Actually that combo price of $46.94 isn't very exciting considering that individually you can buy Firefly for $29.96 and Serenity for $16.98, which comes to exactly $46.94 (so nothing extra off for buying them together at all). But I suppose it might be good advertising to list it as a deal.
Personally I think that Best Buy's combination of Serenity plus Battlestar Galactica was more exciting.

embers | December 25, 02:51 CET

Never understood why Amazon always offer you the choice to buy another DVD with the one you want, and yet give you no incentive to do so, surely they could chop another dollar or two off.

Still pretty cool that a DVD release of a TV show cancelled after a handful of episodes (Fox had much bigger hands back then) went back into the top 10 over 2 years after it's release.

Oh, and since the site reckons it's December 25th, Merry Christmas fellow Whedonesquers.

[ edited by Ghost Spike on 2005-12-25 01:11 ]

Ghost Spike | December 25, 03:11 CET

It's 'cos many people don't do the math and just assume that they're getting a break, even though it isn't explicitly stated. I had to disabuse a friend of that notion a while back.

Crazy, the FF DVDs are at #3 right now. They're steadily climbing like crazy.

dottikin | December 25, 03:43 CET

The combo price looks appealling to me, considering Firefly has never been on sale for less than $49 here.

Christopher | December 25, 03:43 CET

Yep, it's certainly the 25th here: Merry Christmas peeps!

And also: I find it odd that Amazon doesn't chop off another doller or two, yes. But the deals do seem to work. And if this sells more sets of Firefly as well as Serenity, well, then that's a very good thing as far as I'm concerned.

I'm still on the fence about buying the R1 version. I've already pre-ordered R4 (tin case) and I'm going to be buying the Dutch R2 as well (we get to help think about packaging and promotion, so I'm bound to buy that one myself as well), so buying a third version seems a little exessive, especially considering the fact that the disc will contain less than the R2/R4 version and it features that awfull cover. On the other hand: instant gratification. It'll be another two months before I get my hands on that R4 version, and I'm not even sure yet when the R2 version will come out. It's a big dilemma, like. ;-).

GVH | December 25, 03:45 CET

I know the feeling GVH. I've received the R1 version through very fast PlayUSA shipping, and I will almost definitely by the UK version when it comes out. Yet the Australian version also looks so tempting! I feel a bit crazy ordering three different versions of a film - but considering how much I've scoured the R1 DVD today, any different extra features will be worth the price and effort. And I will also feel I'm contributing properly to the possibility of a sequel.

flugufrelsarinn | December 25, 04:44 CET

Howdy, all, and thanks for the holiday gift of opening registration on this board!

Ahem. Amazon is all nice for buying the DVD, to be sure, but did y'all notice the slightly used copy this mild-mannered Canadian is selling on ebay.ca (Canada)?

Er. Um...happy Chrismakkahwanzaatide!

billz | December 25, 05:55 CET

I think Amazon.com is offering "Firefly" cheapest out of any place I've seen, though you can purchase "Serenity" for less at other stores. But (personally) I've been pleased with Amazon's service, and I've been noting just how quickly "Firefly" 's DVD popularity has grown on their site. Hopefully "Firefly" will keep the momentum far after the holidays.

BTW - yay! I'm loving my new gift of the board registration. Thank you!

nina | December 25, 06:01 CET

Happy Holidays, my fellow friends!

I personally would have liked a deal on Amazon. I bought Serenity and Firefly (present for my brother) at the same time, but I didn't get any deals. I did get Firefly when is was way cheap ($26 something) and Serenity was also a steal at $16 something. Finally got my email today to say that it's on the way!!! Woo Hoo!

Welcome, new folk.

ETA: I know this may be too early to even start wondering, but I would love to know what DVD sells are at this time. Anyone have an idea as to how to find out?

[ edited by Harmalicious on 2005-12-25 05:16 ]

Harmalicious | December 25, 06:54 CET

Gossi, he of the hi-larious turnip-scented tags, has said in the past that TPTB at the studios never release that information. That said, you have to know it's doing pretty well when you look at Amazon and see that Serenity owns #1 and that, as Nathan put it, "the old Firefly set is crawling back up the charts like a thirsty man in the desert towards a mirage." No mirage there!

billz | December 25, 08:21 CET

Hi there. I have to say this is my first post here. SHINY!! Thank you for letting me join this cool site! I have been reading this site for months!

