The Criterion Collection

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

I know everyone poohpoohs when this brought up but it makes you wonder if the new direction they've taken has eaten into sales. We'll never know for sure because they don't release those numbers but the focus on so many recent films combined with releasing a lot of films that already had Blu-ray releases, in some cases numerous releases, may be hitting the bottom line. I work at a company with almost the same number of people and we would certainly feel a 20% reduction in staff. It must me demoralizing.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m far more interested in them upgrading their existing dvd titles. Now their upgrades seem to be Blu-ray to UHD. So far this year I’ve bought fewer of their titles than in previous years. I actually sat out this last Flash Sale. Part of that was fewer wishlist titles but also having to spend at least $75 to qualify for free shipping.

[CRASHLANDING]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

Criterion's store added beach towels in July and t-shirts in October. I'm wondering why they don't offer posters for some of their best covers?

Probably just about licensing fees. Putting their own logo on stuff is cheap and easy, while marketing new products based on studio-owned titles, images, etc. is going to be more complicated.

[sonicyogurt]

Originally Posted by NeilZ

Sad news about the layoffs.

Don't want to stir a boiling pot but I can't help but wonder what went wrong, and whether or not favoring releases for the sake of increased diversity hurt overall sales.

Criterion is more now than just a physical home media label, and I'd be reluctant to pin the blame on increased diversity in their release slate (or any single thing-they-did or thing-they-didn't-do). Especially because the negative impact of such trends would quickly be apparent.

I don't want to speculate too much, but I suspect it's a combination of several things, including general slowing of home media purchases, growing larger as a company than the ROI could justify, rising costs/licensing fees, the margins being tougher than they've been in the past (since Criterion hasn't raised the price of a traditional BD over the past 14 years), bets they've made that haven't paid off the way they'd hoped they would, battening down the hatches in preparation for a financial bloodbath in 2023 (as many, many companies in many sectors are doing right now)...

The only person I could quickly find who talked about being laid off was an associate web editor.

[SpiritMeAway]

Originally Posted by NeilZ

Sad news about the layoffs.

Don't want to stir a boiling pot but I can't help but wonder what went wrong, and whether or not favoring releases for the sake of increased diversity hurt overall sales.

Yes, inflation is at a record high and physical media sales across the board are falling, but it's probably diversity that's the problem.

[trobrianders]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

How is Foreign a genre? Surely it would intersect with all the other genres, and each country’s output will vary based on time period, current events, influences, organisations.

They like their little identities.

[regeyer]

Originally Posted by SpiritMeAway

Yes, inflation is at a record high and physical media sales across the board are falling, but it's probably diversity that's the problem.

I don't see a problem with people raising questions. There is nothing wrong with that. He made no claims or assertions. He simply said, "I can't help but wonder . . ."

I'm sure Criterion is considering all of their prior decisions and their current options. I'm not ready to judge any past, current, or potential future choices. But I am sure Criterion is reviewing everything.

[cakefactory]

I'd be reasonably certain that the "woke-ified" release slate some people are so eager to blame is selling better, proportionally, than the super-obscure world cinema movies they'd release in the old days. Like, Deep Cover? Shaft? Sweet Sweetback's Badass song? Sure, maybe you could argue that some are not "good enough" to be in the collection or something and are only here cause of a push for diversity, but to argue they have less sales appeal than like, expensive box sets of Polish documentaries or whatever their bread and butter has been seems nuts.

I'm sure it's just that they, like basically every other physical media company, is being forced to contract by the reality that most regular people (aka, those not on the forums here!) already switched or are switching to streaming only. It sucks, but to try and blame their releases for getting too liberal is insane and blatant trying to force reality to fit your political opinions.

[dkelly26666]

I've definitely bought less in 2021 and 2022 than I think I ever have before.

2020, I bought a good bit of their slate for the whole damn year. I bought 31 releases, including four box sets of numerous titles (Agnes Varda, Bruce Lee, Federico Fellini, and World Cinema Project Vol. 3). There seemed to just be a stack of highly requested titles that year, as well, such as Cronenberg's Crash, Lynch's The Elephant Man, Scorsese's Short Films/Docs and The Irishman, Ghost Dog, Come and See, War of the Worlds, and many others; Plus, for me personally, it was exciting to get things like Pasolini's Teorema, Spike Lee's Bamboozled, The Cremator, Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers, Christ Stopped at Eboli, and a number of others. Getting upgrades of Mouchette and and some others were interesting, too. Plus, they re-released that year's big Oscar winner, Parasite.

I would wager that recent big awards movies like Parasite, The Irishman, and Marriage Story alone gave them big sales. Then, add things like that epic Fellini set.

