Last night when I was in a 7-Eleven, I saw two things I didn't think I would ever see: Crystal Pepsi back in stock and a BluRay 3D combo pack for "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters." A couple months ago I found a BluRay 3D combo pack of "Epic" at a Big Lots. While these sightings aren't common, they are out there. Some may ask what this means for the format. Frankly, it means nothing more than these are old disks that didn't sell very well, and whatever retailer originally stocked it, decided it would be more profitable to sell them to these stores at a heavy discount. This was not the only movie that 7-Eleven was selling. There were brand new copies of "Die Hard," "Field of Dreams," and "A Good Day to Die Hard" (among other title) the store was selling. All brand new, all at $5. Really, go by your local 7-Eleven (you may find something you've always wanted to get cheap).
Why this makes me chuckle (and why I decided to write this blog post) is that this is actually not a terrible thing for the format. The idea that there were BluRay 3D titles out there that had enough copies made that some of them are winding up in bargain bins is sort of a good thing. Because these are combo packs no one is going to think twice about buying them. At $5 what are you really losing? At most the digital copy might have expired, but there's still a BluRay and DVD you can watch. What this does do is put 3D disks into peoples hands that are affordable. Affordable disks was a natural evolution the format needed. The way you got people to think more about buying a 3D TV was to get them 3D content. Most 3D content was priced out of the regular consumers hands though.
I bought "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" because it was a cheap addition to my 3D collection, but I knew deep down that if there were more cheap releases like this, then more people might want a 3D feature in their future TV purchase to watch it in the format. Discounted movies is not something a studio wants to have but is an evil necessity to helping grow formats and selling disks that might otherwise not get sold. In another year or so more of these BluRay 3D's will be popping up in discounted forms. People will buy them. Sooner or later, some of them will get curious about watching their 3D disks. Will there be any TV's they can get that will give them that ability when the time comes? Who knows? Would have been a good time to have them on the market for the audience that will inevitably want to watch these disks though. Sort of sad to think about, no?
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