As many now know, Netflix has increased their subscription rates by quite a bit more than what most consumers are actually willing to accept or absorb. Part of the price increase is because the cost of their DVD rental program was higher than anticipated because as surprising as it seems, more folks still want DVDs rather than streaming movies or TV series over the web.
Plus in some cases, the movies are available on DVD first before becoming available in streaming mode, so folks jump on that opportunity.
Thus, the huge price increases reflect adjustments for the costs of the DVD side of the business and to compensate for the business costs of streaming content, where the expected landslide of members did not show up.
The best package that includes both DVD and streaming, was around $10 and is now $16. If you’re going to do the math, that’s an incredibly crazy cost increase of 60%.
The Sound of Music is a classic that will stand the test of time through the ages. It’s a great movie for everyone and can lead to hours of fun family sing-a-longs… well, unless, like me, ya just can’t sing that well. But regardless, for today only, Amazon has slapped The Sound of Music Blu-ray / DVD combo pack into their ‘Gold Box’ Deal of the Day for today (3/10) only.
This 1965 classic cast is lead by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and the special today is the The Sound of Music (Limited Edition Collector’s Set) [Blu-ray/DVD Combo] (1965), boxed set. It’s not just the movie, check out the package deal:
Your Favorite Things: An Interactive Celebration — all-new immersive viewing experience with behind-the-scenes images, on-screen lyrics, trivia track and location quiz
Music Machine Sing-Along
Musical Stages: Creating The Sound of Music — all-new interactive “backlot tour” with in-depth featurettes on the songs, the stage show & movie, the film and sound restoration and the real-life von Trapp family
A City of Song — virtual map of filming locations in Salzburg, Austria
Vintage Rodgers & Hammerstein and The Sound of Music programs, including a parody with Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews, and an interview with the real Maria von Trapp on The Julie Andrews Hour
Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of American Music, hosted by Mary Martin
Screen tests, rare treasures, interviews, photo galleries and more
BD-LIVE: Live Lookup Powered by IMDb
It’s truly an awesome catch of a package if you’re interested, in the ‘Gold Box’ today on Amazon!
Despite the fact that DVD’s and such are slowly going by the wayside in favor of more economical (for the distributors) means of distribution, there are still gadgets out there that make the DVD a viable source for entertainment. And some of those gadgets are in a huge sale today.
Why are DVD’s still a viable source of entertainment? Because not everyone has internet service, not everyone has high-speed internet service and not everyone has the computing power to properly play the medium of streaming content. These commodities are still the toys of the more affluent while some struggle to just deal with the internet.
As generations age and the mantle of the web-user is handed off to the younger folk is coming to be, we still have old-school folk who like their movies like they’ve been, on DVD.
Amazon is having a huge end-of-year sale where many titles in the TV and movie world are up to 60% off. One of those titles, you’ve heard me go on and on about is Spartacus: Blood and Sand. If you’re a regular here, you know how I’ve mentioned how wonderful the story actually is… it transcends the era it takes place in and the story pulls you right along.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand stars Andy Whitfield, John Hannah, Manu Bennett, Lucy Lawless (Like you’ve never seen her before) & many more in this epic mini-series from Starz that’s created and written by Steven S. DeKnight & produced by Sam Raimi, amongst others.
If you had an inkling of a curiosity for owning the explicit series on Blu-ray or DVD, now may very well be the time.
The new DVD & Blu-ray titles coming out for the week of November 30th number just over 100. That’s a very short list indeed considering that the lists usually count around 200 to 300 titles each week!
This week the more popular New DVD & Blu-ray releases coming out include Fantasia, Knight and Day & The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Here are some of the more popular titles that consumers are snatching off the digital shelves, plus to make it a bit more affordable, I’m releasing this list early in case you want to take advantage of Cyber Monday on Amazon…
Looking over the new DVD & Blu-ray releases for November 23rd, 2010, there are over 250 new titles. This week surprises me, being that the last few weeks have had some great titles. This week it seems rather dull in the excitement category, but it could just be me.
This week is led by the Beauty and the Beast Two Disc Diamond Edition re-release of the classic animated story from Disney. We also have The Expendables with Sylvester Stallone, and Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts.
That’s really it for big titles but I’ll dig a bit deeper and see what other new DVD & Blu-ray releases might be coming along with these other titles.
In the upcoming weeks we have some great titles coming out… see below for those!
This week we have over 250 new DVD & Blu-ray releases hitting the shelves on November 16th, 2010. As Christmas approaches, distributors have been saving some of their better titles for now. The titles range from highly anticipated, holiday movies, elemental bending kids to new packaging of highly marketed movies… for the umpteenth time!
Titles include Avatar (again) in a new extended format, A Christmas Carol from Disney, The Last Airbender, Christmas season Celtic Thunder & Michael Jackson. TV titles include Glee, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone & Wycliffe. Other new DVD & Blu-ray releases are IMAX releases, Cats & Dogs, The Polar Express & many more titles that if you’re of the mind, you can peruse the larger list at the bottom of this article.
