Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[filmmusic]

Yes, of course they look great but still if we could have official releases of the original films it would be better!

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

The vudu trailer

It clearly says 20th Century Fox on the Vudu landing page for Star Wars too, whereas the others all have the Disney 'D' and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Funny thing is, when the Star Wars logo comes up in the trailer it's got 'Star Wars: A New Hope © & TM 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd.' underneath it just like all the other trailers.

So.....wouldn't that point to it basically being the same situation as before? That Fox have sole rights (some say in perpetuity) over any and all means of distributing the film, but not the actual ownership of it?

[GuruAskew]

That's referring specifically to the title and logo.

A similar situation is how Paramount owns the film rights to the first 8 Friday the 13th movies but eventually had to start citing New Line for actually using the title on the packaging. Happens a lot on superhero movies too. You'll see Marvel and DC trademarks and copyrights cited on projects where the rights were farmed out to companies that aren't Disney/Warner corporate siblings.

The simplest way to look at it: as a movie Star Wars is a Fox title. If you go see it in theaters it's gonna be via Fox. If you buy it on a cassette or a disc or a download your money is gonna go to Fox.

Once you step outside of that its LucasFilm. If you want an action figure or a LEGO or a novel or comic or video game or lunch box or wastebasket featuring elements from that same movie Fox no longer gets anything.

[Geoff D]

So LFL own the IP contained therein - hence LFL/Disney being able to make their own Star Wars movies and to use those characters independent of Fox in the first place - but not the film itself? I see.

[GuruAskew]

Exactly. Fox has no rights to make their own Star Wars sequel or TV show or whatever. But the original Star Wars is their film.

One of the things people were saying a couple months back is that Disney never would have bought LucasFilm unless they had complete control over everything. If you wanna see how hilariously naive that is go add up how many times you've bought Star Wars over the past few years. Go ahead and be generous and credit Fox with $20 for each copy you've bought. That would be $100 for me. Spread out between 1995-2015. Then ask yourself how much money LucasFilm gets out of Star Wars merch from even casual fans all that time and you'll see why Disney really isn't hurting from Fox owning it.

The original film may be the epicenter or crown jewel or nucleus of the entire Star Wars empire but in the big picture it's a relatively-small moneymaker.

[SethRex]

I have no doubt I've spent a good few hundred on Star Wars.

VHS releases
VCD releases
First DVD releases
Special 2-Disc OT releases
Blu-Ray Trilogies
(Soon) Digital releases

[GuruAskew]

I was talking about the original film itself. I certainly spent more than $20 on most of those purchases but the only time it was a solo purchase was the '06 DVD release with the theatrical cuts.

For the sake of my illustration of my point you obviously would want to separate ANH from the money that went towards the other 5 movies.

Or you can run with the concept of buying ANH either as part of a trilogy or a 6-part saga and realize that Disney bought an entity that gets the lion's share of either 2/3rds or 5/6ths of those releases.

[IndyMLVC]

[stvn1974]

Stereo was Lucas' original vision so Disney is respecting his wishes.

If it really is stereo then you won't get to have the clipping in the rear channels when the Death Star is blown up at the end of Jedi like on the blu-rays. Boycott.

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I didn't say it was your take on it, but it's certainly been floated around in this thread. Implying that people were saying Fox would deliberately throw a spanner in the works was probably the wrong way to put it, but people have certainly thought out loud about the possibility of Disney and Fox not getting along re: Star Wars distribution. I think this has answered that.

Yeah, that was the real point all along - that, one way or another, it was taken care of - Disney had whatever agreements needed to be made in place as part of the sale, so it wouldn't be held "hostage" as some folks were thinking. Not that Fox wouldn't have been the real loser in the end there, anyway, if say they wouldn't allow it to be distributed with the other films, etc.

Now, the thing is, we still don't really know that much new. What we do know is that something happened around the time of TPM because the notices at the end of the film changed to Lucasfilm after that period.

This new info makes it clear that does Fox have the streaming/digital distribution rights. The trailer itself is copyright Fox, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the entire film itself is - when it's available, that's the first thing I'd be curious to check at the end of the film itself, not the trailer.

What I think will be really interesting is whatever the next physical release says. It could be more complex than we think - for example, Fox may have retained streaming/digital rights, Lucasfilm may have home media rights, etc. There are any number of scenarios here.

