Adventures of Robin Hood, the most popular and accessible classic film out there on HD has sold under 1000 copies on HD DVD. Casablanca hasn't done much better, and who knows how bad Mutiny on the Bounty did
That's not even CLOSE to break even point on these discs, and even if you assumed 2-1, 2500 copies total? That's disgraceful for these wonderful films
The audience for the majority of these films is over 40, and more likely over 50. Most of them simply haven't bought into the necessary equipment. I would rather that they have the budget to make these films shine, and to make a lot of money so they do more and wait a little longer
Robin Hood is coming soon to BD, and I'll be first in line.
Man, Casablanca too. That is a crime. If and when it hits blu ray you guys have to pick it up. This is arguably the greatest film of all time. I have the HD DVD and the picture quality is pristine.
Any Insiders want to go to HTF and chime in on this claim from Robert George?
"Off the record (meaning no link to an official source, not my post), I have been told the primary impediment to Universal publishing on Blu-ray at this time is production. Universal is having problems getting BD50 discs produced, and they are, I am told, none too happy about it."
Any Insiders want to go to HTF and chime in on this claim from Robert George?
"Off the record (meaning no link to an official source, not my post), I have been told the primary impediment to Universal publishing on Blu-ray at this time is production. Universal is having problems getting BD50 discs produced, and they are, I am told, none too happy about it."
That is the most reliable thing I've heard in a while. My sources tell me George Lucas and Peter Jackson are coming to my house, to show ME Star Wars and the LOTR trilogies in Blu before anyone else.
not to pick on you Nick(not my intention), but PentonMan probably has more important things to do than to keep fighting the same propaganda that has been flung since the beginning of the war. If there were problems, how is it that all other Blu studios can get their product out.
Any Insiders want to go to HTF and chime in on this claim from Robert George?
"Off the record (meaning no link to an official source, not my post), I have been told the primary impediment to Universal publishing on Blu-ray at this time is production. Universal is having problems getting BD50 discs produced, and they are, I am told, none too happy about it."
To be fair, Max and Paid all have accounts over there, and both have been known to lurk on this thread, so they could reply. I just figured Penton could use some of his unique rebuttal skills on Mr. George.
Crawford already has called shenanigans on him, as have I, so maybe having someone with first hand knowledge of what is going on with Universal tearing his credibility a new rear orifice won't be necessary.
Robin Hood is coming soon to BD, and I'll be first in line.
I'm 26 and I'll be right behind you in line. I love older films and while I don't currently own many films beyond the 90's/00's, I will support classics on Blu. I'm personally planning on getting Robin Hood, Cassablanca, Guns, LoA, and definitely Forbidden Planet. I do want the releases to be as profitable for the studios as possible, however.
Any Insiders want to go to HTF and chime in on this claim from Robert George?
"Off the record (meaning no link to an official source, not my post), I have been told the primary impediment to Universal publishing on Blu-ray at this time is production. Universal is having problems getting BD50 discs produced, and they are, I am told, none too happy about it."
said it before and i'll say it again, the "demise" of Robert "Obi" George has been sad to watch in this now finished format war.
He strikes me as a bitter, stubborn man who has as higher opinion of his opinions than everyone else's opinion of his opinions. Some people just cannot let it go...
Sad to say it, but the guy is basically a j*rk off at this point; nobody should care what Mr. George has to say. He's a proven and completely bitter HD DVD fanboy.
said it before and i'll say it again, the "demise" of Robert "Obi" George has been sad to watch in this now finished format war.
He strikes me as a bitter, stubborn man who has as higher opinion of his opinions than everyone else's opinion of his opinions. Some people just cannot let it go...
Sad to say it, but the guy is basically a j*rk off at this point; nobody should care what Mr. George has to say. He's a proven and completely bitter HD DVD fanboy.
Yeah, I've noticed he only seems to have negative things to say about Blu-ray nowadays...hmmm...
said it before and i'll say it again, the "demise" of Robert "Obi" George has been sad to watch in this now finished format war.
