DVD Prices

[ImaFreak]

Maybe someone can explain this but what is up with the price for DVDs. About a year ago I was picking up all the new releases like Gladiator or The Patriot at Best Buy, Circuit City, and Frys for about 15 dollars. Now this year about the same time the price of DVDs has gone up to about 17 dollars being the cheapest which don't get me wrong isn't a bad price for what you're getting but where are the 15 dollar movies.?.? I figured the price would have gone down or stayed the same because if memory serves me right the more people that bought into compters the cheaper the got. Anyone know why they are priced like they are now?

[TIbrO]

Simple. Greedy bastards all over the path from the camera man to the store you bought it from.

[Vejita-sama]

The short answer is that the stuios have two pricing plans for movie sales. 1) People will mostly rent it. 2) People will mostly buy it. Remember, the studios want to maximize profits. So if they think peopel will mostly rent they have to make all their money for those few sales to the Blockbuster et.al. So they'll sell their tapes for $80~120. If they expect most people to buy it (say a new Disney movie) then they'll price it at $20~40 and sell it at Wal-Mart et.al.

Now DVD is kind of a problem. Although there are a lot of DVD players in the US, most people don't have one. And most of the people that do, buy movies. So they need to price the DVDs to so that people will buy them. DVD rental is still a small market.

The prediction is that as DVD becomes more popular, and people start renting them more the price will go up; until we have the same situation as VHS tapes.

[Greg12]

because the mpaa saw they had a good thing and they wanted to milk the customers out of their money.

[thxkid]

On new movies I am paying the same prices I paid a year ago $15 to $19. Now There are older movies coming out all the time for $10-$15, I picked up the following at Frys Electronics.

Mad Mad Mad World $9.99
Prancer $9.99
F1 Year 2000 $14.99
True lies $12.99
Speed $12.99
Quigley Down Under $9.99
Broken Arrow $12.99

Also I pick up used DVD's at blockbuster all the time for
$7.99 to $9.99.
Now Disney Animation is another story, if you want to pick up the $29.99 normal or $39.99 collectors editions, better get them the 1st week at Frys I am sure they will be
$15.99 and $19.99 thats been their practice before on Disney Movies, I got the 3 Disc Toy Story set $59.99 retail for $29.99 at frys the 1st week it was out.
Last week got Along came a Spider- $17.99 and
A Knights Tale - $15.99.
Got over 300 DVD's been buying them for the last 4 years even though the new ones have not really dropped in price, reissues sure have, 6 months ago Space Balls $24.99 got it 2 weeks ago $9.99.

[KingJohn]

I thought the price was coming down in the UK, seen quite a lot latly at £7.50 ($12) and they are good, however new top films are still £19 ($30) over here, so yours sound much cheaper.

[zzyzzx]

First off as long as your not buying new releases the price has dropped (a little). With respect to the DVD market as a whole yes it hasn't gotten any cheaper over the last year, and I think it's because some of the cheaper places to buy them have gone under or raised their prices.

[AntnyMD]

All I can say is, any significant increase in price point for DVD will just encourage me to pirate more movies. Right now I copy about one DVD for every five I purchase. If the pricepoint for new releases consistently goes over US$19.99, that copy-to-purchase ratio will start to look more like three copies for every five purchases. I dont buy special editions priced over $25 unless the desire level is high. I also tend to stay away from bulky box-sets, dunno why ... I'd love to get Sex and the City, and Ken Burns' Jazz, and hey, does amazon.co.uk ship to the US? They have all the Friends sets ...

I look for sales all the time, and even the crap Circuit City puts out on sale is sometimes more attractive at a price point of $9.99!

[estariol]

You think that's bad I live in Ireland ( where the attitude seems to be love it they'll pay whatever we ask and this applies to evrything they reckon cos it's the fastest growing economy in the world) new DVD's are about £24, and cd's are £17.99, and the range available is piss poor so I end up buying from the UK and getting shafted on the erxchange rate...in other words buying 10 DVDs would equal the average industrial wage for a week

[nightwing7]

Supply and Demand, when the amount of DVD players sold increases the number of DVD's bought also increases, so price also increases. Simple Economics. If you want cheap DVD's go to Future shop they have DVD's for under $20Cdn. And the new releases are just a bit over $20

[pacmania_2001]

My piracy ratio is currently about 5 pirated for every 1 bought DVD. This is because in Australia where I live the DVDs that come out here are mostly substandard compared to the American releases. Also I pirate a lot of the new movies because they take forever to come out here and by that time the ending has been ruined by someone on the internet.

The only movies I buy are classics like Star Wars, The Matrix and concerts such as Metallica: S & M.

[BIGTHREE2001]

I NEVER BUY DVD S , I ONLY RENT
COZ I THIMK IT S AN ABSOLUTE F.UCKING SCANDAL THE PRICES ,
I THINK EVERY ONE ELSE SHOULD ADOPT THE SAME ATTITUDE UNTIL THESE RIP OFF MERCHANTS DROP THEY RE PRICES


HAVE A NICE VCD COLLECTION THOUGH..HEHHEH

[d4n13l]

Its funny that CDs have been rougly the same price since they came out. The early prices were about £15, which is still the average price for a new release YEARS later. So in effect, CDs have become cheaper over time (taking into account inflation).
Its a funny world...

[TIbrO]

Except for people who import stuff that is not available in their country... then those audio CDs cost way more. My most expensive audio CD import was $70. Craziness...

[d4n13l]

Yeah... if you live in the US.
If you live in rip off Britain then imports are just as much as normal CDs, if not cheaper. My most expensive import was under $20!

[thxkid]

If you nothing else to do than spend hours uopn hours ripping a sub standard copy of a DVD, then go for the illegal way, I am not going to use my computer 24-7 to burn these sub standard copies.
$10 to $18 is not high for a DVD just look at the same movie in VHS and its usually only $5 cheaper.
Actually when wild wild west came out I got it new at Walmart for $9.96 which was $5 cheaper than the VHS.
VHS tape has not dropped in price either new releases are still $20 to $30 list price and $13 to $16 on sale. I don't here anyone b_itching about those prices.
Maybe its because I have a "JOB" and have spending money and don't waste it on stupid things like booze and drugs!!
What really pisses me off is when a movie studio puts out a $20-$25 DVD and it has nothing but the movie and maybe a trailer.
I expect at these prices that they should always include, deleted scenes, 2-3 making off, music video's,
outtakes and audio commintary.
Example - A Knights tale, spent more time on the extra's than the movie, Gonna pick up the New Improved 5.1 Dolby Digital "Termintor" tonight for $17, would not even buy if it did not have the new sound track, THX certification, deleted scenes, etc.....

[TIbrO]

I bet the actual item had something to do with the high price, too, though... It was the soundtrack to Final Fantasy 7, straight from SQUARESOFT Japan. Too bad they don't release the gaming soundtracks over here, eh?

[KingJohn]

So according to the post above, all you people who rip DVD's are out of work drunks, that take drugs.
You use your computers 24 hours a day, 7 days per week ripping DVD's

You have no money to spend on DVD's !!

Somehow I don't think this is true !