I just have one question

[Sidney_Prescott7]

Look I know this is gonna sound really stupid but why do some DVDs come out before videos? Now I know I must sound like a real retard for asking this but I just wanna know. I mean I wanted to buy Cruel Intentions but the DVD came out 4 months before the video. I just dont understand why they cant just set them out on the same day. Not everyone had DVD players /ubb/smile.gif

Stephanie

[QUENTIN]

I agree that films should come out for sale as soon as DVD's do in fact the main reason I'm saving up for a DVD player is because I want to be able to own films earlier. I think the reason that DVD's come out before movies do for sale though is because if video's went for sale as soon as they went for rent a lot less people would rent them thus the company's would make less money. The way they do it now when they release it to video you rent it a couple of times then when it becomes available for sale you buy it thus they make more money.

[Crynot]

Actually not all DVD's come out before. Look at Fight Club which was just released on DVD yesterday. It has been out on video for over a month.

[QUENTIN]

We're not saying that they don't. What we are saying is that DVD's are available for SALE when video's are just available for RENT.

[JAKE1405]

DVD'S ARE DEFINATLY GETTING MORE AND MORE POPULAR. THE COMPANY WHO RELEASES THEM WANTS TO MAKE MORE MONEY, SO THEY RELEASE THE DVD AND VIDEO ON THE SAME DAY TO RENT, BUT YOU MUST WAIT A LONG TIME TO BUY IT ON VIDEO. YOU CAN BUY IT ON DVD THE DAY IT COMES OUT, BUT NOT THE VIDEO. YOU CAN GET THE VIDEO FROM THE FACTORY FOR ABOUT 70 OR 80$.

[Sidney_Prescott7]

MMM Kay I just wanted to know. I was starting to get a little pissed off because of every time I walk into a video store-Suncoast for examlpe-they always say "Sorry this movie isn't comming out in another 4 months. Check back here then." Ir just gets annoying

Stephanie

[Sidney_Prescott7]

MMM Kay I just wanted to know. I was starting to get a little pissed off because of every time I walk into a video store-Suncoast for examlpe-they always say "Sorry this movie isn't comming out in another 4 months. Check back here then." It just gets annoying

Stephanie

[DarkLight]

I'm not really sure why they actually do that. However, I'm one of the fortunate many here in the UK who was a multi-regional DVD player. I order my DVDs online and besides being cheaper, I get to obtain them way before their release over here. Some films come out on DVD over in the US before they come out in the theatres over here!

Over here, titles are released on both formats at pretty much the same times so I'm not sure why the trend is not follwed over there.

DL

[csmoose]

Ok, here's the answer you're looking for...

It all has to do with the rental industry (as has been speculated). When a VHS is released, it has a price between $70-$120 so that everyone will have to rent it before they buy a copy. (The rental and pay-per-view industries have deals with the studios). About 6 months later the price drops to ~$20. DVDs have just started to become a rental item, so they don't follow the same rule. They are generally released for sale at the same time as VHS rental (Fight Club was an exception).

Some of the bigger releases have VHS for sale at the same time as rental (Star Wars: Ep1, Stuart Little). I'm not sure why this is.

Moose

[stefanb]

The reason for that is based on what the studio predicts sales will be like, and what effect they think rentals will have on sales.

Think of it like this. George Lucas (et al.) obviously thought that SW:E1 would generate lots of sales (duh - sort of a given). Weigh that against the negative sales effect that rentals will have. More clearly stated, let's say it came out to rent 4 months before it came out to buy. Lots of people might rent it 2 or 3 times, then never buy it at all. By releasing it for sale at the same time, you get a lot of "what the hell" buyers - AKA - Those people who look at the $5 rental fee, and figure they might as well just BUY a copy for an extra $10 bucks. The non-buyers will still rent a copy, but those rentals won't hurt sales figures in the long run (they obviously don't plan on buying it, or they would buy it now).

With a movie like American Beauty, the studio obviously doesn't think sales will be very much lower if it's available for rent a few months earlier. Yes, it will hurt sales a little, but remember that a rental VHS copy of American Beauty probably costs $80 to $90 right now. So, the studio makes more money that way. The few sales they loose will be off-set by the extra revenue from the higher priced rental copies. With Star Wars, the loss of sales caused by waiting 4 months to release it wouldn't have been made up by the higher rental copy purchase price. That's because they knew it was going to sell one helluva lotta copies. It was the #1 (Pan&Scan ver.) ~AND~ #2 (Wide-Screen ver.) ranked selling item on Amazon.com a whole month before the damn thing was even released.

As a 'rule or thumb', typically, the BIG SELLERS will be released for sale at the same time as rentals, while the not-so-great selling movies will be held off for a couple of months to milk more cash out of the rental copies first.

so why do DVD's often come out at the same time at the rental VHS, and the purchase price VHS doesn't come out. Well, partly because DVD's weren't rentable very long ago. They are just now showing up in the rental shelves. That, and typically nobody really owns a DVD player (compared to the number of people with a VCR). Therefor, the DVD sales really couldn't even remotly hurt VHS rentals. That's it in a nutshell (a very long-winded nutshell)

[This message has been edited by stefanb (edited 06-27-2000).]

[csmoose]

Thanks for the info, Stefan.

Do you work in the video biz?

[stefanb]

No, back before I became a professionally employed computer geek, I pumped gas for a living, and the service station rented movies. I asked the same question once. that's what I was told. /ubb/smile.gif