I simply will not pay $29.99 - $39.99 for a blu ray movie simply because it is in hd.
You don't have to. Try shopping around. Anyone who pays full MSRP for a Blu-ray movie is just being plain lazy. Those who impulse buy only have themselves to blame for getting chiseled. Those are the same people any of us can blame for BD MSRP prices continuing to stay high.
Amazon routinely has new releases of movies on Blu-ray for well under $30. Sometimes the new releases come in at under $20.
Stores like Wal-Mart and Sam's Club have a good number of movies on Blu-ray for under $20. Some catalog titles like
Top Gun and
Patriot Games can be had for under $15. I have even seen some titles priced at $10.
JoeSp is right about DVDs being expensive in their first few years of availability. When dollar inflation is factored into the equation, the $25-$30 prices for DVD movies in the late 1990s and early years of this decade translate to $30-$40 levels very easily.
Let's also not forget that new releases on DVD are not priced at cheap levels. DVD MSRP levels are typically $25-$35. With in store discounts factored, those new release DVDs still often go well past the $20 level and sometimes even past $25.
The only area where DVD is truly cheap is in catalog titles that have been available for a year or more. By the time a movie is debuting on a premium channel like HBO the DVD version of the same film will often be priced down in the $12-$15 range and then fall below $10 a few months later. DVDs are barely profitable at all once they reach bargain bin prices.
Once Blu-ray becomes more common prices will start edging down futher, particularly in terms of catalog titles. We've already seen some noticeable price breaks lately. Fox used to charge $30 or more for everything they offered on Blu-ray. Now they finally have a good number of titles marked down below $20. Paramount has pushed many catalog BD titles below $15. We'll see other studios follow.