As we learned last week, a lot of our readers skip going to see new movies in the theater and just wait for their eventual release on Blu-ray a few months later. That being the case, do you make a point of buying new Blu-rays as soon as they come out, or do you wait for sales and bargain bins? Vote in our latest poll.
Over the years, I’ve had a strong collector’s mentality that has driven me to purchase many movie discs (from Laserdiscs to DVDs to Blu-rays) as soon as they’ve become available. However, as my stack of unwatched discs grows increasingly large, my free time to watch movies shrinks, and my disposable income budget dwindles, that sense of urgency has worn off. For a while, I’d only purchase major new releases and wait for sales on everything else. These days, I preorder SteelBooks and other limited-availability collectibles, while pretty much everything else (even major titles) goes onto an ever-growing wish list.
When do you buy Blu-rays, if at all? Have your buying habits changed over time? Vote in our poll and tell us about it in the Comments.
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Nate St. Germain
I buy movies the week they come out if I can. Mostly things that are harder to find. My favorites are usually niche/horror titles. If they’re big blockbuster releases, I’ll often wait until I find it used or something.
NJScorpio
The only new releases I tend to jump on are titles I know I like, in Steelbook or some other collectable that I may not be able to find later.
I do like to jump on Criterion titles shortly after release (often blind buys), but I wait for B&N sales or coupons.
William Henley
Major releases that I don’t already own (think Pacific Rim, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man, etc) i usually preorder and get on release date. This is also true for the Star Trek series as they have come out on Blu.
Movies that I may already own (stuff like Disney animated films) I will wait for a sale, or even pick up used.
Now, if it is a movie that I really love and have been dying for an HD release with a new transfer, I may pick that up on release day as well.
However, if said movies are only released in a boxed set and I only like one or two of the movies (think Alien 1-2, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones) i will wait for individual disc releases (like I did with Alien 1-2), or just wait for a killer deal.
Now, if it is something that I have been looking for an HD DVD release, and I still like all the movies in the set, but if the set is stupidly expensive, I will hold out for a sale (Star Wars was crazy expensive when it came out, now its pretty good price, Bond 50 is a good price for how many movies you get, but it is out of my price range – waiting for it to drop below $100 – thanks camelcamelcamel) than I can hold off. Main reason is, like Josh, my stack of unwatched discs is growing, so there is no reason to pay a premium to get a disc on release day if it is just going to sit unopened for a few months.
Collector’s Editions – I will usually pick up the individual movie (Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind) when it comes out for like $15-$20, then wait for the collectors edition to fall below $40, and sale my individual disc edition later on Amazon. The excpetion to this is if Amazon has a really good prerelease price on the collectors edition – which has happened a couple of times.
So yeah, some stuff I buy new on release day (mainly new releases), the rest I will wait for a sale or to buy used.
Adam Charles
Everything goes on sale eventually, or I can find a used copy discounted at some point. The only time I’ll buy something before it’s on sale is if I planned on watching it for a viewing party.
John M.
The best part of this conversation so far is that I now know I am not the only person with a a stack of blus I have yet to watch since buying them.
William Henley
OOOOOhhhh, future poll question:
How many Blus do you have that are currently unopened (or unwatched)
0 – I watch my Blus as soon as I get them
1-5 – I’ve watched most, but have a couple sitting around still unwatched
5-10
10-20 – I need to have a moviethon this weekend
20-50 – Maybe I should rethink my purchasing decisions
50 or more – my significant other has left me for my frivolous spending
Timcharger
Instead of an absolute number, the poll should be what percentage of what you own is still sealed and unwatched.
Also price matters. If I spent top dollar on a disc, it tends to get watched quickly. Sometimes (okay, many times) I’ve stocked up on many bargain purchases, and those don’t get watched in months/years.
William Henley
LOL, I am the opposite – usually the bargain discs are the ones I watch first. Why? Because usually the top-dollar discs are movies I just saw in the theater a couple of months earlier, whereas the bargain discs are the ones I haven’t seen in a few years. Camp Nowhere and Austin Powers and Alien – watched as soon as I got them home. Pacific Rim 3D and Iron Man 3 3D – still sealed.
Shannon Nutt
I’m willing to bet I have more Blu-rays and DVDs still in the shrink wrap than opened and watched. And yes, the number is WAY over 50 – probably closer to 100.
NJScorpio
Ditto!
I have many, MANY unwatched classics…but I’ll end up rewatching Dredd again lol. Sometimes I feel like just tossing in an entertaining movie I’ve seen before, because I’m not quite in the mood to absorb some great film I’ve yet to see.
