what movies to get and how many?

[tekfuel]

This is one of those questions that probably doesn't have a definite answer and have been asked before, but I'm going to ask anyway.  

How do 'you' decide which movies to get and how many?

How many of you go by movie reviews and movie "recommendations" from magazine and websites?  I've noticed that they're not the best judge of which movies to get.  It seems that certain movies that have gotten high praises from critics don't rent as well as movies that weren't given the same high marks.

One example... Adaptation and Gangs of New York weren't as in demand as Hot Chick and Bringing Down the House...

Knowing which movies to buy is pretty much a guessing game.

You can't just go by how much a movie made in the theatres either.

Lord of the Rings: Two Towers is streeting soon. I think we have enough copies, but I'm afraid that it might not rent that well. Either because people have already seen it in the theatres, they'd rather buy it on DVD themselves, or shy away from it because it's almost 3 hours long.

Maybe there should be section in the forum where people can voice their opinion on movies coming out soon on video/dvd.  I don't really want to see a cut-and-paste article about how good or bad a movie is, but wouldn't mind seeing someone's "personal" review of a movie and whether it would do well as a 'rental'.

We've already placed our order for the sept 2 street date movies. Only movies we got were Man Apart with Vin Diesel and Identity.

Man Apart didn't really get good reviews.. .. but, people will probably be interested in renting it. Identity did get good reviews and it would probably do well also.  Sadly, I haven't seen either movies myself, so I can't really give a personal review of them.

The following week, there are several movies coming out: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Bulletproof Monk, Malibu's Most Wanted, Core, and View from the Top... to name a few.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind seems like it would rent well... 'cause of the star power and the fairly good reviews  8O .

The rest, well... it's a toss up.

Which movies and how many would you get for Sept 2 Street Date?  

[Bryan Akers]

This is really a matter of knowing your customers, and understanding their demographic range.  You really can't base your buying decisions on other stores unless they have similar customers.  For example, my store is in a largely educated liberal college town and thus is more likely to want to see foreign or art-house titles.  On the other hand, stores in a smaller more rural town might be interested in more mainstream Hollywood movies (that's merely my speculation, of course).  Over time you'll get a better feel for what your customers want.  Also keep an eye out for local sources of opinion.  While the reviews of national newspapers might not represent your customers tastes, maybe the reviews in your local newspapers do.  One thing that is always good, no matter where you are, is to actually watch the movies that you might get, or at least research them, to know what they're about and who might want to rent them.
-Bryan Akers

[lesliek]

One thing I do is make "reservation" lists that I put out weeks before the videos street.  I can have a rough idea of how well a title will rent by seeing how many people have signed it.  If more signed than I had anticipated - I up my orders.  I have also cancelled some B titles altogether because nobody wanted them.

Of course, I am in a small town and I am not sure if this would work in a city or not...

[SeanWas]

Buying is very difficuly because you always want to get the perfect amount of copies. But you will always question yourself over and over again. Almost every week and every release is questionable whether or not you got to many or not enough. It gets better over time and deffinately helps if you have an previous title to compare your buying to. I am no expert but what you do is take a title like Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and compare it to a previous title somewhat like it. Since you mentioned Adaptation, I'll use that but I'm sure there is a better comparable title. Both were critically raved but both will not be loved by the mass public, sort of well known arthouse films. Since Confessions has a better cast take a look at adaptation and what you think would have been the best amount of copies to get for that and go heavier because of the cast. Than take Bulletproof Monk and compare to Cradle 2 The Grave, and probably go lighter since Chow Jun Fat is no Jet Li. Malibu's Most Wanted I would compare to another goofy comedy like say Hot Chick but go lighter. I would just go lighter just because I think The Hot Chick was a fluke that it did so well. I can't remember what other ones you were asking about but I would just do the same thing. It's not an exact science but it gives your stores own history the chance to control what you get. And my personal advice is that Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind is going to be a big disapointment to most and will have bad word of mouth even though it was loved but the critics. Another one to compare it to might be Punch Drunk Love. Everyone loves Adam Sandler as a goof but hated this movie. Rentals for me slowed very quick.

I do reservations as well. This helped very much with Lord Of the Rings. I feel very comfortable with my decision. No wait, I got too many. Nope, let me change that, I should have got more. No wait...(just kidding, it never ends)

Sean

[tekfuel]

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I know that it all depends on your customer base. It was just one of those things I had to ask. Wishful thinking on my part.

We took over a store about 5 months ago, so we've had hits and misses when picking movies.

The store has been in the area for around 15 years and have had several owners. It's surrounded by apartments so it's in a good location. There's another IVR down the corner and BB and HV a few minutes down the street... so we have a lot of competition. The previous owner didn't really take care of the store that well, so the store lost a lot of customers. Slowly, they're coming back.

As for reservations, I'm definitely going to look into it.

Currently, what I've done is post the "Coming Soon" poster on a wall near the counter. I'd ask random people (regular customers) which ones they'd like to see.

So far, most people I've talked to wants to see "Malibu's Most Wanted" and "Daddy Day Care." That shows what kind of crowd I'm working with.

Also, I hate that the VHS for Daddy Day Care costs about $40. Makes me want to go all DVD's.

[chrisbach]

I use a Website called VideoETA, plus a few others.

http://www.videoeta.com/

I pre-order for the entire month all at the same time.  I start by going to VideoETA, choose the month, and sort by box office.  I copy and paste the titles into an excel spreedheet, then add in all the other non-theatrical titles from mailers, Websites and Rentrak's Budgetmaker, and then play around with the numbers from there.

I start my buying decision based on the box office for DVD, and based on both the box office and the price for the VHS.

So for example a $100 Million Box Office title I would start at 30 DVDs for rent and 10 for sale.  If the VHS is sell thru then 8 for rent, if it is rental priced just 1 copy for rent, or I get it from Rentrak, or I skip it entirely.

The VHS have less room to vary the quantities than the DVD, but after looking at the box office, I look at all the factors like how simular titles have done at my store, type of movie (horror, arthouse, action), the star power, etc. and then adjust the numbers up or down accordingly.  If the title is an Output title from Rentrak I will usually try to go about 20 to 30% higher than if I buy the movie from Ingram.

The other fact to remember with DVD.  There is far less danger in over buying.  If you over bought, you can pull the extra copies on Sunday and sell them used and recoup most of what you paid, but with rental priced VHS at say $45 each, if you buy to many you are scr#%ed.

Often for DVD I will order a safe minimum number from Ingram, then if the title rents better than expected Tuesday through Thursday I will go to Sam's Club or Best Buy Thursday or Friday and pick up extra to sell or rent for the weekend.  The nice thing about doing this is that you can save a couple dollars each off of Ingram's price on the extra copies you buy at Sam's Club or Best Buy.

Ideally... I like to run out of copies a couple of hours before closing on Friday.  If I rent my last copy between 9:00pm and closing on Friday night I bought the perfect number (unless it's a Rentrak Output Title, then you should NEVER rent all copies).  If you have copies remaining on the shelf at close on Friday then you bought too many.  If you run out by say 5:00pm on Friday you bought too few.

I hope this helps.

Chris Bach
Music Stop - Movie Time
Cedarburg, Wisconsin