Is there a reason why Disney dislikes releasing Muppet DVD's?

[Drtooth]

It's a wonder (and perhaps a good thing) that it's not illegal to buy used merchandise, considering that the companies making them don't make money when people buy things that were already purchased.

If companies lobbied for that to happen, they'd be laughed out of the courtroom. Not to mention how up in arms consumers would be. If companies stop publishing something and don't sell them anymore, they've lost all the rights to make a profit. They feel they're beyond that, and trying to get back all the money they refused is petty.

On the other hand, scalpers. From my experience there's a period from between the DVD's getting discontinued and getting in the hands of greedy scalpers when DVD's hit remarkably low prices online. But that's a very thin time line, otherwise said scalpers buy them all up then charge a fortune. That's why I hate when things go out of print. I fail to see why Sony doesn't rerelease the good Transformers movie again, since even used copies go for a fortune. Companies don't get this money, but it isn't exactly stealing. It's not wrong or illegal, just sucky. But the companies have nothing to gain by illegalizing these transactions. They've already made their money, the rights expired... what are they going to do? Unless of course there's an international thing going, but they only really try and stop that in Japan because American releases are far cheaper, even with shipping than their wacky expensive disks. A box set can set you back like a thousand American dollars. Eh, but they come with toys sometimes.

As for Snowth's comment... I agree. Stop blaming Disney for doing stuff other companies have been doing for years. Rights are insane, crappy TV shows no one likes literally clog up store shelves, and most of everything can be seen legally or otherwise online. If you're lucky, a license can change hands and go somewhere more independent. Even that's not a guarantee. it was almost a decade between when Shout release only one set of Inspector Gadget and some weird indie company got the rights and released all of it, including the rare second season. Ditto Heathcliff and Mill Creek... and even then, they barely finished the first season. No season two announcement at all.

 

[jvcarroll]

From my understanding in store management, when a product like a DVD is produced, the company sells the units to distributors. Individual stores order from these distributors - not the parent company. That means the parent company's deal is already inked and they've already been compensated. So if a video was produced and distributed in 2003 and the company was purchased in 2004, the new parent company would not share in the profits no matter how many copies the distributors, stores and other vendors continued to sell. It's basically back stock. It would be very rare if this worked any differently. At least, that's my experience. However, if they reissued this release, the new company would hold the rights to the product. Although, this is a little trickier with the Muppets because Sony, not Disney, owns the rights to MTM, MFS and I think KSY too. The packaging copyrights likely change to reflect Disney's ownership of the Muppet brand, but Sony owns the movie and the distribution rights. Hope this helped.

 

[Drtooth]

Just what I was thinking. So basically if a DVD sells really well, and they need to reorder another shipment, does it mean the companies make a profit from that reorder? Only thing I'd like to know. But I wouldn't be surprised if both crappy obscure shows or one season of 5 episodes before it was cancelled crapfest no one liked are the reason stores are stocking less TV show based DVD's, causing the entertainment companies to produce less.

But yeah. If an entertainment company tried to stop the sale of used or hoarded videos that they can no longer profit from, that would be petty. Very very petty. Remember the stink that was raised when the new X-Box was reported to not play used or borrowed games?

 

[minor muppetz]

From my understanding in store management, when a product like a DVD is produced, the company sells the units to distributors. Individual stores order from these distributors - not the parent company. That means the parent company's deal is already inked and they've already been compensated. So if a video was produced and distributed in 2003 and the company was purchased in 2004, the new parent company would not share in the profits no matter how many copies the distributors, stores and other vendors continued to sell. It's basically back stock. It would be very rare if this worked any differently. At least, that's my experience. However, if they reissued this release, the new company would hold the rights to the product.

Wait, so in regards to residuals/royalties, do those entitled get paid based on what units are sold to stores or from the copies actually sold in stores?

 

[jvcarroll]

Wait, so in regards to residuals/royalties, do those entitled get paid based on what units are sold to stores or from the copies actually sold in stores?

It is my understanding that royalties are usually granted by number of units that are sold to the distributors who have calculated public interest from store orders.

Basically, stores are notified of upcoming stock. They order it through a distributor and the units are manufactured based on that. That's how it works with most products. Reorders are handled differently with different companies. However, that seems to be changing now that streaming is the new distribution plan.

 

[beaker]

Pretty sure most people got sick of waiting for Season 4 and 5 and downloaded the torrents. Disney shot themselves in the foot.

Unless it's been proven, as I've surmised that true Muppet collectors are very small and niche, no reason why Disney would have no reason to release more than they have done on the home market. I mean why not let a third party company release?

Yeah it's cool Disney put all their energy into two films; that's pretty insane. But that seems to be about it. It's as if, when MMW came back with B.O. they weren't satisfied with they seemed to wash their hands.

 

[jvcarroll]

Pretty sure most people got sick of waiting for Season 4 and 5 and downloaded the torrents. Disney shot themselves in the foot.

Unless it's been proven, as I've surmised that true Muppet collectors are very small and niche, no reason why Disney would have no reason to release more than they have done on the home market. I mean why not let a third party company release?

Yeah it's cool Disney put all their energy into two films; that's pretty insane. But that seems to be about it. It's as if, when MMW came back with B.O. they weren't satisfied with they seemed to wash their hands.

Are we making this argument again? I thought most of us had already assumed that there must be some sort of hold up pertaining to the rights. I mean, if Disney would release the entirety of the Muppet movies on Blu-ray and the fact that they were the first company to ever push season sets of TMS, it's a safe assumption that they'd like to get it all out there.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah it's cool Disney put all their energy into two films; that's pretty insane. But that seems to be about it. It's as if, when MMW came back with B.O. they weren't satisfied with they seemed to wash their hands.

It's funny that their purposed botching of the foreign release stunted the movie's box office pull, and by all means Planes 2 made just around the same lousy box office here, but because it opened in more countries it made slightly more and it's considered a success that they're still ramming down throats. NO ONE likes Planes. Seriously. No one. Frozen made money and spoke to an audience. Planes didn't. I never see Planes merchandise move, even at deep discount clearance.

But I doubt the lack of Seasons 4 and 5 have anything to do with MMW, because we would have had them by now before the movie premiered. The plan seems to have been to release it in 2009, then withhold it because it was the "Year of the Muppets" with nothing actually Muppety there, and they can't release it when the first movie came out because that would be "confusing" for some reason. If it was general ennui of the not Frozen numbers movie they picked a horrible time to release it (though movie goers went to see that awful Wizard of Oz film the year before no problem), I'd tend to agree, but they Wembled on these sets before the films were going to be a thing.

 

[Stulz]

I mean, sure, it's just my opinion, but I think MMW would have been a whole lot better had they not done the whole, "We're Doin' a Sequel," bit.

Or at least stuck with it through out the film. It's mentioned in the opening, and sorta brought up again with "Together again, agian." But it would have been better if they actually followed through and made fun of squeal tropes along the way. The closing number could have been a reprise of "Squeal" but joking about it becoming a trilogy. Inside movie jokes would have added a lot. It also would probably have helped word of mouth ticket sales as well.

Did you hear the made fun of "___"?? I can't belaive they gor away with acamo from "___". You need to this because of "__". I need to see that again just for the "__". That's what drive ticket sales and repeat viewings.

 

[beaker]

I apologize, the question shouldn't be "Does Disney hate releasing Muppet dvds", but...going by this year's Toy Fair coverage and previous years retail seasons the question should be "Does Disney just hate Muppet merchandise in general?"

Oof. Oh to take a time machine back to 1979-1989 or 2002-2004.