criterionforum.org

Pete wrote:Feel free to move and/or lock this topic if it's been covered already (I tried five different searches and came up with nothing).

Anyone have any idea what price Criterion sells its discs to retailers for?

I've heard mixed things about the wholesale price of regular DVDs (everything from $4.00 to $15.00 for mainstream titles) -- but nothing concrete about Criterion.

One e-tailer employee told me it was 67% of the recommended retail price -- but that would mean DVD Planet sell Criterions for a 2% loss...and that just doesn't make any kind of good business sense.

isn't list price double the wholesale price?* it is in my line of business.

*edit-the price from the company (criterion/hve) to wholesalers.

The wholesale price to retailers (at least mine) is around the price you pay for Criterions online. I still don't get how online retailers are able to sell at the prices they do, perhaps a little profit margin or a large quantities of merchandise.

Pete wrote:One e-tailer employee told me it was 67% of the recommended retail price -- but that would mean DVD Planet sell Criterions for a 2% loss...and that just doesn't make any kind of good business sense.

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if they sell them at a loss, or more likely at wholesale (ie. they break even and make no profit on Criterion discs). They use Criterions as a loss leader to attract business. People come for the criterions and they stay for other items.

They cost around $19.10, and $25.50 . Most box sets are around $50, to $70 . There is hardly any profit from most any DVDs to retailers.

Look at Dawn of the Dead Ultimate Edition. Deep Discount Dvd is selling it for $29.99, which is just insane. And with free shipping, there's no reason to get another dvd, so they really loose here....

Now that the Jimmy Crack Corn boxes are in such high demand I started wondering how much DVD's Criterion releases per pressing. I would have guessed about 2000, but the huge demand seems to indicate a smaller number. Does anyone have any idea?

My guess would be:

Obscure titles: 2-3,000
Regular titles: 3-10,000
Popular titles: 10,000 and up

I think everyone knows what movies goes into each category - in general that is!

I'm sure that DVDPlanet gets a bulk discount much like the VA does for Prescription Drugs. Don't forget too, that Dvdplanet has a store in California. I'm sure they are pretty busy considering that all they sell is dvds and at a good price.

It's always been my understanding that Future Shop (and places like it) get discounts when they buy a certain amount. "The more you buy the less you pay for each" kind of thing. I know they did stuff like this for video rental stores in the VHS days, so I'd assume they might do the same for retailers. My Running Man VHS tape is a screener and I get a nice ad at the beginning telling me if I buy 4 copies of The Running Man for $90 each, I can get a copy of Red Dawn with Patrick Swayze for free!!! Score!!!

future shop (and any canadian chain) is supplied by the canadian distributor though, and any discounts would be from them (just to be picky).

I have a secret internal invoice from Borders corporate that lists the prices paid for Criterion dvds --

lower tier MSRP ($30) - $17.97 / Unit (Ex: Obscure Object...)

higher tier MSRP ($40) - $23.97 / Unit (Ex: Life of Brian)

There was only boxed set listed on the invoice, which was Adventures of Antoine Doinel set for $59.97 / Unit.

This comes out to a 40% relief from MSRP.

Their store prices vary but are close to MSRP, giving them a hefty margin for each Criterion sold (excluding promotions, coupons).

That's pretty standard (from my Tower Records days). To see it in perspective, you have to factor in the fact that (a) all of the retailer's costs are earned from that 40% markup (I think almost all CDs and DVDs see a 35-45% markup from wholesale to MSRP) and (b) a very large percentage of a retailer's sales are from on-sale items, many of which are loss leaders. The more interesting question, I think, is how much the distributor marks up the product--i.e., how much revenue does Criterion see from each release. I bet they mark it up quite a bit, even though their costs are probably lower than the retailers'.

I wonder if they've decided to drop their prices on some upcoming releases. [The Browning Version] and Hoop Dreams both come with comentaries(which are typically 39.95) but they're 29.95. Cool with me.

It's not completely unprecedented. Chasing Amy, Beastie Boys Anthology, Life Aquatic, and Walkabout are other titles that come to mind that are below the $39 pricepoint. I would guess that a major factor is that with discs like Chasing Amy, Life Aquatic, or Hoop Dreams, there's a major studio helping foot the bill for the disc.

Not precisely. The price points for Chasing Amy and the Wes Anderson films were set by Disney who retains distribution rights for the discs. The Beastie Boys disc is an anomaly due to its content and no one really knows why Walkabout, one of the earliest Criterion DVDs, was $29.95.

So, no, not completely unprecedented, but a noteworthy development.

Add Crazed Fruit to this list, unless it's an error (likely).

Also, all four June releases are $29.95.

Not to go too off-topic, but while we're on the subject of price points, does anyone have a definitive reason for the curious $49.95 pricing of Spartacus? Is it simply because they had to cover licensing costs? It doesn't seem like there's a precedence for Criterion to pay significant amounts of money to get there hands on a film, unless they really wanted a Kubrick in the collection.

denti alligator wrote: Also, all four June releases are $29.95.

