Should you buy Harry Potter the Complete 8 Film Collection or wait until the release of the new box set some time in 2012? Warner Brothers recently announced that all of the 8 Harry Potter movies will be temporarily unavailable until some time in 2012. Yes even the recently released Harry Potter Complete 8 Film Collection and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Time is running out for Harry Potter movie fans as the existing Harry Potter movie dvd’s will no longer be shipped to stores and retailers after 29th December 2011. So if you want to be sure to get a copy of any of the movies you do have to act now.
Of course this is the oldest marketing ploy in the book. Make something unavailable so that you can sell more copies when you relaunch. The Disney Vault has been doing this for many years. This technique has been extremely successful for Disney movies. Generally the movie goes into the ‘vault’ for a decade and then is relaunched with different and enhanced features. The scarcity of the particular movie has meant that used copies have become very expensive. Scarcity has really worked in driving costs up for fans who want the movie and don’t mind paying the price. Is this going to happen for a Harry Potter fan who really wants the movie in the time when it isn’t available. Are you going to have to pay a high price on eBay? I would say that his is unlikely. The period of time when the Harry Potter movies are not going to be available is likely to be short enough that speculators on the second hand market really will not get a foothold.
Fortunately for Harry Potter fans the wait for the release of the movies will not be anywhere near 10 years. But when the release will come in 2012 is anyone’s guess. This was the statement that Warner Brothers made:
“Hard-core Potter fans will be pleased to know that 2011 is not the end of the Harry Potter film franchise on DVD and Blu-ray. Warner Home Video plans to release a comprehensive Harry Potter film collection, with even more extras and collectible premiums in 2012. More details about the collection will be available at a later date.”
The most online sales are always made in the last couple of months of the year. So the obvious release date for the Harry Potter Ultimate 8 DVD Collection is surely November 2012. But will the Harry Potter DVDs really be off the market for that long? Will they release each edition separately? Buying DVDs these days just seems to be ridiculously complicated. The format choice is easy – either you have upgraded to Blu-ray or you haven’t. But what of the extra features? Do you just want the movies? The Digitally upgraded version? The one with all the extra features? The one with the picture book? The digital copy? The choices are endless and complicated.
The Harry Potter movies are phenomenal and for fans all over the world they have brought the Wizarding World to life in ways in which even the books could not. But navigating the world of Harry Potter movie dvds is not easy.
What do you think? Will you be waiting for the new releases in 2012? Or are you scrambling to buy the last available current Harry Potter DVDs. Leave me a comment below.