He strikes me as a bitter, stubborn man who has as higher opinion of his opinions than everyone else's opinion of his opinions. Some people just cannot let it go..
Stubborn and Obi are synonyms. Suffice to say his sources are more of the "bitter" in the equasion. I assure you booking space on BD50 lines is the least of Uni's problems in the move to Blu
I make squat... seriously! So I'm certainly sensitive to the price issue... and if the mods will forgive me for my lack of a question... I do have something I want to add in regards to the lack of classics selling... and in regards to the pricing issue.
I got into DVD in September of '98 (believe it or not, I saved up to buy my player with my allowance), and my first DVD (purchased before I purchased my DVD player) was "Air Force One" which Target carried for $24.95 (my second was "L.A. Confidential" which came with my player). I'd usually buy one or two per month and I started getting a pretty good collection. While my purchases were mostly D&D titles (and it remains that way today with Blu-ray titles), I really enjoyed getting to see "classic" movies for the first time... I think my first was "Gone With The Wind"... and over the years I enlarged my blind buy "classic" collection with such titles as "Ben-Hur", "Blue Hawaii", "Creature From The Black Lagoon", "Funny Face", "How To Marry A Millionaire", "Jaws", "National Lampoon's Animal House", "Paris When It Sizzles", "Planet Of The Apes", "Say Anything", "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan", "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock", "Swamp Thing", "The Right Stuff", "The Silence Of The Lambs", several animated Disney films, and of course "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" and "Lawrence Of Arabia" as well as others. I also enjoyed seeing movies that I've seen before, or only seeing parts of here and there like "Always", "Breakfast At Tiffany's", "Charade", "My Fair Lady", "North By Northwest", "Roman Holiday", "Sabrina", "The Sound Of Music", "The Ten Commandments", and "White Christmas" (among others... and can you tell I'm a Audrey Hepburn fan?). While my Blu-ray collection is mostly newer films, my interest in older films has only grown with Blu-ray due to (what I believe to be a MAJOR upgrade in quality). While the only classic films I've upgraded to so far that I have already seen before is "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", "The Terminator" and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind", I've purchased "blind-buy" classics for "A Few Good Men", "Blade Runner", "Blazing Saddles", "Bram Stokers's Dracula", "Bullitt", "Die Hard" (1,2, and 3), "Halloween", "Monty Python's The Life Of Brian", "Rocky", "The Fly", "The Getaway", "The Road Warrior", "The Searchers", "The Shining", "The Searchers", "Unforgiven" and "Viva Las Vegas" and several more already released on my list to buy. I even had "Forbidden Planet" on HD DVD before I sold my HD DVD collection... and am anxiously awaiting the Blu-ray release. I can't believe that people can't look at some of the above titles and not see how much of an upgrade from the DVD the Blu-ray is! No "Bram Stocker's Dracula" jokes please! However, there are issues I have with upgrading to these classic films...
1. The film! While "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", "The Terminator" and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" were certainly going to be purchases for me and I was looking for a good "scary" movie around Halloween last year and the screen captures on here and AVS led me to purchase "Halloween", and as soon as "Forbidden Planet" comes to Blu-ray, I'll replace it. "Lawrence Of Arabia" will be a double-dip for me from the excellent DVD set I have (I hate non-standard DVD/Blu-ray packaging, but the "Lawrence Of Arabia" packaging is the classiest looking I've had) as well as some of the DVD releases I mentioned above like "Always", "Charade", "Breakfast At Tiffany's", "North By Northwest", etc., and I'll rush out and get some "blind-buy" classics like "The Bridge On The River Kwai" since I've wanted to see it for some time but have never gotten around to it. There are others as well, but you get the point. As far as other classic films go, it depends on two other things:
2. PQ & AQ: CEOT3K looks and sounds (and I'm only listening to the 1.5mbps DTS core)...PHENOMENAL!! "A Few Good Men", "The Searchers", "The Getaway", "The Shining", "Viva Las Vegas" and others looks smashing as well... "Bullitt"... not so much! "Blade Runner" looks good to me, but still lacking that "oomph" to really impress me... but I feel that way about most of WB's efforts other than their classic titles (with the exception of "Bullitt" and BR mentioned above).
