Universal taking over distribution of Paramount blu-rays overseas

[whiteberry]

http://deadline.com/2015/02/universa...sc-1201372105/

[James Luckard]

The optimist in me would like to think this means we'll get more Paramount titles overseas, but the realist thinks it's probably just like the comment at Deadline says - a way to lay off employees.

[Leslie Dame]

Here's hoping Universal won't DNR Paramounts catalog titles.

[Jumpman]

Is Paramount Pictures really that bad off to do this with not only WB but now Universal?

[Aclea]

The fact that they're looking at just $20m of savings between the two companies is pretty telling about the health of the physical media market as its gone from a cash cow even Gomer Pyle couldn't screw up to something where they're having to cut every corner they can.

[DetroitSportsFan]

I haven't been following too closely, but hasn't WB's output of Paramount catalog titles been lacking lately? If so, I wouldn't expect much of an increase in Paramount catalog titles overseas either.

[Aclea]

Paramount had been penny pinching in Europe for ages - many BD titles like Marathon Man or Rosemary's Baby had absolutely no extras on them even though the US discs did. They didn't even include the trailer on Samson and Delilah.

[jscoggins]

Paramount and Universal have been distribution partners for decades. They used to distribute theatrical movies together as UIP.

Paramount will probably be merged or sold at some point in the future. They let Marvel out of their grasp in one of the most boneheaded decisions in film industry history.

[captveg]

Not too surprising. Paramount has become - by far - the smallest of the old studios for feature filmmaking, and their feature catalog holdings are generally smaller than most of the other majors (Disney excepted since they didn't really start making many features until the 50s).

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

Paramount and Universal have been distribution partners for decades. They used to distribute theatrical movies together as UIP.

UIP still exists in Thailand, I subscribe to the YouTube channel so I can see some featurettes and trailers not available in the US.

UIP Thailand YouTube Channel

Paramount will probably be merged or sold at some point in the future. They let Marvel out of their grasp in one of the most boneheaded decisions in film industry history.

Paramount never had Marvel at all, it was the other way around. Marvel Studios lacked any real muscle to do film distribution so they partnered with Paramount to handle it. What Marvel Studios failed to see, despite having time traveling mutants, humans, and super soldiers, was that Marvel would have to be sold to another company.

Marvel was bought by Disney and essentially everything under Marvel: Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Marvel Consumer Products, etc. would go to Disney.

Of course, Paramount was not going to let Disney just buy their stuff so underhandedly. Disney pays a small fee to Paramount for any sales or rentals of the Phase I and most of the Phase II films. Disney made a similar deal to nearly fully acquire the Indiana Jones future film releases. Paramount will also get a small fee for sales or rentals of future Indiana Jones films.

[jscoggins]

Thanks for the mansplain.

[Nailwraps]

Pretty ironic considering Universal owns a selection of Paramount titles (Holiday Inn, Psycho, etc.)

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by Aclea

The fact that they're looking at just $20m of savings between the two companies is pretty telling about the health of the physical media market as its gone from a cash cow even Gomer Pyle couldn't screw up to something where they're having to cut every corner they can.

Perhaps the owners behind these studios should find another line of work. If they're in the film business but can't actually figure out a way to make money selling their films then something is very wrong.

[FrankV]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

UIP still exists in Thailand, I subscribe to the YouTube channel so I can see some featurettes and trailers not available in the US.

UIP also still exists in the Benelux (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg) and Universal is distributing Paramount titles for some months now in the Benelux.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by cine74

Perhaps the owners behind these studios should find another line of work. If they're in the film business but can't actually figure out a way to make money selling their films then something is very wrong.

They have: by shutting down one department and splitting costs in the future. Physical media sales have been in freefall for the past decade and things aren't going to get any better.

So far DVD and Blu-ray are following the classic home media trajectory, be it 16mm, 8mm, VHS, laser disc, DVD or VOD:

Stage One: the studios sublicensing a few titles to third party distributors because they don't want to commit resources to a format that might not take off

Stage Two: the gold rush years with studios breaking their licensing contracts and releasing titles themselves once they release how much money they can make themselves

Stage Three: once the market starts an irreversible decline and the prime titles in the library are tapped out, sublicensing again to third party distributors because they can't afford to keep the staff levels they had during stage two and still show a profit

[steve_dave]

Its the Laserdisc days all over again!

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

Pretty ironic considering Universal owns a selection of Paramount titles (Holiday Inn, Psycho, etc.)

Yep, although those are from two separate deals. They own all pre-1950 Paramount titles, also including Double Indemnity. They also own five films that Hitchcock made for or released through Paramount, but eventually owned personally.

[captveg]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Yep, although those are from two separate deals. They own all pre-1950 Paramount titles, also including Double Indemnity. They also own five films that Hitchcock made for or released through Paramount, but eventually owned personally.

Well, they don't own all the pre-1950 Paramount titles. There are exceptions, such as the silent films (still owned by Paramount), titles they couldn't show on TV in the 50s (ex: Miracle of Morgan's Creek, still owned by Paramount), or films sold off prior (ex: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sold to MGM for their 40s remake and now owned by Warner).

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by captveg

Well, they don't own all the pre-1950 Paramount titles. There are exceptions, such as the silent films (still owned by Paramount), titles they couldn't show on TV in the 50s (ex: Miracle of Morgan's Creek, still owned by Paramount), or films sold off prior (ex: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sold to MGM for their 40s remake and now owned by Warner).

Ah, interesting, I didn't know that! How did those titles escape being sold to Universal? Maybe Universal just didn't want the silents at the time?

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Ah, interesting, I didn't know that! How did those titles escape being sold to Universal? Maybe Universal just didn't want the silents at the time?

Yes, Lew Wasserman only wanted the movies that he could license to the TV networks as reruns.