William Henley
Ditto! I have watched Interview With The Vampire probably a dozen times on Blu, but Gods and Generals is still unopened.
Pedram
Generally, if I’m excited about a movie, I will have already seen it in the theatre. Otherwise, I’ll probably rent it.
I can’t do blind buys like some readers. To me, Blu-Rays are a bit over-priced already, and if I don’t know that I love the movie, then I won’t buy it. A $3 rental beats a $30 purchase if there’s a chance I won’t watch the film more than once or twice (or at least dig into all the extras).
Catalogue releases that I’ve been waiting to hit Blu for a while are a different story though (e.g. Weird Science). Generally they’re not as pricey as new releases, and if the price is right and the disc reviews are good, I may get it right away.
Otherwise, online sales are the way to go (bargain bin is usually a sign a film has hit rock bottom; I’ll rarely get something from there)
William Henley
What about a blind buy if it is in the under $10 bin? I have done a few of those – mostly on HD-DVDs I picked up for $2-$7, but there are some bargain priced Blu-Rays now
Pedram
Yeah I could see that, depending on the movie and what I’ve heard or know about it (or how classic it is etc.).
$2-$7 is basically in the realm of rentals price so I could imagine myself doing that if the film is worthwhile.
Random Commenter
I wait for sales, unless there is a reason to get it day one, such as a retailer exclusive bonus disc. However, now that every major retailer has their own streaming service and is using it to provide exclusive content through there, it seems that I won’t have to pick any up on release day any more.
Kyle
Over the years as my disposable income has decreased so has my new purchases. I now only pick up the occasional new release if its on for a good price, otherwise I just wait it out until I find releases for cheap.
My buying habits for dvd to blu upgrades have also changed because of it, going from upgrading when on sale or found for cheap to basically holding off on upgrading all together (for the time being).
Also, like John said, its nice knowing I’m not the only one with a growing collection of unopened releases!
Kevinzlark
I used to hunt down bargains as well as used and trade-in BDs, but ever since I got a Roku 3 with Netflix via Unlocator, I have more than enough movies and shows now, and I find myself barely looking at those shops or bargains anymore. I was going to buy The Hobbit, but a simple click and Netflix UK has it, same as the complete Breaking Bad series.
I kinda feel lost now that a hobby/past-time has been so severely hobbled Annie Wilkes-style. Not to mention living in Quebeckistan, every title has bilingual wording, which I find annoying and ugly, so I also have fun printing up custom covers, and I am now all caught up and don’t know what to do.
Still, I do buy BDs, but they are more nostalgic, favourite and collector based (last one was They Live) and I am very choosy about price.
Pedram
Yeah I know what you mean about ugly multi lingual Blu-Ray covers. It totally ruins the aesthetic. I try to avoid buying Blu-Rays in Canada because of it.
I wish they’d make a flip version so it’s English on one side and French on the other, so you could have your choice without a tacked on “me too” version of the title.
William Henley
I’ve picked up a couple of Blus from Canada, and they had flip covers. Maybe those were the exceptions
Kevinzlark
It is the spine in particular, no matter which side, you’ll always have both languages, and I find that somewhat annoying and it ruins the flow of the collection. Sometimes they’ll have the bilingual slipcover and the disc cover itself will then only be in English.
Eric Feldstein
Used to buy movies during release week. Now I wait until either post Birthday (June) or post Christmas to either have them purchased as gifts or use money from gifts to purchase myself.
Eric Feldstein
Oh,and I rent from the Library for movies I did not get to see in the theaters
Mark B
I only purchase Steelbooks and movies that I truly like on release day. Everything else can wait for sales or Black Friday.
Bill
I never buy BDs on release date for two reasons:
1. I’m waiting to see if the early copies have any technical video or sound issues that might result in recall/reissue
2. I’d like to see a BD review or two first of the disc before committing to it
I notice most here who wait say they do it in the hope of getting a better price. For me the quality, both technical and artistic, of the product is more important than the price. I guess that makes me an old fogey.
Andrew Parr
I really don’t want to buy any bluray movies for more than $10 unless they are box sets or 3D. So I either wait for crazy sales (like Thanksgiving), or wait for them to pop up used.
Dantes
Well that depends of the movie of course, mostly i wait for a price drop on amazon, but some movies i purchase the same week of release.
KFWright
I used to buy pretty much every movie I liked when it first came out. As my free time and disposable income declined, I started waiting for movies to drop down to the $10-13 range. Netflix has also impacted my purchasing, as I only buy my very favorite movies and just Netflix the rest. Even with the reduced purchases, I still have piles of discs I haven’t watched yet. TV series have taken up a lot of time, slowing down the frequency with which I watch my movies.
