Warner Bros. has issued a press release announcing that beginning December 29 they will stop shipping and selling all of their Harry Potter titles, including DVD, Blu-Ray, and the upcoming years 1-7 box set (though digital copies will still be available for purchase).
Looks like WB is pulling a trick out of Disney’s book with the Disney Vault, where films are released temporary to drive sales through scarcity… only to release them a few years later. Disney of course explains their “Vault” as a way to keep the films fresh for each generation, but it doesn’t take a MBA to know about the basic laws of supply and demand.
With the final chapter to Harry Potter due out in November, it makes sense for WB to want to drive prices as they’d want to move the upcoming Harry Potter Complete Collection that contains all eight films as aggressively as they can. With early reviews bashing the collection as being pretty bare bone in terms of bonuses, it would not surprise us if WB releases some ultimate super collection later down the line.
My advice for Harry Potter fans would be to just buy “Deathly Hallows Part 2” for now, while holding off on any boxset. Take cue from someone who buys Star Wars DVD almost religiously. There will always be something better and “enhanced” down the line, and it’s better to have the patience and to get the best value for your buck rather than pissing money away buying multiple inferior copies of the same damn film each year it gets re-released.
I’m on to you now movie studios!
Maybe they’ll pull a George Lucas and re-release the movies, One a year… and converted to 3D… with extra scenes digitally added in. But Richard Harris will be digitally removed from the movie so that Michael Gambon can be added in to all the scenes…
And an extra “Noooooooo!” from Harry when Dumbledore is killed.