Snow White to hit Blu-ray SEVEN WEEKS before the DVD (1 Viewer)

[frankie108]

Retailers to shelve Bedtime Stories early - 4/1/2009 - Video Business

 

[Bryan Beckman]

Thanks for posting that article. It was a fascinating read for multiple reasons.

Disney will have to be very careful with its marketing of the Snow White Blu-ray exclusivity window, so as to send the message that this is a bonus for Blu-ray owners (or those soon to be - buy your players today!) instead of a slight against DVD-only customers.

The SRP on Snow White is pretty steep, as it was with Pinocchio and Bolt. Hopefully there will be $10 coupons floating around and other retailer specials to bring the price down to more reasonable levels. I was fortunate enough to get both Bolt and the Lilo & Stitch SE at Toys 'R Us for $20 off the total price, thanks to the $10 off Bolt coupon and taking $10 off another Disney DVD with a purchase of Bolt. I rarely preorder new releases now, because it seems that better deals will surface either the week of release or just after.

 

[Robert Crawford]

What you posted doesn't dispute my claim that the studio didn't already informed the retailers about the release window for Snow White because they have a close business relationship. Just because there is a pissing match about staggered release windows within a few days of each other between the studios and their biggest customer Wal-Mart, it doesn't mean they don't discuss these releases dates before they're announced to the public. I've spoken to studio executives personally about their relationship with the major retailers and know for a fact how close their relationship is and just like any other business relationship there will be some conflicts from time to time.

 

[Scott-S]

When the release dates are close to each other (like 3 days) then I am sure all the stores have the DVDs in stock. But with this new 6-7 week difference, they wont have them to sell even if they wanted to. This was probably done to stop the cheating stores. I feels like this is a big ole F**K you to Walmart from Disney. LOL

Since the BD will include a DVD, I am ok with this. If someone really wants the DVD they can buy the BD version.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

That's Disney's plan

 

[Brian McHale]

Is there really going to be that great a demand for the SD DVD version? How many people who like/love this movie don't already own it on DVD?

 

[cafink]

Considering that the existing DVD has been out of print for years, I'd guess that there are quite a number of people who'd be interested in Snow White but don't already have it, especially folks who have young children now but did not when the DVD was released eight years ago.

 

[Oliver_A]

While I certainly applaud the decision to go this route, I fear that this is the wrong title to do it because there probably will be lots of angry parents who just want to buy the film for their children, in contrast to film and home theater enthusiasts who NEED to be pushed towards Blu Ray.

I think the best method to break the spell of DVD is to stop selling special editions for this format. It must be made clear that Blu Ray is the format of choice for film and home theater enthusiasts.

 

[cafink]

Aren't film and home theater enthusiasts already enthusiastic about Blu-ray? If you want Blu-ray to become a greater success, I think you need to focus your efforts on that market segment for whom standard DVDs are good enough--and that's the casual, mainstream audience, particularly families.

 

[Ethan Riley]

No one is going to be denied anything--the BluRay will include a standard def copy of the movie. And if Disney has to be aggressive in getting people to upgrade to BR--so be it. Let a few million whiners grumble and get it out of their system--then they'll finally upgrade to BR, see the difference and never look back. Sometimes is progress is painful, but it has to happen.

 

[frankie108]

That's what I find so crazy about this selling approach. By everything I know, it's back-ass-wards. With 9 out of 10 consumers buying DVDs over BD, shouldn't Disney be promoting the SE DVD version of SW over the less profitable BD version??? Betcha Wal-mart and the other major retailers would agree. Just a thought......

 

[Scott-S]

They will be promoting it I am sure. Just 6 weeks later.

 

[ATimson]

Is it really less profitable? Does it really cost more than $2.50* to press a Blu-ray?

*$10 MSRP increase means about $5 for Disney. You're adding one DVD, but subtracting two others that I'm not accounting for, so the per-disc cost could even be slightly more and still break even.

 

[MatthewA]

It certainly was that way with DVD.

 

[John Sparks]

...but not with paying LD prices!!!

 

[Mark_D_Fischer]

Now this is a clever move -

The Blu-Ray /DVD bundle will come packaged in a Blu-Ray case:
Amazon.com: Snow White (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + BD Live w/ Blu-ray packaging) [Blu-ray]: Adriana Caselotti, Roy Atwell, Lucille LaVerne, David Hand: Movies & TV

- and also a DVD case variant:
Amazon.com: Snow White (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + BD Live w/ DVD packaging) [Blu-ray]: Roy Atwell, Adriana Caselotti, Stuart Buchanan, Eddie Collins, Pinto Colvig: Movies & TV

Having the standard DVD packaging should net a lot of DVD-folk purchases.

Mark

 

[Bryan Beckman]

I hope the number of returns of the wolf in sheep's clothing Blu-ray in DVD packaging aren't too high.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Personally I love the fact that they're considering doing this.

Here in New Zealand, quite often we'll have a particular title (both new releases and catalogue) released on DVD, with the Blu-Ray coming out a couple of months later. Which annoys me because it means people who might actually buy the Blu-Ray will see the DVD only, may assume the title won't be released on Blu-Ray, buy the DVD, and then may not be inclined to repurchase the Blu-Ray when it does come out. (Indeed, one such delayed title was Sleeping Beauty - it was initially announced as a same-day release for both versions, then the Blu-Ray never happened and just appeared on the shelves a couple of months later. The other title that really annoyed me was season 4 of Lost - the Blu-Ray's release date changed three or four times, and eventually came out four months after the DVD.)

So it's nice to think that Disney might actually adopt the opposite approach.

 

[Oliver_A]

I'm not sure if you understood what I meant, because my proposal is to stop releasing DVD special editions at all.

DVD = cheap bare bones consumer
Blu Ray = film / home theater enthusiast

In my opinion, this is a necessary step to manage the transition between the 2 formats. Blu Ray needs to take the place as THE ONLY format for film enthusiasts, and better picture quality isn't necessarily the only push people need to adopt this format. Perhaps the bare bones DVD version could include a coupon to buy the Blu Ray version at a cheaper price.

 

[Shad R]

I just wonder how many people will be mad that to get the DVD they will either have to wait seven weeks or shell out extra cash to get it early. Standard DVD will probably sell for around $18-$20 while Blu/DVD combo sells ro $25 +.
As for the bare bones DVD and Blu special addition idea, that would really make some people mad. This may sound dumb, but I know people who, even though they would never watch the special features, would be mad that blu-rays get all the bells and whistles and DVD gets nothing extra. Some people are just that way. And then there are those DVD watchers that DO want the extras but don'g have blu-rays.
As for me personally, I hope Disney keeps making blu available first. But I'm a blu-ray owner.