Studios fretting over fixed costs for blu-ray movies?

This article from high-def digest makes me wonder. Seems the studios are wary of spending money to restore classics for release on high-definition. But are they making people wary of spending money on the new format by focusing on new releases that are ready at near zero marginal cost for blu-ray? Perhaps.

It really depends on whether investing in the classics will make more people want what you are selling. But what's the marginal cost of cleaning up a film? The article hints at some of the large fixed costs. $1M for North by Northwest and some fixed costs (largely sunk) plus $200k for Gone with the Wind. But once you've restored the films (one-time cost), what's the marginal cost of producing a disc? Near zero. The studios should be thinking about that marginal revenue if they can convince more people to buy into the new format. That also means worrying about the price point of the movies.

The players are expected to be pretty pricey, but I think the studios have shot themselves in the foot regarding the prices of the movies. They seem more worried about differentiating blu-ray from DVD and they've chosen price (a luxury good, if you will). But what they haven't worried about is downloadable media. The quality is at least on par with DVD right now and iTunes HD is 720P and looks pretty good. More and more people are headed towards renting and streaming and the studios are still focused on price point (keep it high) instead of worrying about maximizing their profit. Look at bringing more people into blu-ray.