Timcharger
Here’s my evolving formula for determining purchases:
I really like it or want to support this film/filmmaker = $5 to $10
New release week = $5
3D = $5
Steelbook/Digibook/Collectible figure = $5 to $10
How much I’ve purchased recently/how mad is wifey currently at me = -$5 to -$10
=====
So if the purchase price is at or below the sum totoal of the above criteria, then it’s a buy.
Timcharger
So applying this formula critically:
If some no-idea-what-this-film-is-about is released this week, in 3D, and in a Steelbook for $15. I’d probably buy it. (Assuming Wifey isn’t too mad at me already.)
Timcharger
Likewise:
Even if I loved the film/filmmaker, it’s in 3D, in a beautiful Steelbook, and Wifey isn’t mad at me at all; and it’s priced at $31.
I’d probably wait for a better price.
Ted S.
If there’s a sale on the new releases then I’ll buy them, if not I’ll just wait till they’re on sale. I don’t like spending $20 on a disc.
Jim Wolfson
“I don’t like spending $20 on a disc.”
I won’t pay more than $12, except for Criterion/Disney titles and even then my limit is $18 or less. That’s total price, delivered.
Lately, most of my Blu-ray purchases are around $9 or $10; patience pays off.
Steelbooks or plastic toys are pretty pointless; it’s like “collector” plates that depreciate 80% when they’re placed on the shipping dock at the warehouse, and just as useless once they’re on the shelf at home.
Sartozki
John, out of 312 blurays, i have 64 unwatched movies… :S (I’ve seen the movies, mind you, but not since buying them)
Tom Haggas
I’ve found that they are cheapest on release week, and then are 5-10 dollars more for several months after that. So I buy right away when I need to.
Jim Wolfson
Never, except one time when I needed a Blu-ray copy of “The Sting” for my Dad’s birthday. It’s his favorite of all time and released a week after, so I preordered to get ASAP.
Seems pointless to pay a lot of money for anything I’ve already seen in the theater, so I wait as much as a year or two if necessary – except for Criterion and Disney, they all go below $10 brand new, less in like-new condition, including shipping.
By waiting I build a bigger collection for the same price and always have a months-long backlog to watch so the waiting is inconsequential – don’t even notice it.
Steelbooks, plastic toy junk? Who needs it? Just takes up room for something you look at once and put on the shelf.
Dennis Lafontaine
None of the answers really fit my buying habits.
Yes I preorder the limited edition collectibles and some major releases. Some Major releases I pick up locally. Some minor releases I get on day one for the nostalgia value.
In a nutshell – IT DEPENDS ON THE PRICE on release day. Example – I preordered all the Star Trek TNG & Enterprise releases, but when Enterprise Season 2 did not drop in price prior to release day, I cancelled it. The Zavvi exclusives are rather reasonable – if they were not, collectible or not I would likely pass.
Csm101
The stuff I really want gets a day one purchase. Catalogue titles that I’ve been waiting to get on blu get a day one if the price is right. I’m a sucker for “all new transfer from original camera negative” labels. I notice with a lot of Warner catalogue titles, they come out at around 14.99 but if I wait a month or two, they hit the 7.99 mark and they’re mine! I used to store hop on Tuesdays between Wal-mart, Target and Bestbuy, because Wally World used to get catalogue titles dirt cheap , but their selection has decreased significantly. A perfect example of this is how around halloween walmart would het a bunch of horror titles dirt cheap, but so far this year nothing. Now that best-buy matches amazon prices, I’ll go there for most of my purchases. There’s n also a place called Moviestop where I can find more obscure titles and they trade used dvd & blurays. Their halloween sales are very good. It all depends on how much money i have and what titles are being released. October has nearly bankrupted me with all the 3D movies that came out.
Csm101
I also get a rush from blind buying new titles, if the extra cash is available.
MGM
I wait not til they drop below $20.00. I used to buy them when they were released but now they upped the price due to the fact they include a DVD. If I wanted a DVD I would not have bought a blu ray player.
August Lehe
I pre-order in advance even if I have to wait six months or so….I was stunned by how good EUROPA REPORT was. OK, so next Spring I will be rooting for GRAVITY like most everyone else Oscar night, but the differences between the budgets of GRAVITY and EUROPA REPORT can probably be summed up by contrasting the salaries of SANDRA BULLOCK AND GEORGE CLOONEY v. five unknowns. I burned out on Star Wars and Star Trek YEARS ago, in case you wondered.