Back to the topic at hand, I have to say its nice that Firefly is recognized by Amazon. Just go to the amazon tracker on http://www.fireflyfans.net/amazon.asp to average out how Firefly fared over the pass year and its not shabby, especially in comparison to other stuff thats out there.

And as numerous people pointed out, just the mere release of Serenity in theatres and again on DVD, has urged on sales of the DVD set. So this symbiotic relationship can only be good. Especially now Im sure people won't feel rushed and will want to watch the Firefly set before seeing the movie, for the full impact. So hopefully, besides being sold together, Firefly & Serenity, the fact Firefly is at #3, means that there are people who are still discovering Firefly, and will mean that Serenity will continue to sell well in the new year! But we have to watch out since Wedding Crashers is at #4 now, and it has not been released yet and could unseat Serenity.

To respond to DVD sales, yeah it is private, but there is a site where they track various retailers to get a rough estimate how a DVD sells. Check out http://www.videobusiness.com . That site is updated weekly, and hopefully next Monday or Tuesday, we will get a good idea of how well the Serenity & Firefly DVDs have sold. Apologize for the uber long post but I am just too excited!!! Happy Holidays thank you very much for this present to join Whedonesque.

kurya | December 25, 08:33 CET

Specifically, the URL at that site (which has ties to Variety) is this:

http://www.videobusiness.com/topDVDSellers.asp

[ edited by theonetruebix on 2005-12-25 07:22 ]

The One True b!X | December 25, 09:22 CET

I, like kurya before me, have been a long time whedonesque lurker. For years, I've been whimpering on the outside looking in at you all feeding on jossian news, while I've been suppressed by the government implanted chip in my head. I always seemed to miss those tiny, two day windows of new memberships, but it's a nice little Christmas gift from the people who don't even know we're friends to finally be part of the community.

And, yes, Firefly and Serenity are great. I do wish amazon had more of an incentive to buy them together, but really, they already do, since in a store, the "complete" tale would probably come to about $20 more. AMAZING FF is in the top 10 (and top 5 recently!) after TWO years on the market.

Happy Holidays, whedonesquers!

CaptainB | December 25, 11:03 CET

Shiny, glad to see that membership is open again been wanting to join in the talk for some time.

Ledfeather | December 25, 13:01 CET

Welcome to all the new members, especially kurya, whom I know from the Canadian Browncoats board, and Happy "Serenity" Holidays to all Whedonesquers, especially Caroline and the other mods who keep this board the intelligent, friendly place we all love to visit - or, in some cases, live :D

samatwitch | December 25, 13:18 CET

Another long time lurker here. It's great to be able to take part in the conversation finally. As a fan of all things Jossy, I've been following the site for quite a while, refreshing the frontpage some 10 times a day. Somehow I always managed to miss the new members recruitment, but did I get lucky this time. I think I believe in Santa.

I got the Firefly DVDs off play.com when they were dirt cheap. I was lucky like that. Now I can't wait to get the Serenity DVD, as we finns didn't get the theatrical showing (don't get me started). I'm just hoping there'll be a Region 2 DVD with finnish subtitles as I'd love to do some more converting and it always seems to go down a bit smoother with finnish subs. Go figure.

Anyone got any info on such a DVD? Dates and the like.

