As recently as 2014, the Walmart Black Friday mailer devoted ample space to discounted discs.
Memories of Black Fridays Past
November 27, 2024
Remember those late, great Black Friday sales, where the big box merchants — led by Walmart and Best Buy — tried their best to outdo themselves in offering that red-hot commodity, DVD — and, later, Blu-ray Disc — at lowball prices?
Back then, in the early 2000s, the disc was the only way to watch movies and shows on demand, at home. The physical media business saw double-digit sales gains for several consecutive years, and retailers liked to talk about goosing sales in the fourth quarter — which typically accounted for as much as 40% of annual consumer spending on discs, which at one point (in 2006) topped $16.6 billion — by selling recent hits at a loss and catalog titles for as little as $5, then $3, and, ultimately, $1.
Throughout the early 2000s and well into the teens, the Hollywood trades were filled with Black Friday sales stories, of people lined up at Best Buy with armloads of recent theatrical hits for $15 apiece, of shoppers clustered around those huge DVD “dump bins” at Walmart, shoving and clawing their way to buy older hits such as Cocktail, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for less than a Big Mac.
These days, those colorful mailers that started to arrive the week before Thanksgiving with rows and rows of discounted discs are but distant memories, a reminder of the evolving nature of pop culture, right up there with the once-ubiquitous blue-and-yellow Blockbuster logo and catch phrase, “Be Kind, Rewind.”
Black Friday for home entertainment now means discounted streaming subscriptions and bundles, most recently from Disney, which the day before Thanksgiving announced it is offering subscribers 12-month ad-supported access to Hulu for 99 cents a month, and to the Disney+ and Hulu bundle for $2.99 a month through Dec. 2.
Discounted discs, meanwhile, are still to be had, but the bargains are relegated to online promotions by indie distributors, such as Kino Lorber’s Winter Wonderland sale, in which consumers can buy 600 films for as little as $4.99 apiece, from 4K editions of major studio films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to boxed sets of classic TV shows such as “The Outer Limits.” The sale runs through Dec. 16.
Here at Media Play News, we’re having our own Black Friday sale. For a trip down memory lane, check out our collection of annual reports on the state of the home entertainment industry, specially prepared as instantly downloadable PDFs. Each report is filled with statistics, numbers and comments from industry leaders.
Buy the 2006 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2007 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2008 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2009 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2010 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2011 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2012 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2013 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2014 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2015 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2016 State of the Home Entertainment Business report
Buy the 2017 State of the Home Entertainment Business report