Best time to buy movies

[RonE]

I tend to buy mine when they are released, but I notice that a few weeks later the price drops.

My question is how many weeks after a movie is released does the price drop

[Naiera]

Depends on the movie.

[samdvd1]

When it gets to the price you are willing to pay.

[Cinematt]

Originally Posted by RonE

I tend to buy mine when they are released, but I notice that a few weeks later the price drops.

My question is how many weeks after a movie is released does the price drop

There has yet to be a day when there isn't a film I want to buy that is on sale. I could buy new releases, but waiting usually means I can buy three times as many

[Justin101]

It's got to the point now where if it's a 'major label' release I'll wait because you know that 2-3 months down the line it'll either be £5 cheaper or in the 3 for £20 offer at HMV. I found myself buying on pre-order then not watching it until significantly later because I'd already seen at the cinema and by the time I did watch it, I could have bought it for a lot less!

Obviously there are times when you just can't wait...

[spearce8]

'Vintage Classics' never seem to drop in price

[sukraj]

If it's a movie that's just been released that I want to buy then I usually buy it on day 1.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by spearce8

'Vintage Classics' never seem to drop in price

StudioCanal titles are notoriously tricky with their prices. Their new release titles may drop in price like any studio title might (for example, you can get a copy of Under the Skin for £6 these days) but frustratingly their Vintage Classics or Studio Ghibli titles fail to drop below £12.50 at the cheapest, generally speaking. Same goes for a lot of their back catalogue titles, except for some older releases or Optimum titles. But yeah, generally I find it's often best to pre-order a StudioCanal title if you really want it...otherwise you could be waiting months or even years for it to fall to a good price again.

Some labels I will pre-order with because the item will maintain a similar price for the next 3-6 months, or even go up in price - Eureka, BFI, Second Sight. That said, occasionally they'll fall in price quicker than I'd hoped - BFI's Kurosawa set was £10 cheaper just a month after I bought mine. Arrow titles I'm a bit more conscious of now, as many of their releases will fall into a sale within 3 months, or the next one 3 months after that...so I'll generally only buy the titles I really want to see within those next 3-6 months, or might sell out (limited editions and whatnot). Generally speaking, box sets should probably be pre-ordered if you don't want to miss out.

Artificial Eye/Curzon titles often held their price but I notice they fall to around half price after a few months too these days - for example I bought Ida for £10 around New Year, and by February/March it dropped to just over half that...same happened with Joe last year, so I'm no longer confident pre-ordering their releases at £14 or whatever (unless it's a box set, but even those drop in price eventually). Network titles are also on sale every 3-4 months, so I now wait for a review and if it seems any good I'll buy it in their sale (or in an Amazon multibuy offer).

Studio titles are always gonna drop, but special editions and retailer exclusives might go OOP so if you really wanted a certain edition of a film I'd try and get it sooner rather than later. There have been a load of studio titles I've skipped lately though, or bought them relatively cheap (£7-8) on eBay after they're released.

[ravenus]

The other aspect is that the retailers lose out when customers wait for hugely slashed prices, which then affects the label. The sub-10 GBP price is hard to sustain for boutique labels who have to pay for film rights and have smaller print runs. So if you feel a label is doing good work and you are strongly interested in their releases, at least once in a while support them by not waiting for the absolute lowest price you can get. That can be kept for the films you are less interested in or dubious about.

The bigger studios are less affected by these margins but even they are likely to cut their releases or the content on their discs if they feel that the market is too cut-throat.

[Buckster666]

The best time to buy movies is 18:43pm, lol

[rapta]

Originally Posted by ravenus

The other aspect is that the retailers lose out when customers wait for hugely slashed prices, which then affects the label. The sub-10 GBP price is hard to sustain for boutique labels who have to pay for film rights and have smaller print runs. So if you feel a label is doing good work and you are strongly interested in their releases, at least once in a while support them by not waiting for the absolute lowest price you can get. That can be kept for the films you are less interested in or dubious about.

The bigger studios are less affected by these margins but even they are likely to cut their releases or the content on their discs if they feel that the market is too cut-throat.

