Superman Movies DVD collection. Rip off or what.

[nightwing032]

Ok. Where do I start. As anyone who is superman fan knows they re-released the Superman movies on dvd along with the Superman Returns dvd; which all good, but this where I have a problem. All they did for the other Superman movies 3 and 4 for example is put the deleted scenes in the special features part of the dvds. Why not include the deleted scenes in the movies is my question. I mean you might as well by the original release on dvd. What's the point releasing them again; unless you're going to included deleted footage that you only see as part of the movie if you see it on televsion. What a rip off. :evil:

[norrinraad]

All they did for the other Superman movies 3 and 4 for example is put the deleted scenes in the special features part of the dvds. Why not include the deleted scenes in the movies is my question. I mean you might as well by the original release on dvd. What's the point releasing them again; unless you're going to included deleted footage that you only see as part of the movie if you see it on televsion. What a rip off. :evil:

This is common practice for studios. How else would you expect them to make money? They're really no different than any corporation, in that they keep selling the same product, with slight enhancements, back to the public over and over again. People seem to forget that a film's life at the box office is really only the beginning. At one point a film would come and go from the theatres and that would be pretty much it, but that business model has been outdated since probably the '50s. Nowadays, a studio can expect to see about 55% of total international box office gross, but the films themselves continue to generate profits for years, possibly even generations.

For example, rental revenue for a large release can easily be over $50 million before the film even leaves the Top 10 rental charts, after which the average film will do an additional 60% in rental revenue outside the Top 10. Studios receive roughly 30% of this revenue, which will add upwards of another $30 million to the studio while Blockbuster, Rogers, et al take care of all operating expenses. Furthermore, the video stores have to pay the studios $60 for each rental copy, so that equals millions more in the studios' pockets. Studios also negotiate cable TV rights with networks before films are even released, with 12% of domestic gross being the norm. Which means if a movie does $200 million domestically, the cable rights equals over $20 million additional to the studio. Considering cable is only a signal, that means pure profits for studios.

Also consider DVD sales. Total international sold units for Superman Returns, for example, are estimated at between 12 and 15 million units. It costs studios on average about $1 to manufacture a disc with packaging, which they then sell wholesale to retail stores for around $10 per disc, which are then sold retail to the public for anywhere from $15 to $30 per disc. At 15 million units sold, that equals about $9 profit per disc for Warner Brothers, or total wholesale revenue of $135 million to the studio. They would have to split this amount with the film's production partner of course, but if they only had to pony up half of the production budget in the first place, the profit-per-output ratio would remain the same. And that's just the first official release. This film will be repackaged and resold to the public in various formats as long as the character still appeals to the general public, which should be long after everyone reading this is dust in their graves.

Films can also expect to see big $$$ from product revenue that relates directly to the film. This summer, all Spider-Man 3 related products (toys, lunch boxes, costumes, etc etc) will add untold millions to Sony. Yes they have separate merchandising divisions, but revenue is still revenue. And that doesn't even include partnership money. When Burger King partners with Sony to promote Spider-Man related products, the studio gets percentages from every Spider-Man combo meal sold. Add to that pay-per-view, airplane viewings, and eventual sales to basic cable and independent broadcasters over the years, and you can see how much money is being made from these big summer releases.

It may be a pain for the public to keep being sold the same repackaged products over and over again, but without the current business model, Hollywood simply couldn't survive when only rare releases make their budget back from domestic box office gross. And, I ask, what would the world be without the magic of movies?
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"On and on I've no regrets
The sun still shines, the sun still sets."

[The Xenos]

Welcome to Hollywood. Heh. Sorry if that's a bit too sarcastic, but it sounds about par for the course.

As nice as DVDs are over VHS, they also have introduced rip offs like these. They keep adding features and new versions at higher prices, but they're really not that great. Meanwhile retailers get stuck with the older version no one wants because they added like two features and hype up the new one.

I still don't know what version of Blade Runner to buy. I just bought the new Army of Darkness, but I'm sure people with older versions feel ripped off. Then agian, I think maybe mine is the second newest. Sin City, as much as I love it, was bullcrap for releasing a director's cut much after the first DVD, which I had to skip. I unfortunately never bought the Hellboy special edition. Though right now I'm trying to keep up with Animated Hellboy. So that's on the back burner.

Yeah, DVDs are awesome, but they also kinda suck.

Well, in a year or so, the companies will convince everyone that they need to rebuy all their DVDs in HD-DVD Disc or Blu Ray Disc. Ha. Are we suckers or what?

Then again, they're also working on replacement media for those. A friend did a college paper comparing the two and his conclusion was to wait for a third and better format, holographic encoded discs.