The big release that seems to be a best-seller on Amazon is the newest version/release of the three-disc Collector’s Edition of Avatar. (Below this press release description is my usual list of titles, broken into their usual categories here on Brusimm.
AVATAR Extended Collection’s Edition: 3-Disc Collector’s Edition Blu-ray
Disc One
· Original Theatrical Version
· Special Edition Re-Release
· Collector’s Extended Cut
· – - -16 more minutes and exclusive alternate opening
Family Audio Track (All Objectionable Language Removed)
· Original Theatrical Release
· Special Edition Re-release
Disc Two
· “Capturing Avatar“ An in-depth feature length documentary with James Cameron, Jon Landau and cast and crew
· Deleted Scenes – including over 45 minutes of new never-before-seen deleted scenes
· Production Materials
Disc Three
· Open “Pandora’s Box” and go deeper into the filmmaker process
· Interactive Scene Deconstruction: Explore the various stages of production through 3 different viewing modes
· Production Shorts: 17 featurettes covering performance capture, scoring the film, 3D fusion camera, stunts and much more
· Avatar Archives including original scriptment, 300 page screenplay and the extensive Pandorapedia
· BD-live Portal with additional bonus materials
AVATAR Collector’s Edition: 3-Disc Special Edition DVD
Disc One
· Original Theatrical Version
· Special Edition Re-release
· Collector’s Extended Cut
o 16 more minutes and exclusive alternate opening
Disc Two
· Original Theatrical Version
· Special Edition Re-release
· Collector’s Extended Cut
Disc Three
· “Capturing Avatar“ An in-depth feature length documentary with James Cameron, Jon Landau and cast and crew
· Deleted Scenes – including over 45 minutes of new never-before-seen deleted scenes
Aside from that, below are the usual title lists where I’ve pulled out the more popular sellers in the different categories and below that, a more comprehensive listing of many more titles…
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (Three Disc: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy)
Clash of the Titans (Three Disc: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy)
Disney’s A Christmas Carol Starring Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and Steve Valentine
The Complete Metropolis Starring Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Gustav Frohlich
The Kids Are All Right Starring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening
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The Last Airbender Starring Dev Patel and Noah Ringer
Special Features
– Origins of the Avatar
– Deleted Scenes
1. “Talk to the Dead”
2. “Water Teaches Us Emotion”
3. “Water Tribe Battle”
4. “Field Ablaze”
– Gag Reel
The Night of the Hunter (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish
The Shawshank Redemption [Blu-ray] Starring Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, Bob Gunton, and Clancy Brown
This week with over 250 new titles, we have quite the variety of new DVD and Blu-ray releases coming out. New titles include the surprise hit (for me) of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the first season of the TV series Sherlock. We also finally get a chance to snatch up the fifth series of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith.
Other titles include Grown Ups with Adam Sandler, Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron and an animated DC Showcase of Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam.
Surprise releases that caught my eye was a Cary Grant movie called Arsenic & Old Lace & a classic of a different nature, Westworld! Plus Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XIX is coming out this week!
Movies on DVD
A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott, Frank Finlay, Edward Woodward
Arsenic & Old Lace starring Cary Grant and Raymond Massey (Love this film… great classic!)
Charlie St. Cloud starring Zac Efron and Kim Basinger
Demolition Man starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Nigel Hawthorne (You might want to check out the under $6 price, at the time of this article.)
Executive Decision starring Kurt Russell and Ray Liotta (Another sub $7 movie)
Grown Ups starring Adam Sandler and Maria Bello
Hunt To Kill starring Steve Austin, Eric Roberts, and Gary Daniels and Emilie Ullerup
Ramona & Beezus starring Selena Gomez and Joey King
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin
Tremors [Blu-ray] starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward
Westworld starring Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin
This week there are 250+titles coming out new on DVD & Blu-ray disk for November 2nd, 2010. I like the mix of titles and genres that have come out this week and if this keeps up, then we know that we are very well on our way to prepping our Christmas stockings with all kinds of goodies and the holiday shopping mode is starting to build up momentum!
This week, ABC’s V, the complete first season is hitting shelves. Starring Morena Baccarin and Elizabeth Mitchell. It’s a box set with 3 discs with all 12 episodes and special features that include
The Actor’s Journey from Human to V featurette: Featuring the principal cast of V discussing the techniques, challenges and rewards they faced in terms of bringing V alive for a new generation.
An Alien in Human Skin: The Makeup FX of V featurette: Contemporary techniques of special effects makeup application and execution are revealed
Breaking Story: The World of V featurette: An in-depth look into how the producers were able to create a fresh perspective on the V mythology
The Visual FX of V featurette: A primer on the visual effects used to help enhance V, featuring a guided tour through ZOIC studios, the visual FX powerhouse responsible for the amazing CGI
Commentary by executive producers Scott Rosenbaum and Steve Pearlman
Bloopers & Deleted scenes
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This week in Family titles, Hannah Montana: Who is Hannah Montana is the single episode where Hannah takes the wig off and shows the world who she really is. For some, this is the big episode but the consumer advocate in me might suggest being patient and waiting for a whole season package release, if that will ever happen! This one is up to you!
