Issue with Warner BD releases listed at Amazon! (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

HTF Members:

There is definitely a problem between Warner BD pre-order releases and Amazon!

Titles such as True Detective: Season One, The Time Machine, Point Blank and Tightrope have the same message on each of my orders.

Matter of fact, just about all of the Warner releases have the same message on each title's page. Just access the preorder release schedule below and click on the Warner titles.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/blu_ray_preorder_release_schedule.html

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Hopefully, it's just temporary site-related issue as Dreamcatcher schedule for 9/16 doesn't have that message even though it's a Warner title.

 

[David Weicker]

This was reported on in The Time Machine thread. However, as of now, none of the pre-orders have been canceled.I haven't checked any of the other retailers to see if they've altered their listings.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Still searching but it seems to be related to contact negotiations and Amazon playing hardball. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-05-31/viz-media-amazon-disabling-preorders-until-contracts-finalized/.75082

 

[Johnny Angell]

Yeah, Hachette (sp?) could tell us something about Amazon and hardball.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I've noticed that all of my Warner pre-orders are still valid, and that the titles are still showing up in the list of top selling items (like "Lego Movie" is in top 100 Blu-rays), but that you can't actually pre-order it.

If it was a one-day issue, I'd think it was a tech thing, but it's been like this for at least a week. Wondering if it's about a dispute similar to the one Amazon is having with Hachette. When it was just "The Lego Movie" that had it's preorder removed, I was hoping it was maybe because Warner was revisiting the release and deciding to do a BD3D without the box 'o junk, but it seems to be something larger or different than that.

 

[cineMANIAC]

Maybe Amazon wants all Warner titles to be $29.99 MSRP and the studio is fighting back. The prices on many titles, especially cult films from independent labels, have shot up to an average of $27 which, when factoring in shipping and taxes, end up costing well into the $30 range, which is beyond ridiculous. I preordered Breakheart Pass at $20 and some change (which is reasonable) but the final cost was nearly $28!. I quickly withdrew the preorder. Amazon has gotten too big so they feel they can charge whatever the heck they want. I cut back about 90% of purchases from there as they are no longer the best place to buy movies.

 

[rayman1701]

Well my order of The Nutty Professor shipped, even though if you go thru the link you can't actually order it. So whatever their issues are, they ARE at least of this evening honoring the pre-orders that were already in before the issues happened.Now why do so many Japanese movies show up when looking at the release date view. Even some looking like softcore movies with nudity on the covers, which I think shows they are having more than one issue.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Maybe Amazon wants all Warner titles to be $29.99 MSRP and the studio is fighting back. The prices on many titles, especially cult films from independent labels, have shot up to an average of $27 which, when factoring in shipping and taxes, end up costing well into the $30 range, which is beyond ridiculous. I preordered Breakheart Pass at $20 and some change (which is reasonable) but the final cost was nearly $28!. I quickly withdrew the preorder. Amazon has gotten too big so they feel they can charge whatever the heck they want. I cut back about 90% of purchases from there as they are no longer the best place to buy movies.

I think Amazon's goal is to push prices as low as possible, at the expense of the publisher/studio/supplier.

I don't recall offhand all of the details of the current Hachette thing, but the problem there is that because of the large market share Amazon suddenly has of all books sold anywhere, they're basically a monopsony (sort of the mirror image of a monopoly, where one buyer controls the prices for all sellers by dictating what they will and won't pay, and the seller has no choice because there's no other marketplace). A monopoly isn't so great because the seller can dictate prices across the board, but a monopsony also can be worrisome because it takes all control away from the manufacturer from setting any kind of minimum price. For years, Amazon has subsidized its low book prices by selling them at a loss and eating the price difference. Now, they want to sell them at a loss, and are asking the publisher to pay for that loss. The publisher wants to sell books, but can't really sign up for a business plan where they lose money on every single copy they sell through Amazon either.

In this case, my guess is that if there's anything going on, it's not about driving prices up but driving them down. On one hand, lower prices sound great. On the other hand, it could (long term) really discourage studios from putting out any sort of content at all, if its taken to the extreme. If Amazon is the top selling retailer of DVDs in the world (not saying they are, but just for the sake of example), and if Amazon says it will only sell DVDs at $5, so they'll only pay $2.50 to the studio, and it costs the studio that much just to make the product.. and if there are no other sellers left, because Amazon's low prices have put everyone else out of business… at what point does the studio throw the towel in and say, hey, it's not even worth doing any sort of quality release because we can't sell them at a price that breaks even much less turns a profit?

