The Criterion Collection

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by romuald121

Wall-e 4k is 17.99 on amazon.com as of right now and it can go lower, your Criterion sale min price is 19.99$ when they slash their prices around the holidays. Beware that multiple disc sets like Wall-E by Criterion normally don't benefit that kind of discount while Disney's set does regularly. So it will stay around 40$ with 5 to 10 $ dollars discount at best.

The Criterion Sale Price will be $25. Typically their 4ks can be had for $33-$35 throughout the year.

If memory serves, the best deals on Pixar 4ks last BF were $12.99.

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by romuald121

Wall-e 4k is 17.99 on amazon.com as of right now and it can go lower, your Criterion sale min price is 19.99$ when they slash their prices around the holidays. Beware that multiple disc sets like Wall-E by Criterion normally don't benefit that kind of discount while Disney's set does regularly. So it will stay around 40$ with 5 to 10 $ dollars discount at best.

What are you on about? All Criterions go on sale for 50% off the MSRP during the Barnes and Noble and Criterion website sales, which means that this release will be $25 throughout November.

[checkerboard]

if this collaboration continues it would be cool to see Criterion go for the less-obvious choices. Disney previously released a DVD of all the Pixar shorts up to that point. I would love a blu ray box set of all the Pixar and now "SparkShorts" films with bonus features.

[Smegma]

Originally Posted by romuald121

romuald121

"You're a Disney Movie Club representative?"

[MJS]

Originally Posted by romuald121

Of course it's going to sell like hot cakes: Disney released a flawless 4k 2 years ago that is still in production which means it will compete against Criterion. Criterion dropped French and Spanish audio and subs so say goodbye to international markets, most of the extras on Criterion were on the bluray that came with Disney 4k bluray minus a commentary and their usual essays. Disney actually isolated the movie to be standalone on the 4K disc while Criterion is packing that 4K disc might create compression problems.

The only plus side Criterion is offering is vanity: a nice cover art slipcover. But will that be enough for people to fork 40$ for it when they can get it with a bluray and digital code for the same or even sometimes half the price.

Actually, that second commentary isn't new either. It's called a "geek track" on Disney's disc, but it's the same set of people so I assume it's the same track.

[romuald121]

Let's just say I don't hold that title fondly to my heart as I never watched it (Wall-E). I am just here for the future to see if that release will open up for 4K exclusive 2D animation the Walt Era classics. I am not holding my breath because Criterion was never mainstream so they bought the rights for that title because it fits into their 'acquired taste' catalogue. If they ever release The Lion King 1994 4K, now we would say Criterion sold out for the mighty dollar and they are ready to put out anything Disney.

[EinCB128]

What's the email address to get a replacement disk? Raging Bull isn't playing well again and Target's return window expired.

Thank you.

[latehong]

Originally Posted by EinCB128

What's the email address to get a replacement disk? Raging Bull isn't playing well again and Target's return window expired.

Thank you.

https://www.criterion.com/contact_us

To report a technical problem with your disc; for television, public performance, and nontheatrical sales; for queries, threats, or bribes related to our future release schedule; for praise and/or criticism of our releases or the state of the film world in general; to report that a DVD booklet has been mauled by a dog or baby; for clarification of the information on our FAQ page; to gripe about region encoding; or for any and all Criterion-related anecdotes or curiosities, please e-mail: Jon Mulvaney (he lives for this stuff!) mulvaney@criterion.com

[jshaide]

I still keep waiting for the punchline

[dkelly26666]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I'm back home from seeing Akira Kurosawa's Ran at the Paris Theater here in NYC. I was actually going to go see it yesterday, which would have cost $16, but when I visited the site I found out they were now participants of National Cinema Day, so I got to see it for just $3.00! This was my first time visiting the Paris Theater, which is the only remaining single-screen theater in the city. Its located right in the heart of 5th Avenue too, across the street from the famous Plaza Hotel, around the corner from luxury shops like Bergdorf Goodman, and Tiffany's and many others The theater had actually closed down in 2019, but thankfully Netflix came to its rescue and saved it. The theater is pretty nice, with traditional red velvet auditorium-style seating. There's also a balcony level, which I will have to try the next time I visit.

Seeing Ran in theaters was such an incredible experience. The epic scale of this film benefits from seeing it on the biggest screen possible. Hearing the film's booming score, with its haunting drums, gunfire, and hoofbeats added as much to the experience for me as its visuals. Like Throne of Blood, it manages to completely transport Shakesepeare's work into a Japanese setting. Its battle scenes are some of the greatest on film, and Tatsuya Nakadai gives one of the best performances of his impressive (and still ongoing) acting career. It is a masterpiece created by a legend, whom at the age of 75 already had a full career of masterpieces behind him.

