For the past several years, Disney has been pushing consumers away from the DVDs we’ve all been watching for years toward Blu-Ray. Even before Sleeping Beauty was the first Platinum Edition Blu-Ray in 2008, Buena Vista Home Entertainment released several titles as early as 2006. At that time, Blu-Ray was battling HD-DVD to be the high definition video format and adoption rates were low; most consumers were waiting out the battle. In addition, HD television purchases were just beginning to take off.
It wasn’t until after Blu-Ray won the format war that Disney started releasing Blu-Rays for the Platinum Editions. By this point, only two films remained in the Platinum Edition series: Sleeping Beauty and Pinnochio. Disney started slow; releasing these films alongside their DVD counterparts. Although both were released as combo packs, Disney still wasn’t quite yet pushing Blu-Ray.
The advent of the Blu-Ray coupons we desire today came with the first Diamond Edition Blu-Ray, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The $10 coupon ensured that Snow White could be purchased cheaply; Amazon even got in on the deal and offered $10 off to anyone who used the promotional code SNOWHITE. The second part of Disney’s initial push involved delaying the DVD release by more than a month. Since the Blu-Ray included a DVD as part of the now-famous Combo Pack, consumers who had no plans to purchase a Blu-Ray were suddenly doing so because of the low price and the ability to play the film without purchasing a Blu-Ray player.
Since then, we’ve been watching web address registrations and any other source we can find for a Disney Blu-Ray coupon. In the past year or so we’ve seen $10 coupons for new releases (The Princess and the Frog) and catalog titles (Alice in Wonderland, among others). In addition, we’ve seen retailers give extra incentive to purchase, such as the deal Target had for Toy Story and Toy Story 2. Both films could be purchased for $15.99 total and each included a ticket to see Toy Story 3!
Over the last few months, the coupon values have started to dwindle. It started with an $8 coupon for Toy Story 3‘s Blu-Ray. Most recently, Disney offered $5 off the most expensive versions of Tangled and TRON: Legacy. However, all of these were new releases. The last few catalog releases (Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, and the Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 set) all had traditional $10 coupons. All three of these also only had one version available for sale.
From this I have drawn a few conclusions. The days of a guaranteed $10 coupon are over, especially with new releases. Given the popularity of Tangled and TRON: Legacy, Disney wanted to cash in on the initial home video releases. Limiting the coupons both in value and to the higher priced sets made sure Disney wasn’t losing as much money in coupons as they have previously. The coupons are also pushing the 3D Blu-Ray discs Disney hopes will catch on next. To give 3D an additional push, Disney has tied the Digital Copy to the combo packs that include the 3D disc only. Disney has moved on from getting Blu-Ray into consumers’ homes; instead, Disney wants to sell you more expensive combo packs that include a 3D disc consumers may never use. However, the catalog titles Disney wants to resell to you may still get $10 coupons. The upcoming release of Blu-Ray combo packs on April 12 for The Incredibles and Cars will be a sign of whether the $10 coupons will continue into the future for catalog titles. I’m also concerned the $10 coupons will be waning for existing titles as soon as this Fall, when The Lion King is expected to have a 3D Blu-Ray version.
Disney Blu-Ray coupons have given us an easy way to build up a Blu-Ray catalog, but the future of the coupon program is beginning to look dim. $5 coupons for the highest price sets that include 3D discs may be our future for all Blu-Ray titles. I still plan to find the coupons when available, post about them here, and check the Sunday ads for the best deals. Be sure to keep an eye out here; coupons for Cars and The Incredibles should be released any day now.
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