the world of DVD). And I can't blame them for that.

 

[Dave S.G.]

Back to Mystic River... I just wish I could get the extras without the soundtrack. I'm glad I didn't buy the soundtrack already because I'd feel gauged. As it stands I just feel like I'm gonna have to get an "extra" I don't want that would'a normally cost $13-$18 and so is obviously adding to the cost here. But c'est la vie. I'll figure out what to do come June.

 

[Jim Williams]

I have a hard enough time finding the time to watch a 2+ hour movie much less the extras. Although commentaries could be interesting, it would mean that I would have to find more time to re-watch the movie with the commentaries.

Add to that the fact that what I would want to see as an extra is often not included. For example, shortly after the theatrical release of Rain Man there was an interview with the autistic man that Dustin Hoffman studied for his part in the movie. Ever since I saw that I have wanted to see it again, unfortunately, nothing like that is included on the new DVD release of Rain Man.

 

[Joshua_W]

I don't know if it will be that difficult.

A lot of these "premium-priced" editions might be a tough sell to consumers accustomed to getting the same content at "regular" price. It's like TCM 2003 has the 2-disc SE priced at a $40 MSRP. That's $10 more than the comparable Freddy vs Jason set, and the same price as the 4-disc LOTR extended cuts. I have a feeling that consumers will balk at premium-priced sets like TCM, Master and Commander, Panic Room SE, and Underworld SE. Especially now that consumers are accustomed to picking up DVDs for $10-$15, or less in some cases.

We've already seen a lot the premium Anchor Bay tins and other LEs sit unsold on store shelves until their prices were slashed. Seems like that experiment has already failed. Look at Wicker Man and Suspiria. The premium-priced collectors editions for those titles didn't exactly light up the charts. Despite being "numbered limited editions" AND containing exclusive content, they still sit unsold on store shelves two years after their initial release.

It also seems to me that "double-dip" special editions that Columbia seems to favor are likely a bad idea as well. There's a Panic Room SE coming out. So what? Hasn't interest in that movie already cooled down enough to the point where there probably isn't a lot of consumer interest in a special edition at a premium price?

 

[Carlo_M]

Not a fair comparison. Those are titles that wouldn't have sold well (relative to a Hollywood blockbuster) anyway, tin SE or not.

What would probably be a better indicator is how the 3 discer of Black Hawk Down sold. Or the upcoming Spidey Gift Set, given that there have already been several editions out. Or the LoTR EEs which normally sell for $10 above the standard eds (although technically they are different films, the general populace probably sees them more as "SEs").

 

[David Von Pein]

Then check out the Mrs. Doubtfire disc. Many deleted scenes...and ALL worthy of being in the film IMO (if it weren't for time constraints, I'm sure they would have been).

 

[WillG]

Exactly, Recently New Line did a pretty packed Jason vs Freddy set, but now it will cost so much more for an SE of their T.C.M. why all of a sudden do we have to pay more for this and other films? Hell, I got my 3-Disc Panic Room set for $25.99. That seems like a higher price, but it is 3 discs and that is still less than what it would cost to get T.C.M. at Best Buy. I would imagine that it cost more to produce the Special Features and such for Panic Room than it cost for T.C.M.

I'm just worried that if the 2 Disc editions don't sell as well as the bare bones editions. Studios will take it that people don't care about special features and will stop putting that kind of effort into most releases.

 

[MarkHastings]

I don't understand where this $19 price is a "standard" for SE's? Armageddon Criterion came out in 1999 and has stuck to the $36 price fairly consistently. A Bug's Life came also came out in 1999 and the 2 disc set was almost $50 in the stores.

What happened was, prices on these SE discs came DOWN in order to get the mass public interested (just like restaurants do when new management comes in), then they went back up once interest was established (just as a budding restaurant may do).

When DVD first came out, it was us (the ones who liked SE's) that were the main target, and the discs sold well. Once the mass public jumped on the DVD bandwagon, the studios had to lower the prices to gain interest. I'm sure there were plenty of low priced SE's that hurt the studios. Once the public came on board, the studios knew that if they raised the price, they'd lose the mass-publics support, so instead of just putting out SE only editions (and raising the price), they did just that and also released a bare-bones edition at the lower price.

So I really don't see it as an agrivating situation where they are rasining the prices to "Get You" some how. They're just bringing the prices back up to where they used to be. In fact they're even cheaper than they were before, so I see it as a "Deal".I really don't think that the studios are thinking that. The studios know that we all want fully packed discs, they just have to appeal to the mass public who aren't going to want to spend a lot of money on the discs.

I don't know how old you are, but do you remember CD's? When they first came out, they were like $18. After a few years, the price dropped dramatically to like $9 & $10 (to gain the publics interest)...once they got popular they went up to like $13 & $15.

 

[Jeff_HR]

That's too bad.

A "good" commentary or a behind the scenes documentary really enhances my viewing of a film.

 

[WillG]

And just for the record, DVDs are sold and bought in bulk all the time, but that is neiter here nor there.

 

[CraigF]

Re the TCM: the single disc version has some of the (minor) features from the 2-discer disc 2...i.e. disc 1 of both sets are not comparable, more differences than just the commentaries.

Re deleted scenes: funny you brought this up, I was thinking of starting a thread on the "validity" of them this morning... I really appreciate editors, and usually those deleted scenes we're shown are trash/meaningless and were removed from the film with no consequence. But it's when you see deleted scenes that are really significant, that tie together events that had you going "what the???". I happened to watch some of those latter type last night, and each was only 30s or less and really explained things. Every movie is not LOTR where you expect to have some things unexplained and lack of continuity pretty much goes unnoticed by most people since there's so much going on all over the place.

Sometimes I think some scenes were edited out by somebody who really didn't watch the movie very carefully, or else didn't understand it, so didn't really see why the scene was needed. But so far I can't honestly say the lack of the deleted scenes ruined a movie for me, just that seeing them made me say "ah, so that explains it", not that I really needed to know, just like to.

OTOH, some extended/director's cuts of films are IMO a perfect example of why some directors should not be allowed to do their own editing: way too self-indulgent, as though everything they did was necessary and perfect...talk about too long and boring. There is a certain brevity that moves something along, and that can still include completeness.

 

[Thomas T]

Count me in as one who likes having the choice of purchasing a movie only edition vs. a multi disc set that I have no interest in. Open Range was one of my favorite movies from last year but I have no interest in and no intention of watching the superfluous second disc of extras. I would have preferred a barebones release at a lower price and have them pass on the price of the second disc to those interested in such things.

And if you need those commentaries and extras to help you understand the movie, the movie hasn't done its job properly.

 

[Eric Paddon]

"OTOH, some extended/director's cuts of films are IMO a perfect example of why some directors should not be allowed to do their own editing: way too self-indulgent,"

"1776"; "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" come to mind.

 

[MarkHastings]

Yes they are sold and bought in bulk, but they're not priced to be sold that way. The studios price them for individual sale.

They aren't thinking "We need to price this DVD at $15 because someone may be buying 10 DVD's and if we priced them at $30, then they wouldn't be able to afford the $300".