On DVD prices. Or, brilliant, dumbasses!
Why are new releases on DVD now almost $30? I was browsing Borders just now, and I reflected on how only several years ago DVDs would be sold for about half of that, so I am really curious why it has doubled in this time. I don't think we've had over 100% inflation over the last several years, so that option is out. Are DVDs that expensive to produce and distribute? Were DVD manufacturers selling at a huge loss when DVDs first came out that they are now trying to recoup their losses? Given that I can buy blank DVDs for about a quarter each, and the ease with which I can burn videos onto them using my personal computer, I'm highly doubtful of this.
What is probably the case is that a bunch of studio executives, noting that DVDs account for over half of all movie revenues, decided that they could raise their profits by jacking prices up, and then blame piracy for when DVD sales mysteriously drop. Now I'm neither an economist nor a businessman, but this seems like a bad idea to me. I can say as a consumer that, even with the ability to download movies for free, I would be willing to spend the money to purchase a legal higher quality DVD if they were being sold for about half of what they are now, but at these prices, I'd rather watch each movie about three times on a big screen surround-sound movie theatre so that I'm sick of the movie and would never want to see it again, rather than spend that kind of money on a DVD.
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Speaking of piracy, the latest Pirates of the Caribbean trailer is out, with link provided by trailer-spot. Yay for a version not in Russian (the Russian trailer was released first). Or french, now that I think of it (I saw the second one in France with french subtitles).
Edit: Okay, pandoradeloeste beat me to it, quickest poster in the west and all.
What is probably the case is that a bunch of studio executives, noting that DVDs account for over half of all movie revenues, decided that they could raise their profits by jacking prices up, and then blame piracy for when DVD sales mysteriously drop. Now I'm neither an economist nor a businessman, but this seems like a bad idea to me. I can say as a consumer that, even with the ability to download movies for free, I would be willing to spend the money to purchase a legal higher quality DVD if they were being sold for about half of what they are now, but at these prices, I'd rather watch each movie about three times on a big screen surround-sound movie theatre so that I'm sick of the movie and would never want to see it again, rather than spend that kind of money on a DVD.
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Speaking of piracy, the latest Pirates of the Caribbean trailer is out, with link provided by trailer-spot. Yay for a version not in Russian (the Russian trailer was released first). Or french, now that I think of it (I saw the second one in France with french subtitles).
Edit: Okay, pandoradeloeste beat me to it, quickest poster in the west and all.