WARNER's commitment to fullscreen releases...this could be the reason (1 Viewer)

Link Removed
Click on the above link,check out the article in the middle section.

Is that new news or the same market research that MGM has been quoting for weeks? [addendum: Just noticed the date -- we discussed this extensively when it was originally reported in June].
The truth of the matter is probably closer to the fact that most consumers don't give a toss one way or the other and pick up whichever version is on the shelf at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or Target. I wonder how they came up with that 55/45 split when so many titles are not even available in full screen?
Regards,
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Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA
[Edited last by Ken_McAlinden on August 29, 2001 at 02:07 PM]

Mike "Nostradamus" Knapp predicted this several years ago. It's things like this that make me really lose faith as far as the "common man" thinking is concerned.
Of course, I fault the lack of education by the studios as well. Fox released a nice, 3 minute "Why Widescreen" demo on their Die Hard DVD. I've used it to educate a half-dozen people so far. All of them "got it" and now prefer OAR.
Of course, Fox put this on Disc 2, several menus deep. So the "average Joe" won't even find it! And what other company puts things like this on DVD? Not many (can't even think of one example right now).
Education is the key, but rather than informing the public that OAR means more picture, studios are bowing to the complaints and releasing full frame/P&S instead of OAR.
Truly disappointing on many fronts.

I don't really care about that article. I hate pan and scam, but as long as they put widescreen and pan and scan on the same disc as Shrek/Neverending Story, I'm a happy man.

I think the truth of the matter is that the "average" consumer prefers full frame and views DVD as high resolution VHS.
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I am not sure what "commitment to full screen" Yang is talking about. Yes Warner may have dropped the ball on a few so called family titles (which they seem to have corrected) but other than that, their regular releases have been consistently widescreen.
I have been saying this for a awhile, but some people do not like Widescreen or are indifferent to widescreen even if the do know the benefits. They instead care about the content of the film itself and do not allow the aspect ratio to have an effect on their enjoyment of the film. Call them J6P but they are enjoying the same films we do, and sometimes they get to enjoy these films on DVD while we stand waiting for a widescreen release.
If the numbers are true, from a business standpoint it makes sense to cater to the entire market, not just the shrinking majority.
J

Must be why Gladiator and the Matrix sold so poorly
102 Damnations was a stinker anyway, however, the reason I would give for poor numbers is that WS is underbought by Walmart, Kmart, etc. It's a self fulfilling prophecy, they think PS sells better, so they stock more PS and less WS, and that makes it look like PS is preferred.
My local Walmart has 2 sections of the Hannibal display that have the PS SOTL and 1 section that has the WS I also recall the same ratio (maybe less) with 102 and Remember the Titans.
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I didnt play Dungeons and Dragons all those years and not learn something about courage.
--Bernie Faulkner

I wish the practice of panning and scanning movies would be abolished completely. We don't need it. We have enough resolution now, unlike with VHS. I know this has been argued to death, but a stand should have been taken with DVD to offer the highest quality presentation in the original aspect ratio. Then they should have stuck to it.
Then we'd have a simple formula:
DVD = High-quality, OAR - viewed best on widescreen TVs
VHS = Chunks of shit panned and crammed onto your TV
Now they're just making it confusing for average blokes to distinguish between the two.
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Of course, the people that are indifferent either way, can skew sales results to whichever is more readily available. This is why Remember the Titans sold more P&S. That one was more readily available at Wal-Mart and K-Mart. If the WS one would have been more readily available, it would have sold more.
I think the only marketing research that counts is this:
Check one:
___ I will not buy a title that I want if it's only available edited from theatrical release(P&S/Fullscreen) ** only Kubrick acceptions.
___ I will not buy a title that I want if it's available only in Theatrical Format/Widescreen.
___ I would buy a title that I wanted regardless of which format it was released in.
___ I do not buy DVDs
That's the definitive survey of the DVD buyers. No tricks. No Misleading terms. It's all there. It won't take into account the preferences of people that don't even buy DVDs.
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William
Go Bucs!!
MyDVDs
[Edited last by William Ward on August 29, 2001 at 05:25 PM]
[Edited last by William Ward on August 29, 2001 at 05:31 PM]

William, good point! I wish the studios would publish a survey like that somewhere so that everybody can participate and see the results.

Personally, I'm coming to believe that all of this "market research" is being funded by kickbacks from the people whom the studios pay to pan-and-scan the movies!
Hey, they wanna stay in business, right?
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DAVE/Memphis
Widescreen is Family Fun!

