How HV sales used to turn big box office hits into massive box office GIANTS

[Lordmandeep]

For example Baumer

 

Judge Dredd would have likely made a fortune 8-10 years ago on Home Video and video rentals that they would for certain make a 2nd one.

[forg]

Yep. I think this new avenue of streaming will kill the direct-to-dvd film business. I haven't purchased a DVD in at least a year. The convenience of downloading your movie straight to your laptop/pc/tablet/ps4/xbox etc.... is just too strong.

 

Also, I think people forget how flipping popular Goblet of Fire was. It was probably the most easily accessible movie of the whole franchise. 

 

Well direct-to-dvd is now direct-to-VOD

 

I still buy DVD (and VCDs which is still available here) but only when they are on discount already.

[forg]

 

Ed Norton in 2012:

 

"I think it would be much harder [to get a film like Fight Club made] today," Norton told Digital Spy. "It's right in that middle budget range that no-one wants to touch anymore. And DVDs are disappearing, no-one's going to buy a DVD in three years. It was kind of the secondary revenue that prompted them to make films like that. 

 

"The digital, on-demand and the subscription services, Netflix or Amazon, the revenues coming back from that are kind of pennies on the dollar to what it was to sell a DVD, so it's much harder."

 

 

So even if VOD streaming is on the rise, it might not be still that beneficial to the actors/crew. This was also the concerns raised in the music industry for services like Spotify. Although the music consumption is high it's not picking up the monetary value that paid digital downloads and actual CD sales have

 

Streaming might be the new avenue for movies to get second wind/rediscovered but looks like it won't have the financial impact that great tangible Home Video sales had

Edited January 3, 2015 by forg

[grim22]

Another source of revenue that no longer exists almost is soundtrack sales. Actual pop albums are struggling to reach 1 million in sales (only Taylor Swift did that in 2014) so movie soundtracks are pretty much toast, apart from Frozen.

[AJG]

Another source of revenue that no longer exists almost is soundtrack sales. Actual pop albums are struggling to reach 1 million in sales (only Taylor Swift did that in 2014) so movie soundtracks are pretty much toast, apart from Frozen.

Space Jam soundtrack is the greatest soundtrack of all time.

[Mango]

HV sales these days are a pathetic shell of what they once were. Frozen is a bright spot, with 16 million copies sold. If this was 15 years ago, it would probably be 40-50 million.

The Internet has completely changed the name of that game. The music industry is the same way.

[John Marston]

Some movies became hits thanks to home video. Shawshank Redemption is a good example. Tremors is another

[John Marston]

Some movies became hits thanks to home video. Shawshank Redemption is a good example. Tremors is another

[terrestrial]

Home Video updated yesterday their top 20. The last collumn indicates the percentage od sales numbers of the e.g. 2nd place to 1st place. So if for any sales the ammount gets mentioned in an articel, the other titles can calculated out of that ine known number

.

Top 20 Sellers for the Week Ended 12/28/14

.

This Week's Rank	Last Week's Rank	Title	Street Date	Studio	Genre	Weeks on Chart	Box Office (millions)	Blu-ray Share for Title	Index*	3D%†
1	1	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)	12/16/14	Paramount	Action	2	$191.20	NA	100.00	4%
2	2	Guardians of the Galaxy	12/9/14	Disney/Marvel	Sci-Fi	3	$332.97	NA	74.17	18%
3	3	The Maze Runner	12/16/14	Fox	Sci-Fi	2	$102.09	NA	47.12	-
4	4	Frozen	3/18/14	Disney	Animated	41	$400.74	NA	46.15	-
5	6	Maleficent	11/4/14	Disney	Fantasy	8	$241.41	NA	27.62	-
6	5	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	12/2/14	Fox	Sci-Fi	4	$208.55	NA	25.87	6%
7	7	How to Train Your Dragon 2	11/11/14	Fox/DreamWorks	Animated	7	$177.00	NA	25.18	3%
8	9	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug	4/8/14	Warner	Fantasy	38	$258.37	NA	19.87	7%
9	10	22 Jump Street	11/18/14	Sony Pictures	Comedy	6	$191.72	NA	15.94	-
10	8	Dolphin Tale 2	12/9/14	Warner	Family	3	$42.02	NA	15.46	-
11	13	The Lego Movie	6/17/14	Warner	Animated	28	$257.76	NA	12.84	5%
12	26	X-Men: Days of Future Past	10/14/14	Fox	Action	11	$233.92	NA	12.76	6%
13	15	The Fault in Our Stars	9/16/14	Fox	Romance	15	$124.87	NA	12.48	-
14	16	A Christmas Story	10/30/07	Warner	Family	4	Re-release	NA	12.37	-
15	19	The Expendables 3	11/25/14	Lionsgate	Action	5	$39.32	NA	12.36	-
16	11	Elf	11/16/04	Warner	Comedy	4	Re-release	NA	12.12	-
17	14	National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation	11/3/09	Warner	Comedy	4	Re-release	NA	10.83	-
18	53	Lone Survivor	6/3/14	Universal	Drama	30	$125.10	NA	10.18	-
19	20	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	10/14/14	Fox/DreamWorks	Animated	9	$111.51	NA	9.76	3%
20	12	How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)	11/20/01	Universal	Family	8	Re-release	NA	9.48	-

