Criterion Prices

[hangman]

Very very interesting that TRL and Mr. Lawrence are both listed at $29.95 for 2 disc DVDs and $39.95 for blu...would be a fantastic development if it holds.

I'm thinking that this might actually be a new pricing structure, and part of a very gradual eventual phasing out of standard DVDs for most new titles (like MoC).

If Criterion wants to encourage its customers to upgrade to Blu-ray, they should make the DVD editions more expensive, not cheaper.

Actually it may be a good move to make it cheaper when thinking of transitions. Given that the customers who buy DVD, for whatever reason to not having a Blu ray player, could save some cash to put aside for buying a blu-ray player in the future. Eventually when they phase out the DVD version, the higher costing blu-rays will be there for purchase as they didn't have to test out what compromise price to sell at. Assuming of course that those customers would be interested in saving up for a blu-ray. Besides as noted it would be pretty dishonest to pump the price of DVD's when thanks to technology printing it costs much less than it did before, Blu-ray isn't at that point yet but will get there, and you'd just offend customers. Course you could lower Blu-ray but then you'd be lowering your costs of recovery, which is currently higher than DVD.

In addition, since you have certain margin of customers who are inelastic, i.e. those who continue to buy DVD, you'd be able to entice prospective customers as well, those with blu-ray players who really want the film but may not have much cash to fork over so instead may have opted to rent or wait for a sale/whatever to lower the price to that level.

Edit: Course that is if the price listing isn't an error on their side.

[Wood Tick]

Or consider that blu ray, despite the enduring marketing blitz, isn't really selling to industry expectations--perhaps far below even--and someone with a conscience figured it would be less than ethical for consumers of SDDVD to continue underwriting blu ray production. Or: someone smart in the ranks figured it would be unwise to pull the plug on the earlier format, and maybe not so dumb either to make concessions (vis-a-vis said marketing blitz) to those who are not likely to jump ship anytime in the foreseeable future, and are possibly/likely feeling a bit alienated and/or put upon (re: marketing blitz)... Back in the distant era of fall of 2009, a local (but large, and with a relatively big-ass Criterion section) retailer informed me demand for blu ray has been next to nil, not unlike demand for laserdisc, which he had seen the beginning and end of. (Some may recall that laserdisc was competing against VHS, not a formidable challenger by any stretch...)

[Jeff]

I think I was right about Criterion dropping the price on standard DVDs and redoing their pricing structure in general. The MSRP for the lower-tier DVD of The Magician is $24.95, and the other, upper-tier or two-disc DVDs scheduled for October are $29.95. Single-disc Blu-rays are $39.95 and double-disc Blu-rays are $49.95.

[mfunk9786]

I know it's only $5 but it'd be nice if they dropped the MSRP by $5 for lower-tier Blus...

[hangman]

Nice! The pricing system wasn't an error on their part .

[Tom Hagen]

I'm perfectly happy to live in a world where new Bergman Criterions have an MSRP of $24.95.

[HistoryProf]

I think $24.95 is an error...notice the pre-order price they are charging is the same as all the $29.95 titles. must be a typo.

[manicsounds]

$24.95 for the DVD vs $39.95 for the BD.... quite a difference in the price here.

[perkizitore]

I think it'a mistake, 23.96 is the price that the Criterion store sells the 29.95$ tier titles.
It's more possible that they got the RRP wrong, than sell it just 5% cheaper!

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I hope it's not a typo. I'd imagine that it'd sell more copies as it's a lesser-known title.

[aox]

Criterion just put this on their Facebook page:

In the past month or so, some customers have noticed a little change in the way we’re pricing new DVD releases, and they can’t seem to figure out whether to cheer or complain. We’ve been charging $10 less for fully loaded DVDs than we used to, dropping our suggested retail price for most new special editions from $39.95 to $29.95. So what’s the problem? Well, back when we started issuing Blu-rays, we promised that we’d price them the same way we’d been pricing DVDs, not make them more expensive, even though Blu-ray authoring and manufacturing costs were then and are still much higher than those costs ever were for DVD. Our goal was to take price out of the equation for buyers considering which edition to pick up, and up to now, that’s what we’ve done. Recently, some costs associated with producing finished DVDs have fallen dramatically, and we wanted to pass that savings on to our DVD customers. Should our pledge not to jack up the price of Blu-ray have prevented us from offering better pricing on DVD when the economics permitted it? We decided it shouldn’t, but some Blu-ray customers were understandably distressed when they saw the two formats priced differently. What do you think?

I am OK with this actually..

On an anecdotal note, is this the sign of slowly switching over completely to the new HD format for them, even if it is still many years to come? They are now releasing Blu Rays for every new release, finally catching up their DVD schedule. I realize this is purely up to the market and financial decisions.

[zitherstrings]

Little bit of disingenuous false modesty on their part. No need to be coyly self righteous.

[swo17]

Criterion lowers their prices -> people complain.
Criterion attempts to explain why they lowered their prices -> people complain.
Running a company must be fun!

[Brian C]

Little bit of disingenuous false modesty on their part. No need to be coyly self righteous.

Do I know what this means? No, I do not know what this means.

[aox]

Criterion lowers their prices -> people complain.
Criterion attempts to explain why they lowered their prices -> people complain.
Running a company must be fun!

I don't like your post and how it attempts to outline the situation.

[Murdoch]

Little bit of disingenuous false modesty on their part. No need to be coyly self righteous.

Do I know what this means? No, I do not know what this means.

He thinks their explanation thinks it's better than him.

[perkizitore]

If they grow their customer base by lowering DVD prices so they can use the revenue to release everything in HD we can't complain, can we?

[aox]

we can't complain, can we?

you'd think that, but here we are.

[Cinephrenic]

I would make DVD much more expensive than HD, just to get people to switch and for making them bother to still release in DVD format. I'm just so evil.

[ianungstad]

For those wishing that Criterion will phase out dvd in the near future, I hope you realize that there still could be many titles Criterion are sitting on that they only have dvd rights for. I don't see any transition happening until that backlog's been cleared out.

[Flike]

Yeah, I don't appreciate that narrow minded mentality which seems to be a huge problem on the FB page. I like my War Trilogy and Costa sets, thank you.

[domino harvey]

YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM!!!!!

[matrixschmatrix]

So the Criterion website is saying the price point on the Blob is $30, and the Barnes and Noble site says it's $40- which is what I remember it being. Has that happened before?

[LongTime FirstTime]

So the Criterion website is saying the price point on the Blob is $30, and the Barnes and Noble site says it's $40- which is what I remember it being. Has that happened before?

I've seen discrepencies like that in the past at B&N. One in my town had Green For Danger and Tanner 88 both priced at $40 for a while. Wings of Desire was $50 for a while too locally.

[Matt]

But the Criterion site is the only place where it's $30.