Tmas | December 25, 14:33 CET

Well! At last! I have been trying to join this site for ages! Merry Christmass to you all! And a happy new year! (Yes, i know, i know... its soon for that, but thanks to music songs, pretty sugar lirics, greeting cards and linguistic missuse, i seem to be unable to separate this two concepts in my mind) Nevertheless, i hope you are all enjoing this festivity (non believers included; after all, a lot of you dont have to work this time of year. Its holliday!) and for the rest of you, cinic old rich, sad, dickensian snowy eating no money givers with ghosty ex partners that apear in this time of year... well, humbug to you too, sir!
As you see, read, hear o intuitive perceive, my english, while improving (pleaase, God, oh,please, dont let it get worse) isnt perfect (thats an understatement if there ever was) so i am going to ask of all of you forgiveness for the terrible things i know i am going to do to your beautiful language. Compared to my attack on your grammer, your enchanting ortografy, your witty semantic and yor colorfull imaginery, the foolish atempt of invasion perpetrated by the invincible armada is going to look like a summer picnic. A violent, bloody, oh my god we lost and rainy summer picnic, but, hey... there were sandwiches. Ham sandiwches.With cheese. So, i will try my hardest not to emarass you and will make every effort possible inmy limited skills to not make the readings of my poor mumbles unbeareble. And if there is a word you dont understand, dont get worried.It not you, not understanding a complex word my supossed very much intelectualized mind is using; i am stupid. Its me, havin invented a new form of not saiyn something in englis. A neologism for new ages. What abut that?
As for the topic under discussion, it is a good signal that we are, so to speak, selling so much DVD of both.That means, probably, a lot of converses. Holliday is always a dificult time to judge how somethinmg is really going to sell. People buy a lot of presents by recomendation or by the simple rule that maybe this present, that is actually comparably cheap, is going to be liked by this man or woman i dont care to much for but i have to buy something for, for the sake of pure courtesy or interest. That happens always, but in christmas, this becomes masses. We will have to wait to see after this festivity if people will still buy Serenity because of the product in its integrity and not for his appearence. Believe it or not, this lama inspired front is going to have its buyers, mostly by people who dont know the movie, but relate the content to a certain person.
By the way, Whedonesque has been noticed and recommended here in Spain (where the ***** did you think the invincible armada came from, you history buffs?) by Fotogramas, a big and well known cinema magazine. No big deal if you knew who else they mention, yeah, but, hey, its something, isnt it?

Darkness | December 25, 16:13 CET

I don't think we've had much information on the R2 releases yet. There's been some word on the UK DVD (but I forget if there was a release date mentioned), and we've heard about the Benelux DVD getting the same extra's as the Australian DVD, but no release date has been mentioned for it yet. I suspect we'll end up having the longest wait here in Europe.

As for subtitles, if the DVD gets released in Finland (and why wouldn't it? I suspect the movie got pulled in favor of a DVD release there), there's bound to be finnish subtitles as well.

GVH | December 25, 18:33 CET

Long-time lurker, now ecstatic to have a membership. Hi all!
May I just say, though, how nice it was to always see such a visible aussie presence.
I would love to get the R1 dvd, but have committed myself to getting both the EzyDVD and JBHiFi editions over here. And pass one copy on to my mother who I recently converted to Firefly... after I remove the 'autographed' slipcover off one to go on the one inside the tin case of course :)

catboy | December 25, 21:15 CET

From what I can remember, I think the R2 DVD is being released in February, and apparently it will have more special features than the R1 version. However we don't know yet whether these will be the same as the Australian version or different. I'm hoping they will be the same. I think Gossi may have more details to add.

Razor | December 25, 22:01 CET

Well, we do know that the Benelux R2 version will have the same extra's as the Australian DVD (at least, according to the Australians). As far as the UK R2 version goes, it would seem to have almost the same extra's, considering what's been submitted to the BBFC.

GVH | December 25, 23:01 CET

What's more exciting is that Serenity is the number one best-selling DVD, having held that spot for several days now, and Firefly is not far behind (it got up to the number 3 spot)!

AnotherFireflyfan | December 26, 04:15 CET

My goodness, we have many-a-lurkers who have become members...welcome all! Firefly at #3? We can pull it into the #2 spot can't we?

MySerenity | December 26, 05:40 CET

Wow - look at all the newbies!! Welcome all and Happy Holidays to everyone. Needed a break from all the Christmas chaos and came online to relax a bit. Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

Anyway, loving all this dvd news and have been, as always, checking on Amazon to see how both Firefly and Serenity are doing. It's nice to see that they are doing well enough for folks to be taking notice! Hopefully the right people are taking notice and will decide to expand this verse!

Firefly Flanatic | December 26, 05:40 CET

Hey everyone, great Christmas present--open membership today. On top of that I found the Firefly and Serenity soundtracks under my tree, and the Serenity DVD.

As I removed the white dogbone sticker across the top, I saw that it said Serenity (Unrated)instead of Serenity (Widescreen). This is the normal R1 version that just came out, and there's nothing different about it. Just wondering if anyone else had noticed that. I'm curious as to how widespread this little error is. My apologies if someone's already posted about this.

