About the Rifftrax movie choices, and related stuff.

[torgosPizza]

What ever do you mean?

[Conor]

I'm working on a longer reply to something above, but I'll toss this out here.

Conor? Have you guys done any research on the breakdown of how we (the Rifftrax viewer) are getting the movies? If more of us are renting than buying or vice versa?

I'm pretty sure there was a homepage poll about it.  I don't know what the breakdown is.  I would imagine that the amount of people renting the movies is probably the highest percentage, and that the amount of people who go the whole distance and reauthor the discs is much lower than the percentage of you guys that do it.

There's also the factor of already having the disc, or planning on buying it anyways, which as I said earlier, helps immensely with a titles popularity.

[Steve-O]

I don't think you can necessarily make any kind of a judgment about solo riffs based on the list Conor provided.  In fact, the only thing that jumps out at me from that list is that most RiffTrax fans, like MST3K fans before them, are geeks.  Thus, sci-fi and comic book tracks are going to rise to the top, and the rest will sell lest robustly.

Unfortunately, that means that at least for the time being, RiffTrax is going to weight those kinds of films more heavily than other types.  It's not a matter of selling out, it's a matter of keeping the boat afloat.  You can criticize Hollywood all you want for not taking chances -- they have the capital to take risks, they simply choose not to.  RiffTrax is not Hollywood, it's a small handful of people trying to put out a good product, and tweaking the business model as they go to try to make it sustainable.  If they burn through money putting out product only a small-but-dedicated few purchase, they go under.  It's as simple as that.

That said, it's also critical that they occasionally branch out and riff something less geek friendly.  Otherwise, there's not much opportunity to expand the fanbase beyond its geeky core.  If you really want to get more variety of films, work your butt off to bring more fans into the fold.  Meanwhile, enjoy the RiffTrax that you're getting, because the alternative is no RiffTrax at all.

[SaucyRossy]

Steve-O speaks the truth.

[Pak-Man]

I'd like to draw a tiny parallel here:

A little over a decade ago, I loved Josta! It had a nice carbinated fruity flavor that I couldn't get enough of. The people at Pepsi, though, noticed that Josta wasn't selling. Josta was taken off the market and Pepsi hasn't tried anything like Josta since. While that bites for me, the truth is, that it probably also means that most people reading this didn't like or didn't want to/get to try Josta. Bites to be in the minority in a capitalistic market, but what'reyagonnado?

It's hard to feel like the minority here because we're surrounded by fans. We're, by definition, fanatic. We enjoy Rifftrax enough to come here and talk about them all day long. We all get together and share our hopes and dreams for Rifftrax, and when you just hang around the Rifftrax fans, it's easy to assume that most of the Rifftrax fans want _____. We're a bad test group because every one of us is biased.

That said, it looks like Rifftrax is still looking for ways to cater to us diehard fans down the line. If Pepsi would just find a way to cater to Josta fans down  the line, I'd be a happy man. :^)

[Compound]

Well, here's what I was thinking.

I think it's fairly obvious that the easiest Rifftrax to sell is one where people already own a copy of the movie. I don't think you folks disagree with that.

But when I look at those bottom 6, 5 of them have a common trait- they're not easy to buy. (The 6th is Grey's and, frankly, you're probably right in that it wasn't a good fit with the audience.) Ignore Missile to the Moon as well, as it has its own set of issues. I buy these discs as I like to be able to watch a Rifftrax anytime I like, without having to re-rent something if I have a sudden urge to rewatch a trax. And on those titles, I had to jump through hoops to get them. No local store carried them, so I had to go online to get them. And I recall reading here on the forum that other posters were having similar problems with them, in some cases having to drive around the state in order to find a copy. And checking on their availability today, it's just as bad. I did an online stock check of the stores local to me in Denver and in Los Angeles (since I know a zip code out there. Thanks, Mr Spelling.) And of the 4 titles listed, only one of those is available in either city in store and it's only available in a single store. If I can't run out to a store and pick it up, it stops being an impulse buy for purchase and the casual fan is more likely to skip that trax and instead pick up a trax for something that they can get more easily.

Now, if most of us are indeed renting these, then there's probably not an issue, other than the fact that many rental places might not be carrying these titles as they're fairly old and not very popular. But if more of us are buying them than you'd suspect... well, that may be an additional significant factor in the sales.

