Disney Imposes 28-Day Embargo on All Physical Rentals
Posted June 8, 2012 04:51 AM by Webmaster
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has imposed a 28-day embargo on select new disc releases to rental kiosks, video stores and Netflix. The first release affected by the embargo was Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Gary Rydstrom's The Secret World of Arrietty.
John Carter, which was released on June 5th, will not be available at Redbox until June 12th - as the kiosk vendor will be securing copies through alternative means.
Early reports indicate that Blockbuster Express will not have John Carter available to rent until July 3rd.
IMHO people who really wont care will just wait until it shows up at whatever rental place you get your movies from.. in other words it's not really effecting much at all on both parties.
Won't affect my buying/rental habbits one bit. If there's a title I was already planning to buy I will buy. If there's a title I was only planning to rent I will still rent just 28 days later. And if by chance there's a title I'm on the fence about and really want to see then I'll pick up a used copy on Ebay or Marketplace for the cheap then keep or sell based on my like/dislike of the title.
If studios want us to whip out our wallets on day one the answer is simple; MAKE GOOD MOVIES!!
Embargoes on rentals and 3D gimmicks will not replace the attraction of a genuinely good movie. Plain and simple.
Here's something Disney didn't take into consideration... I will no longer purchase their retail discs new, ever. I will only buy second-hand, thus creating no added demand for their products. As well, they won't see a single dime of my money. Great going, Disney!
Virtually every new release I rent first. So if this is how they want to do it, then this is what they get. Greedy buggers.
Well said Rainman. They are trying to milk money out of every release using a variety of schemes, but at the end of the day, if the product is good, people will be more inclined to purchase.
Some may call it greed, but I say it is a brilliant business move by Disney. What is the big deal if you want to rent the movie from RedBox or Blockbuster just wait a little longer, those who want to own it on release day get it earlier. Disney didn't become the giant empire it has become by accident I am sure they know more than us what they are doing!
I wonder if this is why some guy bought 18 copies of the blu-ray/DVD combo of John Carter on release day. I suspect he works for redbox. Left us with only 7 on hand, but hey. At least someone bought them!
These embargoes affect the independent video stores as well. I know that there aren't many of them left, but where I live there are still a few and unless they are able to find alternate means of purchasing WB and Disney titles, their business image suffers. Most people don't understand the whole delay thing and who's behind it, so they blame the video store for not having what they want.
I don't understand why people blind buy titles. Why buy it if it potentially sucks? It's just money wasted. I'd rather rent it. If I really like it, then I'll buy it.
Oh, they're only delaying -physical- rentals, that's a relief--
Over on Vudu.com and Playstation Store, Disney's practically ELIMINATED virtual rentals, making them all Sale-Only at $29.99...Except at Vudu, where the price has just been jacked up to $34.99. (Especially for the 3-D titles.)
Guess they're, um, worried about selling the disks.
"I don't understand why people blind buy titles. Why buy it if it potentially sucks? It's just money wasted. I'd rather rent it. If I really like it, then I'll buy it"
See, I feel exactly the opposite way. The money you use renting a title is wasted when you end up buying it anyway. There are no blind buys nowadays. With the amount of previews, reviews, and info that are readily available, one can easily tell if a movie is gonna suck.
I don't know about the Blockbuster kiosk but I received JOHN CARTER in the mail yesterday through the Blockbuster mailing service.. (That said, anyone that hasn't seen the movie yet isn't missing anything by waiting another 28 days to watch it)
@Ray O. Blu: a few months ago I would have a agreed with you, however i felt "Your Highness" would be a good movie so i blind bought it only to realize that it was so full of low-brow pervy jokes that it just wan't enjoyable so i basically wasted $20 (maybe a little less cuz i eventually sold it to a used books/movies store)
As for the topic at hand, this doesn't affect anything. I rarely buy anything on release day anymore and even rarer from a retail store. I usually go for the used copies at ebay or hastings that have money-back guarentees if the disc doesn't work and these are usually at over 1/2 the price of the major retailers. So sorry, Disney, but your scheme won't work.
loqstar04, with the terrible reviews why would you assume Your Highness would be a good blind buy? The reviews could tell you it was low-brow humor. Hell, the trailer would have told you that .
My video store got both Arrietty and John Carter. I don't care about seeing either of them though.
This is why Streamflix wouldn't ship me "John Carter" on Monday or Tuesday. It was in my Q, showing "available." It wouldn't kick into my at-home Q...wouldn't ship. That never happens with Streamflix (it does with BBV by mail). The guy on the phone at customer service said it was probably just taking a bit to show up as "short wait" or whatever. Well, now I have 2 open spots in my at-home Q, and it still isn't shipping (and is still showing as "available"). Apparently it's going to kick down to the bottom of my Q and show a July release date soon.
BTW, THIS BLOWS! This (and all of Streamflix's other lame decisions and price raises) is why I boycotted them for 6 months. I went back because I'm a new release freak. Unfortunately, you can't count on BBV to have them all on Blu in-store, and you def can't count on BBV by mail to ship them to you (they're awful that way). So I have both services and get almost all new releases, but it costs more and is a pain in the ashtabula. It's like a full-time job trying to plan around what I'll get and from where.
as Spider Blu says, they don't want piracy but they make it so you can't rent things right away.. all that's going to do is increase the number of illegal downloads
In my opinion, this is evidence that discs aren't going away like Netflix and other streaming companies claim. The studios make too much money of of selling discs, particularly Disney, which sells tons to kids. Disney's move points to the importance of disc sales vs. streaming.
And as a few others have pointed out, there isn't a movie around that I have to see today. If I wanted to see it that badly, I would have gone to the theater. I have nearly 500 titles on my Netflix list, so I've got plenty to keep me busy for years to come.
What I haven't figured out is why don't the individual studios start up their own streaming business? They don't have to license anything, so other than servers and infrastructure, the cost should be low. If porn companies have the money for infrastructure, I can't imagine the movie studios don't.
I have no rush to see (new) movies these days, I still have 15-20 Blu-rays I haven't watched, not counting 100s of Criterion BDs yet on my to-do list. Renting in Sweden is not really an option for me, my player is reg A. Waiting another 28 days for a release, be it rental or retail, does not affect me.
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