From: mikkelson@breakr.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: Pinocchio
Organization: Salivation Army
Date: 28 JUL 92 12:27:16    


In article <19692@optima.cs.arizona.edu>, 
  gln@cs.arizona.edu (Gary L. Newell) writes...

>do as they wish. My problem is what they choose to do. They choose to milk
>those of us who are in fact big Disney fans and who are willing to put out the
>$20 or so to purchase their tapes and cards and a variety of other products.

  I fail to see how _not_ selling you something is "milking" you.  If you can't
  buy a tape, it isn't costing you anything.  Nor does re-releasing a movie
  already available on video cost you money, because you don't have to go to
  to the theater to see it, and you can always rent it.

>I would have gladly purchased the tape from Disney for a reasonable price at
>many points over the past 2-3 years but alas in an effort to milk more money 
>from the public they choose to artificially limit the supply of tapes and 
>create an artificial demand for the product.

Disney has a fine line to tread here.  They have films of lasting appeal that
people will pay to see when re-released to theaters over and over.  These same
films also have great value in the sell-through video market.  If they release
the films to theaters only, they lose out on the home video sales.  If they 
glut the market with sell-through videos, their films risk suffering at the
box office due to overexposure.  So, they compromise and make their films
available to the home video market, but only for a limited time.  I find that
to be a very sound business practice, and not the onerous policy you make it 
out to be.  Other studios would do the same thing if they could, but they don't
have quality films of lasting appeal that Disney does.  Do you think that if
"Terminator II" or "Batman II" were not released on video, they could gross
$50-60 million at the box office twenty years from now?  Of course not.  But
if they could, you can bet their studios would be milking the public for all
they're worth. 

>To top it off, they choose to lie about
>their re-release policy, implying that they would not re-release their tapes
>unless or until their was a significant change or improvement in technology.
>Anyone know the supposed price of the infamous Pinochio improvements? I'm
>curious if the $25 million in gate receipts will cover it.

 What are you complaining about?  In the same breath you excoriate Disney for
 claiming that they would only re-release tapes when there was an improvement
 in technology, you admit that there was such an improvement.  What's the
 problem?  The original 1984 video release of "Pinocchio" was taken from a
 master several generations removed from the original, and it really suffers
 because of it.  "Pinocchio" has now been extensively restored, to the point
 where the audio _and_ visual tracks are better than the original.  I'd call
 that a "significant change".

 In any case, Disney has neither released nor announced an intention to release
 any films previously available on video to the home market again, so you're
 just knocking down your own straw man.

>I have little doubt that Disney will once again change its video policy when 
>the number of Disney stores in the US increases and a wider area of the 
>country is covered. At that time, I suspect that they will either only sell 
>their tapes out of their own stores (at a price much higher than you can 
>find the tapes now) or they will release even fewer copies to other sources 
>for an even shorter time and then have the tapes available for an unlimited 
>time in Disney stores at a significantly higher price.

So what if they did?  Frankly, everybody would do this, but other studios don't
have the right kind of films to be able to pull it off.  Like it or not, Disney
isn't here to provide you with videos of your choosing at whatever you consider
to be a "fair" price.  They're a business out to make a profit, and you make a
profit by selling products at whatever cost the market will bear.  It's a fact
of capitalism that greater demand equals a higher price, and it's just silly
to essentially blame Disney for creating quality products.  They're in demand
because they're good, quality products, not because of some nonsense about
an "artificially created demand".

>Allowing the public to purchase their own copy is a pretty good way to ensure
>that each generation appreciates the product.

Maybe, but that's not the purpose of a business.  Giving you a lifetime supply
of Wheaties might make you appreciate the product, but it's not likely to
cause you to buy more Wheaties.

>Making relatively small changes to the product for the expressed purpose of 
>milking the public doesn't make me want to jump for joy about Disney's intent 
>to please the masses.

 Quote a single example to back that up.  Then name a single company who hasn't
 done the same thing with their products.  Do you really think all those "new
 and improved" products are significantly better than their predecessors?

> Disney has clearly found their market and they own it without any real
>competition to speak of. The animated musical is theirs now (face it you
>probably won't see another non-musical Disney animation for the next decade
>and a half at least).

 Yeah, I don't remember any animated films since "Fern Gully", all of a few
 months ago.

>I find it hard to believe that the manipulation of the video market
>is essential to the success of Disney.

  It depends how you define success.  Making $30 million might be considered
  successful by some, but it might be considered a failure when there is $100
  million to be made.

 - snopes

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|  David P. Mikkelson   Digital Equipment Corporation   Culver City, CA  USA  |
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney