Comments (13)

• Since signing up with Netflix I’ve purchased less than 10 films on DVD since 05.

  Comment by Consumer — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 11:52am PST  Reply to this post

• I know that for a lot of people in flyover land they’re not buying DVDs to economize and generally see the purchase as a ‘want’ and not a ‘need’ but I have a backlog of titles I want to buy but can’t in good conscience do so because I wanted to wait and see if SAG can get a better deal on home video and/or new media. I don’t trust the business to pay the actors more unless and until they have something to that effect in writing and even then that is an iffy proposition because the WGA is still not getting paid the gains they’re entitled to in new media (which means I’ve stopped watching streams on Hulu and network and cable channel websites and have yet to start downloading anything through iTunes)

  I still plan on buying the DVDs once I know how the SAG-AMPTP thing is going to end but a second Christmas in a row of forgoing the purchases saddens me.

  Maybe I’ll just make a donation equivalent to the amount of money I would have spent buying DVDs to the Entertainment Assistance Program of the Actors Fund…that might not only make me feel better it could make a difference for so many of the people in the business who are still in trouble.

  I curse the execs hiding behind the AMPTP for spoiling a second holiday season for everyone.

  Comment by WhyWeWatch — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 1:08pm PST  Reply to this post

• Everybody knows the DVD business is going down the tubes. Why buy DVD’s when with a $99 Roku box and a $5 monthy Netflix fee, you can see thousands of DVD quality films… instantly.

  That’s why these AMPTPT/union fights are all about the internet.

  Comment by WeWeWatchOnline — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 1:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• I was in the DVD business from 1999 to the end of 2006 (manufacturing/distributing). I was one of those guys who disposed of nearly ALL of my disposable income on recorded media of some kind (VHS, records, CDs, laser discs, DVDs) for my entire adult life, until the advent of Bit Torrent, Netflix (and getting married!). Circa 2004 or so, I went from spending $5000 to $6000 a year on CDs and DVDs to spending around $100. This year, I’ve only spent money on blank discs. The DVD industry is facing uncontrollable bleeding and the bleeding will not be staunched. Using my own spending habits as a definitive study of ONE person, I sold my interest in the company and have watched as the indie distributors are going bust. How much longer will even the mighty Criterion Collection have life (and profitability) still in it? Not long, I think. If the studio model depends on DVD sales for fully HALF of domestic proceeds to simply break even, this is certainly going to result in a red river in the Hollywood accounting departments… and it’s not going to be made up by increased iTunes downloads. So what is the answer? Considering how difficult it will be for the studios to wean themselves off the DVD income stream –HALF the profits? Try turning THAT barge around fast–I don’t think there is one for the industry as we’ve known it. It can’t be done– the industry is screwed unless it can start making features that cost WAY less than $500k. Even that might be too much as we move forward. It’s not going to be pretty. Look what is happening to the magazine industry as well. Scary stuff.

  Comment by Tweed — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 2:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• Ditto…since signing up with Netflix, not a single DVD purchase. No reason to…

  Comment by Happy With Netflix — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 3:04pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’ll give you 3 reasons for this from my own huge sample of one person (me).

  1. Netflix

  2. I’ve already purchased just about everything I want.

  3. Most new films suck and aren’t worth owning.

  There you go.

  To give you a more in depth analysis -

  1. You don’t need to buy obscure titles because everything is available on one of the online rental services.

  2. I’ve already purchased all my favorite films on DVD. If I buy 6-10 more, I’m basically done. So the only things left to buy are new releases.

  3. These days, you’re lucky if you can find 2-3 new releases per year that are worth owning and watching more than once. So far this year, I’ve purchased one.

  Comment by I own movies — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 4:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• I think we can one more reason to “I own movies”’s otherwise stellar list:

  4) The selection at stores SUCKS.

  Seriously, have any of you stepped foot into a Walmart/Target/Best Buy lately?

  Nothing but crap. Complete and utter crap.

  A) Walmart (at least the one in Easton, PA) has a total of ONE half-isle dedicated to movies. The rest are the New Release racks and those huge cages where they dump all their $5 DVD’s. NEXT.

