A proven success primarily for the Disney Studio and being picked up as a packaging format of choice by other distributors, Warner Home Video is the latest studio to announce all their future theatrical titles will come to home video in Blu-ray/DVD Combo Packs, which include both disc formats. Other companies have essentially restricted this marketing ploy to family titles or come up with other solutions. Universal recently announced “flipper discs” that contained a BD on one side and a DVD on the other, but the combos are widely regarded as safer and more user friendly. Warners will also begin to debut Blu-ray Double Features, encouraging consumers to upgrade their collection of catalog titles, with two movies (usually franchise pictures) on a disc that would retail for under $25. A press release can be read here:
Studio To Begin Offering Blu-ray(TM) Combo Packs On All Theatrical New Release Titles; Blu-ray Disc, Standard Definition DVD, And Digital Copy All-In-One At No Additional Cost
Also Introducing The Industry’s First Line Of Affordably Priced “Blu-ray Double Features” – Sets Will Include Two Of Warner’s Top Catalog Hits On Blu-ray Disc
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment today announced two Blu-ray packaging initiatives that will give consumers greater value and portability when shopping for the best possible way to watch movies at home. Beginning in the first quarter of 2010, Warner Home Video will be releasing its entire Theatrical New Release slate as Blu-ray combo packs, containing a Blu-ray Disc of the film with exclusive special features and exciting BD-Live interactivity, a standard-definition DVD and a Digital Copy of the film. For no additional cost, Blu-ray combo packs offer consumers significantly more value by merging the unsurpassed quality of Blu-ray with the convenience of being able to watch the film in any format, on just about every playback device.
Warner Home Video is also launching the industry’s first line of Blu-ray Double Features, priced at $24.98 (SRP). Beginning February 23, the attractively packaged and entry-level priced Blu-ray Double Features pack will include a pair of well-matched catalog hits spanning multiple genres – comedy, action, drama/thriller and horror. The first wave will include Dirty Harry/Magnum Force starring Clint Eastwood; Analyze This/Analyze That starring Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro; Presumed Innocent/Frantic starring Harrison Ford; Miss Congeniality/Miss Congeniality 2 starring Sandra Bullock; and Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.
“When people experience Blu-ray – they love it, and with Blu-ray combo packs on all of our top new releases, we are giving consumers the titles they want without having to sacrifice convenience and portability,” said Ron Sanders, President, Warner Home Video. “And our new Blu-ray Double Feature sets make it easier and more affordable than ever for consumers to build or expand their home movie libraries and discover why Blu-ray is simply the best way to watch movies at home.”
According to third quarter figures compiled by the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), Blu-ray is on the rise. In 2009, Blu-ray Disc set-top player sales grew 112 percent over the same period last year and this holiday season consumers are seeing Blu-ray player prices starting around $100, making it that much easier for home audiences to see the films they love the way they were meant to be seen. Blu-ray devices are at the top of many consumers’ holiday wish lists this year are projected to be in 15 million US homes by the end of this year.
About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group:
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment’s home video, digital distribution, interactive entertainment/videogames, direct-to-DVD production, technical operations and anti-piracy businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios. WBHEG is responsible for the global distribution of content through DVD, electronic sell-through and VOD, and delivery of theatrical content to wireless and online channels, and is also a significant worldwide publisher for both internal and third party videogame titles.
