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Post by darkreviewer2013 on Dec 31, 2019 5:12:16 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. I waited over a year for the VHS release of The Lion King. It was finally released in September 1995. Had the poster up on my wall for months beforehand. They really made people wait back then. There was simply no such thing as instant gratification when it came to new media.
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Post by Dramatic Look Gopher on Dec 31, 2019 5:13:38 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. You might be right about that, actually.
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Post by darkreviewer2013 on Dec 31, 2019 5:18:11 GMT
I wonder how much an original VHS copy of "The Rescuers" with the naked woman snuck in costs I only learned about that yesterday. What were Disney thinking?
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Post by petrolino on Dec 31, 2019 5:27:23 GMT
I could be wrong, but that looks like the price a video rental shop would pay, before it was issued for home purchase. You might be right about that, actually. I remember asking local video shop owners to sell me new movies starring my favourite actresses that had just been released to video (I was a horny teenager) - Linnea Quigley, Jodie Foster, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh - but I could never afford them, so I had to wait months and see if they'd sell them off ex-rental after they'd stopped going out on loan. They'd take maybe, £3:00 - £10:00 off you, depending on the title or if they had multiple copies.
As per my initial post, I strongly believe the whole system was rigged to kill the poor, and in Thatcherite Britain this was tenfold. The only good thing was some friendly video shop owners would reward you for being a good customer, sell you promotional posters, even throw a discount your way if you were lucky (or, more likely, chuck in a couple of crappy movies or broke, unsaleable tapes nobody wanted).
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Post by Sarge on Dec 31, 2019 5:51:55 GMT
I could be wrong, but that looks like the price a video rental shop would pay, before it was issued for home purchase. Yeah, that was my first thought. In the 80s I mostly rented but for sure never paid over about $25-30 for a VHS. The only one I remember is Independence Day because my wife and I bought it from a brand new video store in the mall and the manager knocked $5 off the price and sold it for $24.99; that was 97ish though. The only 2 I remember buying in the 80s are Roger Rabbit and Raising Arizona. For $5 you could rent VHS player. |
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Post by petrolino on Dec 31, 2019 5:56:30 GMT
Yeah, that was my first thought. In the 80s I mostly rented but for sure never paid over about $25-30 for a VHS. The only one I remember is Independence Day because my wife and I bought it from a brand new video store in the mall and the manager knocked $5 off the price and sold it for $24.99; that was 97ish though. The only 2 I remember buying in the 80s are Roger Rabbit and Raising Arizona. For $5 you could rent VHS player. My signatures are quotes by friends Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving. My Welsh aunt took me out one day determined to rent two movies. I knew nothing, I was maybe, 14 or 15 years old. She rented George Roy Hill's 'The World According To Garp' (1982) and told me she was just finishing reading the book which she loved, and 'Raising Arizona' (1987) as she was pregnant, which was my introduction to the work of the Coen Brothers. It was a day I always remember as a movie lover as it turned me on to thinking about a greater intellectualism in cinema than I'd pondered before.
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