Warner Bros UK - Catalogue titles discussion

[huntauk]

Thought I'd best make a specific thread, so I don't clog up others on off-topic rants and people who don't want to read can just bypass completely.

WB have long been the bane of the UK market by generally disregarding the market of many of their titles, guilty from well back in the DVD days.

They finally announce 3 catalogue titles for 2014 in May; Get Carter, Exit Wounds and Memphis Belle; 2 of which are hardly of high demand yet Sam Fuller's classic war movie Big Red One gets a US and German release but not here, it just doesn't even make business sense - I'm sure the Seagal film has fans who wish to collect all his work, but Big Red One vs Memphis Belle? Surely the Fuller would be the bigger seller!

The main gripe is that of Friedkin's Sorcerer (just been remastered) and the classic Point Blank, both of which never graced these shores on DVD but WB still refuse to make them available even though they are released this year in the US. Surely they are making a killing in terms of profits here with their many popular TV series', Batman and The Hobbit franchises plus exclusive steelbook reissues to name a few.

Plus their early titles such as Being There, Omega Man, Rio Bravo are no longer in print. And others such as Rebel Without A Cause, Strangers On A Train - staple classics are only available in boxsets.

Lastly they don't seem to have history in licensing out their catalogue to 3rd party distributors either whom could give the films some love in the way of a collector's edition release with nice extras ect.

[Mansinthe]

probably all warner releases are region free.. so whats the problem with importing these? i know its probably a little bit more expensive sometimes but these movies are usually avaible for a cheap price to begin with.

i myself do import 85% of my movies from the UK/US/CA and and from asia as well.
(a lot of other people probably do that as well..and its not only warner that sometimes ignores a whole market without reason or does remove most / all bonus features)

[benricci]

Just buy the American versions, then. Nearly all WB titles are region free, fairly inexpensive and easily available on Amazon. What's the problem?

[huntauk]

Originally Posted by benricci

Just buy the American versions, then. Nearly all WB titles are region free, fairly inexpensive and easily available on Amazon. What's the problem?

Fully aware they are region free, but many people don't wish to import, yes that may be their problem but surely the expense of submitting to the BBFC and minor alterations to the artwork to include the logos is worth having the titles readily available in high street stores and well as all the UK only marketplaces. Plus Sorcerer is only available at present as a digibook at a premium price. I'm sure likely customs charges would be a valid problem for more than a few people.

[Mansinthe]

a native english speaker that has to complain about importing region free blurays from amazon.com .... first world problems

[huntauk]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

a native english speaker that has to complain about importing region free blurays from amazon.com .... first world problems

Hardly the place to talk about social, political, personal or world issues on a blu-ray forum is it? Generally only film related problems/issues to be discussed here, as someone would hardly complain about blu-rays on a fly fishing forum. Lets leave it as point taken and draw a line under the sarcasm.

[Buddy Ackerman]

I agree with the point that just because someone could import something doesn't mean that they should. Why doesn't Warners treat the UK better with regards to catalogue titles? Why do we have to shop abroad? I don't mind importing and have done so for a couple of Warner titles myself but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have preferred being able to buy them here. When you factor in shipping then the cost is likely higher than they would be here, especially given the nature of sales and such like.

This reminds me of Disney UK's response when people complained about The Avengers problems - "You can import the US version if you prefer". How is that addressing the issue? Why should anyone feel that have to?

[CinemaScope]

Not a problem for me at all. All the Blu's are multi-region & can be ordered very cheaply from Amazon UK & the Marketplace. I have lots of Warner titles that I've imported (it's just a click of a mouse). Looking at Amazon UK, you can buy The Omega Man for £6.58 delivered, Being There for £8.36 delivered, & I bought Rio Bravo in the five westerns box over here for £12. I'm more concerned about the lack of catalogue titles coming from Warner, they're sitting on a mountain of great films (Warner, MGM & RKO) & there's barely a trickle coming out, & they don't license out titles. So many great movies will never make it to Blu-ray.

