Blade Runner 4K UHD (1982)

[Shaggy1978]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

Man, where is the price drop on this one? May have to cancel my preorder if it doesn't come down some...

The Japanese 4K LE Steelbook is $65 with shipping and third party sellers are already asking $90 since it sold out!

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by Shaggy1978

The Japanese 4K LE Steelbook is $65 with shipping and third party sellers are already asking $90 since it sold out!

That's crazy. I'll never understand the *massive* premiums people are willing to pay for packaging.

[jamesdevil]

To each their own but it's not even that good looking and the disc art is inferior to the 30th anniversary version. I was expecting some John Alvin artwork or something.

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by jamesdevil

To each their own but it's not even that good looking and the disc art is inferior to the 30th anniversary version. I was expecting some John Alvin artwork or something.

Totally agree. I'd expect nothing less than the original poster art and all five cuts in full 4K for a price that high. lol

[Shaggy1978]

It's the hobby of collecting more than the movie itself... like collecting baseball cards or comics when I was little. As I've told others, I collect Lenticular slipcovers - the movies are incidental! Not really, but kind of!

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by jamesdevil

To each their own but it's not even that good looking and the disc art is inferior to the 30th anniversary version. I was expecting some John Alvin artwork or something.

It boggles the mind that we still haven't had a Steelbook with John Alvin's iconic poster on the front. Make it happen, Warners! As it is, the only Blade Runner Steel I currently own is the UK 'Premium Collection' one, which is ugly as ****.

[Geoff D]

Oh, that one's dreadful. I had the Final Cut steel with the new Struzan artwork on it, 'twas glorious.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Oh, that one's dreadful. I had the Final Cut steel with the new Struzan artwork on it, 'twas glorious.

The recent one with the 2015 BFI artwork is currently on eBay for cheap. Tempting...

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

I wonder why this is. Why price your titles $10 over all other studios? Seems like a pretty odd strategy.

Warner raised their prices across the board like a year ago and bluntly said it was to combat less discs being sold I believe. The more niche movies on disc gets, the higher prices will go. See: laserdisc. Warner is just the first to jump.

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Warner raised their prices across the board like a year ago and bluntly said it was to combat less discs being sold I believe. The more niche movies on disc gets, the higher prices will go. See: laserdisc. Warner is just the first to jump.

Wow, that's seriously depressing if true. I was hoping for prices to actually start coming DOWN a bit on 4K discs, they're pretty cost-prohibitive for me most of the time.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

It's a WB catalog title, so it'll be $30ish for a while.

More like
amirite?

[jamesdevil]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

It boggles the mind that we still haven't had a Steelbook with John Alvin's iconic poster on the front. Make it happen, Warners! As it is, the only Blade Runner Steel I currently own is the UK 'Premium Collection' one, which is ugly as ****.

Yeah, the UK steelbook is no bueno. The 30th anniversary at least adopted the Alvin and Drew Struzan posters for the disc art. Those have to be the best looking discs of any release I've ever owned.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Warner raised their prices across the board like a year ago and bluntly said it was to combat less discs being sold I believe. The more niche movies on disc gets, the higher prices will go. See: laserdisc. Warner is just the first to jump.

And how did that work out for laserdiscs?

Raising prices does not help sales.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I just think the studios are incapable of learning from past experiences.

[JimDiGriz]

Not sure why the Japan steelbook was so popular really. I mean we are bound to get several different steelbooks of this worldwide at some point.

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by mar3o

And how did that work out for laserdiscs?

Raising prices does not help sales.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I just think the studios are incapable of learning from past experiences.

Totally agree. Pricing like this is pricing people like me (and, believe me, I'm the target demo for these things) out of the physical media market - or at least severely curbing my ability to invest as much as I'd like to in new releases. With Blade Runner, E.T., Close Encounters, Terminator 2 and Starship Troopers all coming out at roughly the same time, I've had to prioritize which ones I really want now (as opposed to just grabbing them all, which I would do if prices were a little lower). And I know, first world problems, lol, but it's a shame these discs are put at *such* a premium...it really makes it tough on the very people who could propel the new formats to success by limiting what they can get. And the irony is, they'll wind up mistaking that inability for people to buy all that they want for a lack of popularity of the format.

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by mar3o

And how did that work out for laserdiscs?

It lasted twenty years.

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

It lasted twenty years.

...as a niche of a niche market.

[Sky_Captain]

And?

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

And?

Call me crazy, but I think the implication is that 'niche of a niche' markets are not as profitable as mainstream markets.

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

And?

And nothing. Simply saying that laserdiscs lasted for 20 years implies that they were successful, and while that's perhaps an arguable point (depending on your definition of success), the discussion was about the correlation of MSRP's and sales - and that raising the former doesn't increase the second. To see this, one needs only to look to the laserdisc format, which averaged $35 for a bare-bones release. Now, I'm not knocking laserdisc. I enjoyed the format for years. But its high cost was part of the reason it never achieved the mass market appeal like DVD's and blu-rays have. The point being made was that Warner's choice to raise prices to offset lower disc sales seems a bit misguided if history is any indicator. If, of course, HIGHER disc sales is their objective. They may be actually be attempting to expedite the 4K format's position AS a niche format LIKE laserdisc. Who knows.