I've planned on buying Star Trek on Blu-Ray since the day I saw it in theaters and demanded to see it again right away. It was my favorite movie of the year.

Meh, considering the things cost like $1 (if that) to produce, they aren't losing as much profit as they want to say.

@pecan 3.14159265: It was good. I've just seen it too many times now.

Looks like Amazon is already responding. The Blu Ray combo pack for Harry Potter is going for $16 right now.

That is the same or slightly less than the price of the actual movie ticket. Less than half if you include a date's ticket!

@pecan 3.14159265: I just pre-ordered it for my Dad's birthday on DVD for $15 on Amazon, he's been a Trekkie since the first series...I really wanted to see it again too so it kills two birds with one stone!
Frankly, I'd still buy it from Amazon even if it's available at Walmart for five bucks cheaper. Amazon has better customer service than Walmart, so they're a step up in my book. I always order $25 worth so I like the convenience of free shipping to my door.
Plus, no receipt checking!

Wait; list price for a DVD is still around 30 bucks? What is this 1998?

I hope this price war is still happening when BLACK DYNAMITE is released on DVD.

@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: Hm.. Indeed. Maybe Wal*Mart will work out a lower price for them to purchase at as well.

There are few movies that I actually buy to own.. Most are just good to Netflix. Allthough I'm getting disapointed with Netflix because they seem to be favoring "rental only" versions of DVDs that are suverely lacking in extras, and I'm a nerd who loves DVD extras.

This price drop might actually get me back to buying some DVDs.

@lmarconi: Since the Blu-Ray version of Star Trek is $21.99 right now, I'd say that the studio is looking at recouping much of the cost from the sheer quantity they expect to sell. I'm going to check out the circulars for Target and Best Buy to see whether the deals are any better. Sometimes Target offers a $5 gift card for things.

walmart.torrents coming soon

@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: My understanding is that Walmart is actually paying $18 for these and selling at $10, so they will lose money. They try to make it back with the assumption that if you buy a DVD there you will buy other things, too.

Sorry retailers. As long as DVDs still retain the properties of a solid (most particularly mass) I will forgo the price wars and stream.

We buy DVDs that we'll want to watch multiple times. I plan on getting Star Trek and Watchmen this year; probably as Christmas gifts.

So, if Walmart spends $18/each to buy and sells back to me for $10/each, am I hurting Walmart or helping them by buying from them? Seems like if we all bought those DVDs from them and nothing else, they'd losing a lot of money.

I'd rather shop at Target, but not if by doing so makes Target lose money!

@Loias: If only I were rich enough to buy each of them...

I could host my own "I-bought-each-of-these-movies-so-Walmart-could-take-an-eight-dollar-loss" movie party.

@americangame:

Amazon had Star Trek for 10 bucks yesterday.

@Applekid: "so-Walmart-can-lose-8-bucks" ... that was weird quote behavior.

@americangame: I noticed that last night - it is cheaper to get teh BR/DVD pack than it is to get just the DVD ($21)

@Applekid: LOL that's a good idea.

Even if Walmart is losing money SOMEONE is making a killing selling them way over their actual value at wholesale.

@Loias: Yes, if you only buy the DVD from them then they will lose money, but if you buy the movie they are hoping that all of the other things you may buy while your in the store (toilet paper, deodorant, popcorn, candy, pop) will make up the difference.

The only thing newsworthy about the story is that Star Trek DVD is going to be ridiculously cheap, stores do it all the time. Milk, eggs, bread all discounted really cheap hoping that you'll buy steak, chocolate syrup, ceral, fruit to make up the difference.

@Loias: I know, I'm in the same boat. If spending at Wal-Mart makes them lose money, hurray - but I'm still giving them money, so what's the right decision here?

I suspect that the best course of action is to not buy from Wal-Mart because a ton of people will, and they'll probably eventually make more profit anyway. Target is priced low as well, and I'd be more willing to buy from them because Star Trek wouldn't be the only thing I ever buy from them. They'll get more of my money by getting me in the door cause I'll browse the seasonal aisles and buy way too much Christmas stuff.

Yeah Amazon had slashed prices on all of these DVDs to $10 as of several hours ago.

But I thought piracy was why DVD sales were down? Why would lowering the price to anything but $0 reduce that?

HOORAY! Lets put all of the Mom & Pop stores out of business, so eventually the only job options left will be in "food services" and working at Wal-Mart!!!

@AHepburnGuy: Agreed. That whole taking up space business is no good either. I don't want to store DVDs, especially if I am not going to watch most of them multiples times.

@Loias: You would be helping walmart as it's always their goal to eliminate whatever competition they can. Since 99% of consumers only care about price, they know they can vastly undercut everyone else, eliminate all competition then charge whatever they want a few years down the road.

