Warner Bros will stop selling Harry Potter DVDs and Blurays

[number8]

Woah. I wonder if this is going to be a trend. Starting in December, WB will stop making and shipping all Harry Potter DVDs and Blu-rays and let stock run out at shops. The idea is to mimic what Disney has been doing with their animated classics, by releasing special editions only available in a limited window, in order to make them seem more exclusive and rare, therefore more valuable to own.


Warner Bros has decided to give Harry Potter the same treatment. They are planning to limit supply of Potter DVDs and Blu-rays in order to maintain their financial and cultural value, and it will be interesting to see whether or not the strategy works. After all, Potter has flooded the DVD market for many years, so lots of products must be floating around. If they are successful, then it won't be just be the officially sanctioned releases that increase in value – Potter DVDs clogging up bookshelves across the country may find themselves being dusted off and put on eBay at significant mark-ups by canny sellers. Alternatively, the strategy could easily fail, simply because most Potter fans have already completed their collection.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/oct/26/harry-potter-vanishing-dvds?newsfeed=true

[Dead & Messed Up]

Warner Bros Chief of Marketing:

http://www.thecartoonpictures.com/data/media/24/eric-cartmanland.jpg

[bac0n]

LAME

[Ivan Drago]

Eh, one buy of the Blu-ray collection coming out this year will satisfy me.

[MadMan]

Considering that I'm not a huge fan of these movies, I don't give a shit. Now if this was the case with, say, LOTRs, I'd be angry.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Yeah I don't give a shit about Harry Potter either, but is this actually an effective economic tactic? I remember not being able to buy a couple of the Disney classics that I wanted to get for others at Christmas, and hearing the same thing from quite a few others, so I don't think they're making as much money as they'd like to believe (or more accurately, they are closing their shop earlier than the customers would want).

[Spun Lepton]

This couldn't possibly backfire.

[number8]

Yeah I don't give a shit about Harry Potter either, but is this actually an effective economic tactic? I remember not being able to buy a couple of the Disney classics that I wanted to get for others at Christmas, and hearing the same thing from quite a few others, so I don't think they're making as much money as they'd like to believe (or more accurately, they are closing their shop earlier than the customers would want).

I dunno, Disney keeps doing it, so I think they must think it's effective. The fact that you couldn't buy them when you wanted to is the point. When they do release it "from the vaults" and is available, they supposedly sell like methcakes because nobody wants to miss out and not be able to buy them again for a few years. I guess the quantity they sell in that window is greater or at least comparable to the amount they sell when they print them out all year round.

[Mara]

Smart to do it in December, and advertise that, to frenzy up the holiday shoppers.

I guess it works. I wasn't feeling particularly hurried to grab #7 pt 2, and now I think I'll pick it up.

[Dukefrukem]

Considering that I'm not a huge fan of these movies, I don't give a shit. Now if this was the case with, say, LOTRs, I'd be angry.

This,.

I actually blind bought that Harry Potter chest a while ago on Blu-ray. Worst money I've ever spent. I traded it on Gooxex for 2000 points = $120

[Henry Gale]

I don't understand how this seems like a good idea at the same time of studios and retailers going on about how home video sales are being increasingly hurt by illegal downloading (as well as on-demand and iTunes/Amazon-type choices, assuming these movies are getting pulled from those too).

The average person will just go: "Wow, no store has the Harry Potter movies. Whatever, I'll just download them / borrow them from a friend." Nobody's going to care when in five to ten years they're all available to buy again because they will have probably watched them in ways that WB see nothing from.

But whatever, I already have all of them on either DVD, HD-DVD (remember that thing?!) or Blu-ray. So after the last one comes out I'll get it and likely forget about all of this.

[D_Davis]

What, you expected a movie/music studio to make a good decision?

[Skitch]

So previously the play was to release a film, then rerelease it later with special features, then an extended cut later on. Now the play is to release a handful so they can validate making the one version expensive? I hate these fuckers, man.

[Ezee E]

Good business move. The Disney DVDs sell out every time.

[Winston*]

Good business move. The Disney DVDs sell out every time.

I wonder whether this will work out for them on their re-releases. Are the Harry Potter films as timeless as the Disney cartoons?

[Yxklyx]

What's to stop WB from selling the films again on January 1?

[number8]

What's to stop WB from selling the films again on January 1?

I'm confused by this question.

[Wryan]

Why do "methcakes" sound so delicious?