When VHS tapes emerged, studios treated them in a similar way they did reels with theaters. They sold them at a higher price to video stores, who would rent them to customers to recoup the costs.

In a time when people would go to a theater 3-5 times to see a movie they liked, nobody could see how it made sense to sell a movie directly to a customer who could watch it as many times as they wanted with whoever they wanted. So they made sure the price reflected that.