Open Forum Friday: Does Anyone Watch DVD Extras Anymore?

Posted by on April 23rd, 2010   Filed under: Open Forum Friday

openforumdvdextras

In its first day of release, James Cameron’s Avatar managed to obliterate The Dark Knight‘s previous record for single day Blu-ray sales, selling a whopping 1.5 million copies in just 24 hours. With numbers like that, they’re already predicting that it will become the top-selling release of the year. It’s not really a huge surprise, considering that Avatar is technically the highest grossing movie of all time… but in a way it is a surprise, because it was assumed that the 3-D tech was the main thing that attracted people to this movie in the first place. There were also a lot of grumblings about the fact that this is a completely barebones release, without any extras whatsoever. James Cameron even tried to turn this into a selling point by saying that it didn’t have trailers before the menu either. Is this an indication that people have given up all interest in special features and supplementary material on DVDs?

I have to admit, I still sometimes feel that unless a DVD or Blu-ray comes packed with extra behind-the-scenes footage, I’m not getting my money’s worth. If a double dip special edition version of a movie is announced, I’ll also likely hold out for that “ultimate” version… just because I want it. But the truth is, I rarely ever find time to go through all the extras on a DVD or Blu-ray anyway. The one exception is if there is a well-shot feature-length documentary on the making of the movie; I’d much rather see that than a whole bunch of individual 5-minute featurettes, even if they sort of amount to the same thing. Obviously there are always exceptions for your absolute favourite movies, but in general I get the sense that the allure of special features have worn off for most people. They were a big deal when DVDs were first introduced, but now people are happy just being able to watch the movie and they don’t need to pay for all the other bells and whistles. What do you think? Do you still watch all the extras on your DVDs and Blu-rays? How important is supplementary material in deciding whether you buy or rent a movie? Can too much behind-the-scenes footage actually be a bad thing? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.



  • It depends on the film and how interested I am. So … occasionally.

  • mitch

    people might check out deleted scenes or outtakes for a comedy, but other than that i would say probably 80% of people dont watch any extras.

  • Steini

    I often end up buying the special editions because I kind of always think, that it’s better because I get more material and that’s always better. In the end I don’t watch about 90% of the bonus material and I always think, that I just should have bought the 1 disc Version with just the movie on it.
    For some others I just buy the Special Edition for their packaging (e.g. Watchmen Ultimate Cut despite already having the DC) because it just looks awesome.

  • Not since Netflix.

  • But with Netflix I can still hear commentaries, I love commentaries

  • Walter White

    Audio commentaries and Making-ofs are actually the only incentive to buy a DVD for me. I blame the Internet.

  • buglovin

    I ALWAYS watch the extras. I’m one of the few people who waits the six months for the director’s cut or special edition to come out so that I can have all the extras. I won’t buy old disks if they lack any special features or directors commentaries. But to be fair, I am a film maker…

  • I, for one, am waiting for a better release of AVATAR before I pick it up.

    Generally, the quality of a movie and my enjoyment of it determines whether or not I’ll watch the special features. There are some features I never watch though, such as dull behind the scenes featurettes that don’t have much new info or insight into the film and basically just show the cast and crew hanging around the set. I generally find those boring. What I like are featurettes packed with info and interviews like those on the Alien Quadrilogy.

    On the other hand, I’ll listen to just about any commentary because they’re usually at least somewhat interesting and I can work while they play in the background.

  • Henrik

    Audio commentaries quickly became the only thing that mattered to me, when I still had money to buy the DVDs I wanted. I bought X-Men 1.5 because it had a commentary. The ‘special features’ on alot of DVDs was a bunch of fucking advertisements. But commentaries are cool, I own alot of DVDs that I don’t give a shit about movie-wise – I would never watch the movie – but I would sit through the commentary, because it’s way more interesting.

    I would not buy barebones releases, simply because something better is going to come along at the same price.

  • jason lalumondiere

    I agree with Walter.Commentaries are the only reason to buy DVDs nowadays.

  • pcch7

    I´m watching the extras of X-men 2 right now.

  • Extras are still the main reason I buy DVDs/BluRay. They have a huge impact on which format and version I buy.

    Intensive behind-the-scenes documentaries (like Devil’s Rejects, Hot Fuzz, Wall E, Zodiac, etc) and thoughtful filmmaker commentaries are what I am looking for.

    Actor commentaries, especially gag commentaries by Will Ferrell et al, are THE WORST. Deleted scenes can be interesting if they are substantial and put into context by the filmmaker, but I mostly don’t care.

