makes sense to me also.
this thread is only going to continue to get big business as TT becomes a major classic bd label in the US.
Hopefully they are feeling good about things right now.
I would love to know.

Suggested it on FB....And they sound positive about it as a possibility!:ohnoes:

Thanks. That's good news indeed.

That'd be awesome.

Twilight Time really needs to change its releases because limiting their production to just 3,000 copies isn't winning over consumers. With such good films as Fright Night and As Good As It Gets, these are two such films that you really shouldn't be limiting because it limits your consumer base. Fans of these films will just buy the DVD or find some other way.

I'm not saying that what they're doing is wrong, but turning the home movie industry into a collector's market is really going to turn off your consumers.

Twilight Time aren't aiming for the average consumer, they're aiming for the collector. By limiting their releases to 3000 they are an attractive outlet for studios that want to make some money off of a title immediately and reserve the right to release it themselves further down the line. In addition, it presumably costs less to licence a title for a limited release.

would you mind suggesting "Leave Her To Heaven" and "The Chase" for me on their FB account.
I forgot about those 2, and I think they would be amazing releases.
Leave Her To Heaven is just about the coolest color noir ever imo, and The Chase w/ Marlon Brando is just one hell of an entertaining film with an acting tour de force by Brando. I loved every second of it when I first watched it a few months back.
I really think people would love both those films.

The studios are the ones restricting Twilight Time to only 3000 copies per title.

TT is only restricted to 3000 copies because that's what they paid for and wanted to pay for. TT decided on the 3000 number long ago and the studios had nothing to do with it. The limited pressing falls with TT not the studios.

If TT approached the studios and offered to by a license for 10000 copies they would take it.

Considering only ONE title has yet sold out at 3000 copies, paying for 10,000 copies doesn't seem wise at this juncture.

I'm not saying 10000 copies is the right number for this or any other release. It was only a number used to make a point. The 3000 number originated with TT.

Anyone else on fb??? I think they are getting sick of hearing from me.

But, if no one else posts these good suggestions in 4-5 days, I'll do it.

I read somewhere, however, that Fox threw out all of their Technicolor negatives in the 70s, which makes a first class presentation of Leave Her to Heaven more difficult. It could still be pretty good, just not a Wizard of Oz-type stunner...

I believe the stuff about Fox and their Technicolor negatives is true, however "Leave Her to Heaven" is a title that was recently restored by the Academy Film Archive:

http://www.oscars.org/press/pressrel.../20101001.html

(scroll down a bit)

Good news! Thanks.

I definitely believe 3000 is too small of a number for select movies. Twilight Time miscalculated and could have easily sold 4000 to 5000 units of Fright Night. While I don't think Demetrius will sell out instantly, 3000 units is unlikely to last more than a couple of months. Now some of their other titles will definitely struggle to reach 3000 units. Twilight Time does not have the built-in fanbase yet like Criterion that will buy anything released, regardless of the quality of the movie.

They should have numbered their releases like criterion. That's definitely the easiest and most effecient way to get most of your titles to sell out eventually.

I believe the next one to sell out will be Journey to the Center of the Earth...

That is definitely easy to say in hindsight when you look at the Fright Night release, but no other Twilight Time title has sold out. I believe one other title has broken 2000 (maybe the Egyptian?) and that was one of the earlier releases.

If you read the interview/article that was linked earlier in the thread you will understand why Twilight Time chose 3000 copies. (they don't even break even until they hit like 1500-2000 units sold). It is expensive to press blu-rays. It is also expensive to license not only the film, but also the isolated soundtrack. Keep in mind that Twilight Time has to pay the studio up front and shoulders all the risk.

So, it is easy to say "oh they should have printed more" but had Fright Night sold 1500 copies, Twilight Time wouldn't even be on anyone's radar. (I don't care for Fright Night or the "collector mentality" but I was alerted to their release of Swamp Water which was well worth the 34 bucks I paid for it).

P.S. Nice Jab at Criterion, I am sure their success has nothing to do with the fact that they are the distributor for most of the top tier Japanese and European classic films.

Very true.
Sort of true.
Not so true. Even when they go over the top with an SE or UCE, the stuff isn't selling in the volumes they need to make a splash on retail shelves and stay there long enough to sell through before the ruthless discounting and dumping kicks-in.
Not so true either, but depending on how you interpret "significantly".

On the SPHE side, what seemed like an early migration carrot and no-brainer hit - that Close Encounters Collector's Box Set featuring all versions of the film with detailed comparison timelines - was almost stillborn even with heavy promotion. 4 1/2 years later, they still haven't cleared those out, even at a third of the original list price. Ditto for the double-disc SE of Oscar winner Gandhi, David Lean's Forster adaptation A Passage to India, the classic western The Professionals, or even freakin' Tommy, all eventually blown out for $10.00 or less among many others. All still available.

As for Fox, they released South Pacific and The Robe, both expensively restored and remastered for high-def, and the lovingly handled The Diary of Anne Frank, plus classy digibooks of All About Eve, An Affair to Remember, and The Hustler, all still widely available everywhere, as well as the double-disc The Longest Day and The Sand Pebbles.
All true, especially if you go by the total numbers during those 6 years. However, both studios front-loaded whatever catalogue titles they did offer circa 2008-2010. After that, not so much.

So basically I agree that they could have gone deeper with their catalogues, a lot faster Arkadin, but suspect the outcome would have been more or less the same regardless. Not enough folks had Blu-ray players then, and none of those titles (which were all perennial sales successes on DVD), was enough of a carrot to get consumers to migrate en masse.

At the mass market retail level, catalogue titles never got out the gate for either studio.

Nolo contendre!