I think this may betoken a significant shift, as all of these low-tier releases seem to have pretty generous extras. Even Balthasar, though commentary-less and not exactly stacked, looks like a stronger package than Diary of a Country Priest.

Let's not forget it could just be an error on the website. But: if the $29.95 MSRPs on all 4 June releases are actually correct, then it looks like Criterion might finally be coming to terms with the state of the DVD market in America. I sure hope so. Nothing could thrill me more than to see Criterion edge away from that $39.95 sticker, which I'm sure is no longer a fiscally sound price point on most Criterion discs. I haven't bought an upper-tier Criterion yet this year, despite adoring some of the films -- CC just can't compete anymore (for my money) with cheaper lines that have comparable production values.

Maybe they're doing price drops because they are finally making headway into the markets. I'm sure many more folks are buying Criterion than were last year.

Poncho Punch wrote:Not to go too off-topic, but while we're on the subject of price points, does anyone have a definitive reason for the curious $49.95 pricing of Spartacus? Is it simply because they had to cover licensing costs? It doesn't seem like there's a precedence for Criterion to pay significant amounts of money to get there hands on a film, unless they really wanted a Kubrick in the collection.

If I recall correctly, although it took awhile in production, Spartacus was one of the earliest-announced two disc sets. Carnival of Souls is the only earlier 2-disc that comes to mind. I always figured that CC initially thought that they'd have a 3-tiered price structure, with two-disc sets at the $49 mark. (Their LD pricing was similar, $49 for 1 disc, $99 for 2, $124 for 3.) I may be wrong here, but I think that The Rock was also announced at $49 as well, although it eventually listed for $39.

For some reason, they must have decided that the $49 wasn't optimal pricing for other 2-disc'ers, especially once the 2-disc set became as common as single discs.

I wonder if this lower pricing is limited only to single disc releases with commentary...could future, lighter two disc sets (something like La Strada or Children of Paradise) also share a low retail value?

I would think that two-disc Criterion releases, almost across the board, justify the $39.95 price tag. And not to piss on this wonderful development, but how awesome would it be for Criterion to enact a price drop on all of their previous one-disc $39.95 releases? How many titles would that affect?

Henry V
Salesman
Autumn Sonata
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Lady Eve
A Night to Remember
Red Beard
3 Women
Sullivan's Travels
Lord of the Flies
Brief Encounter
Jubilee
I Know Where I'm Going!
All That Heaven Allows
Tokyo Olympiad
My Man Godfrey
Black Narcissus
Schizopolis
Trouble In Paradise
Grey Gardens
Indiscretion of an American Wife / Terminal Station
Fiend Without a Face
Nights of Cabiria
Haxan
Burden of Dreams (it's not even out yet!)
Night and the City
Amarcord
The Harder They Come
Stray Dog
My Life as a Dog
The Seventh Seal
Throne of Blood
For All Mankind
Secret Honor
High and Low
The Ruling Class
Thieves' Highway
Charade
Rushmore
Wild Strawberries
Early Summer
Great Expectations
Casque d'or
Billy Liar
The Element of Crime
Peeping Tom
Gimme Shelter
Oliver Twist
The Blob
Grand Illusion
Diary of a Country Priest
George Washington
Mona Lisa
Hiroshima Mon Amour
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Time Bandits
The Third Man
The Red Shoes
Hearts and Minds
The 39 Steps
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Seven Samurai (at least until the re-release)
Rashomon
The Lady Vanishes


yeah, it's never gonna happen.

One of the biggest CC mysteries to me, has always been Hamlet's $39.95 price-tag. Why was it priced so high? CC really ought to drop the prices of all those early bare bones discs if they don't intend to remaster them as 2-disc SEs. I can't tell you how many times I have almost bought The Wages of Fear but chickened-out at the last, pondering a future 2-disc SE*. Of all the film in the collection, I think this and Clouzot's Les Diabolique scream out the loudest. There are about 50 critics/scholars out there who could talk for days about both flms.

It would be great if the $39.95 became rarer or obsolete, but I'll believe it when I see it. It isn't always justified, if you ask me. But it never makes me hesitate when it is of a film I desperately want.


* I actually mailed JM about a possible 4-disc boxed set
(2x double keepcases) of Wages and Friedkin's, Sorcerer and
he said he'd pass the info on to the Acquisitions Dept.
This may sound like sacrilige to some, but I love Sorcerer as much as Wages and
both films had fascinating productions and are mighty 'lessons in filmmaking'.

Gordon McMurphy wrote:One of the biggest CC mysteries to me, has always been Hamlet's $39.95 price-tag. Why was it priced so high?

:-k It's priced $29.95 according to the home-page here.