 

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/top-sellers/top-20-sellers-week-ended-122814

 

 

[baumer]

I hate charts like that, there's no dollars there.  It's like a big secret.  They don't want you to know how much they are making.

[terrestrial]

Forbes article 15 November (press screening for GotG upcomming discs release):

 

 

The Avengers racked up a massive $218 million in domestic Blu-ray and DVD sales, plus foreign sales, Digital-HD sales, and rentals that push it toward $500 million on the home market. Of course, that film also grossed more than $1.5 billion worldwide in theaters, which is nearly double Guardians‘ $770 million worldwide take as of Friday. Meaning it’s perhaps unlikely to expect Guardians of the Galaxy to generate similar sales figures.

 

However, we can find better comparisons among the other more recent Marvel cinematic releases. Captain America: The Winter Soldier has already brought in at least $42 million in domestic home entertainment sales from Blu-ray and DVD alone, since its release nine weeks ago, plus about the same in overseas receipts. When rental numbers are included in the picture, it’s likely Cap’s sequel is at least approaching $100 million or more in total home revenue so far, with a ways still to go.

 

In comparison, Thor: The Dark World has amassed $62 million in Blu-ray and DVD sales domestically. Adding in foreign sales of equal measure, Digital-HD, and rentals, Thor’s sequel approaches $150 million in worldwide on the home front.

 

Interesting to me, as it also mentiones rentals and international details

 

edit to add the link and some additional quotes

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2014/11/15/james-gunn-talks-guardians-of-the-galaxy-sequel-possible-spinoffs/

 

 

The typical performance these days for the superhero genre is roughly in the $100 million range for Blu-ray and DVD sales in North America, with similar numbers overseas. Digital sales have been healthy for the last two years, with a 47% increase in 2013 and 33% increase so far in 2014, while rentals see steady declines and disc sales saw declines. The overall picture for home entertainment this year is almost identical to last year, dropping less than a single percentage point.

 

 

Profit margins are of course much higher for the home market, so the studio will enjoy much more than just the 50% cut they get of theatrical box office.

Edited January 4, 2015 by terrestrial

[terrestrial]

I hate charts like that, there's no dollars there.  It's like a big secret.  They don't want you to know how much they are making.

 

Me too, but it does give insight to sold units at least, if an article about one of the listed titles mentiones them. Or to have to wait for a month or so to check up at The Numbers.

[Rudolf]

The only way to save HV-sales would be to come up with a system that can't be digital copied. (The analog copy (filming the screen) can't be prohibited - but poor quality that could be even downgraded, if people set their minds to it).

I know it is hard, because hackers are very clever, but I am sure it can be done.

 

My idea is to make hardware depending codes, that are only playable on a specific screen. To get people to buy these, you have  to offer ways for people, who change their screen, to get new codes for their collections of old digital copies (maybe hundreds). There could be offers for discound codes for secondary or additional screens.

[TServo2049]

I dunno. I think customers could still revolt over something like that.

