Studios’ long term price strategies?

[blackjackmark]

Trying to figure out the pricing strategies of the various movie studios as to how and if they lower their prices after initial release. I know Disney always seems to maintain near-release day pricing basically forever for their high profile discs, but are there others that do the same?

Some seem to drop just a few months after release, while others I’m guessing wait a little longer.

Has anyone done an analysis of pricing of new and recent releases and discerned a pattern? It’d be handy to know...for example, if I see a Disney release drop a few dollars, I’ll get it, but if it’s a (insert studio here) release, then I know in six months they’re usually down to $10.

It’d be really nice to develop a list of each studio and their typical pricing pattern to determine when to buy.

Thoughts?

(P.s. I know this isn’t a “deal”, but it relates to deals...and I didn’t spot a better thread to put it in.)

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by blackjackmark

Trying to figure out the pricing strategies of the various movie studios as to how and if they lower their prices after initial release. I know Disney always seems to maintain near-release day pricing basically forever for their high profile discs, but are there others that do the same?

Some seem to drop just a few months after release, while others I’m guessing wait a little longer.

Has anyone done an analysis of pricing of new and recent releases and discerned a pattern? It’d be handy to know...for example, if I see a Disney release drop a few dollars, I’ll get it, but if it’s a (insert studio here) release, then I know in six months they’re usually down to $10.

It’d be really nice to develop a list of each studio and their typical pricing pattern to determine when to buy.

Thoughts?

(P.s. I know this isn’t a “deal”, but it relates to deals...and I didn’t spot a better thread to put it in.)

Get "The Camelizer" extension for the Chrome browser and go to Amazon and start looking at the types of titles you're interested in. Anecdotally, WB titles seem to drop off after a couple/few months. Disney tends to keep their prices stable.

[neoz]

I'll take 3.

[JurassicBD]

Prices aren't nearly as predictable as they used to be. Studio agendas have changed, as has the retail climate. The market for media has become too diverse and with all major studios solely motivated on growing the digital market, that's were the majority of their advertising and promotions are focused. And with more people buying their physical media online due to much greater selection and traditionally better prices (before amazon became a price matcher instead of a price leader), decreasing interest in physical also means stores are carrying even less and being much tighter on their sales projections (order numbers) and thus have less overstock to be liquidated. Stores shrinking their media depts. also has given many consumers the false impression that physical is dying, encouraging even more digital adoption. And amazon promoting digital over physical does the same. Of course amazon has their own stake in promoting digital over physical, being an internet-based vendor.

Of course where the streaming market has had the most impact by far is in the rental section. As such we don't see the volumes of rental overstock being cleared out like we used to, so studios don't have to aggressively lower their prices after a month to compete with used sales. Some vendors like Best Buy are still negotiating sales after a month or so, which amazon will half-heartedly match "most" sale prices from a select few competitors. But promotions of physical are still largely unpredictable.

Based on a few things I've seen, it appears that they're concerned that streaming adoption may have hit a wall or at least has slowed more than they had hoped. As heavy-handed as their push has been up to now, it's about to get a lot more aggressive, which will not be good for collectors who value quality over convenience and demand something tangible for their investment and all the legal rights of ownership that comes with owning a physical product. Obviously, once physical has been retired or at best reduced to a high end niche market that doesn't have any real impact on the studios bottom line, downloads will be the next to go, as Hollywood gravitates back to the PPV world they've always favored with streaming distribution exclusively coming from the studios themselves.

[Blaze_Chamberlin]

Originally Posted by neoz

I'll take 3.

Not if I buy them all first!!!!

[thornhill]

$19.99 was/is my magic number for Disney Blu-Rays. $24.99 is my magic number for Disney 4K UHD. If I want lower than those prices it has to be BF or wait ages for them, and even then it will only be another $2 lower most likely.

There are patterns for the other studios. I’ve gone and checked by studio and you can see most drop significantly after three months or so. I can usually wait, unless it’s something I missed in the theater that I really wanted to see.

[blackjackmark]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

Anecdotally, WB titles seem to drop off after a couple/few months. Disney tends to keep their prices stable.

Originally Posted by thornhill

$19.99 was/is my magic number for Disney Blu-Rays. $24.99 is my magic number for Disney 4K UHD. If I want lower than those prices it has to be BF or wait ages for them, and even then it will only be another $2 lower most likely.

There are patterns for the other studios. I’ve gone and checked by studio and you can see most drop significantly after three months or so. I can usually wait, unless it’s something I missed in the theater that I really wanted to see.

It’s these patterns I’m trying to learn. Like we’ve all said, Disney rarely drops, but for example, several 4k movies recently dropped to $19.99 or lower (It, Shape of Water, Blade Runner 2049)....

I guess I was trying to figure out if there were others that have adopted Disney’s pricing strategy of rarely dropping. Hopeful there aren’t!

[Batman1980]

DMC is the best way around Disney's pricing scheme.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by blackjackmark

I guess I was trying to figure out if there were others that have adopted Disney’s pricing strategy of rarely dropping. Hopeful there aren’t!

It seems like mostly everything drops within 1-3 months after release. Justice League released in mid March and was down to $12.99 Blu-ray and $18.99 for the 4K just last week.