Not too long ago, I went into one of those obviously-pirated-DVDs-store in a random asian mall (they seem to be rather commonplace here). As usual, the store was packed with all sorts of people. They always are. This particular store wasn’t reknowned or anything – it was just one several in the mall. Stores of this sort have rather short lifespans, due to police raids and the like. But they always come back after a while.
What was interesting was that the best selling pirated DVDs, of course, were not the just-released-in-theatre movies. In fact, the best sellers were usually the just-released-to-DVD movies, in pirated form. Remarkably, these DVDs sold for a not-so-low $7.
Now, it’s worth explaining to those who haven’t seen these ‘new generation’ pirated DVDs that these are essentially duplicates of the originals. If you were watching one of these pirated DVDs side-by-side with a real version of the same DVD, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Even the menus are identical and high quality. The packaging, too, is impeccable. Most of these DVDs come in cardboard sleves with a DVD case insert tucked inside, and a nicely stamped DVD that is commercial-quality. The covers come from industrial presses, with glossy print and all, not from your run-of-the-mill home inkjet printer. The only difference an average consumer would see is that there’s usually Chinese writing on it, since these are copied from the Chinese releases (usually for Hong Kong). The only thing they don’t come with is an actual plastic DVD case; instead, they come in plastic wrap, to save space.
Now, these DVDs sold like hotcakes, for a price of $7. That’s no cheap price. Compared to the pirated DVDs of old, which sold for mere change, say, $20 for 6, these are quite expensive. Which led me to wonder – what would it take for the big movie companies to lower their price to curb such piracy? Obviously, they’ve been trying to level lawsuit after lawsuit against these movie pirates – but that’s obviously not working.
I’d venture to guess that it wouldn’t take much more than a word from the big hollywood companies to lower the price of DVDs to, say, a respectable $10 CDN. Sure, it’s about half the price of the current market value of DVDs, but from a consumer’s point of view, I would pay the extra $3 to get a legitimate copy of the same DVD.
It seems to make so much sense economically. With the new, high quality DVDs the pirates are producing, the production costs can’t be that much lower than those of the legitimate ones. The only missing element, a plastic DVD case, likely don’t cost any more than 25 cents in production. Clearly, the movie pirates have seen a market for their product, and have been steadily hiking their own prices. The average consumer seems to be willing to spend a good $7 on a high quality DVD. Factor in a bit of morality and the ‘brand name factor’, big entertainment corporations should really have no problem selling tons more DVDs at $10 rather than $20. It would even cut into the piracy market, which would be the ultimate goal, right?
But, that would make too much sense, of course, succumbing to the laws of demand. There’s no way it’ll ever happen… not any time soon, anyway. What do you think?
Comments (10)
The ‘Average Consumer’ will just down load it. DC++ for teh win.
Chris Wheeler
PS. Me personally, I buy the real deal at the full price. No piracy, no downloading. It hust my wallet but there is nothing like opening the real shit, glossy cover and all (no offence intended to the Chinese on the pirated one, lol).
well, it first started with those nice version ones going at 20 for 3. But then i suppose ppl didnt care too much about the packaging at times, so ther were more crude versions made, with inkjet labels and the dvd with just a sticker on it. both are still available, but, if im just watching the movie once or twice, id rather go 20 for 7..cuz im not a collector or anything, now i just hope the move quickly onto blu-ray and hd dvd..
download. sorry. lol. or make my bro download. then burn onto our own DVDs…as alex said.. i’d only ever watch em once or twice maybe..
the reason behind the big movie companies unwilling to sell dvds at a lower price is because it is an oligopoly. It’s a cartel that is unwilling to make the same low profit as pirates. Pirates are not like the ceos who have to make millions a year to justify their status. They’re willing to make a very small profit. And also there are many other companies involved such as the legit retailers of the dvds, they have to make more profit than those small pirate stores. If you ever burned a dvd then you know that a single layer 4.7gb dvd can fit about 4.5 hours of good quality video (adding more will screw the quality). Since most movies are around 2.5 hours, that means the rest empty space is just wasted or they put a bunch of garbage special features like director commentary.
Those of you that have been to my house a few times know that my DVD cabinet consists of the $20 for 3 variety (the cardboard outer shell, identical inner shell pirated versions with chinese writing). I would like to point out at least a couple short falls of the pirated DVDs in comparison to the real thing. First, whenever you buy a pirated dvd, unless you know the store’s woner (loyal customer), you can buy one that looks greate on the outside, but still has the same crappy video-cam quality stuff on the inside. Secondly, many of the pirated DVDs do not come with subtitles, or come with incorrect subtitles. Sometimes the incorrect subtitles are from a different movie, and sometimes are direct “Dictionary.com” translations of the subtitles in a different language, resulting is slight subtleties that make you turn off the subtitles because they don’t match. Most importantly of all, for those who enjoy the movie theatre experience of watching a movie as much as the movie itself (my parents included – once again, those who have been to my house will understand this), pirate copies DO NOT come with DTS audio, EVER.
Also, I would like to point out a couple of flaws in the argument posted by “Anonymous”. A single layer 4.7gb CAN burn 4.5 hours worth of movies, however, understand that when you do this, you are burning it in a different encryption than a standard DVD. “DVD quality” is what you may be burning, but the encyption is very different than your divx. In a legit DVD, all 9gb are used, with probably at least 6gb or more used for the actual movie and the sound (yes, that awesome 5.1 surround sound in several languages that doesn’t come with your divx takes substantial space as well). So no, there is no “wasted” space in DVDs, and most DVD movies don’t come that much special features. This is the reason why you get 2 disc special editions at release with an entire second DVD dedicated to the special features, that according to your argument can fit on one DVD.
In conclusion, we still buy the occasional pirated DVD for movies we don’t much care for, but just want it for a large DVD library and a couple of hours of vegetation on the weekend together as a family. But, for any movies that are “worth it”, we still buy the real thing for the real experience. From personal experience, we used to rent from blockbuster or rogers, instead, we now buy pirated. It is still a profit loss for the movie makers themselves on a very small scale. Any movies we previously would have purchased to keep, we still purchase legitimately.
or there’s a way of borrowing it for free from the public library, tho it’s due back in 3 days, which isn’t so bad considering rogers’ new releases are due back in 2 days.
you can always pirate the movies you borrow if you wanna keep a copy of it after watching it
my father has the interesting habit of renting dvds from blockbuster and burning them himself afterwards if they’re any good.
i have no idea where that puts us on the morality scale, but in any case, with the crazy blockbuster memberships and coupons and dealios it might actually be cheaper than pmall. or close enough to it.
hm. =\
i just want to say hi, the only site i actually find helpful…in a way
btw, email me, help the poor victim of the internet era. hit me at astrorider7@hotmail.com
this is not the personal email, it is a filter for which will keep the bad out. From the names, i only recognize Brendan as a graduate…btw I found out someone logging on the main server with your account in school..X_X
im not an organized person. CDs are everywhere in my house