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Post by ck100 on Dec 30, 2019 22:29:41 GMT
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Post by Popeye Doyle on Dec 30, 2019 22:35:23 GMT
Yeah, strange times. Back in the day, lots of movies were not available for immediate purchase when put on the shelve for rent. Often had to wait until they were previously viewed or pay a stupid high price to get it right away. Movies like Titanic were made available to purchase first day on VHS at a sane price.
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Post by bravomailer on Dec 30, 2019 22:39:26 GMT
I paid about that for Victory At Sea. Now it goes for about five bucks on DVD.
I think a film new to VHS was pretty expensive for several months, before slipping down to about twenty bucks.
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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 30, 2019 22:44:21 GMT
Yep.
I remember Return of the Jedi cost like $90 Canadian in 1985.
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Post by lowtacks86 on Dec 30, 2019 22:57:34 GMT
Interesting trivia, it was actually porno that caused VHS to become successful (it was preferred to going to porno theaters)
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Post by Popeye Doyle on Dec 30, 2019 23:04:53 GMT
Interesting trivia, it was actually porno that caused VHS to become successful (it was preferred to going to porno theaters) I also heard something similar when it was actually porn deciding the format war between Blu-ray or HD-DVD last decade.
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Post by lowtacks86 on Dec 30, 2019 23:06:49 GMT
Interesting trivia, it was actually porno that caused VHS to become successful (it was preferred to going to porno theaters) I also heard something similar when it was actually porn deciding the format war between Blu-ray or HD-DVD last decade. Really? I thought by then people pretty much just resorted to streaming porn online.
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Post by johnspartan on Dec 30, 2019 23:15:58 GMT
Interesting trivia, it was actually porno that caused VHS to become successful (it was preferred to going to porno theaters) Yeah, VHS machines were less expensive than Betamax machines and had more porn titles available.
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Post by ck100 on Dec 30, 2019 23:18:35 GMT
Too bad Paul Rubens (Pee-Wee Herman) didn't stay home that one night watching a video tape instead of going to the porn theater.
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Post by darkreviewer2013 on Dec 30, 2019 23:40:26 GMT
I tended to mostly rent titles on VHS and any tapes I did own were always purchased for me, so I don't know much about the cost, but I do recall the tremendous length of time that elapsed between when a movie was released theatrically and when it came out on VHS. Compare that to today, where you have films coming out on DVD and Blu Ray within 3-5 months.
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Post by Popeye Doyle on Dec 31, 2019 0:17:23 GMT
I tended to mostly rent titles on VHS and any tapes I did own were always purchased for me, so I don't know much about the cost, but I do recall the tremendous length of time that elapsed between when a movie was released theatrically and when it came out on VHS. Compare that to today, where you have films coming out on DVD and Blu Ray within 3-5 months. Case in point - Jurassic Park was released on VHS October 1994. I remembering getting it for Christmas that year.
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Post by politicidal on Dec 31, 2019 0:31:19 GMT
Top Gun helped out making things a little cheaper. For non-pornographic films anyway.
TEXT:
So I mentioned that big time movies were selling for $80-100 a copy but there was the odd time they would be a bit cheaper. The odd Indiana Jones and Beverly Hills Cop would sometimes sell for $40. Sounds cheaper but remember that’s the equivalent of $92 today.
Paramount turned everything on its head by selling Top Gun on VHS for $26.95. This was the lowest that any feature film had ever been sold for by far. But this wasn’t a mistake or poor planning.
If you owned Top Gun on VHS, you remember that the tape was front loaded with a Diet Pepsi commercial. This was Paramounts way of being able to not take a big hit on missed revenue from a re-release but making it more affordable who people who all clearly loved the movie. This had never been done before and one of the appeals of home video was that you didn’t have to watch commercials like you did on TV.
This was the tradeoff with the consumer; you get a cheaper movie but you have to sit through a commercial, or at least fast forward through it. Paramount was marketing this thing hard through an $8 million campaign and the deal with Pepsi would help alleviate some costs and the hit that studios usually took from home video.
And it worked.
The advanced demand was so high that the pre-sales made it the highest selling video-cassette in the history of the whole industry. This was before it was even available in stores. People sure love Ray-bans and shirtless Val Kilmer…
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Post by Anonymous Andy on Dec 31, 2019 1:00:29 GMT
I remember picking up flyers at the video store as a kid that listed movies for $99.99 but didn't think anyone actually paid those prices.
