Shameless

[noddin0ff]

A little article on the decline in DVD sales. I liked it for the nice quote


"We were shameless," said Steve Beeks, the president of Lions Gate Entertainment, which has issued several new versions of the Terminator movies. "We would release special editions as long as people would buy them."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/technology/13disc.html

[markw]

A little article on the decline in DVD sales. I liked it for the nice quote



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/technology/13disc.htmlSounds like they're taking a page out of the Pink Floyd playbook. Those guys have been living off of reissues since the 70's.

[Woochifer]

According to the article, the issue is that DVD sales growth has slowed down to 2%. To me, this says that the market conversion to DVD is now complete, most of the sought-after titles have already come out on DVD, and people have already populated their collections with the titles that they want to own. This leaves new releases to drive the market. I suspect that DVD sales will indeed decline sometime soon, a sign of a mature market.

It's not that different than with the CD format, which sparked a decade of uninterrupted growth for the music industry as consumers dumped their LP collections and repopulated their music libraries with CDs. But, once everyone bought the CD titles that they wanted, that left new releases to drive the industry, and all it took was a hiccup in demand to throw the industry into a tailspin.

And with the "shameless" quote, you can't really blame Lion's Gate or any other distributor if consumers keep buying what they put out. The only way to send a message to these guys is to abstain from buying substandard DVD editions that lack the quality and/or features that you expect. The lack of consistency with how different studios release and then re-release their DVDs indicates that no one has yet arrived at the magic bullet solution that works for everyone and every title.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

According to the article, the issue is that DVD sales growth has slowed down to 2%. To me, this says that the market conversion to DVD is now complete, most of the sought-after titles have already come out on DVD, and people have already populated their collections with the titles that they want to own. This leaves new releases to drive the market. I suspect that DVD sales will indeed decline sometime soon, a sign of a mature market.

It's not that different than with the CD format, which sparked a decade of uninterrupted growth for the music industry as consumers dumped their LP collections and repopulated their music libraries with CDs. But, once everyone bought the CD titles that they wanted, that left new releases to drive the industry, and all it took was a hiccup in demand to throw the industry into a tailspin.

And with the "shameless" quote, you can't really blame Lion's Gate or any other distributor if consumers keep buying what they put out. The only way to send a message to these guys is to abstain from buying substandard DVD editions that lack the quality and/or features that you expect. The lack of consistency with how different studios release and then re-release their DVDs indicates that no one has yet arrived at the magic bullet solution that works for everyone and every title.

They are calling it shameless because they are not paying for it big time. Apparently the public has grown tired of the countless releases, and re releases that they are just not buying them anymore. I know that is my case. My DVD buying habits have slowed down quite a bit because even the new titles are not worth the purchase these days.

I think both the film industry(for which I am apart of) and the Record companies are stupid as hell. SACD and DVD-A gave the Music industry a chance to create a new profit pipeline. The idiots didn't support it and lost this chance. Now they are doing poorly and complaining about it.

The film industry has a chance to create a new cash cow with the high definition formats, and they put so many restrictions in the name of piracy that the format rollout sucked to low hell. How lame is rolling out a new format without all of the features and audio codecs included.

Smart people used to run both record comapanies and film studio's. Gone are those days, now they have nervous bean counting idiots doing the job. No wonder they are losing money.

[GMichael]

Wooch, did you get a face lift? You look younger.

[Woochifer]

Wooch, did you get a face lift? You look younger.

Yeah, and I lost a lot of pigment in the process! (BTW, you haven't been looking too healthy lately either!)

I used to rotate the avatar between the different Ripping Friends about every other week or so, but I got lazy in recent months and left poor Slab on the avatar way too long! Rip hasn't had much face time on this board in a while, so I'll leave him in there for an extended stay.

[superpanavision70mm]

I agree TOTALLY SHAMELESS! Issue after re-issue and they still can't get it right. I am mindful of a few titles....STARGATE, PLATOON, BLACK HAWK DOWN, EVIL DEAD, to name a few. The most recent issue of PLATOON is the fifth DVD issue in a 8 year period of time.....