3. Price! I pre-ordered CEOT3K and with Amazon's price and my 10% discount, it wasn't too bad... but I don't think I will go up to that price much. I think it's really great that some retailers are finally starting to discount Blu-ray movies more as I think this will really help sell titles more! I also say kudos to Sony and Fox for lowering the MSRP on some of their older Blu-ray titles. I've been limiting my Blu-ray spending this year due to my TV going bad and I want to get some bills paid off before I get it, as well as getting a new AVR to take advantage of lossless audio, but I found myself getting "I Am Legend" after saying that I'd wait due to Amazon (and Wal-Mart's) $18.95 price tag, and I did the same when Amazon marked down "The Water Horse" to $16.95. Long story short, pricing is key... especially for catalog titles. As I said above, I'm budgeting my spending right now, and the first titles to be struck out of my list are catalog titles. I'm making a few exceptions for a few upcoming BVHV catalog titles, but otherwise I have stopped buying catalog for at least the first half of the year... and hopefully they will have some good sales then as I'd like to have ID4... but I'm not spending above $20 for it!
4. Aspect Ratio! This has to be the most controversial on my list, but I just have to put it out there. I had the importance of OAR instilled in me by Bill Hunt during the early days of DVD, and I have stood on my soapbox in front of several people trying to instill the same importance to no avail... but when it comes to 4x3 content... even my belief is tested. I didn't mind watching DVDs with black bars on the top and bottom, I still don't today when watching 2:35.1 (and other ratio) films, but I'm a little bothered by 4x3 content on a 16x9 TV... so I can see why others with little or no passion regarding OAR might not have as much interest in "Casablanca", "The Adventures Of Robin Hood", "Gone With The Wind", "The Wizard of Oz", "Sabrina", "Roman Holiday", etc... which is a shame (although I've never been a fan of TWOO). So, while these films MUST be kept OAR, I might favor a film shot in widescreen over these films... and it pains me no end to write that!
I also wanted to point out that assuming "classic" film fans are of a certain age is something of a stereotype as I'm 27 (oh good grief, how weird it feels to say that) and love classic films, but my Mom (whose age will go untold as I don't think she'd appreciate me putting her age online) hates older films (with only a couple of exceptions) as she thinks their "stupid" along with films that are set in the past... so while we might not be the perfect examples, I think there is more young film fans than people might think...
Any Insiders want to go to HTF and chime in on this claim from Robert George?
"Off the record (meaning no link to an official source, not my post), I have been told the primary impediment to Universal publishing on Blu-ray at this time is production. Universal is having problems getting BD50 discs produced, and they are, I am told, none too happy about it."
On the record, “I have been told” that in the post-format war era, there is a definite *irrational negativity* now subtlety expressed regarding anything related to Blu-ray success by the same AVS members that history shows to have been avid red ants. Meaning, the sour grapes attitude persists, it’s just that instead of smacking you in the face, it is more of a hidden undercurrent until you track the post history of the perpetuators that have now reluctantly gotten on the Blu bandwagon simply because there is no other choice in town.
On the record, I know how long “the production queue for BD50” is currently at different plants but, I will not say as that is not my place however, I will enlighten Mr. George as to the fact that…..get ready for this!...... the queue changes not infrequently back and forth and it is not written in stone. So, essentially what he is surmising is meaningless.
On the record, I think I know a little more about Uni’s BD disc publishing position than a movie reviewer in Florida, if I was the first to report on the employment status of one of their main V.P.’s.
On the record, I know that Mr. George in the past has made dubious statements portrayed as fact, based upon things that he has limited knowledge of, for instance the film element of Blood Diamond.
Stubborn and Obi are synonyms. Suffice to say his sources are more of the "bitter" in the equasion. I assure you booking space on BD50 lines is the least of Uni's problems in the move to Blu
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