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$75 for one movie! Is this what physical media has come to in 2025?

Cash Flagg wrote: Fri Aug 08, 2025 5:14 pm $75 for one movie! Is this what physical media has come to in 2025?

It’s coming back around to laserdisc (where one film could potentially cost you a hundred dollars or more)

CSM126 wrote: Fri Aug 08, 2025 5:44 pm

Cash Flagg wrote: Fri Aug 08, 2025 5:14 pm $75 for one movie! Is this what physical media has come to in 2025?

It’s coming back around to laserdisc (where one film could potentially cost you a hundred dollars or more)

Although that was 4 decades ago, factor in inflation and it was actually considerably more. It boggled my mind that anyone could afford to collect laserdiscs in those days. (Of course I was a student living hand to mouth then).

Fair warning, my friends; in my youth, I considered myself a fan of this spunky little picture, but after a recent rewatch, all of its “charms” were lost on this middle-aged adult, and I found it quite a slog to get through.

I suggest testing the waters before plonking down $75 on it.

I paid more than that for Mondo Vision's On the Silver Globe.

But I think that's my record for a single film.

I think I paid about that for Fury of the Wolfman. I wouldn't pay that for Deadly Spawn and I'm not just saying that because we've got a kid on the way now!

I paid around $90 for the Rebecca Criterion DVD set long before the upgrade. I think that’s still the most I’ve paid for a single film. As far as new releases, I think I paid about $60 for Opera’s previous release, and I don’t think I can go higher than that— I’m tempted by Imprint’s A Bridge Too Far but I can’t really justify $90 for a three star movie

Hi, my name’s Peacock and I spent $300 on Pathé’s out of print La Roue…

If only I had listened to my FOMO when it first went out of print rather than waiting years for a standard edition to come and the scalpers copies skyrocketing in price by then…

FOMO is a tricky one, you spend a fortune buying everything at risk of going out of print and then they never go out of print, or they get announced in a better edition from someone else.. but now you’re broke. Or you let it go out of print and hope it’ll come back from someone else and it rarely does. As everyone knows here, it’s not easy to win…

The most I've ever spent for a single Blu-ray, over $100, was for a copy of the cancelled-just-at-release-date edition of the original cut of Ishtar, after the later release ended up being only the shorter Director's Cut.

I payed $60 for Criterion's Spartacus DVD back in high school, and I think the same for the Nightbreed ultimate BluRay that had the reconstructed Director's Cut. That's my limit.

Peacock wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 3:32 pm Hi, my name’s Peacock and I spent $300 on Pathé’s out of print La Roue…

I just spent over $100 on the limited edition box of J’Accuse on Amazon.fr just over a month ago and DHL is telling me it arrived 2 weeks ago at my PO Box, but no one there has seen it and DHL Global tracking data says it was delivered to their distribution facility 50 miles away. The only time I spent over (or even close to ) $100 on a single film and it goes missing in transit.

Peacock wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 3:32 pm FOMO is a tricky one, you spend a fortune buying everything at risk of going out of print and then they never go out of print, or they get announced in a better edition from someone else..

I picked up the Dead Alive blu-ray when I saw it on sale at Fry’s Electronics for $5.99. I didn’t even know it had been released. When I got home I went online to see the reviews and the few available ones panned the encode/ PQ. Since it was the American theatrical cut I thought Arrow would probably release the the full UK version/Braindead, so I returned it even though it was only $6 (I almost changed my mind during the return because it was so cheap, but I thought I had already bought too many duplicate copies and already owned the UK dvd with the unedited version). A week later I saw it was pulled from stores and so I visited all the local Fry’s but no one still had a copy. So you can’t win no matter what you do.

Lowry_Sam wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 7:23 pm

Peacock wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 3:32 pm Hi, my name’s Peacock and I spent $300 on Pathé’s out of print La Roue…

I just spent over $100 on the limited edition box of J’Accuse on Amazon.fr just over a month ago and DHL is telling me it arrived 2 weeks ago at my PO Box, but no one there has seen it and DHL Global tracking data says it was delivered to their distribution facility 50 miles away. The only time I spent over (or even close to ) $100 on a single film and it goes missing in transit.

Is this the 1938 version?

It contains both the 1938 and the silent versions. I understand there are no English subtitles though?

I’m sorry to hear that Sam. I hope it turns up soon.

I spent $60 on eBay for Vinegar Syndrome's blu-ray of Smiley Face to get the limited edition slipcover, so yes I am the ultimate sucker. Time will tell if that was a wise financial decision but all signs point to no.

This unwisely prompted me to scroll through my eBay purchases from the last year, which I primarily use for OOP titles and cheap books. I spent $71 for the sealed Criterion Blu of Truffaut’s Day for Night because I reasoned even another label putting it out wouldn’t replicate the great wealth of extras. Did not recall spending that much but I do recall selling my original copy for $14 years ago which makes it even more painful

I spent over $80 on Mondo Vision's La note bleue Blu-ray because I found it in Vancouver and was excited to be able to buy something rare in an actual store.

Peacock wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 10:56 pm It contains both the 1938 and the silent versions. I understand there are no English subtitles though?

I’m sorry to hear that Sam. I hope it turns up soon.

I wonder if it has the original cut of the 1938 version, which made it to VHS. The version on the Olive and BFI releases is a cut reissue.

On the other side, before Criterion officially announced their edition of Smooth Talk I listed the old Olive disc on eBay for like twenty bucks and some guy in Australia - who was apparently desperate to own that film - offered me $80 to break my domestic (US) only shipping rule. So, uh, yeah. Sure.

Hm, this is an interesting thread. My record for a single movie is $275 for a long-out-of-print DVD of Shinji Somai's Tokyo Heaven. Soon after I bought this, the blu ray of the film was announced. But subsequent events made the purchase very worthwhile, I don't regret it at all. And I ended up loving the movie more than most.

The Seijun Suzuki boxsets I bought on DVD were quite expensive, but no single film in a set was more than $50. They were already at least 7 years out of print when I bought them.

I've been considering how to get an institutional copy of a blu ray for P.P. Rider, since it doesn't look like Cinema Guild is going to release a blu ray of the film after all. They sell institutional copies on blu ray from their website for $435. I wonder if I could convince the college I work for to purchase a copy.

Wasn't sure how to figure out the item that inflicted the biggest dent, but then remembered the painful group buy process over at Media Psychos for World Cinema Library titles. Including shipping and some unwanted shiny art postcard, wound up paying $136.50(*) for Bu Wancang's Love and Duty. Which I've yet to watch.

(*) Which doesn't include the additional $50 deposit they sat on for 16 months.

The FOMO comment is very on point. I've been buying a ton of discs recently, motivated by my shunning of streaming due to annoyance over ads, and my dismay at wanting to watch several past purchases I sold a while ago and now find to be out of print! As much as I'd like to sell off some of the kevyip and declutter, there's always a nagging voice in my head saying, "You might change your mind about this film and want to watch it down the line..."

I contemplated spending over $150USD on the World Cinema Blu of The Horse Thief before I came to my senses and realized it’s on YouTube

The ability to buy discs on installments plans like Klarna is fucking dangerous for me

The most I've spent on a single movie (4-disc set) is $55 and I won't go higher than that. But I have paid more for a single CD.

Not a single film but I once bought a copy of the old French Otar Iosseliani set for like $660, but then somehow found another copy for $56 and subsequently sold the original copy for $600

Along those lines, I recently found a like new copy of the long OOP Dwan Carlotta box for all of $20. I’ll call it a karmic realignment for all the OOP titles I’ve been getting hosed on all year