Remember the Xbox One debacle, where the system was going to require you to be connected to the Internet to play your games, and games would be locked out from other consoles because the server would recognize which unit the game was being played on (thus making used sales impossible, because the game would only be playable on the original buyer's console)? Yeah, that went over so well that Microsoft quickly walked it back (though in that case, I still wonder if it was more due to fears of GameStop boycotting the system, than to fears of actual gamers doing so...)

Edited January 4, 2015 by TServo2049

[Lordmandeep]

Yeah I refuse to do digital download for games as I can't resell them?

 

Why can't I?

 

 

I bought The Last of Us for 25 dollars and resold it for 34 on Amazon.

 

Imo once a person buys something, he or she should be able to do as he pleases.

 

 

I can buy a car and resell to him whoever I like.

 

I can buy a game and let anyone else play it. 

 

 

All of these new ideas are not about change for the better, but for restricting the market for the benefit of the company. 

Edited January 4, 2015 by Lordmandeep

[TServo2049]

Again, that's probably the real reason the Xbox One plan was walked back, and why no system will ever be digital download only as long as GameStop is such a big part of the game market.

With movies, it would be akin to if Blockbuster were still a big going concern, and they were to hypothetically boycott a movie over it releasing on VOD before becoming available to rent. (In the period when Blockbuster, Netflix, Redbox, and VOD all co-existed, Blockbuster was often able to negotiate with studios to freeze out all non-brick/mortar rental platforms for up to a month. I remember the "28 days before Netflix or Redbox" message on the big window banner when some movies came to Blockbuster. The one I specifically remember was one of the Twilight films...maybe Eclipse? That would have been the last one before Blockbuster cratered...)

Notice that films release to Redbox much quicker now that the Blockbuster chain no longer exists. (And did films ever release to digital before physical when Blockbuster was still in business? Or was it only digital/online/kiosk rentals that were regulated by the studio deals with BB?)

If home video sales were still huge, and brick and mortar retailers still held power, we would probably not be seeing films get early digital releases.

Edited January 4, 2015 by TServo2049

[TServo2049]

And I like physical media, make no mistake. And I like the added-value content that comes with it (if it's substantial, meaningful stuff).

Heck, I bought my first new movie on iTunes, How to Train Your Dragon 2, only because it was:

1.) available before the Blu-Ray

2.) cheaper than the Blu-Ray was going to be at launch

3.) had all of the extra features I was interested in the Blu-Ray for

Point #3 sealed the deal for me, but I bet a lot of people who are switching to digital are doing it because of point #2.

Edited January 4, 2015 by TServo2049

[terrestrial]

I buy a bit less than in the past, as e.g. I have now filled up most of the older movies then not released as discs, or because the movies I'm interested in isn't available as physical version. No physical, no buying

 

means =

Not planing to switching to digital ever, love    my physical discs way too much for that and do not like the extra software needed for those digitals to 'poisen' my computers (aka e.g. give access to the companies like amazon or apple,... in a way I am not happy about). I do also no rent, leasing, bank credits, and so on in general, hence the reason I e.g. do not update my Adobe 'pro' software anymore

 

Even if I do have a 'slight' problem to find new walls for the next DVD/Blu-Ray shelf since quite some time...   (Hubby is not happy about that too, he prefers empty walls, way too 'cool/not-really-lived-in-looking' for my taste)

[Plain Old Tele]

I'll buy Blu-Ray versions of special films I love, or films I like that have wonderful editions (various Criterion versions). I don't have a problem either not buying or just buying digital versions for the others -- especially for kids' movies.

[fastclock]

So, to try to summarize the current HV tracking:

 

- Latest domestic dollar numbers: the-numbers.com

- Latest domestic blu-ray/dvd chart: homemediamagazines.com

 

Further approximations:

- It is probably fair to estimate an even 1-to-1 ratio between domestic and overseas HV market as a good approximation to worldwide HV sales

- Additional digital video sales and rental would account for about 50% of the physical DVD/Blu-ray sales

- HV would give the studios about 60-70% additional profit of the gross domestic sales (and possibly a good indication of what the studios get from overseas, digital sales and rental)