Happy for you. I saw "Ran" in first run (projected on film, of course!) in late 1985, in a single screen, but large, art house theater. Oh, it was absolutely grand scale. I got to see it again in a dingy little run down retro place in 1992, also, but that didn't match that first time. And of course I've owned it on home formats many times over.

[guizhang]

janus just tweeted a trailer for new 4k restorations of the adventures of antoine doinel to play in theaters. i hope that means a uhd upgrade of the old dvd set is on the way

[NeoNical]

Yeah, a 4K UHD release for Antoine Doinel boxset is going to happen (99% sure. I can't see a reason not to). Really excited to see how The 400 Blows and Stolen Kisses turn out. I believe they have been already released in France and The 400 Blows had a release in the UK (Maybe a few others as well).

Speaking about French films, I'm hoping Alain Resnais's La Guerre Est Finie is set for a release by Criterion soon. Film Forum is almost done with their screenings for the new 4K restoration that was done by Gaumont and CNC. I'm a huge Resnais fan and La Guerre Est Finie is one of my most sought-after films right now (As well as Providence). Hoping to see much more Resnais releases in the future since almost all of them are inaccessible to US audiences nowadays.

[gudemameshiba]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

Sign looks like Pants or Parts. I wonder if this place was around in 2008? Can’t believe I missed it if it was.

It was, but at the time it was just one more house showing whichever first-run film.

Originally Posted by NeoNical

Regarding the Au Hasard Balthazar theatrical rights, I'm still a bit confused on what really happened, but this is what I think:

[Show spoiler]Criterion's 2005 DVD was distributed by Home Video Entertainment, which was a partnership between Criterion and Rialto Pictures (Who owned a handful of StudioCanal titles). Of course, the ending of their partnership led to Criterion's biggest loss of titles, having them to make an announcement where customers should buy the soon-to-be OOP titles before they ran out of stock on their sites.

Rialto Pictures owned this title for a while. I don't know what exactly happened in 2017 and 2018 but we do know that the Janus Films logo appeared on Criterion's 2018 Blu-ray (On back cover). Interestingly enough (At least for me), Film Forum was screening this for their Homage to Anne Wiazemsky selection, stated as "A RIALTO PICTURES RELEASE."

Rialto Pictures has owned this for a long time (I recall connecting Rialto's name with this film a few times so the possibility that Rialto had the rights until now is possible) but Janus Films seems to have gotten theatrical rights now.

Here's one theory that I had: Maybe Criterion got the rights through HVE but lost it because of their partnership, then got the rights back to the film THROUGH the company that owned the film in the first place, Argos Films (Maybe Svensk Film Industri as well but probably not). Janus Films got the home video rights from Argos (Which is why the name was on the back cover of 2018 Blu-ray), Rialto kept the theatrical rights until this year.

This probably wasn't the first Criterion title that they lost because of HVE and then re-obtain rights through Janus Films (Don't want to put any examples of titles out in case of misinformation). It's a bit hard making sense of what went on at first, but I think the theory I presented is pretty solid (Or maybe not because I was getting sleepy towards the end of writing this post).

Worth noting for those who don't know: Bruce Goldstein is both the repertory film programmer at Film Forum and the founder of Rialto Pictures.

I don't think Rialto has been involved in home video rights for some time now. If the StudioCanal titles going out of print in 2010 is indicative of anything, it's of the division/distinction between theatrical and home video distribution. Similarly I think Argos separated theatrical and home video distribution: the original DVDs of Masculin féminin and Mouchette were also Rialto sublicenses, but the re-releases were licensed directly from Argos, as will be 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her if it gets upgraded. At the same time, Kino Lorber has licensed some titles from StudioCanal that are distributed theatrically by Rialto, but Rialto does not appear to be involved in those deals.

Beyond that, I also don't know of any Argos films that Rialto is currently distributing theatrically, and I don't know that Rialto ever distributed the 4K restoration. (The October 2017 "Homage" screenings were 35mm, as were the "summer double feature" showings in August of that year.) Also, Janus already has been distributing Mouchette, though not via DCP.

Originally Posted by CineClassics

Does anyone know how the Criterion distribution rights work? For instance, if Criterion has distributed a DVD of a film from Paramount 20 years ago, and no other distributor has released the film on blu-ray since that time, is it safe to assume Criterion still holds the distribution rights to the film?

