Harleybloke

Does anyone know the criteria on what film comes out on DVD/gets re-released?

I mean, why not:-

Scandal
Far from the Madding Crowd 1968 - Julie Christie
Operation Daybreak.

I look at play.com at the 'coming soons' and you do wonder why, with an awful lot of them....................????

What decides to release it. FFTMC on Amazon is going for £36....................

ChristineCB

For North American releases, I use BargainFlix:

BargainFlix.com - Your source for online DVD coupons and bargains

and scroll down a bit and there are 3 links: DVDs Release Last Week, This Week and Next Week.

But this gives no indication of WHY. Our local Blockbusters and HollywoodVideo stores have hundreds of feet of DVDs whose titles were never good enough for theatrical release, and those store personnel call those the "Four Films".

"We'll get 100 copies of one DVD in and four will be rented, and never touched again. We get 8 fo those a week, and we'll get another 8 or 10 with only 50 copies, but they'll only get 4 rentals and after 4 months, we pull them. No one ever asks for them after that."

Whereas, they could stock shelves with classics and always get more than 4 rentals in 4 months AND always have more than 4 people looking for them for years and years.

Steve Crook

Can I suggest the cynical view and suggest that it's just one thing - money.
Apart from some specialists like Criterion & Milestone, artistic content or any level of quality doesn't come into it for most creators of DVDs.
The only thing they seem to consider is how many they think they'll sell (and sell quickly, not over the next 20 years) and if that'll make them a profit after they doo all the posters for Blockbuster and other outlets to display. Add in the cost of a TV campaign telling us that it's "your chance to own" this film.

But even given that cynical view, it does surprise me how some films & TV series ever get a release.

Steve

Ljelja

I always saw Criterion as our god's of movies gift to us, earthlings. I was sure such educational and cultural phenomenon surely must have all the doors opened. BUT! Numerous capital titles are out of their reach due to copyrights and similar restraints. Now, how about that?! I am appalled.

Mr Cosmo

I am going to try and answer the original question with a bit of guesswork.

Whenever a new film goes into production now, the DVD rights and extras are all planned upfront and the profits from the release are pre-budgeted and the actors and technicians are on contracts which allow DVD rights. It's been that way for a few years now.

With older films like SCANDAL, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD etc, the contracts would probably only have covered the making and release of the movie and not the subsequent release rights. This possibly means going back to people who were in films from years ago and renegotiating a deal with them. If the people involved have died then this makes it all the harder as their rights may still be active and have been passed on to someone else. A case that comes to mind is the TV series COLDITZ. When it was first run on UK Gold, 2 episodes were missing because the rights couldn't be cleared. On a second run all 28 episodes were shown, but when UK Gold went to show it a third time, the showing was cancelled again due to rights issues and that is also why it is not available on an official DVD. Such a shame as many of the actors would be able to do interviews, audio tracks etc, but none of them are getting any younger!

Strangely enough FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD was on DVD and given away free in 2006 with I think The Daily Mail.

I know that this board has a lot of people better qualified than me to talk about this so maybe comments below will give more information.

Ljelja

Oh, btw, is there any site which introduces us to most of the upcoming releases? Or, are the newly arising titles each bound to their proprietors' web sites?

Steve Crook

This forum does that quite well in the Latest DVD Releases area

Steve

smudge

Welcome to Zeta Minor

Their INCOMING pages are very good for advance info on DVD releases.

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Ljelja

I came across the digital bits site recently. You can download zipped file with all the upcoming oldies and classics and read the review columns. I'll go and browse a bit more, I think it's a great spot!

ChristineCB

Thanks for these two sites! I'm so pleased that the great 1967 Bedazzled is finally arriving, and the original School For Scoundrel will, too. It's a shame that the '67 Bedazzled took so long after it's American remake was released, while School For Scoundrels didn't have to wait but a month or so.

Maybe one American remake wasn't totally terrible, and the other one was so bad they needed far more immediate help?

"I've seen Terry-Thomas, sir. And you, Billy Bob, are no Terry-Thomas."

Moor Larkin

Yeah. It has to have Martial Arts in it.



Kosho is why The Prisoner comes out bi-annually

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