Warner Home Video have taken on movie pirates in foreign lands with a unique strategy - by undercutting the pirate's prices. Wait, you mean that DVD I bought wasn't actually worth $30 dollars? I guess WHV figures it's better to make a little money than none at all, and they can still count on those of us living in the lap of luxury to pay inflated prices.
Warner Home Video has begun trial sales in China of a movie DVD priced at just Rmb12 ($1.50), a move likely to anger consumers in developed markets such as Europe and the US, who typically pay $20-$30 for a recently released film on DVD.
The test sales of the modestly packaged edition of the The Aviator mark one of the boldest efforts yet by an international film company – WHV's Chinese joint venture, CAV Warner – to adjust its marketing strategies to the potentially huge but piracy-plagued Chinese DVD market.
But wait guys, don't the directors, producers, actors, key grip #1's, and everyone else down the line on the movie credits suffer because of piracy? What about the commercials that I'm forced to watch every time I drop ten bucks to take in a film, held captive in a manner nearly remniscent of Alex's reprogramming in A Clockwork Orange, that tell me that if I download a movie, some poor schmucky boom mic operator and his 30 kids are getting thrown out on the curb! So obviously, if I download a movie instead of going to see it or buying it on DVD, I'm ripping someone off for at least 10-30 dollars, right? That 20 dollars I spend on a DVD goes right into that boom mic operator's pocket, right?
So, and of course everybody knows this, prices on DVDs, CDs, etc., in the States are gouged beyond belief. If a disc can sell for $1.50 in a foreign country, where does the other $28.50 you pay come into play?
Oh, right, the box.
The "simple pack" edition of [The Aviator], which comes in a cardboard folder rather than the standard DVD plastic box, went on sale earlier this month in selected Chinese cities, said Christine Hu, CAV Warner public relations manager.
"This is a first step to see if the consumer can accept this product at this price," Ms Hu said, adding that it was too early to judge the results of the experiment.
I'm skeptical that the cost to make a regular DVD case and a paper one is that dramatic.
