Whatever Happened to Dollar DVDs? (1 Viewer)

[wizard55]

I remember in the mid to late 2000's, every single dollar store, and big retailer (Walmart, etc) had a section of Dollar dvds. This was usually always just public domain films and tv series that companies such as DigiView and EastWest were putting out. but over the last few years they have pretty much completely vanished. Why? Obviously dollar DVD's were selling like hotcakes in that time why the sudden decline? Even if they were low-quality they had some rather obscure stuff that would show up sometimes on those such as obscure anime, sitcoms/dramas, foreign films, etc.

 

[[email protected]]

Oh they still exist, only now they sell for five dollars and up. I just bought “Hey There, Its Yogi Bear!” at a Family Dollar store in Indiana and paid only five bucks for it.

 

[wizard55]

Oh, I too come acrossed used dollar DVD's for like 3 bucks or more at thrift shops. The actual legit releases that are new however are not in stores anymore anywhere.

 

[kingfish]

i remember the digiview releases. the picture quality was so poor it was like throwing a dollar in the garbage.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Digiview and East West were actually sued out of existence as a lot of the stuff they put out was still copyrighted, and usually taken from pre-recorded VHS tapes, but not properly licensed.

I bought a ton of dollar discs and likely have all the public-domain movies I'm interested in that exist, I'm guessing the other companies couldn't keep selling the same stuff over and over again in the long term. Dollar Tree and 99-cents Only Stores have recently been getting in DVDs from bigger labels including Warner, I've even gotten a few Blu-Rays of B-movies and travelogue stuff there.

 

[Stanton Heck]

The days of dollar dvds are over but the good news is that legit companies are releasing multiple titles on a single dvd and they cost under $1.00 a film. I bought a 10 movie pack of horror films for only $5 at Walmart. Titles on it were "Halloween vi" "Halloween H20" "Halloween Resurrection" A few Hell raiser Titles and more recent films

 

[Vic Pardo]

Oh they still exist, only now they sell for five dollars and up. I just bought “Hey There, Its Yogi Bear!” at a Family Dollar store in Indiana and paid only five bucks for it.

Hmmm...I've been eager to get that (never seen it but for a song clip that I found really intriguing) so now I've got to keep my eyes open for Five Dollar DVD sections.

 

[wizard55]

Too bad. It was a blast for myself to rummage through the digiview ones at Walmart. I'd come acrossed sleazy horror titles, old anime, and other intetrsting titles.

 

[kingfish]

some dollar stores actually have blu ray movies for one dollar. one title is d.o.a. with dennis quade.

 

[bigshot]

Some of the best DVD finds I ever made were at PicNSave in the dollar bin... Really good prints of Van Beuren cartoons, the Sherlock Holmes TV series from the 50s, lots of great PD TV and movies.

 

[Mark McFurbin]

Digiview and East West were actually sued out of existence as a lot of the stuff they put out was still copyrighted, and usually taken from pre-recorded VHS tapes, but not properly licensed.

I bought a ton of dollar discs and likely have all the public-domain movies I'm interested in that exist, I'm guessing the other companies couldn't keep selling the same stuff over and over again in the long term. Dollar Tree and 99-cents Only Stores have recently been getting in DVDs from bigger labels including Warner, I've even gotten a few Blu-Rays of B-movies and travelogue stuff there.

DigiView and EastWest were simply PD companies. Source for them being sued out of existence?

My local Dollar Tree has lot's of big titles now from the big studios as well on Blu Ray.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/71624/warner-bros-sues-digiview-over-dvd-patents

They were sued by Warner- Warner didn't win, but the legal fees put the company under anyways. Digiview intentionally censored any movies above G-rated anyways- I have "Christmas Evil" that's cut to pieces. EastWest blatantly released titles that weren't public-domain, stuff like The Hobbit animated special. Can't find any definite info on them but I wouldn't be surprised if they ran into worse legal trouble than Digiview.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

I don’t think you will ever see $1 DVDs again. The closest I have seen them are $1.79 or something odd like that at places like Walgreen’s Pharmacy. I never see them at the former places like the “dollar” type stores or Wal-Mart. You would see several labels and all put out the same thing over and over until the market became saturated and people disenchanted.

That was one of the downfalls of “special edition” DVD’s coming out for the same title. You would have the regular release then the 2-disc, then the Special Edition, then the Director’s Cut, and then an Anniversary Issue all of the same title within a couple of years. People got tired of rebuying to upgrade so the market became saturated with unpurchased discs. I think that is what happened with Warner when it repackaged movies in 4-disc packs under themes that you find for $5.

I have to also admit that I am a sucker for the Echo Bridge releases of Miramax titles and other studios. When they first hit the market the company was on par with cheaply authored Treeline (now Mill Creek) but today you can get good bang for the buck with descent compression considering they can cram 3-4 movies on one disc. It won’t be Bluray quality but in the overall scheme of things and how these kinds of offering were all over the place in crappy pixelated and digital artifact garbage… the Echo Bridge product is stellar for the value.

On a similar subject, whatever happened to Big Lots DVD offerings? At the local one in my area they have maybe 100 DVDs total and some have been there for years. There was a time when studios like Warner, 20th Fox, MGM, Universal would send out trays upon trays for multiple middle of the floor displays of DVDs by the thousands. I haven’t seen that in quite a while and now have to go to an old Roses store to find any variety but have to dig through bins. Then have to watch the pricing because I can find the same title in the same bin for two different prices. One may be $5 or $7.50 depending on how far down you dig.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/71624/warner-bros-sues-digiview-over-dvd-patents

They were sued by Warner- Warner didn't win, but the legal fees put the company under anyways. Digiview intentionally censored any movies above G-rated anyways- I have "Christmas Evil" that's cut to pieces. EastWest blatantly released titles that weren't public-domain, stuff like The Hobbit animated special. Can't find any definite info on them but I wouldn't be surprised if they ran into worse legal trouble than Digiview.

The above case was over language tracks and not a movie title.