[Kuros]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

probably all warner releases are region free.. so whats the problem with importing these? i know its probably a little bit more expensive sometimes but these movies are usually avaible for a cheap price to begin with.

i myself do import 85% of my movies from the UK/US/CA and and from asia as well.
(a lot of other people probably do that as well..and its not only warner that sometimes ignores a whole market without reason or does remove most / all bonus features)

Originally Posted by benricci

Just buy the American versions, then. Nearly all WB titles are region free, fairly inexpensive and easily available on Amazon. What's the problem?

The two of you get that we're not talking about some 10 or 20 tiles that Warner Bros. didn't release on Blu-ray in the UK, right?

You get that the issue here ISN'T that there are only around 50, or at most 100 titles from Warner's catalogue that haven't been released on Blu-ray in the UK, and that those titles probably didn't get a Blu-ray release in the largest Home Video market in Europe because they were just too niche, and that Warner Bros. didn't go and release all those (probably too) obscure titles on Blu-ray in other places like Finland, Greece, Poland and Thailand?

You get that the rot that has set in, in the UK, doesn't end with Warner Bros., and doesn't end with the UK, yes?

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by Kuros

The two of you get that we're not talking about some 10 or 20 tiles that Warner Bros. didn't release on Blu-ray in the UK, right?

You get that the issue here ISN'T that there are only around 50, or at most 100 titles from Warner's catalogue that haven't been released on Blu-ray in the UK, and that those titles probably didn't get a Blu-ray release in the largest Home Video market in Europe because they were just too niche, and that Warner Bros. didn't go and release all those (probably too) obscure titles on Blu-ray in other places like Finland, Greece, Poland and Thailand?

You get that the rot that has set in, in the UK, doesn't end with Warner Bros., and doesn't end with the UK, yes?

I'm sure you're making a good point but I'll be damned if I can follow it. No offence meant but could you just state what you think the problem is rather than expressing it as the world's longest double-negative?

[levcore]

I've had to import a few Warner titles, most recently Red Planet.

[unicron73]

i myself have bought adventures of robin hood,excalibur,us marshals,outland and many others from the us.i also have nixon,thirteen days and major league on order.
ive preordered both sorcerer and get carter for cheaper than the preorder of get carter in the uk-complete madness...
im watching the south park movie at the moment-also a us release....

[the blob]

The UK is one large paradox when it comes to blu-ray catalogue. The three biggest home video markets are Germany, France and the UK. i'm not sure which is the biggest overall. Germany and France get a share of the WB back cat. Even Spain got The Haunting, Westworld, Soylent Green and others. Yet here we have a pathetic show. I've no problem with importing myself but maybe others do and it probably doesn't help the overall uptake when there are gaping holes for more discerning viewers.

On the other hand we have the most thriving independant blu-ray home video industry in the whole of Europe with the likes of Eureka, BFI, Arrow, Second Sight, Artifical Eye and others. Maybe the lack of major studio output is helping to proviide a gap for them. Personally, I could care less if we ever saw another MGM, Universal or Fox back cat release as long as these companies are still able to license them. Likewise with Warner and Sony if they would just do the same!

[Yami]

Originally Posted by huntauk

They finally announce 3 catalogue titles for 2014 in May; Get Carter, Exit Wounds and Memphis Belle; 2 of which are hardly of high demand yet Sam Fuller's classic war movie Big Red One gets a US and German release but not here, it just doesn't even make business sense - I'm sure the Seagal film has fans who wish to collect all his work, but Big Red One vs Memphis Belle? Surely the Fuller would be the bigger seller!

You would hope so but I'm inclined to think that Warner have a good idea about which catalog titles sell best and where they sell best. Amazon sales rankings are volatile and probably not entirely accurate but they do show that Memphis Belle is currently outselling Big Red One by quite some margin.