If I had to prove or disprove this theory, I'd do a riff of Catwoman. It's a fairly recent release. It's a genre film. It's highly disliked. And it's not likely to be in many people's collections. But it's not widely available for sale in stores these days. (I checked the availability of it at CC & BB for both Denver and LA, and it's not available in store in either city). If more folks are renting, then it should do fine. If a bunch of us are buying, then it would likely tank. Of course, since there are actual monetary issues involved, it's not a likely experiment to ever be performed. (On the off-chance that you'd actually like to find out, I'd see if the shopping cart software can add an question somewhere during the checkout process and simply ask during the checkout process on a future release. You'd be polling the actual buyers and getting a much closer to reality result than a poll would.)


BTW: at this point, I think I'm in problem solving mode rather than "I'm annoyed about anything in particular" mode. Except I am still annoyed at Pepsi for taking my Crystal Pepsi away. Jerks.

[Dim of the Yard]

I don't think you can necessarily make any kind of a judgment about solo riffs based on the list Conor provided.  In fact, the only thing that jumps out at me from that list is that most RiffTrax fans, like MST3K fans before them, are geeks.  Thus, sci-fi and comic book tracks are going to rise to the top, and the rest will sell lest robustly.

Too true.  The only impression I got from the bottom six is that riffs of shows or movies geared towards women (I'd say "chick flicks," but I don't know if that term applies to TV shows) don't sell that well at all.  That, and before RiffTrax, I had never heard of the other three movies.  Take from that what you will.

[bettertomorrowamy]

Yeah, never heard of Josta.

A discounted subscription service is probably the way to go.  Then they will get our money regardless.  Maybe give the shorts away free for members, whereas non-members have to shell out 99 cents for them, and pay the full price for the riffs in general.

[ShadowDog]

I love how I suggest the donation idea, get flamed by one member, get completely ignored by everyone else, and then two pages later an older more established member suggests the exact same thing and everyone rushes to him like he just invented a new kind of deep fried cheese.  Gee, I wonder why new people hate joining older, already well established, cliquey message boards?  But I'm not bitter. <eye twitches>  Not a bit. <eye twitches>

LMFAO.  I still love you guys.

For MrTorso, and others who asked.  Here's a list of some of the best and worse performing titles, straight from the guy who signs my checks (hint: not Erik)

Some of the most popular titles, in no particular order:

Jurassic Park
300
Transformers
Star Wars anything
Harry Potter

Some of the least popular, in no particular order:

Greys Anatomy
Glitter
Crossroads
Over the Top
Missile to the Moon
Island of Dr Moreau

Take from that what you will. 

Man.  I've purchased all but one of the top sellers and NONE of the bottom dwellers.  Can't argue with cold, hard facts, can we?

[Insert Coin(s) to Continue]

I've seen all of the least popular movies except Grey's Anatomy, and I have to say ... people are missing out on some great stuff. Over the Top and Glitter are among the best tracks Mike has ever produced!

[MrTorso]

Man.  I've purchased all but one of the top sellers and NONE of the bottom dwellers.  Can't argue with cold, hard facts, can we?

Sheep! Come on be a little different.

[BathTub]

Besides it's certainly not a new idea, Raven made a whole series of threads where he put a bounty on films.

[Raven]

Besides it's certainly not a new idea, Raven made a whole series of threads where he put a bounty on films.

Yeah, what he said.

[AmandaGal]

I bet a Disney animated feature would do well. . . or even some other kid friendly popular film, like High School Musical (I can only think of Disney).

Lots of you geeks have bred.  Most breeders have Disney films on the shelves.

[gojikranz]

i suppose ill hrow my thoughts on new old moveis argument around here.  for me i dont mind so much doing new movies although i kinda prefer it to be movies that i own or plan to own.  i know thats incredibly cheap but im a college student so i have a reason.  but if i was to buy a film just for the riff it is much easier when the film is old so the price isnt so high.  for example when i am legend is anounced i know i dontparticularly want to own that, and its pretty expensive so i am going to skip out on that one.  but if its for something a few years back you can get em really cheap at bestbuy 5-10 bucks in maany cases. 
also in regards to dune not selling well it seems there has been so much hype generated by rvr and others that everyone would be dieing to see how the riff would be.