According to
VideoBusiness, Rentrak reports show a 10% drop in pricing on new releases to $23.47 and 1/3 lower pricing on catalog titles to $17.23. Still, that's apparently not low enough for some retailers, who hope to see high definition flicks priced just a few dollars above their DVD editions. Of course, while we're more than willing to pay $25 for
Jerry Maguire on Blu-ray (love Tom Cruise, even jumping on couches) we can see how that would be problematic for some consumers. Still, an NPD analyst is quoted saying "price is a moving target" as mainstream buyers enter the market, where do you think the magic number for Blu-ray acceptance is?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jamus @ Aug 31st 2009 4:43PM
The magic number of player acceptance is $199.99. When the majority (not just cheap no-name brands) are at or below that price, adoption will increase. As for discs, it has to hit current DVD pricing for it to be acceptable. Anything more than $20 for a new release is not going to get mainstream purchases ramped up. Plus it hurts that Netflix has to put the extra BluRay expense off on consumers (I don't blame them, but it does hinder acceptance).
I bought a Samsung 1600 when it hit $200. That was several weeks ago and have not watched a single BluRay movie yet. I wanted it for the Netflix, Pandora, and DVDs in the same box. BluRay is just an expensive extra for now. I plan to get some BluRay titles later on, but for now the price is just not there.
EM1 @ Aug 31st 2009 8:12PM
Jamus-
Check out Amazon. I've picked up new movies (not new releases) from $12. I think the most I have paid is $14. They have sales all of the time too.
I wouldn't pay any more then $20 for a new release unless it's a TV series.
Pip @ Aug 31st 2009 4:51PM
Most of the Blu-Ray movies I've bought have been $9.99 on sale or whatever. I already paid a ton of money on DVDs, and I am in no hurry to go buy the Blu-Ray versions. I can wait till the ones that I know I will watch over and over will be $10.
Randall Lind @ Aug 31st 2009 4:53PM
I think anything above $15 is high.
Pugsly14@me.com @ Aug 31st 2009 4:55PM
Hey NPD: "SHOW ME THE MONEY"!!!!!!!
The Avatar @ Aug 31st 2009 4:57PM
Players are already $99 @ Walmart.
Discs about $15 is right.
Jacan @ Aug 31st 2009 4:59PM
Players: $250 for full-featured, internal HD sound processing, decent upscaling
Blu-ray disks: $19.99 new releases, $14.99 for older releases.
With so much hype and availability of HD streaming, I'm not going to invest in these disks unless they for my system demos (Fifth Element, Bolt) or ones that I'd watch every 6-12 months (Casino Royale, Batman, Star Trek, etc). Sorry, Hollywood!
dagamer43 @ Aug 31st 2009 5:33PM
I just get used Blu-ray movies off of Amazon. Usually $13-17 shipped, which is good enough for me.
bellevegasj @ Aug 31st 2009 6:18PM
This.
I can spend $20 to see a flick at a theater with popcorn, or I can wait 6 mo. and buy it used from Amazon for $15 or less. And that's only for movies I REALLY like. I don't want to see many movies more than once.
dagamer43 @ Aug 31st 2009 6:24PM
That's what Netflix is for; movies you'd probably never watch more than once at home.
TAG @ Aug 31st 2009 5:45PM
I've said for a while the price difference between the DVD and Blu Ray versions of movies should be $5 while TV Shows should be no more than $15 (depending on the number of discs in the set)
At a $5 price difference, I will be more inclined to buy the Blu Ray version over the standard DVD movie. Right now with the almost $15 price difference($20 for certain classics), I'm carefully picking which movies I want on Blu Ray.
Andy Sullivan @ Aug 31st 2009 8:41PM
New and recent releases are usually around the $22 to $25 mark for Blu-ray. See that "Gladiator" and "Brave Heart" are being re-released in Blu-ray tomorrow for $23 in most locations.