Don't get me wrong.. I love the convenience of Amazon and I'm a frequent shopper there, but some of these issues are a little concerning for long term. In the short term, it feels great to have the prices brought down… I just hope we don't cross into an area where it's unsustainable, and the companies that produce the products I love are forced to consider whether there's any money to be made in releasing them. To a certain extent, I think we're already seeing the aggressive price dropping having an effect on the quality of releases. Sure, we still get the occasional fully loaded title, but it seems like most mainstream new release titles are only getting perfunctory special features now, whereas for DVD in its prime, it seems like we may have gotten better bonus features. Some of that may be because a new DVD (at the height of its popularity) could be sold for $20-30, whereas there's pressure to have the new BDs at $20 or under on street date, and down to half that only weeks or months later.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Its summer and the "bugs" are known to emerge on Amazon during this time of the year. Just ride it out.

 

[Mark-P]

Maybe Amazon wants all Warner titles to be $29.99 MSRP and the studio is fighting back. The prices on many titles, especially cult films from independent labels, have shot up to an average of $27 which, when factoring in shipping and taxes, end up costing well into the $30 range, which is beyond ridiculous. I preordered Breakheart Pass at $20 and some change (which is reasonable) but the final cost was nearly $28!. I quickly withdrew the preorder. Amazon has gotten too big so they feel they can charge whatever the heck they want. I cut back about 90% of purchases from there as they are no longer the best place to buy movies.

That's a laugh. No, if anything Amazon wants to be able to undercut all the competition. They are probably trying to get Warner to sell them product cheaper than they sell it to other retailers and Warner won't do it.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Twilight Time no longer sell through Amazon presumably because they are now established and no longer need to. I doubt a company as large as Warners need to either.

 

[David Weicker]

Twilight Time no longer sell through Amazon presumably because they are now established and no longer need to. I doubt a company as large as Warners need to either.

When did Twilight Time ever sell via Amazon?I know some market-place sellers resold TT titles, but as far as I knew the only official sellers were Screen Archives and TCM.

 

[TravisR]

Looks like Amazon flinched because they've got the titles that come out tomorrow have magically become available. It seems like they're still trying to punish Warners because the discount is only about 20% off or less on Alexander, The Nutty Professor, The Outsiders and Zoolander, they're only matching Best Buy's price on True Blood (rather than Target's price which is $5 lower) and their price on Falling Skies is $3 more than BB's price.

 

[Mark-P]

When did Twilight Time ever sell via Amazon?I know some market-place sellers resold TT titles, but as far as I knew the only official sellers were Screen Archives and TCM.

Twilight Time's exclusive retailer Screen Archives Entertainment DOES indeed sell through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_in_-2_p_4_36?me=A3DCPWQU1VX3N8&rh=p_4%3ATwilight+Time&ie=UTF8&qid=1401738913 However it takes them a while to add the newest releases to their Amazon storefront. I think they only put them there after the initial rush through their own website has died down.

Edit: That link I posted is not showing all the Twilight Time titles they sell though Amazon. For some reason some are not tagged right, but if you search their storefront you will find most everything except the very latest releases.

 

[cineMANIAC]

That's a laugh. No, if anything Amazon wants to be able to undercut all the competition. They are probably trying to get Warner to sell them product cheaper than they sell it to other retailers and Warner won't do it.

It's understandable that you find what I said amusing since you probably don't buy cult titles. Lucky for you but not so lucky for folks wanting to buy films like CURTAINS or DEATH SPA and prefer to buy from Amazon for whatever reason. You're guaranteed to save yourself up to $10 on these films by buying elsewhere.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I'm mostly done with Amazon and will be doing the majority of my blu-ray purchasing elsewhere. At this stage there are far better options. However, I am still purchasing from European Amazon outlets.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Just as some of us expected... http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2014/06/10/amazon-stops-taking-advance-orders-for-lego-other-warner-videos/

 

[Dave Upton]

Just as some of us expected...http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2014/06/10/amazon-stops-taking-advance-orders-for-lego-other-warner-videos/

I can see both sides. Studios have a tendency to be greedy when physical media is already in tough position. If you want to keep selling physical discs, make them affordable enough to be worth the premium over streaming, don't gouge people!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Just as some of us expected...http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2014/06/10/amazon-stops-taking-advance-orders-for-lego-other-warner-videos/

The thing about it, yes, you can't preorder the Warner titles, but when pricing does appear on Sunday, by Monday they usually price match the lowest price from their competitors. If you have Prime, you still get most of your titles by Tuesday. Case in point. True Detective which I got on Tuesday for $29.99

 

[CraigF]

It seems to mainly be a U.S. Warner thing with amazon, as no prob with other amazons for pre-ordering all the upcoming Warner titles I've got in my wish lists (including the titles mentioned in the article).