_D_ wrote:No Mom and Pop rental stores left in your area? There are still a couple in mine but with pawn shop DVDs being $1 each, the rental stores can't be doing much business. I strolled into one of the local ones after being unable to find a copy of "How to Eat Fried Worms" for the son of a friend. The rental store had it for rent at a whole $1.25 for a week! Scary! They used to charge a lot more. It won't suprise me when the place finally gives up like most of the other stores in town...
There are still....hurrrr... two different 'small chain' video rental stores with several units scattered about town, and last I looked one lone Blockbuster that hasn't closed yet.
But neither of these buy anywhere near the numbers from the vendors like Blockbuster used to. Don't forget, some of the 'giant numbers' for DVD sales used to be to fulfill Blockbuster's "we have it" promise. That could be as much as 10 MILLION units for a 'big hit tentpole' movie. That's a huge hit for Hollywood to take.
Rental stores that still do well today generally cater to the cult film market or film connoisseurs. That means stuff like Pinky Violence, silent films, Giallo, "classic" drive-thru "b" movies, etc,. Public libraries and other more cheaper alternatives have eaten into the mainstream rental sales market. Blockbusters with its $5.00 rental fees for a movie like the Avengers is just not a great way to watch a mainstream movie today.
I still think by and large DVD sales dominate the media viewing market. It's not what it used to be, but you have to understand how HUGE DVD was at the peak of its market dominance. So there was a lot of DVD overproduction. Now that the DVD market has gone down to more like 60-70% of the market share--which is still the majority--people have to adjust. And they have to now find a way to get rid of excess copies from the glory years.
Online watching is eating into sales, but it's probably not as big a chunk as many might think. You look at all the free anime readily available on Youtube LEGALLY from Funimation and Nozomi, and you see that there are many, many, anime episodes which have tallied less than 1000 views at most. The ones that do go into the tens of thousands of views are first or second episodes. Which seems to indicate that people are sampling shows and not consuming them entirely online. You certainly cannot make a profit off a show if only 1000 people are buying it, and I'm quite sure even the crappier selling anime on DVD are still in the low tens of thousands today. So that's the difference in expectations we're talking about here between the market for DVDs and the market for online viewers. And companies know this, that's why they're offering so many shows for free--they know people only mostly sample online, not watch entire shows online.
Still, D is right in that DVD sales will only continue to drop. There will probably still be a market for physical media for many, many, years yet, but companies would have to adjust the supply and demand as the market wills accordingly.
Discotek confirmed on Facebook that they're using the Japanese masters for the re-release of Tekkaman Blade 2, so the picture might be a little better than the old Urban Vision release.
usamimi wrote:Discotek confirmed on Facebook that they're using the Japanese masters for the re-release of Tekkaman Blade 2, so the picture might be a little better than the old Urban Vision release.
usamimi wrote:Discotek confirmed on Facebook that they're using the Japanese masters for the re-release of Tekkaman Blade 2, so the picture might be a little better than the old Urban Vision release.
See, Steve? Patience is a virtue.
(Although someone might want to ask them about the episode 0 preview)
usamimi wrote:Discotek confirmed on Facebook that they're using the Japanese masters for the re-release of Tekkaman Blade 2, so the picture might be a little better than the old Urban Vision release.
See, Steve? Patience is a virtue.
(Although someone might want to ask them about the episode 0 preview)
Well, I have boundless patience as long as there's SOME communication. That's what gets me. It's like what happened to Funimation and Yamato:Resurrection?
I'd likely double dip on Tekkaman Blade II just because I'm stupid. I'd sure like that Episode Zero on there, however.
I've loaned too much crap out that I'll never get back. That Tekkaman Blade II Episode Zero is one of them.
OH MAN....Discotek's going to be releasing "Ringing Bell".
Seriously, I've been hoping they would, since they seem to be releasing all the Sanrio movies very slowly, but WOW. Talk about a movie I never thought would get re-released!
One of my favorite guilty pleasure anime, Fatal Fury The Motion Picture, has been picked up by Discotek. They are trying to be the first company to do an anamorphic widescreen release of this film as Japan has never gotten an anamorphic DVD release either. Let's hope they're successful; they managed to do it with Locke the Superman after all.
Yes! I saw that this morning and totally forgot to post anything here, lol. XD I'm hoping they'll be successful, that would be awesome. I was never a HUGE fan of the movie, but it does hold a lot of nostalgic 90s vibes, so I'd totally consider getting it.
Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is one of my favorite anime movies of all time. So I was very excited to hear of a new anamorphic release. I mean, I get together with friends almost yearly to watch, quote, and sing the ending theme with. It's become a tradition amongst my friends.
