Godzilla Minus One (2023) Blu-ray

[WaverBoy]

Thank you! I just broke the news to my girlfriend — she missed out on the last run because I neglected to tell her about it, so now hopefully I’m back in her good graces gotta have that cool monochrome version!

[Brandon K]

In addition to the "Pre-Order Quantities Are Limited" message on the page, they also have a banner on the site that says "Pre-order Now Before it's Gone", so for anyone who was thinking about this and waiting for it to come back, I definitely wouldn't wait to place an order.

It would be interesting to know how many of these they did the first time and how many they are planning for this second run. From the wording on the site, I think it's clear they have already planned some limited number (rather than taking pre-orders first, and then ordering some quantity based on the number of pre-orders). There seems to be a lot of "reviews" that are just people talking about how the original pre-order was closed and asking them to bring it back, and they also would have had data from the notification sign-up, but that would have been limited up to a point because as of at least Sep 9, the page had been taken down at that time, meaning you couldn't sign up anymore.

I'm not really familiar with Shopify, something interesting, I don't know if it's any type of quantity data, but there is a value named "stk" (stock?) in the product json loaded by the page, that keeps decreasing like so, this is starting from around maybe the past 15-20 minutes while I was writing this post:

-456, -481, -495, -498, -517, -534, -565, -588

Since it's a pre-order depending on how the system handles pre-orders internally, one method would be to have in-stock "stock" starting at 0, meaning that orders would decrease the "stock" and go into negative numbers. So if let's say they only planned to do 1,000 of these, they are selling fast since they put it up (I got the notification email at 12:17 PM Pacific today, and came here to post the news immediately after getting my own order in).

On an in-stock non-pre-order item, such as the super cute "12" Baby Godzilla Plush" lol, the current "stk" value is a positive number, and currently not moving, sitting at 159.

Or the in-stock "Bandai Movie Monster Series Wave 3 - Godzilla 2004" which they have marked as "Low Inventory!", the current value is 9.

And on another pre-order, "Movie Monster Series Bagan", the current value is -6 and moving slowly, finally it changed to -7 lol.

I guess I'll try to watch the value on the Blu-ray for a while as I'm interested to see how many they will sell, it does seem likely to me that it is a quantity value.

[starsteam]

Originally Posted by Brandon K

And on another pre-order, "Movie Monster Series Bagan", the current value is -6 and moving slowly, finally it changed to -7 lol.

That was me aaha.

Yeah that's interesting. Rather shocking if they've already sold 500 more units since opening orders back up. Odd they still haven't offered the standard versions on the site yet. They might be the last hope for many on the Steelbook.

[Brandon K]

Originally Posted by starsteam

That was me aaha.

Haha nice! I was looking at it and thinking, this is kind of a cool looking monster.

Originally Posted by starsteam

Rather shocking if they've already sold 500 more units since opening orders back up.

Indeed, I guess the demand is there. First value I saw was -456, and now the latest value at 2:30 PM was -632. So that's 150+ units (almost 200 units) in only say maybe the last ~45 minutes, let's assume it's already slowing down a bit if they sent out those email notifications and there was a flurry of activity at the start (maybe starting sometime around 12 PM), it's definitely plausible.

[starsteam]

Originally Posted by Brandon K

Haha nice! I was looking at it and thinking, this is kind of a cool looking monster.

It's notable for being the first toy of Bagan, a monster that was scrapped from three Godzilla/Mothra projects in the 90's. Ultimately it did appear in a few video games and the Godziban webseries.
I almost bought it back in August but it sold out the week before I was planning to, and I have been looking out for a restock ever since.

Indeed, I guess the demand is there. First value I saw was -456, and now the latest value at 2:30 PM was -632. So that's 150+ units (almost 200 units) in only say maybe the last ~45 minutes, let's assume it's already slowing down a bit if they sent out those email notifications and there was a flurry of activity at the start (maybe starting sometime around 12 PM), it's definitely plausible.

Wish we could see what this was for the first run. Around 700 people who use this site's database has it in their collection, they must have sold thousands.

[ZeroRo]

I want this deluxe edition for Minus Color Subbed but I don't want a a standalone release of it to come out later with the dub. They should really have included Minus Color with the US release too or announced a standalone Bluray release. Or even just a 4k Bluray of original and Bluray of Minus Color combo pack with the dub.

[TwinCitiesBluFan]

Anyone have a free shipping code they'd be willing to share? I was able to get one easily last time, but I did the phone sign-up with a different number this time and haven't gotten a code yet. I ended up not pulling the trigger last time, so hoping to this time, but would love to get the extra $8 off (already got the one-time discount for signing up using my email, so that code is covered).

[starsteam]

Originally Posted by TwinCitiesBluFan

Anyone have a free shipping code they'd be willing to share? I was able to get one easily last time, but I did the phone sign-up with a different number this time and haven't gotten a code yet. I ended up not pulling the trigger last time, so hoping to this time, but would love to get the extra $8 off (already got the one-time discount for signing up using my email, so that code is covered).

Try KAIJU15

[TwinCitiesBluFan]

Originally Posted by starsteam

Try KAIJU15

No dice, but thank you! I think it didn't work because I already have the first-time purchase discount on there, but the free shipping code stacks on top of that, if I can get my hands on a code.

