Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[jarrod_inf]

Originally Posted by Rockercub

Why does that irritate you though? If a release with compression issues is good enough for you, you get to enjoy it. The videophile, on the other hand, doesn't. It seems to me like you should be happy and the videophile should be irritated.

Many people seem to take the criticism personally. I don't see shit wrong with their releases but others do. How you feel doesn't affect me one bit. It's up to the company itself to please the unsatisfied consumers.

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Based on their comments from the KillerPOV podcast and Facebook, SF puts too much emphasis on preorder numbers. Most of us don't preorder when prices are usually the highest. We wait for price drops. I remember them declaring Ninja III as a flop, but after it went on sale a few times at Best Buy and Amazon, it's now considered a good seller. Patience, guys.



I agree, but the sad truth is that the big stores usually don't want to carry catalog titles except for the most well known mainstream stuff.

That's very true. In the Best Buy store nearest me ive only ever seen a few SF titles like Mad Max & newer releases like The Babadook but when I went on release for The People Under the Stairs they said they didn't get any & I should order from their website.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by dvdmrp

I was the guy who posted on the Scream FB page with requests for Enemy Territory and widescreen Arena and The Barbarians.
I appreciate their honesty. While I love that all of these companies are licensing stuff like crazy, it is also bad in a way too. There is so much coming out that the market is getting flooded. With Kino and Olive releasing a TON each month, it is hard to decide what to get first and what to wait for.

What really makes me mad is that so many people request titles but yet when they come out, they don't buy them. I for one begged for widescreen outing and cellar dwellar so I pre-ordered ASAP to show my support. People begged for an SE for Scarecrows and they said it tanked. Where were all of the people that blew up their FB with posts and complaints. I say if you are going to beg and beg, actually buy it. Creating new masters cost money as do special features. It would be such a shame if they somehow cannot do new masters for some of the other culty titles that deserve it.

I for one was psyched that Ghost Town got a home video release...I'm still hoping more people buy these so we can get widescreen Barbarians and Arena. Please people buy these so that more can come out.

We are indeed experiencing a renaissance period of great catalog releases unlike any before; it's a great time to be a movie geek. The major Hollywood studios have lost interest in home video but thankfully not in making money, so they're farming movies out to all the various indy labels, which is probably for the better. The indy guys have better vision, creativity and, more importantly, more passion for films than the studios themselves have, which are now run by the 23-year-old sons and daughters of hedge fund managers and other banking interests.

With the market so flooded with content it's especially important to stand out from the competition. Olive needs to step it up and hire an extras producer and maybe demand better, newer transfers for the Blu-ray market. Recycled transfers a problem considering many of these BDs are $19.99 minimum in many cases. Olive is doing at least one thing right and that's giving us original poster art.

Scream Factory needs a new hook. Their titles perhaps aren't selling as well as in the beginning but that may be for several factors: There may be titles that people aren't interested in, or have a marginal interest in but don't want to spend $20 on, there are compression issues (thankfully I don't obsess over such things), delays, etc. Maybe going after "bigger guns", even if it means spending more $$, could easily bring back the Scream Factory we all know and love.

People are predicting the demise of physical media so the Blu-ray market is pretty much a niche market these days - indy labels need to market to the collectors and film buffs if they expect to stay in business. That means demanding fresh HD masters, better encodes, producing extras (including creating booklets), using original art on a reversible sleeve for those that insist on commissioning new art, and looking into specialty packaging. Just about anything is better than those cheap generic plastic cases.

[dsman71]

I was asking an insider about the theory of Shouts poor sales and was told that the people requesting the titles are not really the consumer base, but are just trolls making noise requesting titles that they don't even buy.

I thought that was an interesting take. Their page has 60000 likes, but how many of those 60000 are just making noise, and how many are actually purchasing their releases. The poor sales are reasons why Im for limited editions because that will encourage consumers to make the purchase if they want the movie bad enough.
Just think about all the people sitting by their PC or having their handheld devices ready for 4pm PST on September 30th for the TT per-orders of Vampires, Scream and Scream Again, and Count Yorga..

[BarnDoor]

I don't think the people on their Facebook page are trolls - just a minority of a few hundred (fairly dense, one might say) people who Scream seem to base a baffling amount of business decisions and sales projections on.

[dadaluholla]

I like the Scream Facebook page but I very rarely if ever buy any physical releases anymore. I'd like to pick up Shocker sometime but that's about it.

[redrunner97]

Keep in mind that SO MANY catalog titles are coming out from every company and also independent directors and studios.

Let's say that Joe requests Scarecrows. Maybe the month it comes out, Joe also sees 14 other catalog releases he wants just as bad, but can only afford 6. Maybe Scarecrows didn't make the cut, doesn't mean Joe didn't want it though. Cut to the next month, now 12 more titles are buried on top of that one, maybe it still doesn't make the cut. Maybe Joe won't actually pick it up until about a year later when he catches it on sale.... That's what's happening to genre collectors all over America right now.

A premium price on EVERYTHING is making it harder to buy a lot of titles, at least that's my personal experience lately. Now most of my favorite labels are limited editions with set prices in a small availability window. There's no putting it off, there are no deals or discounts, and if I miss it there's a good chance I will NEVER be able to own that particular film in HD. It's stressful.

[Seymour]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

Keep in mind that SO MANY catalog titles are coming out from every company and also independent directors and studios.

I was just thinking the same thing.

