the DVD business, or, the fragmentation of the video retail path

[Arnold Winkelried]

Two puzzling items from the past week in the life of Arnold Winkelried:

a) An e-mail from NetFlix (http://www.netflix.com) telling me "We have removed the movie Scarface from your rental queue. Sometimes we find ourselves unable to offer movies for rental";

b) At Barnes and Nobel, early Xmas shopping, I ask if they sell the DVD "Who framed Roger Rabbit?" The salesclerk answers "No we don't, and due to 'contractual arrangements' (n.b. : Arnold's terminology), we are unable to order it."

Are studios starting to restrict who can/cannot rent/sell their product?

[Eutychus]

Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried
b) At Barnes and Nobel, early Xmas shopping, I ask if they sell the DVD "Who framed Roger Rabbit?" The salesclerk answers "No we don't, and due to 'contractual arrangements' (n.b. : Arnold's terminology), we are unable to order it."

I'm not sure about "contractual obligations." It might have been the salesperson misquoting what they were told. But since a two-disc deluxe version of Roger Rabbit is coming out sometime next year, it's entirely possible that the first version has been withdrawn pending release of the new version.

[Zsofia]

And Scarface is definately out of print. We get asked about it six or seven times a day at Suncoast. We can tell when it's about to happen and flinch like somebody threw something at us.

[Arnold Winkelried]

So you two are trying to dismantle my worldwide conspiracy theory by explaining it away as two unrelated incidents? Nice try.

[Arnold Winkelried]

On the other hand, I see at amazon.com:
a) Several entries for Scarface, all saying "out of stock"
b) Two entries for "Roger Rabbit", one saying "out of stock" and another saying "will be released in March 2003"

[StGermain]

Ebay has the Scarface and Roger Rabbit DVDs for sale, if you want to go that route.

StG

[Mr2001]

My VHS copy of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" won't play in my VCR. As soon as I push it in, it comes right back out. This doesn't happen with any other tape, and the same tape works in other VCRs.

Could it be that Panasonic and the DVD Cabal planted a microchip inside the tape to keep it from playing on my VCR, so I have to buy the new deluxe edition DVD?

Perhaps I've already said too much. Time to wrap the VCR in tinfoil.

[Arnold Winkelried]

Thanks StGermain I'll take a look over there.
Mr2001 - if you have any more stories like that please let me know so I can add them to my planned website 'The Roger Rabbit / Scarface conspiracy'

[SisterCoyote]

Arnold -

Disney often puts videos/DVDs "on moratorium." (Meaning; nobody sells, probably nobody rents.)

If companies want to do business with Disney then they follow their rules.

:shrug: Not really a conspiracy, I don't think.

[World Eater]

Maybe to many people were trying to freeze frame Jessica Rabbit, so they are protecting us from ourselves.

Thats my take on it.

[XJETGIRLX]

>Are studios starting to restrict who can/cannot rent/sell their product?

I used to manage a video store, and while we were not necessarily contractually bound against renting/selling products, we were sometimes made to hold to a financially disadvantageous situation, and when contract renewal came up, we declined.
For that reason alone my particular store carried no Warner Bros. tapes on VHS -- only DVD. Warner Bros. and Buena Vista seem to be the most tightfisted when it comes to rental aggreements and revenue sharing.
We had 40 + copies of Ocean's Eleven that we bought around $28 a pop, compared to around $70 each for the VHS w/rental agreement.

[ElwoodCuse]

XjetGirl--are you referring to "priced for rental" tapes? It's long been a fact of the movie industry that when films first come out on VHS, they cost something ridiculous like $70 to $100 per tape since only rental stores buy them. They later come out for consumers at the usual $10 to $15, although some movies come out right away at normal prices. Of course, DVDs are never "priced for rental".

And why is Scarface out of print on DVD? It seems like a popular enough movie to warrant a release. It's even somewhat of an in-joke on MTV's Cribs, I'm told--every rap guy always has to have a copy of Scarface on DVD.

[XJETGIRLX]

>XjetGirl--are you referring to "priced for rental" tapes?

Yes and no. For the most part, VHS tapes are only available for ridiculous costs at streetdate, and prices are scaled back later for general retail sale, however, sometimes contracts between rental stores/distributors/movie studios require the video store to pay other fees/charges in the guise of 'rental arrangements', 'profit sharing', etc.
Video stores often pay above and beyond retail price especially for new releases just for the ability of being able to rent them to the public for a fee.