On films... again, and again, and again...

A while ago, while in one of our local HMV stores, I noticed that the film Platoon had been released again. It's a great film, some even regard it as a classic, but something else bothered me about it. I'm sure that Platoon has now been released in about 5 or 6 different versions. They don't just re-release it after so many years to get the new market, but they add things to it, special features and so on, and re-package it in a new cover in order to try to get previous buyers to buy it again. There's nothing like simply supplying the previously released version for some years. It always has to be new, new new!

Last night I was looking at a website that announces upcoming DVD releases.

The Dead Pool, Dirty Harry, The Enforcer, Magnum Force, Sudden Impact, Beetlejuice and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas all have new releases upcoming on DVD. Not just a new release of the original DVD but new packaging, new features, etc. Another attempt at getting new purchases from people, and at getting re-purchases from those who already own the film on DVD. When will it end?

I wouldn't mind so much if they would release a lot of the old back-catalogue of films that exists. Not the B-movies or worse, but a lot of A-movies that have never been released. But they won't do that for some reason. Perhaps it's just because there are so many of them. What they seem to want to do is re-release films that have already done great sales on DVD in the hopes of picking up more sales. Proven sellers. It's too bad.