I'm going to guess there has to be some special arrangement with Criterion to offer the 50% deal. There's practically no way that B&N just does it on their own without working with Criterion.

Particularly considering B&N likely has to "stock up" in advance of the sale, it's not likely they would stock up at their "normal" procurement cost and then turn around and sell at either zero GM% or even negative GM%.

Yeah, even though Criterion dvd is oop, I thought there was a chance they still had the rights. But then it just dawned on me, mgm released it again a few years later. I don't trust mgm at all with this title.

CG, as an update, my B&N order shipped late last night and will be delivered today. Seems like B&N ships the pre-orders on release day most of the time and not to be delivered on release day like Amazon does. Again, the beautiful next day shipping, even though I am not a member and choose free shipping... It shipped from Kentucky and I am in Chicago, so I assume you will get yours today also? You never know...

Yeah they might get a special price and then a discount for buying in bulk or something.

Viewed The Music Room last night (thanks to Spiderbaby for the rec.) and was absolutely blown away. I love the worlds that great filmmaker create and this was a very special one to say the very least. The music and performances cast a beautiful and tragic "light" on the main characters palace. (I have never seen a film that conveyed the importance of the art of music in life as well as this one)

I have a new Criterion BD to add to my list of favorites.:celebrate2:

P.S.
After the run of great Film Noir that Criterion has released of late I went looking for some other titles. My favorite has to be The Asphalt Jungle (1950) directed by John Huston. If you have not seen it and are into Noir you may want to check it out. I picked up the DVD on Ebay for five dollars, and it was quite a nice release. (good A/V quality, commentary track, and an introduction by Huston)

It's hard to say what B&N's original markup is on the criterions. It could be a significant percentage.

True. I'm putting their cost at $15-$20. It could be a little less, it could be a little more. There's really no way to know without inside knowledge.

BUT with the way these things usually work between retailer/supplier,it's just hard to imagine BarnesandNoble just doing a major deal like this on their own - and doing it twice a year to boot!. It's not a "clearance" sale, it's something they specifically stock up in advance just for this sale. I'm not saying they dollar for dollar are getting 50% off their cost from Criterion as a supplier, but clearly there is SOMETHING between them to make this deal work.

Straw Dogs is absolutely one of my favorite Criterion films, and since I have the DVD, I'm satisfied, but holy damn, getting the rights to that and re-releasing it on Blu would be outstanding. Sadly, I know that MGM is going to just throw together a bare bones re-release probably one week before or after the remake comes to theaters.

You got that right regarding MGM releasing a bare bones release. I can see it now. Yeah, the Criterion dvd video quality was amazing! I can only imagine how it would look on blu if Criterion put it out.

is it safe to import the Certified Copy blu from the UK? I mean, didn't Criterion's president say they did not intend to release it? Because if so, then I'll just get Artifical Eye's....

I'm not sure I'd be all that sad about that. MGM's bare bones releases can be awfully good. I never thought I'd be defending ten dollar Best Buy exlcusives (or even buying them, for that matter) but credit where credit is due.

Man, B&N shipping SUCKS. They put my 3 blus in this incredibly thin "cardboard" package, which doesn't protect them at all. Amazon always puts them in a box with some kind of padding/protection.

Anyway, 2 of the cases are cracked on the bottom, which unfortunately I didn't notice until after I opened them (I know, possibly my own fault for not noticing, but when they're shrinkwrapped, it's hard to tell, since they're held together).

Their return policy sucks. At least I can try to return them in-store. If this was Amazon, you could just print out free postage, send it back, and a get a new one quickly. Hopefully they won't give me too much guff.

This is the complete opposite of what happened for me. I ordered 10 blus and they came in three separate packages. The first package came in about two or three days and there were four blus in it. The box was big enough that they could have fit 30 blus :eek:! What is wrong with these people?

It plays fine on any player. And he did say that.

No guarantees he won't change his mind.

There was a rumor about not releasing it that has since been pooh-poohed. Less than 7 pounds is a pretty attractive price.

strangely enough, Barnes and Noble shipped my Brakhage and BBS sets in really sturdy cardboard packages and they arrived in perfect condition. I do need to order Videodrome and the BRD Trilogy (which is a digipack style, I believe) so fingers crossed.


AFAIK the rumor that said they were releasing it was before Becker referred to it as "minor Kiarostami" and said Criterion wouldn't do it...unless theres something more recent I don't know about? And yeah, the price is why I'm thinking of getting it along with Wild at Heart from amazon UK.

Mine shipped 2 mins after 12 last night too.

Haha. I just read up on it and the conclusion of what I read said the opposite. What I read could be wrong of course.

SB is posting shipping updates?

It's 100 degrees in Chicago but it's gotta be pretty freaking cold in hell.

Here is what I read. Who knows...

After the WTF announcement of Dazed & Confused, I never say never.

On the topic of things I'm sure about, I rec'd my copy of High and Low from Deep Discount today!