@suburbancowboy: Um, where have you been for the last...30 years?

@AHepburnGuy: I have to agree, its not like a video game that you want to put down and likely pick up again, so buying that type of media makes sense, as you may play it many times over the course of a month.

Most people watch a movie and then aren't going to watch it 3x or more in the same month. I know that when I watch a movie I most likely never want to watch it again simply because there isn't enough time when I could be playing a game or watching another movie. I would rather not see a shelf of DVD's that I spent a lot of money on collecting dust and not being used.

Amazon may not have publically commented, but they did reduce the prices to $10.

@winshape:

If you are fastidiously cheap, you and a friend can see the movies for as little as $2.10, if you manage to combine enough offers. My local theatres (more than one!) charge $4.20 on Tuesday, and one of them accepts a 2-for-1 coupon on that day.

It's about time, too, because a couple of years ago movies were over $13 a person 'round these parts, and the theatres would be, literally, empty apart from yourself. Now they're pretty much packed and the people going have some $$$ left to buy (overpriced, but understandably so) snacks. Also discounted to about half price on tuesday.

Why bother to buy the movies? Just watch them as they were meant to be seen!

@suburbancowboy: I'm not aware of any mom and pop stores that sell DVDs. We're talking non-bootlegs, no pr0n, and establishments that are not on the alleys of Chinatown.

@suburbancowboy: To be fair its been a very long time since I have seen a mom&pop store dealing in things like VHS tapes, DVD's and electronics unless your talking pawn shops. Mom & Pop video rental stores went down in the mid 90s or earlier (RIP Movietime video).

Most successful mom & pop businesses (the ones that have been around for a very long time) here deal in a certain type of food, like italian or asian, or products you can't find at a B&M store like comic books or high end bicycles.

The rest were gone years and years ago so its not like its having an effect on the current economy since its been this way for 10-15 years or more over here.

Walmart is taking a loss by selling a 3-cent disc in a 10-cent case for $10?

@Starfury: Same here. I rarely, if ever, buy any movie. Only those that I plan on watching again. And Star Trek will definitely be watched more than once. It already has. :-)

@chocobo: The electro-mages that etherically imbue the disks with the movie-essence charge like $30 an hour, though.

I never really buy DVDs anymore, though I do often ask for them for birthday/Christmas gifts from my grandmas. It's nice being able to give a specific title to a gift-giver, especially something that they can find in their local Wal-Mart. I do the same thing with books.

@chocobo:

I don't think Wally world is paying $.13 to their distributors for those movies. Yes the manufacturing may have cost that much in materials but I doubt that walmart went direct to the stamping plants, everyone in the middle will take a cut plus management, etc..

so saying .13 is a big unrealistic and over dramatic.

@chocobo: If Walmart pays $18 for the same disc, then yes. Walmart doesn't manufacture them and you fail to consider the price of the rights to the film... film production ain't cheap.

@mizike: It has been quite a few years for Walmart how far down the road are we looking? I think there will always be someone else.

@Outrun1986: I think it was an anti Walmart rant. You don't need to be getting logical now!

@chocobo: You could say that about everything you buy. The raw materials and the manufacturing cost are only a fraction of what you pay for.

True, $2-$3 less might be closer to the value of watching a movie for me.

@shepd: Well you wouldn't have to go quite to zero. I'd buy far more DVDs if they were maybe $5. I do buy certain ones anyway like ST.

Or I just use SwapaDVD.com - it's free and great.

Check out [www.swapadvd.com]

It's free and great.

I like box sets of shows. That way when you are in the mood you can watch them. Again, price is an issue with me, I stopped buying HBO shows a long time ago because of price, but did get some from ebay. If a series is cheap enough I might buy it, but normally just use Netflix.

Streaming ends up costing much more than Netflix, if I were to just watch shows streaming, one a night would cost me over $60 a month.

Hmmm...moral vs. financial quandary...wife works at Target, get 10% off all purchases, which makes movie only $9, but Target loses money. Do I spend the extra $1 to buy it from Walmart just so they lose? Or will the $1 expense hurt me more than it hurts them?

Screw it...I'm getting it at Walmart. Hate those bastards.

@frank64: I meant 2-3 dollars TOTAL

@frank64: Surprisingly, you can get some really, really great deals at Best Buy and Target for shows that the network needs to generate buzz for. I got the first season of True Blood for $25. Best Buy was offering a $5 gift card, but they were advertising True Blood for $35. I got them to reduce the price to match Target and I still got the gift card.

@suburbancowboy: i love it when people say that because walmart started as a Mom & Pop, they just grew, alot.