Industry article on shows that are abandoned due to slow sales (1 Viewer)

[MishaLauenstein]

Hmm.

Since the problem is that the previous seasons are more expensive when a new season comes out in a blaze of advertising and premium shelf-placement, perhaps new releases should come with coupons attached to the outside of the package with $10 off at the till for each the previous seasons (when you buy them together) and the stores can remove the coupons after a few weeks when the promo period is over, like they do with dishwashing liquid.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

I think I spotted one of those guys last week.

When I watched the Superman thing on A&E the other day, there was one guy in a suit (one of the producers) talking about the new Superman movie, and I commented to my wife that he had the look of a studio executive who knew nothing about Superman and wouldn't care about Superman one second after his involvement with the project ended.

He probably bullied his way into the documentary.

 

[Michael Alden]

And he would be the rule rather than the exception. The majority of the people in this business are there to make a lot of money and bang a lot of broads, not necessarily in that order. They have no more attachment to the properties than they would to any other item they were trying to make money on.

 

[WhitneyG]

Two observations:

1. This author's way of interpreting statistics are unfortunately common in these types of news stories and is definitely flawed. As many have pointed out, comparing a poor seller to the top sellers isn't a fair comparison. We know seasons that sell very poorly won't see subsequent seasons released, but top sellers don't give us any indication of exactly how bad a set has to sell before the series gets canned.

Even the apples to apples comparisons don't help much, though. Boy Meets World is a perfect example of this. Yes, sales being down is an indication the series could be doing poorly. However, just because sales dropped 39% doesn't mean the sets are selling poorly. We don't know where the starting point is. For example, if I said two years ago that Friends season eight sold 39% fewer sets than seven, we'd still expect a season nine set because Friends sets sold very, very well. On the other hand, that kind of percentage drop could be the kiss of death for a different series like The Jeffersons. The only truly fair interpretation of sales statistics for Boy Meets World would be if we knew how much profit season two generated, how much profit season three generated, and how much profit Disney/BVHE needs to generate to make the releases worth their time and worth not releasing something else. Sales being down 39% could mean less profit, roughly breaking even, or a loss. We don't know which it was. If it was the first, BMW might still make a come back.

2. Can we trust this article when it claims there is a causal relationship between poor BMW sales and the missing season four? The way it's worded, it could be speculation or the official story. Certainly the drop in sales and the cancelled season four release plans suggests that BMW was dropped due to poor sales, but without confirmation, can we be sure? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be optimistic about this; I'm very concerned about completing my BMW series. I see the evidence from this article as another nail in the coffin, but not the final nail.

 

[John Carr]

I'm worried about two of my favorites, Cheers Season 8 and Frasier Season 8. Our local Best Buy had only TWO copies of each, and with no discount or print advertising from Paramount-- of course, there's going to be a sales drop!

With only 3 and 2 seasons to go for these classics, I just hope it doesn't mean more release delays, or worse...

 

[Stephen Wight]

I agree with what WhitneyG,and others,have posted.The authors comparison of a mid level show to a huge seller(Who's The Boss? to Seinfeld) is extremely misleading.A more apt comparison would be to compare the sales of Who's the Boss? to,say,Soap.Compare 227 to Good Times and What's Happening.Then we would get a more accurate reading of if a show sold well,or not.

 

[Will_C]

I hate to see Airwolf in trouble. It was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I'm also hoping Sony will get to Forever Knight season 3. The first set sold abysmally according to Dave Lambert of HTF and TVshowsondvd.com fame. I was surprised to get season 2 just over a year later. It's been almost 1.5 years since S2 came out and no word on S3. Maybe if studios don't liscence smaller companies to put out these products, one day they'll make them available online for legal purchase and download. That would save them from pressing, marketing and distributing discs that appeal to a smaller niche market.

 

[John*Wells]

Gord,

So I am assuming that the subject reasoning of this article is why Sony won't release season sets for Mr. Ed ?? Thats really the only other Series I was planning to buy. But the 2 Best of Volumes marched out and then that was it

 

[Aryn Leroux]

It doesn't quite make sense why Universal would abandon Airwolf which it states did 20% of what it's #1 seller did Miami Vice. 20% of your top seller has to be pretty good sales. They are continuing sets that did less than that. So go figure!

 

[Christian L.]

That´s exactly the same thing i was thinking while i´ve read that article.

Considering how Universal executed Airwolf S1, i´m surprised this actually sold this good. The packaging alone is a disgrace, no extra features whatsoever, DS/DL-discs, the relatively high price...

The only thing that is ok is video and audio quality, but it still has that "substandard" feeling to it, which is Universal´s own fault. I probably will never really understand what they were thinking when they decided to go cheap with such a fine series. Business wise it didn´t make sense, fan wise it doesn´t make sense and considering these execution failures it apparently still sold really well. The reason being because people love the series, but hate the thought to be abandoned now with only S1 in their hands.

Universal, wake up and give this series the life it deserves.

 

[RickER]

I agree Christian, and dont forget the fact that season 1 only had 10 episodes or so. I love the show but skipped it because of the DVD 18 and the price tag. Now if season 2 of Airwolf comes out in the $40 price range on single sided discs, id buy it.

Also i would buy the rest of Black Sheep, Adam 12, Dragnet, McCloud and id buy more Emergency on DVD...if all are done right.

 

[Shaw]

SCTV only has had the fourth and fifth seasons released. Now there is going to be a "Best of the early years" set which to me is the kiss of death. One of my biggest beefs is with fans who didn't get upset with the music that was edited from the sets. I think the music clearance problem is one of the main reasons that sales of the sets declined.

Also the saturation of the market by so many different shows and of course just plain old day to day bills and money matters. Somehow the studios think that people have the money right away for this very expensive hobby. The SCTV sets could go as high as almost $100.00 each in small music shops! Futureshop did give a reasonable price of 74.99, but I honestly think people who bought it and recognized the cuts felt ripped off. I sure do. And Shout! did not place any labelling on the discs to state that they were indeed edited!
How about a class action lawsuit guys? This could go to any studio. Believe me, if a major studio lost a suit like this and believe me, I think there is a pretty damn good chance they would, other studios will fall in line and make a greater effort to clear music. Copyright holders might think twice about charging their exhorbitant fees. You know they asked for huge sums becuase TV on DVD was so hot. Well, now it isn't so hot and I honestly believe this is one of the main reasons for the sales slumps.

threerandot