Tron (or how I learned I'll never understand retail pricing structure)

[Herschel]

My S.O. really liked the original Tron and wanted to see Tron: Legacy in the theater but we never made it there. I thought 'Hey, I'll buy it for her for Christmas' as we have a nice enough home theater system. It's not on the top-50 video rental list and it got really harsh reviews. I would like to get the set with the original too as I've never seen it. It should be pretty reasonable, right?

WTF?!?!?! The only set with both is the 5-disc w/ the 3D (which we don't need), Blu Ray, Blue Ray Original, DVD and Digital Copy which is cheapest at over $50 US and I haven't seen any decent deals on it for Black Friday/Cyber Monday outside an Amazon "Lightning Deal" that still wasn't a good price.

Buying the two-dosc Blue Ray/DVD combo for Legacy and the Blu Ray of the original separately would run over $50 US also.

Meanwhile, newer/more highly-rated movies are cheaper and/or have better deals. I picked up Green Lantern Blu Ray/DVD combo for $10 as was X-Men: First Class, etc. I just don't understand it.

 

[Deset Gled]

Are you interested in a breakdown of the reasons behind this, or are you just venting?

 

[Herschel]

More or less just venting, but I am a bit confused by it. It's one of the first 3D movies on video, etc. but still, I just find it rather odd. Obviously outlets consider it not hot enough for a loss leader on that angle either.

 

[Dire Bare]

While Legacy didn't exactly light up the box office, the original TRON is a classic. Also, Disney has always priced TRON high, I remember similar thoughts as yours when looking for TRON on DVD years before Legacy was released.

And if they had a cheap single disc version of Legacy, you'd be less likely to spring for the uber box set.

 

[Thanee]

Dunno, why there is no Region Code 1 version of this (if that is the case), but in Region Code 2, there is a pretty normal set for both movies (example from Amazon UK).

[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tron-Legacy-Blu-ray-Michael-Sheen/dp/B004IEBRSI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322648340&sr=8-3]Tron/Tron Legacy [Blu-ray]: Amazon.co.uk: Michael Sheen, Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund, John Hurt, Joseph Kosinski: Film & TV[/ame]

Bye
Thanee

 

[Herschel]

That's $18.79 US and I'd be all over that.

 

[Deset Gled]

Well, did you buy the $50 set because you couldn't get the cheaper one? If so, you are the perfect reason why this is done. If you didn't buy the $50 set, and decided to wait until another version came out, or bought a different DVD, then you are an example of the way this type of marketing can fail.

In general, Disney has been very big on using the "limited availability" tactic. In their big-name movie collection, they only release movies every few years before they go "back in the vault" and you have to wait to get them. This limits their overall number of DVDs sold, but maximizes the profit because they never have to discount the sales (Econ 101: they intentionally limit supply to maximize demand and profit). TRON is no exception. You may not have noticed it, but they were actually forward thinking enough to let the original TRON go out of print on DVD so that demand for it was at an all time high when TRON Legacy came out.

This practice doesn't work well at all with the other two movies you mentioned: Green Lantern and X Men. Because the superhero movie genre has been completely saturated in the last few years, it's pretty much a given that if you can't find one specific superhero move, you have a handful of others to pick from (all of which are sold at low profit because of the high competition). A lack of DVD sales would actually result in a loss of interest in that particular superhero (compared to others that are readily available), and lower the value of the entire franchise.

On the one hand, you could get angry at Disney for making you buy something at a higher price than you normally would. But on the other hand, you should also consider how well their library is managed as part of their overall business plan. The other side of the coin is MGM, which currently faces a huge problem of having no liquid assets; they have a huge movie library valued at billions of dollars, but no way to use it to fund their current projects. If MGM had been holding back some of their most popular (or most cult-ish) movies, they could do major re-releases like Disney and generate much needed revenue. But because so many of their movies are readily available, they are already sold for low cost and high volume. And the instant that volume decreases, they're frantically treading water.

Also, it's worth noting the electronics manufacturers have been pulling every trick they can to sell 3D TVs because the sales on them are drastically below the volume they wanted. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that they are working with distributors to get as many copies of 3D movies (placed in bundles) into the market to generate interest in the TVs. The TRON movies would be a great place to start that.

And of course, the above is a gross simplification of economics and business practices. But I think there's at least a decent chunk of truth in it.

 

[Herschel]

That was also my surprise as I haven't seen the TRON bundle with 3D TV ads. The original I can kind of understand being in the Disney Rotation Scheme but the new one? Not so much. I did not pay the $50+ price for it as it's not worth it. There are ends I have no intention of going to for entertainment.

The other is Justin Bieber.