When you buy movies...

[Zoltar]

Separately, unless the collection includes films in the series not available separately.

[walruswarrior]

Depends in what a box set entails. I'm getting the Adamantium Collection even if it's cheaper to buy the films separately. But if it's say buying the Die Hard movies separately or buying the 25th Anniversary Collection, I would buy what's cheaper. If I really like the swag that comes with the box set, I usually go with that.

[Leterface]

Separately if the collection is some sort of a digipack or digibook, I much prefer plastic cases. Otherwise I would choose a collection because it saves room in my shelfs.

[retablo]

Years ago I would've said separately. But after owning 2000 DVDs and now 1200 blue, many collections take up way less space in most cases (like the Hitchcock set, for instance). That's more important than having some awful photoshopped artwork on a separate case.

And by collections, I don't mean some stupid set like Wolverine's claws or a lame looking Spider-man statue. Just the regular box.

[Riddler95]

Most of the time I usually go for the Boxset of a movie series I want. Mainly because the boxsets are usually cheaper than buying the movies individually and they often come with one or a few discs with extras.

I don't see the point of buying complete sets of ongoing series. In that case I'd rather own the movies individually for example the James Bond films. I am happy I didn't buy the six-film Star Wars Complete Saga set. With the new trilogy coming I would rather own all three Star Wars Trilogies in their own individual sets. I borrowed the Complete Saga from a friend and I wasn't impressed with the extras and I can live without them.

I was interested in buying the Batman Anthology Blu-Ray set and the cheapest price I found was about $60.00. I recently went to Wal-Mart and bought all four movies individually for $8.00 each.

I think that individual versions of movies are really nice especially when it comes to their own packaging and artwork and there are some titles I`d prefer to own individually. But most of the time I go for the boxset.

I have noticed that with Blu-Ray, most boxsets use fold out (Example: Back To The Future Trilogy) or the book style packaging (Example: Alien Anthology). I wish that all the studios would package the movies individually in boxsets. With so many DVD Boxsets, the movies would be packaged individually and with Blu-Ray that doesn't happen often. I own a few Blu-Ray boxsets with the movies packaged individually like the X-Men Trilogy, Home Alone Collection, and The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Extended Editions and I love the packaging for those.

[horroru]

For me it's important to get the best transfer and the most extras for a film, so I usually end up with the box set.
For those that prefer singles but want all the extras that may only come in a box set, it's very easy to buy single blu ray cases and print out your own custom covers -- and usually the custom covers are much better than the standard, bland photoshopped studio covers.

[TheAnimeLegend]

I mostly buy boxsets because they are cheaper in comparison than to get the movies seperately but honestly, it really depends on the film.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by retablo

Years ago I would've said separately. But after owning 2000 DVDs and now 1200 blue, many collections take up way less space in most cases (like the Hitchcock set, for instance). That's more important than having some awful photoshopped artwork on a separate case.

And by collections, I don't mean some stupid set like Wolverine's claws or a lame looking Spider-man statue. Just the regular box.

This got me laughing. I avoid the gaudy collections with Walking Dead zombie heads and such, although I can understand how a true enthusiast would dig those editions. There's simply no practical way for me to store such sets, though.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection is a good example of a plentiful box set that does not take up a lot of space. I'd prefer not to slide the Blu-rays out of the sleeves, but this has not been a problem so far.

[Cevolution]

I do prefer them separately, however as long as it's not in cardboard packaging I'm generally fine with a collection set.

[rgrudinski]

Collections if all the films go together (Nightmare on Elm St., Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Friday the 13th etc..) but for stuff like the Hitchcock boxed set, I prefer to have the films separate so I can alphabetize them on my shelf. Mild OCD here... I've made exceptions for stuff like the Qatsi Trilogy, and BBS Boxed set from Criterion since it's unlikely that those films will get individual releases. I also jumped on the Universal Monster's boxed set since it was like $40 a while back (the UK version) and since I only wanted like 3 of the films, I couldn't pass up getting the whole set for less than the price I'd have paid for the 3 I really wanted. Alphabetically that one is under "U" for Universal... BBS and Qatsi are under B and Q respectively.

[oSpriteo]

For a series (Alien, Die Hard, Bond) - Collection
Non-series movies (double pack/triple feature) - Which ever is cheaper

The bundles packages help keep the space down and are usually cheaper. I'm more about the actual movie and haven't gotten hooked on the extras. Most of the series collections have the extras included anyway. I have bought a WB triple feature or two even though i already had one of the movies just because it was cheaper than buying the other two on their own.

[Anthony P]

no preference.

[punkguy03]

Depends on the set. I have the Harry Potter set 1-5and the rest are individuals. I generally wait now until a box set is out. Like Lord of the Rings I'm waiting for the hobbit films because I know they'll be an ultimate edition more than likely.

[The Fallen Deity]

I usually get collections unless I only like one of the films in the series that I'm buying.

It's usually cheaper to buy collections than to get films separately.

It depends on where you buy them from.

[john carter]

However I can get the best deal.

[Hellraiserfan]

It depends on whether I liked all the films in that series.

For the Alien films I bought them individually because I hate Alien Resurrection. With the Godfather I bought the first two and skipped the boxset because I hadn't seen the third in a long time but most people say it's fairly bad.

The only boxset that I bought where one of the films was highly questionable was the Indiana Jones Box set. I didn't loathe the fourth film like so many others, I just found it to be a bit subpar.

The Stanley Kubrick collection box set was a must buy for me though, same with Back to the Future. I won't be getting the Chris Nolan set because I have all of his movies on Blu-ray already. Even if I didn't own them all, that set is missing The Prestige which is one of my favorite Nolan films.

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

Which ever is cheapest.

It's all about the movies.

The more movies you can get for your dollar is all that counts.

This just about sums it up for me.

[BozQ]

I try to buy them separately. But I do make exceptions with collections.
Sometimes, I only buy collection box sets if I know there isn't going to be another sequel of the same series, or that is the only way to get the BDs. Or if the prices are too damn cheap.

For example, The Lord of the Rings. There's a nice elaborate box set for the movies and there can't possibly another movie about it (not counting The Hobbit movies)

Then there's Star Wars. At the time, it really didn't seem like there was going to be Episode VII, so I bought the complete saga. If I knew about it, I might have gotten the separate Prequel Trilogy and Original Trilogy sets. But then again, there might not be a "sequel trilogy" set when they're done with Episode IX.

In short, there's no hard and fast rule. But preferable separate.

[Bcogswell]

Generally I prefer to have the individual releases, unless its something I really like. In that case I'll buy the boxset.

Oh, if the boxset is cheaper than the individual releases I'll end up getting it most of the time haha.

[Riddler95]

The nice thing about Universal's Boxsets is that there usually isn't additional discs with just extras. The extras are always on the actual movie discs. So if you buy the titles individually you don't lose any extras. Warner has done that as well.

When I bought the first four Batman movies individually from Wal-Mart for $8.00 each, not only did I pay almost half the price of buying the anthology boxset, I also didn't lose any of the extras. I don't care if the Anthology Set has thinner cases. Regular sized Blu-Ray cases are already pretty thin.