[Brandon K]

Ahh I placed another order because I forgot to use the 15% first purchase code I had from email signup, and then emailed them to ask about cancelling the first one. Didn't know about free shipping codes lol. They might not have combined codes anyway? Ah well it's all good, not knowing how many of these they are going to have, I was more focused on just getting my order in.

So they've been selling around 30-60 per half hour (gradually slowing down), the current number as of 6 PM Pacific is now -919.

Originally Posted by starsteam

Wish we could see what this was for the first run. Around 700 people who use this site's database has it in their collection, they must have sold thousands.

So look what I found lol, thank you archive.org!

From Aug 22 at which time the first pre-order had already sold out, the quantity was at -4887. So it was likely a 5k order and they cut it off at a convenient time when it was close to 4900, to keep 100 for replacements etc.

[starsteam]

That's impressive for a pricey site-exclusive. Maintaining Minus Color as a exclusive is probably what's driving sales for the second run. Hope this convinces Toho to provide more physical media directly to US fans in the future.

The cut-off happened the same day the wide-release version officially went up for pre-order, and they had already announced that pre-orders were closing soon, so it likely a timed cutoff instead of a quantity cutoff.

[Brandon K]

Originally Posted by starsteam

That's impressive for a pricey site-exclusive. Maintaining Minus Color as a exclusive is probably what's driving sales for the second run. Hope this convinces Toho to provide more physical media directly to US fans in the future.

Agreed on Minus Color. It also just passed 1,000 for the second run within the last 10 minutes, so I guess they ordered more than 1k more, hopefully everyone who wanted one will get it this time

[jasonwhiton]

I'm interested in having Minus Color on Blu-ray or 4k. Do folks think that version of the film will not get additional releases in the future?

[Brandon K]

Originally Posted by jasonwhiton

I'm interested in having Minus Color on Blu-ray or 4k. Do folks think that version of the film will not get additional releases in the future?

Tough call. I think doing it in the initial normal release would have been the time to do it (rather than wait and do it later), when the demand is highest. I don't think there's any doubt about demand for it, given that the black and white of various films have proved popular, but they're not doing it now, and have chosen to only put it in this edition instead. For them, it does reduce the number of different release combinations that they have to put together and market. They also certainly saved cost by just copying the Japanese release and adding the subtitles. While I think their strategy is clear (and unfortunate), I think demand could still persuade them to release it in an additional future release, but on the other hand I think that demand will be less in the future if most people end up getting these CE sets. Certainly there is annoyance from those who want Minus Color as a dubbed disc that this release doesn't have the dub on it, so that is at least one opportunity. If you released Minus Color just by itself with the dub, you might get some people who bought the CE set to begrudgingly buy it again.

I feel as if they've underestimated the demand for this movie all along, it was a pretty good movie (everyone's mileage may vary), in some ways it was probably harmed by releasing so close to Legendary's release, but in other ways I think it benefited by the comparison. (Hey, this is a really popular Oscar-winning movie with a theatrical run that was too short, we released it on Blu-ray only in Japan first, now we're not happy, why is everyone pirating it? Well first of all that's every movie, movies get pirated and the amount just corresponds to the overall popularity of the movie, and second of all, tell me what you just said again and think about it lol.)

[starsteam]

>US box office is higher than Japan's
>finishes strong with Minus Color, originally intended as a Japan exclusive
>wins a Oscar
>becomes most pirated film in May
>breaks record by being #1 on Netflix and VOD sales in same week
>sells 5000 (and counting) deluxe 4K editions
>SteelBook edition pre-orders sells out practically everywhere on day 1

Some nut at Toho International: "hmm I don't know, maybe those were a fluke"

[gpn]

Originally Posted by jasonwhiton

I'm interested in having Minus Color on Blu-ray or 4k. Do folks think that version of the film will not get additional releases in the future?

Toho is very protective of the Japanese market and there won’t be a standalone release of Minus Color in the US before Japan and so far the only Japanese release has been in the deluxe set.

[Ky-Fi]

Just ordered, thanks.

I didn't order on the first run, as it seemed a little pricey and I figured I'd just get the regular US release when it came out. But then seeing some of the pre-orders and it wasn't clear to me that Minus Color was going to be included. And then I got annoyed at trying to search around and see what the deal was.

So anyway, I just ordered this.

[starsteam]

Originally Posted by gpn

Toho is very protective of the Japanese market and there won’t be a standalone release of Minus Color in the US before Japan and so far the only Japanese release has been in the deluxe set.

Actually there is a standalone Blu-ray release of Minus Color in Japan. The deluxe package was the only way to get both versions of the movie bundled together. In the US the deluxe edition is the only way to get -1/-C at all.


Being protective of the Japanese market is a moot point with this release, as Toho is handling it overseas. All of the money is going directly to them after distribution fees. They made the discs region free, and included all of the same content even if they were not able to sub it all.
Keep in mind that in Japan, the Deluxe Edition is also the only way to get the film in 4K. In America we're getting solo 4K editions. We're actually getting something Japan didn't.

[Brandon K]

The Japanese booklet that comes with the CE has now been translated into English and is available as a free PDF download!

https://godzilla.com/blogs/news/godz...e-download-pdf

[Brandon K]

Stock update on the 2nd run of the collector's edition, currently at -2546. I was thinking they might have done less the second time, although a smaller run would have probably increased the production costs. Given the current number they probably did at least 3k, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did another 5k, in which case they are halfway sold!