I will say, I owned the first Ninja Turtles movie and I know damn well it didn't cost my mom more than $10. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had it.
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Post by petrolino on Dec 31, 2019 1:34:19 GMT
Before Amazon, E-Bay and similar online companies changed the game, it was hell, which is why many people like me bought poor quality ex-rentals or recorded off tv. A new film in a shop could be anywhere between £9.99 - £17.99, and this is a few months after it had been released to rent (which was also a few months after it had been in cinemas unless it was straight to video). On top of this, most shops only sold the most mainstream titles. If you asked for a title to be imported, you had that charge on top, and it could take weeks to receive it (or be told once you went back in it was no longer available).
Today, one click, straight to your door on a high quality format with extras. It's a revolution. I had little sympathy over the death of the high street, excluding workers losing their jobs, as these companies had screwed us all forever.
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Post by lowtacks86 on Dec 31, 2019 1:35:37 GMT
I wonder how much an original VHS copy of "The Rescuers" with the naked woman snuck in costs
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Post by vegalyra on Dec 31, 2019 1:55:58 GMT
Top Gun helped out making things a little cheaper. For non-pornographic films anyway.
TEXT:
So I mentioned that big time movies were selling for $80-100 a copy but there was the odd time they would be a bit cheaper. The odd Indiana Jones and Beverly Hills Cop would sometimes sell for $40. Sounds cheaper but remember that’s the equivalent of $92 today.
Paramount turned everything on its head by selling Top Gun on VHS for $26.95. This was the lowest that any feature film had ever been sold for by far. But this wasn’t a mistake or poor planning.
If you owned Top Gun on VHS, you remember that the tape was front loaded with a Diet Pepsi commercial. This was Paramounts way of being able to not take a big hit on missed revenue from a re-release but making it more affordable who people who all clearly loved the movie. This had never been done before and one of the appeals of home video was that you didn’t have to watch commercials like you did on TV.
This was the tradeoff with the consumer; you get a cheaper movie but you have to sit through a commercial, or at least fast forward through it. Paramount was marketing this thing hard through an $8 million campaign and the deal with Pepsi would help alleviate some costs and the hit that studios usually took from home video.
And it worked.
The advanced demand was so high that the pre-sales made it the highest selling video-cassette in the history of the whole industry. This was before it was even available in stores. People sure love Ray-bans and shirtless Val Kilmer…
I remember this. There was a line of electronics stores in the Houston area (maybe elsewhere too) called Federated and the second floor of this particular location had Top Gun playing on all their television sets. It was a really big deal. |
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Post by twothousandonemark on Dec 31, 2019 1:59:39 GMT
Interesting trivia, it was actually porno that caused VHS to become successful (it was preferred to going to porno theaters) Also the decider between HD-DVD & Blu-Ray. I think the most I was paying for a VHS movie was about $34.99 or something if it had an extra features tape.
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Post by johnspartan on Dec 31, 2019 2:19:07 GMT
I remember going to Blockbuster in the 90s and asking them if "Crossroads"(1986) was for sale. The kid looked it up and said it would cost $90 and suggested I just rent it and copy it by hooking 2 vcrs together, so I did.
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Post by Dramatic Look Gopher on Dec 31, 2019 4:47:37 GMT
Hmmmm. I remember buying a brand new VHS of Jaws for $29.95 in 1986, and back then I thought that was a bargain of a lifetime. It was around that era when new VHS movies started to drop down in that price range and was readily available for retail sale in places like department stores, video stores, record stores, etc. So I find it strange that Leviathan, made in 1989, would cost 89 bucks.
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Post by petrolino on Dec 31, 2019 5:03:19 GMT
Hmmmm. I remember buying a brand new VHS of Jaws for $29.95 in 1986, and back then I thought that was a bargain of a lifetime. It was around that era when new VHS movies started to drop down in that price range and was readily available for retail sale in places like department stores, video stores, record stores, etc. So I find it strange that Leviathan, made in 1989, would cost 89 bucks. I could be wrong, but that looks like the price a video rental shop would pay, before it was issued for home purchase.
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