Most discount stores now have DVD sections priced between $5-10. There were over 1100 DVDs released last year with a list price under $10:
* Most Wal-Mart stores are now selling older films for as little as $5.88. The selection at one Oceanside, Calif., store included such movies as Hush, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Lange; Made in America, with Whoopi Goldberg; and Desperate Measures, with Michael Keaton.
* Target Stores just rolled out racks of $5.99 DVDs, including Grand Canyon and Paradise Road with Glenn Close.
* Best Buy has converted half its remaining videocassette section to DVDs priced at $7.99 or less, with Good Morning, Vietnam for $7.99 and Debra Winger in Forget Paris for $6.99.
''We're seeing 10 years of VHS history compressed into one,'' says analyst Tom Adams of Adams Media Research in Carmel Valley, Calif., noting it was the late '90s before VHS prices took a similar fall.
John Quinn, executive vice president at Warner Home Video, says the real trigger is demand by retailers and consumers. The big chains typically sell new releases at or below cost, ''so the margins on these low-priced DVDs tend to be higher,'' he says. And consumers are responding. ''Even a movie that's not an Academy Award winner will sell at the right price.'' [USA Today]
Article comments
1 - Bill Sherman
Actually, there has been some limited cheapie CD releasing lately: usually for groups that are largely unfamiliar to the U.S. public. Picked up a copy of the new AFI disc last week for six-something, and yesterday I saw the D-7 disc going for a comparable price at Wal-Mart.
My most recent cheap DVD purchase? Peewee's Big Adventure, which I got for $6.00 at a Circuit City.
2 - Eric Olsen
Good news on the CDs Bill - we picked up Peewee for $5 at Wal-Mart, neener neener.
3 - Rob
It is probably naive to hope, but maybe the movie industry has realized (or it is desperate enough to try) that in can make up in volume sales what it loses in price per unit. At $15+ per DVD, I will rarely make a purchase, but a decent, if not great movie, for $10-, I might just buy 2 DVD's.
Maybe some genius at the RIAA will suggest this to the CD sales people. I buy a lot of used CD's if they are less than $5. Now I burn 'em to a compilation disc and re-sell them, but I would do that to a new release, if it was quality work at a reasonable price. I won't hold my breath.
4 - Bill Sherman
Quick correction: the second disc I saw (and bought) was by D4 not D-7.