Harry Potter DVDs And Blu-Rays To Disappear On December 29th
For years the Walt Disney Company has employed a unique way of releasing DVDs. The studio will release its movies for a limited time only before taking them off the market and putting them in the “Disney Vault.” It’s a fairly brilliant idea, as it works perfectly with the concept of supply and demand: the less time a movie spends on the market, the higher instant demand will be. It’s such a good strategy that it’s a wonder why no other company has tried to mimic the style. Now Warner Bros. has apparently decided to do just that with one of the biggest franchises in its collection.
Reuters reports that WB will pull all Harry Potter DVDs and Blu-rays from the shelves on December 29th. Amazingly, this also includes Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which is set to debut on home video on November 11th, giving consumers only 48 days to pick up a copy. On that same day a full box set – including all eight movies – will go on sale as well. The article says that this move may indicate that Warners is planing a release of the films, similar to what Disney did with The Lion King 3D (which ended up pulling in $92 million before the end of its run). It’s unknown if this means the studio is planning 3D conversions as well. The Harry Potter films will still be available digitally and on-demand.
As though DVD sales of the final Harry Potter movie weren’t going to be big enough, this should bring in a ton of cash for WB’s home video department. All those people who have waited to buy the movies as a complete set are now forced to act immediately.