  • Nick Robertson

    Are you kidding? I’ll buy a movie I’m not necessarily interested in if it’s got substantial features. I buy a lot of movies without them but when I see a bluray without anything then it turns me off. I love to know how these movies were made.

  • Fatbologna

    I find that old horror/exploitation stuff has the most substantial features that will often cause me to buy something that I might otherwise pass on. The documentaries on Troma’s Combat Shock DVD were a decent example for that as well as the Street Trash disc that came out a couple years ago from Synapse. I love the Synapse, Mondo Macabro, HVE, Panik House, Kino Video, NoShame, Discotek, Animeigo, Blue Underground and of course Criterion DVDs but unfortunately a combination of the economy and sites like Cinemageddon have all but killed most of those companies.

    I don’t really buy a whole lot of mainstream films on DVD anymore because of their availability from on-demand services. I pretty much only buy a mainstream film if it has a couple commentaries and at least a 60-90 minute feature length making-of.

    Most of my DVD cash goes to Criterion discs and any other smaller distributors still kicking around. There was such an amazing renaissance of older genre films on DVD through the early to mid 00’s that I’m still collecting a lot of out of print stuff from sellers on Amazon and Ebay. Unfortunately that stuff can you some serious coin. I’ve spent as much as $100.00 on an OOP DVD!

    I think that mainstream films are so easily had digitally that all they really need to do is offer selectable features with downloads to pretty much negate DVD/Blu-Ray in the next 3-5 years. I’ve got 2300 discs sitting on my shelf that will pretty soon be worthless so I’m at a turning point where I need to decide whether to sell and replace digitally or just hold onto them for the joy of the collection.

    Yeah, that was way off topic…sorry. Obsessive collector’s disorder took over!

  • Fatbologna

    Actually, I guess that stayed more on-topic then I thought…good on me for once!

  • Ben

    As has been said, it depends on the movie. I’ll usually check at least some of them out no matter the movie though.

    Also, I’ll add, unless this “trend” goes hand in hand with price cuts then it’s just bullshit.

  • If I’m buying something on the Blu I’m definitely going to watch all the xtras – including commentry.

    So I’m waiting for an awesome, action packed Blu-Ray ultimate.
    Also the fact that everybody is interested in Avatar means you will find more fans who don’t care about the extras, rather than the more dedicated ones who will wait.

  • I often watch some of the extras, but I’m not religious about it like some.

  • swarez

    I’m an extras whore fore sure. One thing I hate though is the new “commentary” format that’s been popping up on Blu Ray, where the director comes in on a set and explains things. Why? A simple audio commentary works just as well and better because then the director or whoever is actually watching the film and can comment on it instead of selecting a few scenes. I also hated the extras on Doomsday. I wanted to watch the making of but the only way to do that was to watch it picture in picture as a tiny box up in the corner. Fuck that. Just because you have the technology to do certain things doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

  • Maatlock

    I’ll always hold out for the special edition & get really annoyed at studios double dipping, especially if the so called ‘special edition’ is re-released, alien quadrilogy has already done this.

    For me watching the pre-production and artwork is the most interesting/important feature of all, as the people who made the film rarely get proper attention/credit for their creature/animation/design that is the star of the film. Commentary tracks are always welcome + do affect my purchase.

    I guess blu ray is supposed to add downloadable content and extras, but I dont know if that format can add a download to an extra commentary track from an actor, is this possible? Some bare bones blu ray players have no internet.

    The next video formats will probably have a drm heavy micro payment model for unlocking extras that you should be getting if it was on a physical media.

    If the studios want to they can hold back on extras on the downloadable content and allow them on disc, which is another double dip, if you want the complete release you’ll have to download and but the disc to get all the extras.

  • Slix

    Oddly, just the other day, I wanted to watch “Inglorius Basterds” with the commentary only to find it didn’t have one. Normally I watch a few of the “Making of” and “Deleted scenes” but little else.

  • I base many of my purchases based on the special features.

  • bullet3

    You should keep in mind that stripping this disk of any extra materials has allowed them to crank the bit-rate as high as physically possible. I know it sounds like PR, but when you have 50GB dedicated to just the movie file, it does make a big difference, and having watched it last night, I can say its probably the best-looking blu-ray disk I’ve ever seen. I would actually prefer from now on if for “big” releases like this, they would dedicate one blu-ray disk just to the movie to max out the quality, and then put special features on a seperate disk.

  • Possum Hunter

    I love some of the extras on DVD or BR, they can certainly add a lot to the experience but I do admit a lot of the extras these days are pointless. I love a decent 30 – 60 min doco and often when I get home late and don’t have time to watch a full movie I’ll revisit a making of as I did last night when I watched some of the extras on my T4 BR again.

