When will there be another Warner DVD chat?/Warner Cuts 800 Jobs (1 Viewer)

[FrankXS]

Has anyone scheduled another forum visit with the folks at Warner Brothers ?
The past few years were always enjoyable. Hope the problems which didn't allow a get together in 2008 have been straightened out !!! George and his team are always worth a 3 hour investment.

 

[FrankXS]

No one responded to my question from a few days ago !
Does any one have any knowledge (Ron, Robert, Cees) or is no one interested in another Forum with Warners ???
Warner has hundreds of titles from the 30's/40's/50's which need to come to DVD......hope to hear something soon.

 

[TravisR]

I can't speak for any of the HTF staff but I think they like to have some solid info before saying anything.

 

[Robert Crawford]

You never know.....

 

[Ronald Epstein]

 

[John Hodson]

Oh, goody!

 

[Steve...O]

Great news!

As an aside, there was some sad news today that Warner Brothers is laying off 800 FTE or 10% of its staff. I feel for all affected individuals and hope that none of our friends in the Home Entertainment division were directly impacted.

This only underscores some of the challenges that WHV and others have had in releasing catalog titles in a tough climate.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I did want to comment on this briefly and I appreciate someone
bringing it up.

We have a few friends over at Warner Bros. and we hope that they
are spared any job cuts. We actually don't want to see anyone at WB
lose their job and wish everyone there the very best.

A vocal minority on this forum often scream about catalog titles
not being released and/or put on "hold." I think Steve put it best
by saying that there are challenges all the studios are having releasing
catalog titles in a tough climate.

PS: Frank, I hope you don't mind that I altered the title of your
thread somewhat. I think the new title will draw more individuals to this thread.

 

[Robert Crawford]

There are plenty of recent articles indicating that DVD sales are down. Even Blu-ray and downloads couldn't stop the trend in 2008. I don't see sales turning around in 2009 with a recession that is going to deepen before things turn around.




Crawdaddy

 

[Joe Karlosi]

It's very nice to pretty much conclude that Warner will indeed still be particpating in chats. But obviously, some of the questions will inevitably be about catalog titles, or what's going on with things previously said to be on tap (like the Bowery Boys).

I am certainly not a wealthy man, and the wife and I are an average couple who get by pretty much one month at a time. But I still have my money designated for WB releases, rough economy or not!

 

[CineKarine]

More kudos to Warner for releasing so much in such difficult times. Their line-up of announced titles until April is simply astonishing, even more so under the circumstances.

Hoping very much the Home Entertainment staff was spared from any cuts.

All I can say is that DVD sales are not down because of me - I put money aside each month specifically for new DVDs of classics

And most of them are Warner titles.

 

[Greg_M]

The Studios need to combine standard DVD with Blu-ray on one disc. People will not buy something they believe will be obsolete in a year or two, but if they knew it would be around for ten or so years they would buy more.

Put both formats on one disc, and sell the "Title" not the format, in about a year or two they won't have to release standard DVD at all and the titles purchased now will still be useable - or they can watch as sales decline even further - people are watching their money in this economy, but a low priced film will always sell (it's cheaper that driving the family to the multiplex)

I haven't purchased FOX's overpriced "Land of the Giants" set because I would rather wait for the Blu-Ray and at $225 Retail that's a lot of cash for something that has a very limited life. (Okay the wooden box was also an issue - hey I'm running out of shelf space Fox)

WB is releasing Box sets of both "Gone with the Wind" and "Wizard of Oz" - why would anyone buy the standard version???? Just release One set with both (Charge a little more) people will invest in it, but you can't really expect the standard DVD set to sell well in 2009, esp once digital tv takes over in February - consumers as a whole may be dumb, but they're not THAT dumb.

And please, you can't tell me Walmart wouldn't rather have both on one disc - consumers are confused enough and retail space is limited

 

[Mark_TS]

WB should be thankful.
SONY is cutting 16,000 jobs and has lost nearly $3 billion, amid plunging sales

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/i....

combining discs would save them money instead of 2 separate products

 

[Garysb]

There are many people happy with standard DVD and have no interest in investing in new hardware in a tough economy. I wouldn't write off SD DVD's yet. Why spend $20 to $30 for a blu-ray when you can get the same film for $5 on SD DVD . It is fine to include SD with a blu-ray disc. Disney has started to do this with some films. However I think the film should also available as a standard DVD .

 

[Brian Borst]

I don't think someone who's not interested in Blu-Ray would buy a BD and SD combined in a package that would be more expensive than the SD alone.

 

[trajan]

Warner- are we ever going to see WRESTLING ERNEST HEMINGWAY and SURVIVING PICASSO ?

 

[cineMANIAC]

Someone mentioned Sony cutting 16,000 jobs and losing $3 billion. I think if they release a special edition of Night of the Creeps and they do it right they may recover some

 

[Steve...O]

To further illustrate the problems the studios are having check out this article with some very alarming, but not unexpected, trends. The relevant portion is below. Please note that Viacom = Paramount and News Corp = Fox.

 

[Alan Tully]

Interesting article. It doesn't surprise me at all. I rarely if ever spend more than £5 on a DVD now, & if I go Blu-ray I'm not going to be paying anything like what I did in the early days of DVD. It seems every industry has it's day. For decades record companies couldn't go wrong; look at them now. And & lot of new expensive movies underperforming. Tough times ahead.

 

[Mike*HTF]

Very informative read, Steve - thanks.

I found Barclays Capital analyst Anthony DiClemente's analysis most insightful: