Comments on: First-Sale Doctrine: What it Means, Why it Matters

By: Entertainment Law News for 11.18.09 « FIU SELS

Entertainment Law News for 11.18.09 « FIU SELS — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:55:50 +0000

[...] for a period of time after release. In response, Redbox filed an antitrust lawsuit and has recently tried to exploit the “first sale doctrine” by purchasing DVDs at full retail prices. The NY Times reports that Fox has spied on 1,105 Redbox [...]

By: Analyst: Redbox Improving Aquisition Process for Delayed Titles | Inside Redbox

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:13:15 +0000

[...] of the new release delays imposed on it by three major studios, Redbox has had to become creative to obtain desirable titles the first weeks they are out. Several weeks ago, financial services firm [...]

By: T

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:10:07 +0000

Agreed ! Just seems to me that if they actually spent 1 day actually thinking they could come up with a model/window that makes everyone $$$$. All that dough and no logic…. what a shame!!

By: 12345678

12345678 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:54:25 +0000

I am right there with you T….same industry…same time span.

I can even remember…I think…it was I think Warner Brothers and the movie Conspiracy Theory with Julia Roberts. Was it much before that? They started with rev share before that but then offered the buy some at full , get extras for cheaper or free….

We all knew it was doom but had no choice but to try and keep up and buy more copies. It really is amazing how people in high places ger so much reverence but when you really look close, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time to get these exec jobs…so silly.

By: Joe Schmuck

Joe Schmuck — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:10:41 +0000

Very well said, T.

By: Michele Whiting

Michele Whiting — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:44:08 +0000

Problem is is that if all the studios would do it – which would be required for it to work,it would be collusion… They would be smarter to go the other direction drop DVD/Bluray prices down across the board to bolster their sale…would increase profits during the holiday peak, cut down all rentals which really go down during the holidays and look like they gave a crap to consumers hurting in economic downturn

By: clinty1980

clinty1980 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:52:19 +0000

Isn’t the problem according to the studios that they aren’t selling enough dvds at the $15-$20 price point? How exactly then would raising the price to $40 or delaying the rental release date help? Average Joe has only so much money and isn’t willing to pay as much for dvds anymore, not even $15-$20, plain and simple fact. Raising the price would only serve to entrench the customer to not buy the product at all. Delaying the rental release date would likely do nothing as customers would simply wait to rent the dvd. Lowering the price on new dvds to say $12-$10 across the board would be the first step in enticing the customer to buy the dvd. If you could get the movie with extras and digital copy for $12-$10 that would be very enticing, no?

By: T

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:51:30 +0000

Ok, been in the rental business for 18+ years and the model you are discussing worked very well when I started. Movies cost video stores $65 + and this created a demand for customers to rent them and because they did not come down in price for 3 months or better we had plenty of time to make a profit from them. The stuidos did great with this model because of the tremendous revenue they received from us and the sales were there on the back end for them once the prices came back down to the $20 range. This all went to crap because of the spineless stuido reps that decided to cower to BB and began rev-sharing, which was the beginning of the complete failure that they all are now experiencing. They should put some thought into going back to this and after 2 or 3 months bring the retail prices down to the $12 to $13 range for selling to the public. Non of these clowns in position at the studios have enough of a brain to see the forest thru the trees.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:02:08 +0000

That’s true that the studios could raise the price for the 1st 30 days, but that means the average joe/jane movie buyer would not buy it because they are used to buying new DVD at $15 – $20

By: clintec

clintec — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:58:04 +0000

Actually that would shoot themselves in the foot entirely!

The whole purpose of the 30-day delay is to encourage retail sales at the approximated $15 ~ $30 window. If they were to force a huge markup like DOUBLE the price… no average Joe in their right mind would spend that kinda cash if they knew in 30 days that they could get the same title at half the cost.

For that reason alone, I doubt that would be a strategy that the “big three” would even consider.