It just seems like the last huge year they had. For me, anyway. AND, all during the height of the pandemic!

Last year, I bought significantly fewer Criterion titles, and this year, I've purchased only 7 , including through the end of the year. And 4 of those are double or even triple dips (The Piano, Raging Bull, The Last Waltz, Malcolm X). Otherwise, I've only bought Buck and the Preacher, Round Midnight, and Pink Flamingos.

I'm just getting a lot fewer titles I really want from them. In years past, I'd buy whole months' slate at a time. Been a long time since I did that. Yet another thing is the move to 4K, which I haven't become involved in, so that is irrelevant to me.

And I'm just not interested in their streaming service. My household already has five damn streaming services for various family members, and I almost never use any of them.

Anyway, I hope they'll be OK. And I hope for a better year next year.


And it has nothing, for me, to do with diversity. I bought Melvin Van Peebles, Malcolm X, Bamboozled, Buck and the Preacher, and so on. (And already have blus of Cooley High and Shaft).

The new year is looking good, already, with my pre-ordering that Lars von Trier set in January.

[captainsolo]

I feel bad for those let go. I’ve always wanted to work there and have applied on different occasions. It doesn’t bode well for anyone.

As for my personal thoughts, I buy far less Criterion releases than I used to. Their focus is less on classics these days which is fine for the business model they’re after but it isn’t for my tastes. More concerning is the lack of care on the technical side with the increasingly lesser encodes and continual audio overscrubbing on some titles. Despite their unique cases even the packaging and booklets feel simplistic especially when compared to Indicator and Eureka who charge less for releases and that’s factoring in import and shipping costs. I think their packaging and care took a nosedive when they started the boxsets where the discs were last place on the importance scale. That isn’t even going into the manufacturer issues I’ve seen on several titles purchased more recently.

Rival US labels compete directly with Criterion titles now even when there’s no budget for extras. I also think we’re all conditioned to wait for sales. There’s no point in a new $40 release if it’s going to be $20 in a month or two.

As it stands I don’t think they have the quality focus they used to. The Criterion of Laserdisc and DVD days is not the Criterion of today. I’m glad the streaming channel exists for those who desire it but I wouldn’t want to see that take precedence over everything else. I can’t shake the feeling that the company thinks people will by stuff simply because it carries the logo regardless of quality.
Then there’s their annoying habit of sitting on films they have the rights to for some time. Rumors abound and we all scratch our heads before seemingly ages later there’s finally an announcement mixed in as a footnote during a release slate.

As to not sound entirely negative if they do a deluxe Pat Garrett with all footage and cuts it would be amazing!! But I would hope for 4K and the full deluxe treatment. If it’s BD only the encode given their current practices won’t be anywhere near what Warner Archive would do.

[jw007]

I can attest to the fact that I've stopped buying Criterions but its not because I don't want to, it's just a matter of logistical challenges being that I am living on another continent and don't have access to a blu-ray player anymore. Furthermore, all of my blu-rays are in storage back in the U.S. and the only shipping company that ships to my location internationally is Amazon. So no Barnes & Noble and no Criterion shipping is possible.

However, even before I moved overseas about 11 months ago (I'm moving back in December for an unknown length of time), I stopped purchasing Criterions due to expenses as well as having access to online streaming services (Criterion Channel and HBO Max being the top ones for Criterions).

I think the biggest factors for why people aren't buying physical media as much is obviously inflation and financial fallout from the pandemic. But there's another factor: Human Behavior. I think behaviors are changing and more and more people rely on their streaming services nowadays and want to simplify their lives (reducing physical media in favor of a more minimalist, digital lifestyle). There will always be a niche market though for collectors, especially Criterion collectors. Hopefully the layoffs at the Criterion HQ aren't the beginning of a concerning trend however. When the Criterion Closet ceases to exist, that's when I'll really become concerned.

[Rayjg]

I didn’t buy too much during this last sale, just Lost Highway 4K and WC4, but then I was sick as a dog and it’s no fun buying stuff when you”re sick. Thankfully the B&N sale should be starting soon

[Egbert Souse]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

I'd be reasonably certain that the "woke-ified" release slate some people are so eager to blame is selling better, proportionally, than the super-obscure world cinema movies they'd release in the old days. Like, Deep Cover? Shaft? Sweet Sweetback's Badass song? Sure, maybe you could argue that some are not "good enough" to be in the collection or something and are only here cause of a push for diversity, but to argue they have less sales appeal than like, expensive box sets of Polish documentaries or whatever their bread and butter has been seems nuts.

I'm sure it's just that they, like basically every other physical media company, is being forced to contract by the reality that most regular people (aka, those not on the forums here!) already switched or are switching to streaming only. It sucks, but to try and blame their releases for getting too liberal is insane and blatant trying to force reality to fit your political opinions.