    Personally I probably wouldn’t bother buying a lot of movies without extras as I can easily hire them every few years when I want to watch them and I tend to watch the extras more than the movie. I do agree with bullet3 though, I’d rather have a bare bones disc 1 with the best quality movie possible (and perhaps only a commentary) and have a 2nd or 3rd disc with the extras.

    Cameron’s just double dipping, he knows there’s millions of people hungry to own their piece of the hype so he rush releases a bare bones version knowing full well that these hard core Avartards will buy it again come Xmas time when the 4 disc collector’s edition is released.

    The first release of Titanic on DVD was the same, a terrible 4:3 bare bones release that I refused to buy until Cameron showed some respect for his own film. I might hire Avatar on BR to see how good it looks but the only reason I’d bother buying it is for the extras. Besides if Cameron is against extras and if he has no intention of releasing then why did he film so much behind the scenes stuff that most of us have already seen samples of on sites like this?

  • bullet3

    Of course its double-dipping, there’s no two ways about that. That being said, they’re at least not being complete assholes about it. Apparently you get a password when you buy the disk and if you go on their website and login they’ll be posting the bonus material on there.
    Its still a cash-grab of course, but with the falling price of disks anyway, its hard to complain. Paying $15 for a blu-ray disk is nothing when you think about how VHS tapes used to cost $80-$100 in the old days.

  • L

    No

  • Werner

    I only buy movies (BD or DVD) if there are good extras available. No extras – no buy.

  • lewis

    I usually buy Br now. I love the quality of it,and if its true that they added no features for the best bitrate possible then good. This movie looked awesome on br. But I love watching special features of movies. I hate buying movies that don’t have them. It shows aspiring filmmakers and regular joes how hard making a film really is.

  • D A Beckham

    If there is a bare bones vs. a loaded edition, I always buy the deluxe edition. I can’t see why any blu-ray should not include extras. A digital copy is not an extra, it is a low rez compromise for people who don’t care about quality. Why would it be included with a blu-ray? I think a dvd copy is fine (although not an extra). I can have a blu-ray for the big screen and use the DVD in the other rooms. I always check the movie first (if I haven’t already seen the film). If a comedy I’ll check out the outtakes/bloopers next, if SF or horror I’ll go for the SFX features, making of is next, actor interviews are usually last.

  • Slushie Man

    I really only watch features on TV seasons. IMO, Movie features tend to all be the exact same anyone. I mean, once you’ve seen how 5 or 6 movies are made, you’ve seen them all. Commentaries are really the only feature on movies I tend to watch and even then, I’ve stopped that within the last year or so cause most of them are boring and monotone or way too ‘Pat each other on the back’ for my taste. Normally when I have a choice, I go with the release with less features mainly cause it’s cheaper and I tend not to watch features most times anyway.

  • Dorian

    I’ve noticed that in the last few years I’ve skipped the extras and look for the slimmed down version DVD. I guess for me, I just don’t have the desire to spend money simply to find out how they made blue people…well, blue. I’d be more interested to purchase a DVD with loaded content if it a great classic film. I’m always more interested in how they did it all before computers, than watching someone type on a computer and say, “Look! We made her into a blue alien!”

  • Nick Robertson

    @ Slushie Man…. Um, WHAT? You need to check out some films that have GOOD features. P.S I Love You just isn’t going to give you the likes of the King Kong or Hellboy II extras, mate.

  • Jim.C

    Yes, I do enjoy the extras. A 3D deluxe version is internet rumoured to be released November, probably so 3d tv sales can catch up.

    I hope the 2d version is thrown in as a bonus into the deluxe release, if it isnt – its another kind of double dip (one disc for each eyeball please)

    The bare bones 1 disc has been beefed up a little by adding some postcards, t-shirts and junk, has the inclusion any physical bonus in the packaging swayed anybody if theres no video extras?

  • D. R.

    If the extras actually provide interesting info on the film and the people who made it, I’ll usually watch them. If they’re superficial, though–say, actors gushing over each other, which is a common occurence–I’ll bail. Commentaries are another matter. I have tons that I’ve never listened to, because typically I’d rather just watch the movie; and I don’t want to watch it twice in a short period. As for bare bones DVDs without extras, if the price is cheap enough I’m OK with picking them up. The movie itself is always #1 for me. Lack of extras is no deal killer.

  • El Ultimo Hombre

    Big fan of extras. I’ve bought DVD’s just for the extras. Especially “making-of” stuff. I’ve watched all of the Lord of the Rings extras at least twice.

  • Els

    I always watch the special features. I get pissed off when DVD’s don’t have them.