  B) Target has to have the most disgustingly disorganized DVD wall I’ve ever seen in my life. Whoever designed their layout should be taken out and shot. No wonder the shelves are always full. You can’t find anything!

  Target breaks their walls up into “Best-Sellers”, “Drama”, “Horror”, etc., but you’re lucky if you can find ANY movie released before 2005. And they seem to be in some half-assed semblance of alphabetical order. Not worth the time or effort.

  C) Best Buy has the most comprehensive DVD section of the three, both in terms of selection and the amount of space dedicated to the product.

  However they tend to over-do it with 7-8 copies of the same action/war movie that’s not even a New Release.

  I counted about 7 copies of “Running Scared” (?!) and at least 5 copies of “The Condemned” (?!?!?!?!) at the Best Buy in Northeast Philly. And this was relatively recently. Both of the above-mentioned films dropped in ‘06.

  As for old movies, forget it. The only 70s-80s films you’ll find are the blockbusters. The classics from 1960s-backwards are practically non-existant on the shelves. And their Criterion selection sucks.

  Only Tower Records had a clue about selling DVDs. In fact, I remember towards the end was Tower’s DVD selection was larger than their music choices!

  But they did it right, and they had classics, grindhouse, foreign, Criterion, Oscar winners, indie gems, everything from A to Z.

  Going to Tower made you feel proud to be a movie lover, and I certainly didn’t mind spending a couple hours in the place sifting through their vast selection.

  Going to Target or Walmart for films is just depressing. They treat films as just another product to sell. No art, no passion, no clue. Just whatever they can toss into the cage for $5, or whatever New Release the vendors send them.

  But now I realize while Coppola keeps re-packaging The Godfather Trilogy every 4 fucking years.

  How else would people be able to buy the film?!

  P.S.–I realize that Netflix and Internet downloading factor heavily into this, but I think the points I made above are just as relevant.

  I think if the big chains made the good product as accessible (but less expensive) as Tower did, sales wouldn’t be in the shitter.

  Sure, studios put more value into the sales of New Releases than “All The President’s Men”, but a sale of that DVD still counts as a sale, does it not?

  Comment by Layne — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 7:25pm PST  Reply to this post

• Totally agree, Layne.

  And as I sift through the $5 bargain bin at Wal-Mart, I have to ask myself, do I really need to own “The Wraith”?

  Comment by I own movies too — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 11:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• Some pretty good points Layne, but I’d just like to offer up a counter-point to one of your arguments.

  How many of those pre-1960 movies are on DVD at all? How many are even worth putting on DVD. Honestly, for as much as people complain that all new movies are crap, most older ones are crap too, but those fuzzy nostalgia goggles has everyone defending old stuff.

  In my entire life I can count on 1 hand the number of black and white movies that were worth watching. The 3 that I can name off the top of my head are To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, and To Hell and Back.

  Comment by TheaterFan — Thursday December 18, 2008 @ 12:05pm PST  Reply to this post

• A sale is not a sale when it comes to the margin for the greedy studios which is why new releases abound and deep catalog is nowhere in sight.

  Comment by An observer — Thursday December 18, 2008 @ 1:30pm PST  Reply to this post

• In my entire life I can count on 1 hand the number of black and white movies that were worth watching. The 3 that I can name off the top of my head are To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, and To Hell and Back.

  You forgot _Casablanca_, _The 400 Blows_, _The Third Man_, _Dr. Strangelove_, and of course _Citizen Kane_..

  Comment by Dr. Kenneth Noisewater — Thursday December 18, 2008 @ 2:44pm PST  Reply to this post

• “the industry is screwed unless it can start making features that cost WAY less than $500k. Even that might be too much as we move forward. It’s not going to be pretty. Look what is happening to the magazine industry as well. Scary stuff.”

  We the smaller studios are already doing films for 500,000 or less It works out well. Example of two of ours ‘Recon 7 Down” and “Roswell 1847″

  Comment by William Cheney — Monday December 29, 2008 @ 10:09pm PST  Reply to this post

• Looks like the numbers are in. DVDs were down 7.6% vs last year. Not great, but not as gloomy as the “moguls” predicted.

  Comment by AlexCameo — Monday January 5, 2009 @ 11:24am PST  Reply to this post