This one hit me like a bolt out of the blue.
Apparently studios are looking to abandon Tuesday as the new official release day for DVD.
Having put up that tiny little intro, I’ll give you some all too necessary background. I spent most of my high school career as well as some summers in college working at a video store. With roughly five years experience in videos, I claim it’s safe to say I know what I’m talking about. Some will disagree, of course, to which I inevitably ask if half a decade isn’t sufficient experience to be an expert then what is? And I’ll tell you this–until only recently, Tuesday WAS new release day. In fact, more appropriately, it was New Release Day. I capitalize it there because it was as reliable as a federal holiday. It was like Christmas–ALWAYS the twenty-fifth of December.
It was INVIOLATE.
And as such, it was fairly easy to tell when places were violating street date agreements and putting movies out early. There was always reason to do it–having movies or games before the competitors lent much greater likelihood to them being purchased with your store. Thus, anyone who actually ENGAGED in such practices often were at least temporarily restricted from selling those games and movies.
If DVDs and games are released at various times, it’ll become a lot harder to track the dishonest. For instance, if Cloverfield arrives at every store on a Thursday, with a street date of that Tuesday, anyone that’s got it on shelves on Saturday night is clearly in violation. But under this new plan, it’s much harder to tell if Cloverfield showed up Thursday with a street date of Sunday. Or Saturday. Or even that same Thursday–who knows? And it becomes downright impossible to tell.
I can’t see much point to shaking up release dates–trying to draw attention to movies by having them come out at odd times will likely serve to confuse the target market more than engage them. And the problems with beating street dates will be ridiculous. It just doesn’t strike me as a good move.
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