Interview with a Coliseum Video producer

[khawk20]

Here's one. Why were they so expensive?

A lot of VHS tapes were really expensive in the 80s. I think the movie studios priced them out of the market intentionally so they could make their money through the video rental stores.

 

Correct; most VHS releases were "priced for rental." At $59.95 and later $39.95 they were actually pretty cheap, Hollywood movies were closer to $89.95.

 

 

yep I can remember my cousin getting Back to the Future on VHS in I guess 86 or 87 and it cost like 90 dollars. Unreal

 

And with inflation, VHS tapes cost even more.

 

My parents got me "Ringmasters--The Great American Bash" on vhs for Christmas the year it came out. It cost them a ton. PLUS it had to be shipped to Canada which probably also cost a ton. Keep in mind that for me, making minimum wage at the time meant 4 dollars an hour, so there was no way I would even have been able to afford it myself.

 

Remember that the technology of actually being able to record shows on a vhs machine was still relatively new in terms of the masses being able to afford the technology, and even then, vhs machines were around the $400 mark, a significant reduction in price from the $1000 that the original top-loading vcrs that became more available to people in or around 1979-80.

 

All "newer" technology goes through a similar arc even today, but now the price points don't take several years to come down to a reasonable level. Most things get near an affordable level after a year (taking credit out of the equation, I mean, which makes everyone able to afford everything if they're willing to go into debt for lengthy periods).

 

I'll stop now, this is one of those things I can reminisce about for a long time to the interest of nobody but myself.

[Sidebottom]

The leaked King of the Ring 99 cover with the tag "Big Show goes through 7 to become King of the Ring" or whatever it was to that effect, can I see a picture of it? If not, why?

[Bix]

Here's one. Why were they so expensive?

A lot of VHS tapes were really expensive in the 80s. I think the movie studios priced them out of the market intentionally so they could make their money through the video rental stores.

 

The difference is that most high priced movies sold to video stores weren't marketed to the general public at all. Occasionally, you'd get a big title at a reasonable price available for sale at the moment it was released on video. But what doesn't jive here for me is that there were ads in WWF Magazine for these $59.95 videos. I understand marketing to video stores at those prices. I don't understand marketing to the general public with those prices.

 

To keep video stores from buying cheaper retail versions to rent out.

 

Don't understand why they didn't do a model similar to some movies where you have a rental window and then a retail window.

 

When did the WWF VHS releases come down in price in the states? They were always priced to own here, £9.99 for the hour long releases and £14.99 for the longer ones, PPVs etc, from 1990 or so when WWF videos first came out here. I remember seeing them advertised in the WWF magazine at $60 or whatever and wondering what the hell was going on.

I think the standard Coliseum releases dropped from $59.95 to $39.95 around 1993. There were always budget retail 30 to 60 minute tapes. I think they started at $19.95 for the first batch around '85 (Grudge Matches, Highlights of WrestleMania, and Villains of the Squared Circle I think?) but eventually dropped to $9.95 in the late '80s. Then they added $20 tapes through Columbia House subscriptions and $10 retail tapes through Goodtimes Home Video and one other budget VHS distributor I forget the name of in 1994.

 

We didn't get sell-through pricing on PPVs until they started transitioning to WWF Home Video, with SummerSlam '97 available on TV for the the PPV price with shipping included. I think there are a couple shows available through both CHV and WWEHV, which I'm curious about.

 

And obviously it depends on what it turns on Coliseum's role actually was in general, but I'm curious what exactly they had to do with the aforementioned releases that had different retail distributors (since they all still had CHV logos).

 

He may not know this, but why, when the In Your House shows replaced the dark match compilations, did Coliseum keep the old Mega Matches/WrestleFest type theme naming without doing a good job promoting what shows they really were? Why were the IYH dark matches dropped from the VHS release after a few shows?

 

What type of relationship did they have with Silvervision? What was up with the Silvervision exclusive releases, especially the small handful of Silvervision tapes released in NTSC (Best of 1993 and some Best of Raw tapes, I think) and sold through the American WWF Magazine?

[Stuttsy]

He leaves somewhere in 1990, I gathered from talking to him it was probably around the time of the first Supertape although he didn't recall the specific dates. So he'll have no knowledge of anything that happened since then. We'll be talking more about the first 75 or so Coliseum tapes, up through say Hulkamania 4.

 

Personally I'm not expecting him to recall much about specific match choices or alternate covers. I only expect someone to retain so much specific information about a job (and that's what it was, a job, not a life's passion) they had 25 years ago. I'm looking more for insight into the company's infrastructure, the nature of their relationship and interaction with Titan corporate and memorable interactions with the talent, which he says he has quite a few of.