In any case, though, the prevailing "Disney has this worked out" is really the message here - because no matter who gets a cut of what, Fox is pretty much just along for the ride in whatever capacity remains, and there is no reason to assume that whatever the case behind the scenes is will affect the consumer end of Star Wars and what we experience.

[GenPion]

Why would anyone with the Blu-ray collection also want it on Vudu? Unless these do turn out to be the original theatrical versions, but it seems doubtful.

I think when the Star Wars convention comes along (or on May 4th) we might hear an announcement, though. I don't really expect these re-releases to drop until closer to the release of the new film.

[Ernest Rister]

You guys are a riot...and still can't grasp the difference between distribution and ownership. Did you not see the new 2015 copyright and trademark at 58 seconds in? Star Wars A New Hope copyright and trademark LucasFilm Ltd.? Disney recently bought out Paramount for rights to Indiana Jones. Fox is still distributing the SW films at LucasFilm's bequest. The copyright at the end is for Fox's trailer, not far A New Hope. Fox is still distributing the films at the request of LucasFilm. Fox still gets the job (for now) when LucasFilm asks.

[Blu-21]

This is a goofy question just for a little bit of fun, so don't take it too seriously but I'd still like some answers

What would you prefer if you could only have one?

Brand new modern 4K scans of the originals in their current special edition state on Blu-Ray with bellow average packaging?

or

the theatrical editions of the OT cleaned up and in anamorphic widescreen only on DVD with top of the line packaging?

I added in the packaging part because that is so important to many of you on this site...

[GuruAskew]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

You guys are a riot...did you not see the new 2015 copyright and trademark at 58 seconds in? Star Wars A New Hope copyright and trademark LucasFilm Ltd.? Disney recently bought out Paramount for rights to Indiana Jones. Fox is still distributing the SW films at LucasFilm's bequest. The copyright at the end is for Fox's trailer, not far A New Hope. Fox is still distributing the films at the request of LucasFilm. Fox still gets the job (for now) when LucasFilm asks.

So desperate.

The Fox copyright only appears on ANH... Which is the only movie that doesn't get the Disney Anywhere feature the other 5 get... Because they're Disney titles and the original film is not.

Nobody will think less of you if you admit you were wrong. But stuff like this makes you look like a sore loser.

[kamphausd1]

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by kamphausd1

No we don't. Guru and others have argued passionately that LucasFilm does not own Star Wars a New Hope. Sure they do. They have a 20 year distribution agreeement with Fox, though, for all the movies through 2019 or 2020 (everyone says 2020, so sure, 2020). But that's all it is. A distribution agreement. Not ownershio of the films. They don't understand a distribution agreement is just a contract to distribute the films when the owner requests it. Some of these good fellows have even stated LucasFilm can't release the films unless Fox says ok, which is nonsense. Even if Fox has still retained the agreement to distribute the films in perpetuity, they still have to do it whenever LucasFilm asks. We've been through this a million times.

LucasFilm got ownership of A New Hope back from Fox during distribution negotiations for the prequels. Fox owns distributuon rights for all the films through 2020, unless something's changed.

Meanwhile, Disney bought all rights to Indiana Jones from Paramount.

[Nailwraps]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

You guys are a riot...and still can't grasp the difference between distribution and ownership. Did you not see the new 2015 copyright and trademark at 58 seconds in? Star Wars A New Hope copyright and trademark LucasFilm Ltd.? Disney recently bought out Paramount for rights to Indiana Jones. Fox is still distributing the SW films at LucasFilm's bequest. The copyright at the end is for Fox's trailer, not far A New Hope. Fox is still distributing the films at the request of LucasFilm. Fox still gets the job (for now) when LucasFilm asks.

So, Fox will distribute the other 5 films even after 2020?

Incidentally, Paramount still has distribution rights to the 4 Indy films.

[GuruAskew]

What you have now is definitive proof that Fox owns the original film and you have a handful of posters who would rather double down on their nonsense rather than admit they were wrong a couple months back.

[stvn1974]

I don't care who owns what. All I know is I don't own the UOT in HD.

[BuckNaked2k]

Originally Posted by stvn1974

All I know is I don't own the UOT in HD.

I do.