[Buzz201]

Originally Posted by the blob

The UK is one large paradox when it comes to blu-ray catalogue. The three biggest home video markets are Germany, France and the UK. i'm not sure which is the biggest overall. Germany and France get a share of the WB back cat. Even Spain got The Haunting, Westworld, Soylent Green and others. Yet here we have a pathetic show. I've no problem with importing myself but maybe others do and it probably doesn't help the overall uptake when there are gaping holes for more discerning viewers.

On the other hand we have the most thriving independant blu-ray home video industry in the whole of Europe with the likes of Eureka, BFI, Arrow, Second Sight, Artifical Eye and others. Maybe the lack of major studio output is helping to proviide a gap for them. Personally, I could care less if we ever saw another MGM, Universal or Fox back cat release as long as these companies are still able to license them. Likewise with Warner and Sony if they would just do the same!

Germany overtook the UK to be the Europe's biggest market for blu-ray last year..

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...europes-650591

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by huntauk

Fully aware they are region free, but many people don't wish to import, yes that may be their problem but surely the expense of submitting to the BBFC and minor alterations to the artwork to include the logos is worth having the titles readily available in high street stores and well as all the UK only marketplaces.

Warner went to the time and expense of resubmitting ERASER (now passed '15' uncut) in Feb 2009 and still haven't bothered to release it here. Money wasted, surely?

Like most here I just import, but it must be damaging the format in the UK to have so many major titles AWOL (titles such as Last Man Standing are available singularly in Germany only).

[CinemaScope]

It was the same back in the days of DVD's, so many great Warner titles not released here. I imported a ton of DVD's. Thinking of all the Warner Blu's I've imported:

Grand Prix
Mutiny On The Bounty (Brando)
The Red Planet
The box set of: The Omega Man/Soylent Green/Logans Run
Judge Dredd
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Guys And Dolls
The Haunting
In The Mouth Of Madness
I'm sure there's another 5 or 6 more I can't think of right now.

If you're not multi-region (& I'm not) then you're a lot better off than the Americans, as we have region B locked catalogue titles we can import from Germany & France. If you want a good film collection, then you have to shop world-wide these days, it's not expensive.

[CouncilSpectre]

Of those mentioned in the OP, personally I'd rather have Memphis Belle than The Big Red One. Plus, isn't the US version of TBR1 the cr@p version?

I started importing earlier in the year, a lot of the time you can get them through 3rd parties on Amazon UK, others I just use Amazon US, Amazon De or Amazon Fr - even titles that are available here are sometimes cheaper there. Bought The US copy of Field of Dreams for a fraction of the UK release price. Same with The Poseidon Adventure and a few others.

[the blob]

One other thing I noticed recently... Some OOP Warner DVD's are now being offered as DVD-R's from Amazon UK and have the Warner Archive banner on the artwork. It could be that Warner are planning to bring that model over here on a larger scale which would point to an even more ominous nature for the future of their catalogue?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Valley-Gwangi-DVD-Freda-Jackson/dp/B0000Z0HMQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1395165667&sr=1-1&keywords=valley+of+gwangi

DVD-R Note: This product is manufactured on demand when ordered from Amazon.co.uk

And at £15.99 too!

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by the blob

One other thing I noticed recently... Some OOP Warner DVD's are now being offered as DVD-R's from Amazon UK and have the Warner Archive banner on the artwork. It could be that Warner are planning to bring that model over here on a larger scale which would point to an even more ominous nature for the future of their catalogue?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Valley-Gwangi-DVD-Freda-Jackson/dp/B0000Z0HMQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1395165667&sr=1-1&keywords=valley+of+gwangi

DVD-R Note: This product is manufactured on demand when ordered from Amazon.co.uk

And at £15.99 too!

Interesting.

Only time I've ever used Amazon's "demand" service was on the US site when they released the second season of Jeremiah over there.

Came in printed, albeit basic DVD cases, but they'd managed to put the episodes on the discs in 4:3 AR. Consequently they were worse than the 'digital' copies I already had, which were 16:9. Great ad for anti-piracy - buy a legit copy which is actually worse.....