Happy holidays, it's great to be a member, have a shiny new year, and any info on this is appreciated.

djalpine | December 26, 07:06 CET

I tried to cancel an online Best Buy order, but received it anyway -- after I picked the disc up at Wal-Mart. Long story short, the Best Buy version has "Unrated" on the tape up top, and the Wal-Mart version doesn't. It really doesn't matter, since the DVD still says PG-13 on the back and the movie's exactly the same.

The Dark Shape | December 26, 07:22 CET

Hope everyone had a Happy Holiday!! I'm another longtime lurker who finally joined! My family all watched the Serenity DVD today, and I think it may become a new Christmas tradition.

I work at a Blockbuster and since the 20th Serenity has been continually checked out (at all four stores in my town). Also managed to sell quite a few copies on recommendations, and while I still don't like the cover art a group of about 4 teenage boys each bought a copy simply because, as they put it "That chick is freakin' hot!" And Summer is, of course, quite beautiful.

faeryflower | December 26, 08:36 CET

Yet another newbie here :-) Whedonesque has been my home page for a long time & I'm so happy the Senior Partners got un-stranded from the other dimension they were stuck in. I couldn't tell you how many times I've clicked on membership wishing it'd be open. This is honestly the best Christmas present ever!

Glad to see Firefly getting extra recognition. Did anybody else notice that Firefly & Arrested Development were the only items on the list with an average 5 stars? Both shows that Fox cancelled...

serafina | December 26, 08:41 CET

When I bought Serenity at target all of the copies had a "unrated" sticker over it. I've heard its just a error from the factory.

Oh and heres a funny little note. I was showing Serenity to my niece yesterday and she looks at the cover and says "Who is this?" and I look and see she's pointing to the airbrushed River. I then tell her who it was and she goes "looks nothing like her". :D

eddy | December 26, 09:25 CET

Hey! Firefly just passed the Penguins on Amazon! Let's take a moment: a TV series that ran for half a season 3 years ago, and was originally released on DVD like 2 years ago, has taken down every movie out this year, from March of the Penguins to ROTS, and is 3rd only to its own sequel (Serenity stays #1) and a new release (Wedding Crashers) that, well, is new. And in the regular stores, when I got to Target, they were all sold out of widescreen serenity, and only had one Firefly left. *shakes head* Does that ever happen? We really have done the impossible ! ;-)

Thanks for bringing up great shows that lived and died on Fox, Serafina. Don't forget Wonderfalls, Futurama (ok, at least that ran a little while), and Family Guy (also saved by loyal fans, but I have to admit...not as good now as before, sorry).

Hi, fellow newbies! All hail the admins! :-)

billz | December 26, 09:32 CET

Mine from Amazon also had the "unrated" sticker on the top which made me quickly check the rest of the package to see if I got a "special" version, but no luck, it was still pg-13!

Firefly Flanatic | December 26, 09:34 CET

Thanks, kurya and theonetruebix! I'll check it out.

Harmalicious | December 26, 10:02 CET

I have a feeling the "unrated" may refer to the special features. The F-bomb is dropped a few times in the outtakes. That can cause problems with retailers who track such things.

danregal | December 26, 10:34 CET

But all DVDs say "extras were not rated" on the back of the box.

eddy | December 26, 11:06 CET

Oh no... I just had an image of "SERENITY: UNRATED" with the dolled-up air-brushed version of Summer (who really is more beautiful with her own brown eyes) and a BIG "UNRATED" slapped across her apparently bare-chest.

...

While we're at it, how about Firefly: Unrated with Saffron? ;)

AnotherFireflyfan | December 26, 11:24 CET

While we're at it, how about Firefly: Unrated with Saffron? ;)

"Now with more plow!"

The One True b!X | December 26, 11:29 CET

I'll be in my bunk.

Tmas | December 26, 14:06 CET

This really is great work. Serenity and Firefly are selling very well at the moment, and hopefully with people having time off for Christmas and maybe getting money or vouchers as presents they will check Serenity out.

Razor | December 26, 17:35 CET

The book is doing well too - 'Serenity: The Official Visual Companion' is ranked #109 in book sales!! Follow the link on the Whedonesque front page and scroll down to 'product details' to see the current and previous days sales rank.

purplehazel | December 26, 18:13 CET