CHEAP DVD’s

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]

The obvious question is why aren’t we seeing new CDs being sold in the $5 range? No wonder CDs appear to be a very poor value compared to DVDs.