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Toy Story 3
I think the huge hit of new releases this week is going to be Toy Story 3! Toy Story 3 is the box office animated record breaker from Disney. This movie helped boost sales for Mattel by a whopping 23%. (Toy Story 3 and World Wrestling Entertainment toys pulled this off together) TS3 starred the usual voice cast of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Michael Keaton and many more.
Worldwide, the movie has brought in just over $1 billion at the box office and now it is leading the pre-order charts on Amazon. No surprise there. Check out the extras you’ll have when you snatch up the movie:
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TOY STORY 3 – Bonus Features:
DVD :
Day & Night – The innovative and entertaining short from the imagination of Pixar artist and Director Teddy Newton.
Toys! – A closer look at all of Toy Story 3’s beloved toys from updating the classic characters to the creation of the Sunnyside Daycare and Bonnie’s Room toys.
Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: The Science of Adventure – Produced in conjunction with NASA, this hybrid animation documentary of Buzz’s visit to the International Space Station focuses on research in zero gravity and Buzz’s triumphant return to Earth.
Paths to Pixar: Editorial – Pixar editors, past and future share anecdotes about their careers.
The Gang’s All Here – A touching look at the returning voice talent for Toy Story 3 and an introduction to the voices of the new characters.
A Toy’s Eye View: Creating A Whole New Land – A sneak peek at the new Toy Story-themed playland at Hong Kong Disneyland.
Studio Stories – A series of amusing animated anecdotes about life at Pixar.
“Where’s Gordon?” – An animator finds a hidden room at Pixar.
“Cereal Bar” – The majestic and expansive Pixar cereal bar is explored.
“Clean Start” – The Toy Story 3 animators shave their heads to mark the start of the film.
Blu-ray Combo Pack: Everything on the DVD plus…
Toy Story Trivia Dash – This cool game challenges you to sprint to the finish with Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Rex as you quickly answer questions about all three Toy Story movies.
Cine-Explore – Commentary by Director Lee Unkrich and Producer Darla K. Anderson.
Beyond the Toybox: An Alternative Commentary Track Featuring Leads from Story, Tech, Art and Animation – Commentary by Story Supervisor Jason Katz, Supervising Technical Director Guido Quaroni, Production Designer Bob Pauley and Supervising Animators Bobby Podesta and Michael Venturini.
Beginnings: Setting A Story In Motion – Screenwriter Michael Arndt analyzes successful opening scenes from Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.
Bonnie’s Playtime: A Story Roundtable – A roundtable discussion with Director Lee Unkrich and the story artists who brought the “Bonnie’s Playtime” scene to life.
Roundin’ Up A Western Opening – The development of the movie’s exciting opening scene.
Life Of A Shot – Toy Story 3 artists and technicians describe their contributions to a few of the shots in the film’s “Western Opening.”
Goodbye Andy – An exploration of character design, acting and animation in the scene “Andy’s Goodbye.”
Accidental Toymakers – By creating the Toy Story characters, the Pixar filmmakers found themselves in the unlikely role of toy designers. Meet the toy company that took a chance on manufacturing the now iconic toys and learn of their incredible success that began with a modest number of Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys 15 years ago.
Making of Day & Night – The story behind the unique 2D/3D blended short.
10/29/10: Craig Engler, the man behind the Syfy Twitter account & the SVP & GM of Syfy Digital, took on some questions today in the Twitter realm regarding the cancellation of the Syfy Channel‘s Caprica. Yesterday I fired off some questions but they got lost in the millions of tweets that get fired off at him.
Here’s what Craig had to say about the immediate pulling and the passing of Caprica from the air waves… well, cable waves to be exact:
The obvious: It was canceled because there were not enough viewers.
It was moved to Tuesday because it wasn’t doing well on Friday’s and that Tuesday is Syfy’s strongest night of the week.
A curious Tweeter asked if the prolonged hiatus between season halves could have attributed to the bad showing and Craig wrote that ratings declined with each episode after the show returned.
No… they did not cancel Caprica to make the new BSG web series, Blood & Chrome.
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With that said, I don’t envy Craig having to tackle the many questions that are coming from fans of the Ronald D. Moore science fiction drama. Caprica was canceled due to bad ratings which I get. It had barely half a million viewers on Tuesday nights, I get that.
As many now know, Netflix has increased their subscription rates by quite a bit more than what most consumers are actually willing to accept or absorb. Part of the price increase is because the cost of their DVD rental program was higher than anticipated because as surprising as it seems, more folks still want DVDs rather than streaming movies or TV series over the web.
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