TRT @ Aug 31st 2009 6:08PM
All good points. Apparently, Hollywood is selling enough BD's and additional sales are not required! Clearly that is the position and I don't expect to see too much of a price decrease. If you take a moment and think about it: How long did it take before Hollywood reduced the price of DVD's? Over a decade? When you see nothing but blu-ray disc on your retailers shelves along with a sprinkling of (kryptonic lavender-ray disc) or whatever is next, the prices will come down and some BD titles will be found in a large box for five bucks.
Rob @ Aug 31st 2009 7:33PM
The magic number for Blu-ray acceptance is when the price to buy ANY Blu-ray is the same or maybe just a smidge higher than the cost of rent/rip/return.
Rental averages about $2.50. 1TB hard drive - say $100 - and that holds about 22 Blu-ray movies on average so roughly $4.50 in hard drive space per movie. And I don't know if people are actually paying for AnyDVD HD, but let's just say that they are and amortize that cost - so let's tack on $1 per movie for that.
Voila - the magic number is: $8!
So make the standard price $8 - $9 for all Blu-ray releases and get rid of the needless (at that price) DRM so that we can build our Blu-ray jukeboxes without hassle!. Or better yet, just release FULL quality (video AND audio) downloads at that same $8 price point.
Jburton @ Aug 31st 2009 7:49PM
I think the $5 over DVD cost is about right. I've stop buying $25 movies! "I Love You Man" $25 for the Blu-Ray! Now if it 18.99 - 20.99, I would think about it. I mean, when you go to the movies.. YIKES!
Mr_Fizzlepop @ Aug 31st 2009 8:23PM
Yeah, even just above 20 dollars is good enough, prices they are a rising, and they aren't going to fall.
The industries see this as a great excuse to raise prices/further shrink package sizes and even after this is over they'll stay the same to cover the time they will have to wait to noticeably reduce package size or increase prices again.
I personally live in reality; I noticed the Mayo jar shrink, the center of the toilet paper roll grow and now the infamous "Double Roll" of toilet paper that is really just barely bigger than the rolls we had 15+ years ago.
It's the reason most DVD releases are just under 20 dollars unless it's a special reduction.
2 movie tickets used to be 15 dollars, now they are 20. I don't have a problem with the take home forever movie experience being so much better now than it was when tickets were 15 dollars, costing a few dollars more.
Jburton @ Aug 31st 2009 8:48PM
For "Gladiator" and "Braveheart" that is too much. 14.99-19.99 is the most these should be
SteveMak @ Aug 31st 2009 9:49PM
You want Blu-ray to replace DVDs? Start by selling Blu-ray discs for the SAME price as DVDs. That'll motivate owners of Blu players to buy Blu instead of DVD. Then, make Blu players that sell at the SAME price points as DVD players. Entry-level bare-bones players at $99. At this point, when people are replacing a DVD player, or buying a new DVD player, why would they not get a Blu payer for the same price, that also plays DVDs? With players and media at parity between Blu and DVD, why not get Blu?
The biggest hold-backs at this point, will be folks who do not have HD TVs, who would never have bought Blu in the first place, and still don't have a reason to. For some folks, $800 for a new TV is a lot of money, even though it has a crisper picture than their old Zenith CRT. There are a lot of folks who just don't care about HD.
FWIW, I'm on the other end of the sprectrum, and I have a setup that plays Blu-ray, HD-DVD, SACD, DVD-Audio, streaming, media server, etc. I have some neat toys, but by Denon reference DVD player does a stellar job at upscaling DVDs. Better than my Sony Blu-ray player. So I still buy DVDs more often than Blu-ray, because of the substantial price difference.
There is an old saying: "Give me something better for the same money, or the same thing for cheaper." It appears most of the DVD-playing world is saying this, but Sony insists on "We have something better, but it'll cost 'cha."
savarese04 @ Aug 31st 2009 10:36PM
Your same price idea doesn't make much sense because anyone with a BD player has already decided to make the switch and most are committed to buying movies only on BD in spite of the current hefty differences (like myself).
