The All-Things-Weinstein Thread

[ndirtdigler69]

i thoght i heard this

[Chad Varnadore]

They are releasing some ESPN films on BD next year, but they haven't announced any mainstream movies yet.

[cigar350]

release movies in Blu-ray or are they strictly HD DVD?

[theknub]

hd-dvd afaik

[No_Touchie]

Yes, The Weinstein Company is supporting HD DVD as there only format. From everything I have read they don't have plans in the near future to support Blu-Ray. But if it makes you feel better They only have 7 titles available on HD DVD at the moment.

[Rustmonsteru]

http://www.digitalbits.com/articles/...freleases.html

The relevant quote from the link is as follows:

"Genius Products (The Weinstein Company)
Has announced that they'll begin supporting Blu-ray Disc with ESPN titles (distributed for Buena Vista) in 2007."

Found this earlier today - not sure on its reliability but I figured I'd post it.
The last time that page was updated was Dec. '06 so there you go.
Weinsteins distributing for Buena Vista on BD??? Make of it what you will,
but I'd take it with a grain of salt. It's not unusual for competetors to
distribute for one another (U.S. anime companies do it all the time) and
I'd hardly call it "supporting" Blu-ray. Nothing too exciting, but interesting I suppose.

[Ascended_Saiyan]

I find one thing somewhat interesting. There is a downloadable movie trailer of TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) in the Playstation store. It said it's from Warner Bros. and the Weinstein Company. Conclude from it what you will but it's in plain black and white lettering.

[Chad Varnadore]

The Holiday is from Columbia and Universal, but Sony has North American dist rights. I expect the same is true of TMNT and Warner.

I'm not clear on Genius isn't Weinstein, they're partner companies. Personally, I believe Weinstein's decision to release only on HD DVD is one of cost. They're a new company and it's cheaper to do. This may be evidenced in their use of AVC instead of VC1, which I've heard VC1 has steeper royalties. Who knows if Microsoft gave them any kind of incentive to jump into HD DVD early or not. Most smaller studios like Anchor Bay, Criterion, etc. can't justify or afford the expense until either sales are higher or the war has worked itself out.

[scott1256ca]

That is interesting Chad, because I've heard that Microsoft is not charging much for royalties, and I think I've heard that from the usual suspect over at AVSforum. Perhaps he meant royalties paid for the player. Since MS seems to want VC-1 to dominate the codec world, I'm surprised they don't make it available to studios like Weinstein for next to nothing.

[4K display]

The Weinstein Company uses the same consultant as Microsoft & Toshiba...nuff said.

"Genius Products will roll its operations into the new entity, Genius Products LLC, which will handle all U.S. home video releasing for Genius and TWC titles."
Weinsteins to partner with Genius

[Petra]

Weinstein was one of the 2 HD-DVD exclusive studios. But now a Weinstein division, Genius, has gone neutral

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/235

Genius Products, the home video distribution partner of The Weinstein Company, have announced their first wave of HD DVD titles will debut this holidays season, with Blu-ray support to follow early next year.

[Amon37]

The only problems I see with it are

1. The article was from Thu Sep 14, 2006
2. Early next year, Genius also plans to unleash their first Blu-ray titles, beginning with releases from ESPN, which is owned by ABC/Disney, a big Blu-ray backer.

If they are releasing Disney based movies that doesn't say a lot for Weinstein going neutral.

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by Amon37

The only problems I see with it are

1. The article was from Thu Sep 14, 2006
2. Early next year, Genius also plans to unleash their first Blu-ray titles, beginning with releases from ESPN, which is owned by ABC/Disney, a big Blu-ray backer.

If they are releasing Disney based movies that doesn't say a lot for Weinstein going neutral.

I think this is a very good article that Petra has dredged up as the HD-DUD fanbois always point to Weinstein as being exclusive. (and it's not just Dinsey they are tied with, it's also MGM who are also pro blu-ray).

Though one has to wonder where the titles are?

[kknight]

Even if we don't have Weinstein supporting Blu-ray right now, it's not a big loss. Their last couple of movies (Scary Movie 4 & Pulse) I bought sucked. I consider Lionsgate their competitor for Blu-ray and I've been a lot more satisfied with their movies lately then Weinstein...

Also, when I went to sell Pulse, I only got $3 back which I spent $30. Not sure if that's a sign of HD-DVD's value are becoming weaker or just a bad movie to sell... All the other BD movies I've sold, I got an average of $8-$10.

[jamen6]

According to Bill Hunt, of the digital bits:

"Blockbuster Video has just announced that it's expanding Blu-ray Disc rentals to 1,700 stores by mid-July, but it's not expanding HD-DVD rentals. The company has already been carrying both formats online and in 250 test stores, but the decision to expand just Blu-ray was made because customers were reportedly choosing Blu-ray rentals over HD-DVD at the test locations by a 70% margin. You can read more here at Video Business and here at Daily Variety. One thing that's worth noting here: The Weinstein Company has an exclusive 4-year rental arrangement with Blockbuster (click here for more on that), which means that this development could push The Weinsteins to go format neutral. Previously, they've released titles only on HD-DVD."

[jamen6]

Here's a link to the article announcing their agreement:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/...insteins_x.htm

[theknub]

be nice if it happens, but not getting excited until we hear something concrete

[jamen6]

yeah, but if they have an exclusive deal than maybe that could mean blu-ray's from them...GRINDHOUSE would be cool to get.

[MrBogey]

yea.. Bill Hunt shouldn't have hypothesized at this point. He's probably giddy with all those jerks who attacked his intelligence and character having to eat crow today as their beloved gets savaged but he shouldn't have make a bold speculation.

Now asking the question of what the Weinstein Company will do is totally worthwhile and deserves discussion.

[dialog_gvf]

Since the deal just started late last year, and assuming HD discs mean something before the end of the deal, would Weinstein Co. want to be mostly locked out of the B&M rental market for their HD titles?

Actually, how will Universal react to this is a valid question too.

Gary