Steelbooks and Digibooks in Australia....where are they now?

[alien1979]

Advance apologies if this topic has been discussed before.

Been wondering for quite some time why I hardly see movies released here in Australia on steelbook or digibook anymore.

When I first started shopping for blu rays here, steelbooks and digibooks were fairly popular, and if I knew then what I know now I would have gone for the steel or digibook edition over the standard. But the extra cost swayed my decision to go for the standard edition in some instances. In hindsight, I wish I'd chosen differently.

It's just that I notice certain mainstream releases overseas get a steelbook release and Australia just gets a standard one. (I know that Interstellar got a steelbook release here, which is good and I picked up a copy. But they still seem to be few and far between.)

For example: American Sniper, The Wolf of Wall Street, Fury, come to mind. Those movies had a steelbook release overseas but not here. Also, the last digibooks I can recall being released here in Australia were Jaws and E.T. I can't remember any since then though.

It just frustrates me why we seem to miss out.

[snsdfan]

I think JB can not selling enough steelbook and digibook. I just bought TMNT steelbook very high price and suddenly price was down half price. Everyone going to wait until price is cheap without Disney steelbook (espicially MARVEL one.)

[alien1979]

Originally Posted by snsdfan

I think JB can not selling enough steelbook and digibook. I just bought TMNT steelbook very high price and suddenly price was down half price. Everyone going to wait until price is cheap without Disney steelbook (espicially MARVEL one.)

Yeah it sometimes pays to see if you can pick up steelbooks (those that are available that is) when they have their 20 % off sales. But that's only if any are left by the time the sale happens, which is not often the case.

[PsyTrix]

JB seems to be the only place to grab steelbooks, but I have seen the occasional copy lurking at Sanity on the odd occasion. JB tends to pick poor movies to offer exclusives for - you'll still find copies of G.I Joe and Die hard sitting on shelves - and they wonder why no one buys them? I believe Avengers was the last Marvel steel to actually include a 3D copy, which sadly seems to be absent from every release since. Had it not been for the Iron Man 3 steel being $29.95 on release, I wouldn't have bothered picking up any more of their exclusives. I'd love to find out what their reasoning is. I see Avengers: AoU is getting the same barebones treatment as well.

[Caustic]

The South Pacific is simply not a big enough market to support such releases, especially when Joe Average still buys DVDs over Blu. It also comes down to buyer psyche. Everyone (exception being the loons that frequent the forums here) bulk at paying $40+ for releases. No retailer today can afford to purchase stock to have it sit there for months. Look at JB HiFi NZ. Their results were released yesterday and they basically have a net margin of 0.75%. Typically carrying costs of of inventory are 11-15%. This is why we are seeing constant sales and discounting