Warner $10 Triple Packs and Millcreek $5 Double Packs

GizmoDVD

Who else is loving these?

$10 got me the Oceans Trilogy in a slim case. Sold my "obsolete" HD DVD boxset for more money.

$10 got me the Austin Powers Trilogy in a slim case. Selling my "shagadellic" set.

$10 got me the TMNT Trilogy in a slim case. Selling my "pizza box" for $60+

And now freaking $5 Double Packs:


Wow. I'm amazed how fast Blu-ray has gone down to DVD pricing (if not cheaper). Bad for the studios, good for consumers.

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Kosty

morriscroy

I picked up the Ocean triple pack awhile ago when it was still $15 a pop. (IIRC, the Ocean trilogy was a WalMart exclusive awhile ago).

Perhaps I should have waited longer.

HD Goofnut

Got the Hollow Man / Hollow Man 2 pack today.

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bruceames

I wonder if we'll see any of those Mill Creek 2 packs at the Dollar Tree next year. In isolation, it's great deal at $5 for two movies, but with 23 other titles singularly available there at $1 each, $5 for the 2 pack doesn't seem that great a deal by comparison. That is, if they're headed down that same road.

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RIP Kosty.

morriscroy

I wouldn't be surprised if they end up in the $1 (or $2) bins sometime next year.

If they have a hard time selling 2-packs blurays of mediocre movies at $5 a pop, they'll know very soon whether it is still worthwhile to continue cranking out more blurays.

bruceames

I was at a Walmart yesterday and was surprised to see how little shelf space they had devoted to Blu-ray. They 4 2/3 aisles of DVD and 1/3 of an aisle of Blu-ray. They also had 1 island each of DVD and Blu-ray and a couple other islands of mixed DVD and Blu-ray. I'd say altogether it was at least 90% DVD. I didn't see any of the Mill Creek 2 packs, but there were some Warner and Fox 3 packs.

That Walmart is about 25 miles from where I live so I don't get over there often. Maybe it's not in a great area, but it's sure not poor either. In contrast, the Target store close to where I live has probably 40% Blu-ray (and about equal total shelf space as the Walmart).

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RIP Kosty.

morriscroy

Hmmm ...

At the Walmart that is 5 minutes away from me (by foot), there's only one isle of optical discs. One side is dvd movies, and the other side is tv shows and blurays. Blurays take up about half of the shelf space on one side. (Each isle has two sides). This particular store is in a well off relatively rich area.

The next closest Walmart store is about a 15-20 minute drive away, in a less well off part of town. At this particular store, there's two large isles of optical discs. Blurays take up one-and-a-half sides on one isle. Dvd movies and tv shows, take up the rest of the shelf space. (One isle is all dvd and tv shows).

bruceames

I should have said 4 2/3 rows of movies. Actually that would be 2 1/3 aisles. Not sure how long they are compared to your Walmart, but I would guess they dedicate approximately the same amount of space to OD.

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RIP Kosty.

morriscroy

The nearby Walmarts don't have a $5 bluray dump bin (yet).

One of the nearby BestBuy stores has a $6 bluray dump bin.

Only other places with $5 (or $6) bluray dump bins, are some nearby discount stores and a supermarket.


If bluray is no longer profitable for mediocre/marginal titles, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the bottom feeders that will be the first ones to exit the market. (ie. Mill Creek, Echo Bridge, etc ...).

So far Mill Creek and Echo Bridge don't have any new upcoming bluray titles listed on amazon.

bruceames

That's true, there's no upcoming Blu-ray releases for those two distributors. Although Mill Creek may have some retailer exclusives planned that wouldn't show up at Amazon. I don't recall if Echo Bridge ever had any retailer exclusives (before they went general release).

Hard to say if that's a bad sign, but it sure isn't a good sign. I also noticed that the major studios have been getting quieter as far as Blu-ray catalog. And we know that Warner plans to release a lot of their catalog through their MOD program, which means high prices with little chance of significant price erosion down the road, since they'll be sold only through their web site (although they'll be available through 3rd party Amazon and ebay).

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RIP Kosty.

morriscroy

Also been noticing some of those tv on bluray "detritus" from a few years ago, starting to show up in the dump bins. (ie. They released one or two seasons, and then abruptly stopped releasing any further season sets on bluray).

A week ago I picked up the season 1 bluray of CSI, as an impulse buy. Apparently it was the same price as the dvd version in the same dump bins.

A sad glimpse at what "could have been".

bruceames

Universal has 3 "debut" catalogs scheduled for release on Jan. 8th, but none after that.

Fox has 7 scheduled, Disney 12, Warner 11, Sony 0, Paramount 0, Lionsgate 1 and MGM 2.

So not really a whole lot in the release pipeline at this point in time.

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RIP Kosty.

bruceames

TV on Blu-ray is dirt cheap now. Almost cheaper than DVD. I just picked up the complete series of Battlestar Gallactica for $55 shipped from Amazon UK. It's a 20 disc set with over 80 hours of content (not including special features). That's like 68 cents per hour.

I can see why studios were hesitant to release TV on Blu-ray. What little they did are mostly bargain priced right now. Doesn't bode well for increased output in the future.

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RIP Kosty.

morriscroy

For sure.

I recently picked up the Firefly bluray for $9.

(I paid more for the dvd version a year ago).

bruceames

Can't go wrong with that. I paid double that and I thought it was a bargain. Great show, the only TV series on Blu-ray that I've watched more than once (and plan to watch many times again).

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RIP Kosty.