Every week or two there’s another study or data drop about the buying habits of today’s home video consumers.
The latest one involves the Blu-ray format. It’s not replacing the DVD as some hoped, but sales figures are climbing steadily for the high-def format.
Which begs the question – who is buying these titles, and why?
This movie critic has a wall dedicated to Blu-ray and DVD releases. It’s my gig, and having a big collection makes reviewing new and older movie titles possible. So I’m not your average consumer by a longshot. That said, I hardly ever reach back into the vault and watch an older title for my own amusement. I simply don’t have the time. I need to watch as many new releases in the theater each week as possible while reviewing new Blu-ray titles for my weekly boxofficemagazine.com column.
I wish I could spend a lazy Saturday poring over my video library and plucking 2-3 titles for an extended stay on my couch.
But what about you? Do you splurge on a home movie library? If so, why? Do you regularly watch the titles in your collection, or are they there simply as a back-up plan when the television schedule isn’t appealing?
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, if you don’t have cable or netflix you’re kind of stuck with programming for yourself. In my case we have two 400 disk Sony carousel units, the only question is which classic film or TV show we call up using on screen programming. Last week it was
From Russia With Love
2 episodes from Top Gear season 10
Crank 1
Never Say Die – Bob Hope and Martha Raye
2 episodes from “Fractured Flickers” TV show MC-ed by Hans Conried
Fail Safe
Quite often I must say. I have certain favorites which never get old no matter how often I view them. Usually it’s a Sunday night and you’re looking for a good film to wrap up the weekend before you go back to work the next week.
The problem I find, is it’s a little like the problem you have when you go to the fridge and you don’t know what you want so you stand there and do a back and forth in your mind. You don’t know what you want, but you do know that everything you see is what you don’t want.
My stand-bys are Happy Gilmore, Tombstone, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and lately Role Models or Kick-Ass.
I watch most of my films. Typically my DVD “Rom Com” reliability (no surprises) at bedtime (and the wife really loves them so peace reigns in the family), “Horror” (I own a bunch, luckly my wife loves those as well).
Although Tom in AZ will disagree, I own a bunch of “Godzilla” camp which I find my inner-child gleeful while I watch them.
I watched “Moonstruck” probably over 50 times, “Crossing Delancy” about the same and “GodFather” 1 & 2 back-to-back over 25 times.
A good music album people can listen to over and over again and no one thinks anything. Why can’t we find personal joy in watching movies again and again? Why do we need any excuses except we love the films?
It’s a mix. I like having plenty for backup, but my favorites are the ones I can splurge on over and over. Marathons, they be rockin!!
I don’t have many movies in my home collection, just keepers that I sometimes get an itch to watch for something special in them (beauty and also Hoyt Axton in “The Black Stallion,” for instance, or nice ensemble work and compelling actors in “The Fugitive,” etc) or because I really enjoyed them and they may not always be available (“Salem’s Lot” and Ford’s “The Hurricane” are examples). Some are just hard to find, like “Aftershock” (the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in IMAX…okay, that doesn’t come across fully on the DVD but still, it’s awesome and was totally ignored in its limited release here). I’m saving up to get “Night on the Galactic Railroad” (1985) and would also like to build up an extensive collection from the silent era.
From my home video collection (yes, VHS all the way), I watch John Carpenter’s “They Live”, Mr. T’s “Be Somebody or Be Somebody’s Fool”, Patrick Dempsey in “Run” and the anthology horror flick “Nightmares” whenever I need a little B-movie kick. As for DVD’s, I watch “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the “Alien” Quadrilogy, Tim Burton’s “Batman”, Spike Lee’s “Clockers” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” at least once a year.
-Barry
I pull from my collection every weekend and on the weekdays if i dont have a game to attend. My staples have always been action movies, 13 Warriors, The Crow, Terminator 4, Batman, Taken, etc. I am starting to get my John Wayne collection together so between that and my current love of Samurai Epics its becoming a debate on what to watch at times.
There’s another benefit not addressed here. After I’ve watched favorites 2-3 times I may not watch them from beginning to end for years, but often surf my collection for favorite scenes. A favorite may have number of characteristics I want to revisit often, such as a great score, stunning visuals, great action beats, or compelling performances. I doubt I’m the only one who does this. Rewatching clips from favorite movies is a benefit I doubt we’ll ever see with the downloading paradigm that’s getting all the attention today.