I'd say your point about reference DVD players has merit, but in the end, you can only upscale and "create" more resolution up to a certain point. BD has those extra lines native, plus you can't upscale HD sound. You can say what you want about HD picture and I'll agree with you on many levels (some movies just don't look that much better on BD - blame the studios for their shitty mastering), but I've gone DTS-MA/Dobly True HD and I just can't go back to the flat sounding lossy mixes. ...And I haven't even mentioned that hardly anyone has made the reference investment you've made, most are using a $59-$99 unit that may or may not have upscaling.
The point of this "magic number" discussion is what will make people looking at regular DVDs want to go out and buy a BD player and BD discs. I agree with most everyone about the $149-$199 range for players and $15-$18 for new release discs. I figure that these are the numbers that it took for me to make the move to DVD, so these should be the numbers it might take for most to move to BD.
Andy @ Aug 31st 2009 11:41PM
I buy my movies used on Amazon and have been happy thus far. Never paid more than $14 including shipping. I once bought Rush Hour 3 for $4.99 + $3 shipping. Told some friends about it and they were blown away. Blurays are nice. I don't buy DVD's anymore since to me that's like going backwards, but Blurays aren't worth $30 either to me. Except for some brand new releases. Just my two cents.
Bozster @ Aug 31st 2009 11:53PM
Honesty I don't think there is an acceptance point. I mean people would want it for free. I mean even if it comes to DVD levels right now when I read the decline of DVD, I'm not so sure that people would buy Blu-ray movies anyways.
I mean let's look at the facts. . Majority of people doesn't really even care about higher resolution that Blu-ray offers or that they want it, so making it at the price of DVD means nothing to these type of people.
If that's the case, only maybe 10-15% of the market seem to be really appreciate of the Blu-ray quality. And this market is pretty much the one that even pays prices today.
The point is that owning media and physical media overall is in decline and having a higher resolution of a movie even at the same price doesn't seem like a thing that can bring it back.
Maybe I'm wrong, it just seems like you trying to put out fire with fire.
EatingPie @ Sep 1st 2009 12:54AM
Wait, what facts?
Majority of people don't care about higher resolution? Are there consistent studies that show this? And not just of Joe Clueless, but people who actually watch movies.
And why would making it the price of DVD NOT matter even if these people exist? Surely they would recognize "oh this is better for the same price!" Again, unless it's Joe (Make that *Totally*) Clueless.
Right now the market share is about 10% of DVD on new releases. Is this due to only 10% of ALL people caring? Or is this 10% of DVD owners also own Blu and buy that first? You'd also have to consider penetration of HDTVs in the home vs. SDTV (and whether HDTV owners even know what Blu-ray is).
Certainly a more attractive price will make the product more attractive. There's just no way around that.
-Pie
YouFaceTheTick @ Aug 31st 2009 11:54PM
I can't fathom why people buy movies.
meanspirited @ Sep 1st 2009 8:03AM
i bought a blu-ray for 99.00 at walmart just to upscale my dvd collection.i'm very content with the picture quality. i will only by a blu ray disc when its 2.00 more than a standard dvd. as for the rest of you......spend the extra money for the overpriced discs.you people,will be the ones, to help get this economy back on its feet.please keep up the good work!...and don't forget to download the overpriced downloads also.
mntwister @ Sep 1st 2009 12:59PM
As more catalog titles come out, it would seem to me that anyone buying a Blu-ray version of a classic already owns the DVD, so I think the best area for these is $19.95, then stores may sell them at $14.95 or $12.95 or so on. The problem is that right now, there aren't enough Blu-ray movie consumers to validate releasing older movies in large quantity because of mastering costs. It costs 4 times as much to make a Blu-ray master, plus most films need to be restored and fixed for Blu-ray release. This isn't cheap, and this is why we see so few releases from the pre-1970 era. If I owned (using the example you used) Jerry Maguire on DVD I would not pay 25.00 for the Blu-ray.
I do think that higher pricing is ok when you get a special edition of a catalog title that makes it worthwhile, like a gorgeous new transfer and new HD extras. But releasing a catalog title with the same extras as a DVD and expecting people to spend 25.00 in this economy to replace it on Blu-ray just seems like it is not viable right now. Were the studios to release more catalog titles, charge less, more people would go to Blu-ray and they would make their money in quantity.