There are sort of two answers to this question. On the one hand, Criterion has tended to try to establish exclusive licenses and to maintain them in perpetuity, so if the DVD is still in print, Criterion definitely still has DVD distribution rights, and probably exclusive rights, but rights for different formats are likely to be separate licenses. For example, recently Kino Lorber licensed 4K UHD rights for multiple MGM titles for which Criterion retains exclusive Blu-ray rights, such as In the Heat of the Night.

That said, Criterion is rumored to be / notorious for squatting on licenses, and to date each Paramount title that Criterion exclusively licensed and released on DVD only has been followed by a Criterion Blu-ray, with the exception of White Dog—and The Furies only came to Blu-ray in April 2021, nearly 13 years after the DVD.

As for White Dog specifically, the DVD is "currently unavailable" directly from Criterion, which has meant different things in the past iirc.

Originally Posted by Ender14

The email specifically states:

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Criterion have licensed from Disney before, as discussed in this interview with Becker from 2000.

Originally Posted by Torgon

It's 2022. Not the same Disney market.

Originally Posted by postmodel

Hope I’m wrong, but I’m getting the impression it’s more of a Pixar deal than a full blown Disney deal. Would LOVE to be wrong though.

Originally Posted by kwillard37

Also regardless of how it’s stated Disney owns Pixar, I doubt Pixar themselves can just make this decision to license out a film without running it up the Disney ladder.

I really feel like "first" is simply marketing speak. It does refer to Pixar specifically, but it neither promises nor rules out the possibility of more titles from Disney as part of this or a future license. But also there may be a legal element that doesn't actually correspond to the terms of the license per se: technically the six previous titles were all copyright, and under license from, Buena Vista Home Entertainment (as are most Disney releases, such as The Prestige 4K), whereas the copyright on the Disney UHD of Wall-E is simply "Disney/Pixar."

Originally Posted by TolerancEJ

A 4K UHD of The Abyss or True Lies under the Criterion or other label would be the mother of all licenses!

Originally Posted by SammymeBlu

1162 True Lies
1163 The Abyss

Cameron will only sign off on a new master if he handles it personally. So getting them out of the Disney Vault is a moot point until someone locks him in the Disney Vault until he completes a master.

I do honestly feel reasonably confident that he will do so, as long as he doesn't die first, but Cameron has never been good at working at anyone else's pace or according to anyone else's schedule, and his track record has been such that he can get away with it. (This is why the galaxy brain idea is to find a way to convince Cameron that he must help Michael Mann complete a director's cut of The Keep, because somehow Cameron will somehow come up with the money and make it happen.)

[lildemon666]

I hope this ends the the lock of song of the south and we can get a 4K Release.
Also I hope we get new remasters of previous films like little mermaid, Aladdin, lion king.

Give me pirates with a new 4k transfer from the OCN!

[romuald121]

Originally Posted by lildemon666

I hope this ends the the lock of song of the south and we can get a 4K Release.
Also I hope we get new remasters of previous films like little mermaid, Aladdin, lion king.

Why, all those are available in 4k, the only thing I can think of is Aladdin with original opening song. Other than that, they all look great in 4K by Disney.

[jshaide]

Happy that I’m going to be seeing things like The Princess and the Frog on the occasional Criterion wish list from this point forward.

[BaronVH]

Originally Posted by lildemon666

I hope this ends the the lock of song of the south and we can get a 4K Release.
Also I hope we get new remasters of previous films like little mermaid, Aladdin, lion king.

Give me pirates with a new 4k transfer from the OCN!

This does allow more obscure titles, but Song of the South will not be one of them. My belief is that Wall-E is a test. If it sells well, we will see more. If it doesn’t that’s it.

[JasonMichael]

If titles like Song of the South aren't on the table, then I don't have much interest in a potential deal. I am far more interested in the Walt era of Disney than I am titles released after his death, particularly the last thirty years.
I know there are plenty of fans of that material, but my personal interest lies with the older, early days of Disney. And a lot of those could use a restoration looking more as they did when released instead of the scrubbed, revisionist versions we have been getting.

[lildemon666]

I just want Alice in wonderland and Peter Pan on 4k. Then get the OCN and release another 4k of POTC.

[gudemameshiba]

Originally Posted by JasonMichael

If titles like Song of the South aren't on the table

In terms of the home video market and streaming, there really aren't any features like Song of the South besides Song of the South.