They still didnt' get it right! While I am glad that they finally issued the film with a much improved DTS audio track, the picture quality is still poor and lacking in detail and still has blemishes. It's shameful that they can't just do the job right in the first place. At this point it's even more frustrating when they keep issuing (Fox is getting bad at this) with UNRATED or EXTENDED editions. Not to mention the re-issue only a few months later that is 'special' because it finally has DTS or extras. i.e. I ROBOT, DAY AFTER TOMORROW, MAN ON FIRE. Then we have re-issues of ELEKTRA or DAREDEVIL....or an extended edition of KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

People on one hand are suckers, yet at the same time it's not fair to the consumer to keep pulling the chain. We want things right and we want them right the first time around. I can understand to some degree doing a re-issue if things are going to get alot bettter because of technological advances....anamorphic transfers, a new print was struck, etc etc. Here is a really shocking factor:

Most of the DVD's that were issued early on were nothing but recycled transfers from the 12" Laserdiscs...even the extras. Notice on some DVD commentaries that they reference that this is being recorded for Laserdisc (CHASING AMY comes to mind). So they didn't really do much other than transfer it over to a new format and practically made record profits all while laughing to the bank. Shameful indeed!

[KaiWinters]

Well it is, or should be, the consumer determining whether products have legs or not.
Personally I do not care for the extras included on a dvd. I just want to watch the movie and move on. I generally feel the same about extended versions of a movie.

I too buy far fewer dvd's and am going back and forth regarding hd-dvd. I replaced all, or nearly so, vhs movies with dvd's but will not do the same with the hd versions except for my favorite titles. It is just too expensive and takes up too much room.

[superpanavision70mm]

Sadly enough the titles that the studios are using as their 'enticers' for the HD formats are lame! How do they expect people to jump to a format with material that no one really cares about? As if CONSTANTINE is going to be the straw that broke the camels back. Now...if they would issue titles like THE GODFATHER (which is in major need of a HD transfer and thorough restoration), the Bond Films, as well as some other key Disney/Pixar titles, and other serious sellers than that would make the changeover much more desirable.

[teledynepost]

Sadly enough the titles that the studios are using as their 'enticers' for the HD formats are lame! How do they expect people to jump to a format with material that no one really cares about? As if CONSTANTINE is going to be the straw that broke the camels back. Now...if they would issue titles like THE GODFATHER (which is in major need of a HD transfer and thorough restoration), the Bond Films, as well as some other key Disney/Pixar titles, and other serious sellers than that would make the changeover much more desirable.

Haha that is quite true. What the hell are they doing? Idiots.

[bonsaiguitar]

A little article on the decline in DVD sales. I liked it for the nice quote



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/technology/13disc.html

It's called Netflix.

[AudiosAmigos]

seriously! NETFLIX!! HELLLO!!!!
__________________________________________________ _
Listen to No Shame [Album] by Christian Death : http://www.napster.com/player/tracks/14065456

[superpanavision70mm]

Netflix isn't exactly the answer to everything. First, you get movies sent to you, which means that they arrive at certain times during the month, granted that you are in the mood for that movie at that point in time. However, sometimes you might not be in the mood for a comedy, yet all you have from your list at your house is comedies, or maybe you want comedy, but all you have is action. However, you feel compelled to watch whatever you have sitting there because all you can think about is that you paid money for them to be there and if you don't watch them and send them back quickly then you won't be maximizing the service. Some people can make Netflix work....they are the type of people who can watch any movie, any time. Some people also have the leisure of free time to watch alot of movies in a month, which makes the service work. However, unless you are going to watch more than 6-7 movies in a month than it's really just a waste. 7 movies a month is not always easy to pull off...that's about 1 every 4-5 days, granted that they are available and at your house. Most people prefer to get in the car and drive a few miles to the nearest rental store and see all their options out in the open and pick what they want to see at that exact moment. This is why Netflix has not put rental stores out of business.