Cheap Rights and Budget Bundles

T

Torin W

New member
After watching Geneon and CPM fall with ADV and FUNimation gobbling up the rights for their properties so quickly, something really irked me. It almost seems like a race to see who can release the most bought titles as quickly as possible. Sure, if it's something popular like Slayers and Champloo, it's a good move to re-release it. But when they start re-releasing the lesser titles Darkside Blues, I'm scared for the anime distribution industry.

Not only is it a title not in high demand, but it's practially the same DVD, price and all. Have ADV and FUNi learned nothing from the fall of Geneon and CPM? Did they just see a bunch of cheap titles to grab, slap their names on them, and shove them back out on DVD without thinking?

Maybe this is just my crazy idea of marketing, but I believe the only way these cheap titles will sell is if they come bundled. I'm not going to pay $15 for Darkside Blues, but if it comes bundled with Roujin Z and Harlock Saga, then I'd be more inclined. I see all these 4-packs of film series like Superman, Nightmare on Elm Street, and other movies in the stores for super cheap (and they sell). Why wouldn't the anime distribution industry, which is struggling now more than ever, not take advantage of this? In fact, I've seen ADV already do this with a bunch of their own titles that they spent money on producing. Why wouldn't you do the same for a title you only spent money on for the buying the rights?

Either that or they could they hold online polls to see which anime people would actually buy instead of just grabbing random anime from the cheap rights pile. After all, anybody whose been around during the 90's can tell you that CPM's library is not 100% gold (Garaga anyone). There is some real junk in there that I can't see ANYBODY wanting to spend $15 on let alone anime fans.

So am I making sense or do people really want to pay $15 per title from CPM's library?
 
I can't see that happening but I could see them doing something maybe a little more notorious.

It might be interesting if you buy one series and they throw in the first dvd of another series to try to peak your interest.
 
I'm not an industry rep or anything but, if the titles are cheap to buy the rights to and don't include the cost of dubbing why not? It's not like they are printing thousanRAB of copies and sending them to countless B&M stores. It's basically costing them the price of stamping out a couple hundred blank discs with some cheap cases. It's not like they are going to produce an ungodly amount of copies; they're not stupid. If for some reason there is high demand for that particular rescued series, they will just print a couple hundred more. They are not buying countless expensive series strait from Japan, they are buying cheap already dubbed series.

These are not the same events that killed Geneon. Besides, ADV isn't buying a title unless they think it will sell. And FUNi....well FUNi as top dog of the industry right now isn't hurting. They are more likely just accumulating titles to build up what is already a huge library, and if they can make a little money off of it, that's just a bonus. The more titles you own the rights to, the more chances you have to make money. Especially if some of those titles are cheap.
 
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