So Warner Bros is releasing movie DVDs in China on the same day as the US movie arrives in theaters. The selling price of these DVDs? Just $2.75.
Now I realize that the average Chinese resident makes a lot less than their US counterpart – about $1000 a year isn’t much, and $2.75 can add up if you’re a movie buff. But $2.75 for a DVD? That’s cheaper than the cost of the movie admission in the US, and suggests that the movie industry has done a whole lot of inflating in that price.
The article where I read this suggests that opportunists will purchase the DVDs in China and sell them abroad for a markup, where they can still cost less than the official releases. Sounds like an idea to me. Anyone wonder why the whole region code was invented? To prevent this very sort of thing.
I’m all for a company to protect their profits – but when it becomes an issue of inflating process to milk your customers for all you can get (see USAirways for this too), it just ticks me off. I hope it does you too.
Comments
One response to “How Much do Bootlegs Cost?”
Their pricing strategy may be just to make something in the Chinese market. The Chinese are the most renowned software pirates in the world. I suspect they are hoping to price the DVD’s low enough that people will buy the real copy instead of a bootleg one. If they priced their DVD’s at $10.00, they might not sell even one.
Nearly every vendor prices his products differently in different markets.