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Lost Tales price predictions?
- Thread starter galenskid
- Start date
Mindwalker
Regular
I would say a price between $20-$60 (US Money) would be a safe bet.
GaribaldisHair
Regular
Well, Amazon has the RRP of WB's first Direct-to-DVD disc (Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning) priced at $19.99, with a RRP of $27.98. My guess would be that TLT will come at around the same.
But then ... what do I know?
But then ... what do I know?
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
You mean wild-ass guesses from people who have exactly as much information on this subject as you do?
I'm always surprised when people ask this kind of question. Nobody who doesn't work for Warner Home Video has any idea how much the disc will cost, and the ones who do ain't talkin'. The Dukes disc may or may not be a model, but it is also the closest thing anybody has to a piece of hard evidence. So I guess I'll stick my neck out and say, "Somewhere around that price. Either more, or less, or exactly." Regards,
Joe
crazyhorse
Anarchist
It will cost more than your average DVD.Not by too much though.
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
I'm curious - Why assume it is going to cost more? If anything I would think WB would be inclined to price it lower than a heavily advertised theatrical release with more "name" actors just to stay competitive. If you're assuming a smaller release means higher per unit costs than a "big" film, I don't think you're on very firm ground.
1) WB already priced in its sales estimates - based on the performance of the season sets, movies and Crusade,suitably discounted because not every fan is going to buy TLT - when they set the production budget. There's also the fact that at a certain price point you sell more copies (and thus make more profit in the long run on a smaller per-unit return) than you would at a higher and presumably "more profitable" price.
2) Hollywood has reached the point where most films don't turn a profit at the box office. A few blockbusters keep the theatrical divisions going, while the monthly bills are mostly paid by the series cranked out by the TV side of the house. (Or rather, the overseas and eventual syndication sales of those series, since most of them also lose money based on purely domestic revenues while they're in production.)
The reason the studios aren't bankrupt is that most feature films do eventually break even or turn a small profit - but only thanks to ancillary sales to airlines, pay-per-view, premium cable, network broadcast and so on down the food chain. Today DVD sales alone are often the difference between a theatrical film ending up in the red or the black. That means the DVDs start off "in the hole" to the tune of however much short of production and distribution costs the box office return fell. Add in DVD mastering, closed captioning and all the rest and the fixed costs "production" costs to get a theatrical film out the door could be several times the actual production budget, etc. for TLT - even though the theatrical film itself is theorectically "paid for".
So even with a lot more units produced a theatrical gobbler like Alexander could have higher unit costs on a production run of 500,000 than TLT might have on a run of 100,000 copies. (All numbers invented on the spot for purposes of illustration only - I have no idea how many copies of either would be realistic.)
Regards,
Joe
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KoshN
Super Moderator
Hah! I am soooo not that lucky. I'd have kick the bucket, first.
Really though, from your mouth to Warner Brothers ear.PLUS the remaining FOUR SEASONS.
...or did you mean the end of the five year story?
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hypatia
Regular
PLUS the remaining FOUR SEASONS.
Sorry, I didn't put that too clearly. Blame it on pre-breakfast posting.
Yea, I meant until the end of whatever he'd planned. I wasn't sure how long he'd planned the show to last.
And from your mouth to WB's ear, indeed. It's probably too late now to reunite all of the cast, but there still should be time to do this, if it were done soonish, right?
JMS seemed to believe WB has shelved Crusade, never to look at it again. Is there any reason they might have not liked it, other than the network cancelling it I mean. Or was he just saying that WB is the only group that can revive Crusade at this point, and at the time this didn't seem likely at all?
vacantlook
Super Moderator
KoshN said:
We're going to get to them all.
Jan
Regular
WB owns Crusade and the entire Babylon 5 universe. If somebody came along with money and said "We want to have more Crusade episodes", they'd be happy to make a deal. They're not going out and trying to sell it, though.
Jan
Eclipse
Member
Hey Daryl, can you talk to your brother, the other Daryl,
and see if you guys could give us some more Crusade
episodes? Most of us fans have some money ... at least
enough to buy the Season 1.5 DVD set of Crusade with
the missing 11 episodes. If you would agree to give us
the remaining 4 years of episodes, why some of us would
even come and mow your lawns or even trim your shrubs!
Thanks,
The Crusade Fans
KoshN
Super Moderator
The "Warner Brothers."
Attachments
GaribaldisHair
Regular
Unfortunately, Dot is unreachable at the moment. I think she is on vacation.
Chris Springob
Regular
Not sure if I'm interpreting this correctly, but are you saying that you think the TLT sales will be *less* than the sales of the each of the five season sets, movies and Crusade ("not every fan is going to buy TLT")? Why would that necessarily be the case? There are lots of fans who don't buy all the DVDs, but might be willing to spring for TLT if it's the only way they can watch it (as opposed to the original series, Crusade, and the movies, which were all shown on TV for free many times before being released on DVD).