I wonder if I should give it a seperate thread so that more people will see it. I encourage anyone with the spare time and the inclination to print one out(it shouldn't take that long to type) and take it to the Wal-Mart DVD section to see the results. I can almost guarantee that the most popular choice would be the I don't care. If you are at the front of the store you would probably get more I don't buy DVDs. I might do this Saturday. Maybe Tuesday is a better time because you'll have more people looking for new releases......
Anyone know the marketing departments of the studios to send this questionairre to??
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William
Go Bucs!!
MyDVDs

William,
Unfortunately, even yours is a little misleading. Consider all movies shot in Academy Ratio. They are full screen and I definately won't be excluding them from my collection. I can't imagine that I'd want a widescreen Casablanca!
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Adrian Jones

Try it now Adrian. I didn't want a thesis on every selection so I tried to word it so it was relevant to the WS/FS debate that goes on for post 1954 movies. I could just change the title to read post 1954 movies or films not shot in Academy Ratio but this will confuse more people.
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William
Go Bucs!!
MyDVDs

This type of development of the DVD market was to be expected. As for myself, I will not be buying any MARed DVDs. I do my part to educate others about widescreen, I encourage the studios to do theirs. They're in it for the money (aren't we all?) so you can't stop it--just do what you can to make sure that if a P&S version comes out it is accompanied by a widescreen version.
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Dustin A. Davis '94
Dustin Davis for Dummies : My HT : Link Removed
"But they are useless. They can only give you answers." - Pablo Picasso on computers

I think the most powerful advertisement for widescreen would be the trailers that were run to advertise for the release of the Star Wars Special Editions. It cleary demonstrated what a whole new generation knew as Star Wars. It showed a very cropped clip. Then it blasted into it's OAR showing everything that was missed.
I don't know why they even bother with this research other than to keep people from being on unemployment. One of the biggest draws when DVD players first came out was that the movies would be in the OAR.
Matt
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Honk Kong DVD Reviews and News
loveandbullets.com

Here's on more question to add to that survey:
"How many DVDs do you buy in a year? ____ "
The people who buy the most DVDs, either don't care or will only buy if OAR is on the disc. They are looking a preferences per person basis instead of on a per purchase basis.
The simple truth is that the studios can release both versions, and there are more than enough buyers to make each one profitable and the cost of spereate releases negligible.
But forget about which is more popular. It should not matter because studios should not be able to deny poeple the ability to watch a movie in its OAR. It is that simple.
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My DVD's
If a movie is not available in OAR, than it might as well not be available at all.

If I ever become like a director or something, I will fight to the end of all time to have EVERY SINGLE movie I would ever make to keep its widescreen format. I would not let any studio chop up my vision so that the average joe isn't bothered by the "black bars on the top or bottom of the screen".
And that's another thing that bugs me. Columbia has a survey up which I just participated in and it asked if you prefered Widescreen or Fullframe. A) they decided to put next to it (black bars are at the top and bottom of the screen). Now, if an average person saw this and saw the whole black bar thing, they would be confused being, I would not want them to take away the top and bottom of the screen so they would prefer full frame which is also my second point B) which they should not call it full frame because basically it is pan and scan which chops up so much of the movie that the director intended...
Studios piss me off sometimes. Oh yeah what was this I heard about MGM wanting more PAN & SCAN movies? Um...Okay so they did this with SILENCE OF THE LAMBS...why not HANNIBAL? TERMINATOR another movie which they decide not to being out a separate version of pan scan? what about LEGALLY BLONDE? yes it may have a pan scam version on it with the widescreen, but if they wanted "full frame" so much, why didn't they make two separate versions?! MGM is just a lot of talk (basically also about their argument that there shouldnt be audio commentaries on DVDs cuz the consumer doesn't want the audio commentaries...um...then why tell me does HANNIBAL have one? why is the upcoming LEGALLY BLONDE have 2 audio commentaries?!)
Why can't studios just have a standard to their DVDs and just stick to it!? Oh wait I forgot, they just want to make the money off of the uneducated person. That's why they don't want to take the time to tell the people that widescreen is better because that would ruin their sales to non widescreen movies. Argh...I'm done with my ranting for one day...
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"I don't want to kiss you here...I want to kiss you- there."
"You can put it anywhere"
"Kathryn, the only thing you are going to be riding is me!"

I was thinking last week about writing a survey, and sending it to the studios. I came upp with the ultimate DVD survey. I think this one is better, because there is not just one choice to check. I will also add more later about what types of films that they buy. Please add your imput, and I will make changes, and then send to the correct studio departments. Thanks.
How many DVD's do you purhcase each month?
How many DVD's do you own?
What film genre's do you usually buy?
Do you prefer full frame, or widescreen?
Would you refuse to buy a movie that you really like, if it were only available in widescreen?
Would you refuse to buy a movie that you really like, if it were only available in full frame?
Would you refuse to buy a movie that had both widescreen and full frame, if it meant sacrificeing image quality or extras?
Do you own a widescreen telivison?
Do you plan on buying a widescreen telivison in the next 12 months?