# Movie DVD releases earlier?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-dvd-releases-earlier/211728>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 6, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-dvd-releases-earlier/211728 "2003-11-06T17:26:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hauss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hauss)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-dvd-releases-earlier/211728/1 "2003-11-06T17:26:58Z")

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Is it just me, or are movies going from the theater to DVD more quickly lately? What determines this time lag?

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**Author:** ![NoGoodNamesLeft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8797f3/32.png) [@NoGoodNamesLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoGoodNamesLeft)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-dvd-releases-earlier/211728/2 "2003-11-06T17:33:34Z")

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$

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**Author:** ![hauss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hauss)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-dvd-releases-earlier/211728/3 "2003-11-06T18:40:43Z")

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Don’t better movies have a longer lag than duds? If so, why?

Good answer **nogoodnamesleft**. But, how does that generate more money? Because the money comes earlier, or because more people will rent the movie if it is freshly in their minds?

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**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-dvd-releases-earlier/211728/4 "2003-11-06T23:12:40Z")

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I would guess that the DVD release comes when no more money is being generated from theaters. So better movies stay in theaters longer, and thus take longer to reach the zero income point at the theater, at which time they are released on DVD to make more money.

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-dvd-releases-earlier/211728/5 "2003-11-07T00:35:41Z")

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Factors involved include:  
[ul]  
[li]Time to assemble things and get rights to some extras content.[/li][li]International release schedules[/li][li]If it’s still in theatres locally[/li][li]Distributor’s individual policies[/li][li]Video Rental policies[/li][li]Seasonal windows[/li][li]And also “Hmm, that seems about a good length of time” arbitrary judgements[/li][/ul]

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-dvd-releases-earlier/211728/6 "2003-11-07T00:55:10Z")

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Movies used to go to pay TV and cable first. Now they don’t.

It’s money for sure.

Finding Nemo’s first day of release on DVD…8 million copies sold…150 million dollars.

In one day.