Catalog Releases- Too Much of A Good Thing? The Pendulum Swings.... (1 Viewer)

[Anthony_H]

Alien Anthology, Apocalypse Now Full Disclosure, Back to the Future 25th Anniversary, The Exorcist, Se7en, King Kong, Psycho, Twilight Zone Season 1, THX 1138, Escape from New York, Forbidden Planet, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Seven Samurai, and Paths of Glory. Never in my 20+ years of collecting have I seen an upcoming season where I have to buy so many titles. A Perfect Storm of catalog titles? Perhaps.. but my sometimes paranoid brains burns with negative possibilities. Could this be the studios saying "Lets get while the getting is good" in terms of blu-ray life span? Any thoughts?!

 

[RickER]

Just in time for Christmas '10!


And i will be buying! Not just Blu-ray either. Lots of TV on DVD for me too. The Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, and Ellery Queen await me, among others.

Also, dont forget Space:1999, Doctor Who season 5, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: season 2, all on Blu this fall.

 

[Brandon Conway]

We've basically just hit the salad days in the format's life cycle. Think 2001-2005 in DVDs life span. So this will last probably 4-5 years at best before things start slowing down and we morn the eventual down trend of what is likely the last major home video format. Yeah, new releases will come out on the new formats, but if any new format is backwards compatible with BDs, I don't see most of these catalog titles done yet again as enthusiastically since 1080p (when done right) is gonna be hard to top in the near future.


But yeah - I'm gonna go broke this Fall, and we have barely started getting the Nov-Dec announcements.


- Seven Samurai
- Charade
- Breathless
- Road to Perdition
- American Beauty
- Back to the Future Trilogy
- Paths of Glory
- Apocalypse Now / Hearts of Darkness
- Twilight Zone Season 1 (Original Series)
- Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- Fantasia / Fantasia 2000
- King Kong (1933)
- THX 1138
- Psycho (1960)
- The Mission

That's just what I already have on pre-order right now. Other titles I may still pick up / ask for at Christmas:

- Alien Anthology (may wait until first 2 films are releases separately)
- Mars Attacks
- Anchorman
- Breakfast Club
- Forbidden Planet
- James and the Giant Peach
- Stardust
- The Maltese Falcon
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- Finding Nemo

- The Bridge on the River Kwai

And then there's new release titles, such as:

- Inception
- Toy Story 3
- Iron Man 2

Not to mention the 50 or so titles that have been released already that I'd like to have that I haven't been able to pick up.

 

[Paul_Scott]

The problem is these studios are flooding the last quarter with good stuff, instead of spreading it around throughout the year.


I realize they don't think people buy things the other 8 months, but they don't seem to realize that there is only so much most of us can buy in the last four too.

 

[GMpasqua]

Originally Posted by Anthony_H

Alien Anthology, Apocalypse Now Full Disclosure, Back to the Future 25th Anniversary, The Exorcist, Se7en, King Kong, Psycho, Twilight Zone Season 1, THX 1138, Escape from New York, Forbidden Planet, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Seven Samurai, and Paths of Glory. Never in my 20+ years of collecting have I seen an upcoming season where I have to buy so many titles. A Perfect Storm of catalog titles? Perhaps.. but my sometimes paranoid brains burns with negative possibilities. Could this be the studios saying "Lets get while the getting is good" in terms of blu-ray life span? Any thoughts?!

Have to buy? Didn't know anyone was holding a gun to your head. Most of these titles will be drastically reduced next year, so if you wait a bit it won't coost as much. I was able to get, "Big" "Braveheart" and a bunch of others for $10 each, others for $15

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

The problem is these studios are flooding the last quarter with good stuff, instead of spreading it around throughout the year.


I realize they don't think people buy things the other 8 months, but they don't seem to realize that there is only so much most of us can buy in the last four too.

In fairness, the studios do have marketing data to back up their release strategy. Secondly, if people do buy things over the other 8 months then those soon to be released titles, you can't buy in the next 4 months will still be available to buy from January-August in 2011 and probably at a lower price for many of them.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua




Have to buy? Didn't know anyone was holding a gun to your head. Most of these titles will be drastically reduced next year, so if you wait a bit it won't coost as much. I was able to get, "Big" "Braveheart" and a bunch of others for $10 each, others for $15

There you go. The early bird doesn't always get the worm, at least when it comes to a more reasonable priced worm.







Crawdaddy

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

The problem is these studios are flooding the last quarter with good stuff, instead of spreading it around throughout the year.


I realize they don't think people buy things the other 8 months, but they don't seem to realize that there is only so much most of us can buy in the last four too.

This is the same release strategy that has been used since the beginning of home video sales, so if it's a problem, it's certainly not limited to a format or year.

 

[Bradley-E]

I think the studios are being very selective about what catalog titles they are releasing. These titles are specifically placed for Q4 for fans, newbies, casual buyers, etc. I would imagine most of these will be found at much lower prices, and could be Black Friday bait etc. The studios may be slowing down on catalogs, but I do think they know what will sell still. The verdict is still out on Blu ray's life span and I do not think the studios are calling it a day on the format. But if these titles sell below expectations they may still curtail catalogs and just focus on day/date and television releases, and they may just license out titles to others to distribute.