This is true. You should buy titles if you really do want them if only to keep the label in business. I often buy Soda Pictures titles even if they end up being divisive films that end up in an Amazon multibuy a few months later (e.g. Night Moves, Only Lovers Left Alive). Very small labels like Third Window Films, New Wave/Verve and Dogwoof also need as many people to buy their releases on release I'd imagine as it probably affects their decision to release a title on Blu-ray or just DVD - if people don't buy their titles I'd imagine they'd end up releasing everything on DVD only...

[RonE]

Originally Posted by rapta

StudioCanal titles are notoriously tricky with their prices. Their new release titles may drop in price like any studio title might (for example, you can get a copy of Under the Skin for £6 these days) but frustratingly their Vintage Classics or Studio Ghibli titles fail to drop below £12.50 at the cheapest, generally speaking. Same goes for a lot of their back catalogue titles, except for some older releases or Optimum titles. But yeah, generally I find it's often best to pre-order a StudioCanal title if you really want it...otherwise you could be waiting months or even years for it to fall to a good price again....

I fully appreciate the need to keep the studios alive unfortunately I buy movies irrespective of the studio that produces them, most are movies I have seen at the cinema and think they are worth keeping or top grossing movies. As a consumer I need to stretch the little money I have and buy as many good movies as possible.

Is there a web site that tracks the prices of movies ? Some kind of price trend analysis? I am trying to work out the optimum time to buy.

[Buzz201]

Originally Posted by rapta

StudioCanal titles are notoriously tricky with their prices. Their new release titles may drop in price like any studio title might (for example, you can get a copy of Under the Skin for £6 these days) but frustratingly their Vintage Classics or Studio Ghibli titles fail to drop below £12.50 at the cheapest, generally speaking. Same goes for a lot of their back catalogue titles, except for some older releases or Optimum titles. But yeah, generally I find it's often best to pre-order a StudioCanal title if you really want it...otherwise you could be waiting months or even years for it to fall to a good price again.

Japanese companies tend to be very very fussy about pricing, and will often insist on set RRPs, which is part of the reason why anime is so expensive. I'm guessing the Ghibli titles rarely drop any lower than £12.50 to avoid annoying the Japanese distributor.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by Buzz201

Japanese companies tend to be very very fussy about pricing, and will often insist on set RRPs, which is part of the reason why anime is so expensive. I'm guessing the Ghibli titles rarely drop any lower than £12.50 to avoid annoying the Japanese distributor.

I once managed to get Totoro for about £7 (new) so I'm guessing the retailer lost a bit of money there...or StudioCanal's pricing briefly went haywire (this was quite a while ago).

[Ste7en]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Depends on the movie.

And the distributor.

Some stuff I buy on release (Disney for instance) as if you don't you'll end up without an elusive slipcase. I'll also pre-order limited editions.

Other than that I'll wait a bit, now I'm a skint old git with two kids

[Icemouth]

When you want to see them

[chip75]

Originally Posted by RonE

Is there a web site that tracks the prices of movies ? Some kind of price trend analysis? I am trying to work out the optimum time to buy.

There are no hard-and-fast rules with regards to price-drops, all you can do is set a price and wait for it to hit. Blu-rays are like stocks and shares, they go up and down in value, but they're harder to predict! If there were set rules (there are a few exceptions) then we'd all know how long to wait, but there aren't. A studio can have a bad month and decide to reduce prices and stores can have flash sales, but they will happen with little warning and may happen in the middle of the night.

Some distributors have set patterns and you can prepare yourself for a sale, but they don't always reduce the titles you want. The smaller labels are reliable in that regards, Arrow are pretty good with quarterly sales.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Buckster666

The best time to buy movies is 18:43pm, lol

Better than 02.44am? I think not!

[sukraj]

Originally Posted by Markgway

Better than 02.44am? I think not!

the best time to view a movie is 12.00am

[Todd Tomorrow]

There are very few films I need to have on the first day of release. For most I wait till the price drops. I tend to give it a couple of months and I usually get them from Amazon Marketplace.