Tech isn't much better at this than Hollywood, which has gone through the VCR age, censorship, and the end of the studio system, as well as the DVD age. Microsoft and Sony fought a format war over the successor to DVDs that hurt both of them (recall that Sony "won"). 20/20 hindsight is awesome.
And, by the way, the point is that innovative indie movies don't make their money at the box office. They play in small numbers of art house cinemas, and then they used to sell DVDs. A lot of cancelled TV shows became phenomena on DVD. You can become a cult show on streaming and not make much money.
I wonder how much profit Blu-Ray has actually made in aggregate, given the initial format war and the quickly-following demise of the DVD itself with the advent of streaming/on-demand viewing.
Given the debacle that was my experience with DVDs, I vowed I would never buy a Blu-Ray disk and I never have.
I will claim to have pointed out that DVD was the last format five years ago: http://loewald.com/blog/?p=464
And, by the way, the point is that innovative indie movies don't make their money at the box office. They play in small numbers of art house cinemas, and then they used to sell DVDs. A lot of cancelled TV shows became phenomena on DVD. You can become a cult show on streaming and not make much money.