I just want to laugh at the idea of films like Shaft or Sweet Sweetback being considered "woke" considering how popular they are. Then you have films like Cooley High, The Learning Tree, and Buck and the Preacher - which are all debut features of important Black filmmakers. Yeah, they're probably not selling a huge amount of discs for Pariah or Love Jones, but you know they're making bank on Menace II Society and Shaft. And these are largely films that didn't have a Blu-ray anyways.

[SpiritMeAway]

There's a whole lot of purely anecdotal evidence being presented as a trend here of individuals who are buying less because Criterion is releasing less "classics," but the folks doing it can't seem to grapple with the tension between what they see as a betrayal by Criterion and Criterion's nascent attempts at decolonizing the definition of a classic.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

I didn’t buy too much during this last sale, just Lost Highway 4K and WC4, but then I was sick as a dog and it’s no fun buying stuff when you”re sick. Thankfully the B&N sale should be starting soon

I hear you. I had an unexpected hospital stay during a Kino sale and Covid during the July B&N Criterion sale and I didn’t care about much of anything. It sucked! I have made up for it during the last 2 Kino sales and will get a few titles during next month’s B&N sale. Now if someone would just have a WAC sale.

[Nori]

It's a fact that classics sell. It appears Criterion attempted to shake things up prioritizing different kind of movies, and a few years later we hear of layoffs and hard times. Maybe it's a case of cause correlation and the issue is not the curation changes, but nothing wrong in speculating about it in my opinion.

I see a lot of Twitter users pointing out that a lot of the lesser known and more unexpected films they opted to release over the last few years rank near the bottom charts at Amazon. I know that's not the whole picture (most of us here probably buy them at B&N), but still it's not great.

Now that Criterion has embraced 4K UHD's and is re releasing many classics on the format I hope their sales are facing an upwards trend and that things only get better in the future. Maybe 4k UHD's of classics will provide a needed boost.

Personally I've been buying Criterion more this year than the few years past I think. I'm still a big fan of Criterion and I'm optimistic things will go well.

[RossyG]

Having 50% off sales that are so regular you could set your watch by them is great for consumers but probably not doing Criterion any favours.

Whenever a new title is announced there are people saying they’ll get it at the next B&N sale. They should get rid of those or at least make them 30% off sales.

Also, they seem to be sitting on a lot of films they’ve licensed but not released. Maybe they could resurrect the Eclipse sub-label to put them out with fewer or no extras at a lower price. They could use that label for the “diversity” releases that don’t sell so well, too. These could be individual releases or box sets.

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by RossyG

Having 50% off sales that are so regular you could set your watch by them is great for consumers but probably not doing Criterion any favours.

Whenever a new title is announced there are people saying they’ll get it at the next B&N sale. They should get rid of those or at least make them 30% off sales.

If so, Criterion would've stopped those years ago.

I only buy during those sales (the flash ones and the B&N ones), and I reckon many people do. It'd end up hurting Criterion even more.

[jshaide]

Originally Posted by Cremildo

If so, Criterion would've stopped those years ago.

I only buy during those sales (the flash ones and the B&N ones), and I reckon many people do. It'd end up hurting Criterion even more.

Yeah, I think I’ve bought these both regularly since like 2009? They are stupid—they know people wait for these regular discounts.

[NeilZ]

Originally Posted by RossyG

Having 50% off sales that are so regular you could set your watch by them is great for consumers but probably not doing Criterion any favours.

Whenever a new title is announced there are people saying they’ll get it at the next B&N sale. They should get rid of those or at least make them 30% off sales.

Also, they seem to be sitting on a lot of films they’ve licensed but not released. Maybe they could resurrect the Eclipse sub-label to put them out with fewer or no extras at a lower price. They could use that label for the “diversity” releases that don’t sell so well, too. These could be individual releases or box sets.

If they didn't have those 50% off almost nobody would be buying them. 40 usd for a blu ray is way too much.

I think the (or at least one) issue is the curation. The more classics, well known, or in demand movies they release the more people will buy them. Looking at the comments every month, there's always a ton of "nothing for me", "my wallet is grateful", and the likes, and then some for which only one, maybe two movies are of interest. Rewind back to the earlier blu ray years of Criterion and they were releasing hit after hit from the classics catalogue.

I can't imagine the streaming channel is hurting them, but maybe they had higher expectations with it. Also maybe the cuts are due to multiple reasons.

[Mushi Minion]

Originally Posted by dbhl3000

They certainly seem to have gone more woke like the Oscars ceremony.

Care to elaborate, or is releasing more movies by non-white filmmakers all it takes to be “woke” these days?