Shout/Scream releases like what, 3-4 titles a month? Then you've got Kino, Olive, Twilight Time, and Arrow that release titles every month. Plus labels like Scorpion, Code Red, Blue Underground, Synapse, Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, probably others I'm forgetting...anyway, my point is--it gets expensive trying to keep up with all these releases. And I didn't even mention the stuff that's coming from the majors!

[spawningblue]

Originally Posted by jarrod_inf

I honestly wonder what would bring Warner, Lionsgate, et al to the table? Are they looking at Shouts viability long term? Ignorance? Greed? Planning some strong resurgence into catalog production? The world may never know....

I don't know about Warner, but Lionsgate feels it is beneath them with all of that Hunger Games money coming in. The good news is, Hunger Games is almost over, do they have any other big franchises to survive off of? If not, maybe they will look for other sources of income, and hopefully Blu-rays are one of them.

Originally Posted by cine74

Olive needs to step it up and hire an extras producer and maybe demand better, newer transfers for the Blu-ray market. Recycled transfers a problem considering many of these BDs are $19.99 minimum in many cases. Olive is doing at least one thing right and that's giving us original poster art.

Olive is the worst! I dread any time they announce something, as you know it will be a no effort barebones affair at a premium price. They can't even be bothered to include the theatrical trailers any more. I wish Shout/ Scream or Kino released Last American Virgin, Coffy, Foxy Brown, etc., as we would have at the least had the DVD extras ported over.

Originally Posted by dsman71

The poor sales are reasons why Im for limited editions because that will encourage consumers to make the purchase if they want the movie bad enough.

That's nice if you have unlimited funds for movies. I hate limited releases, as I know there is a good chance I may miss out on some of them. It also forces you to choose lesser films over the ones you want to watch at the moment.

I have a list of films I wanted to grab for October, but I unfortunately will probably put the money towards Code Red or Twilight's releases as there may not be a chance to get them again. I hate the way this industry is going. The get it now, or miss out on it forever mentality. I just want to buy what I want, when I want it. It's also much more expensive. With shipping, duty, and conversion rate, Twilight and Code Red discs cost me $40+ a movie, that's just insane!

Originally Posted by redrunner97

Keep in mind that SO MANY catalog titles are coming out from every company and also independent directors and studios.

Let's say that Joe requests Scarecrows. Maybe the month it comes out, Joe also sees 14 other catalog releases he wants just as bad, but can only afford 6. Maybe Scarecrows didn't make the cut, doesn't mean Joe didn't want it though. Cut to the next month, now 12 more titles are buried on top of that one, maybe it still doesn't make the cut. Maybe Joe won't actually pick it up until about a year later when he catches it on sale.... That's what's happening to genre collectors all over America right now.

A premium price on EVERYTHING is making it harder to buy a lot of titles, at least that's my personal experience lately. Now most of my favorite labels are limited editions with set prices in a small availability window. There's no putting it off, there are no deals or discounts, and if I miss it there's a good chance I will NEVER be able to own that particular film in HD. It's stressful.

Exactly! All of these companies like Code Red, Scream, Scorpion, etc. that judge a movie's success on pre-orders is just silly. Just because we don't buy it on release day doesn't mean we don't want it. The amount of catalog titles coming out from all of these genre companies in the past year or two is just insane! Every week it seems like there are a stack of discs I want, and my funds are limited. Just because I don't buy a title right away, doesn't mean I don't want it, or I'm waiting for it to hit the $5 bin, it just means that week I chose something else.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by dsman71

I was asking an insider about the theory of Shouts poor sales and was told that the people requesting the titles are not really the consumer base, but are just trolls making noise requesting titles that they don't even buy.

Now we know the real reason for poor sales. SF simply is arrogant and has an attitude problem. Instead of looking for the real reason they're just conveniently pointing the blame at their customer base. SF needs to pull their heads out of their collective arse and reflect deeply from within.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by cine74

With the market so flooded with content it's especially important to stand out from the competition. Olive needs to step it up and hire an extras producer and maybe demand better, newer transfers for the Blu-ray market. Recycled transfers a problem considering many of these BDs are $19.99 minimum in many cases. Olive is doing at least one thing right and that's giving us original poster art.

Thankfully a good amount of their releases can currently be picked up for $12.99, on sale, at BestBuy or Amazon if they're price matching.

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by spawningblue

I hate limited releases, as I know there is a good chance I may miss out on some of them. It also forces you to choose lesser films over the ones you want to watch at the moment.

I have a list of films I wanted to grab for October, but I unfortunately will probably put the money towards Code Red or Twilight's releases as there may not be a chance to get them again. I hate the way this industry is going. The get it now, or miss out on it forever mentality. I just want to buy what I want, when I want it. It's also much more expensive. With shipping, duty, and conversion rate, Twilight and Code Red discs cost me $40+ a movie, that's just insane!

I wholeheartedly agree!

I'll spend upwards of $30 blind-buying a limited title instead of getting two regular blu's (very likely one from Shout Factory, for example). But what if this one particular limited edition is my favorite movie of all time and I just haven't seen it yet? I'm forced to choose between missing out on something great or missing out on something else great. And still paying too much money either way. I really hate it. It's making the collecting game stressful and unenjoyable. I want my hobby to be fun. This isn't fun. But I'm sticking to it. Maybe the market will find a solution or I'll win the lottery! lol Who knows.

But I don't like that certain companies are telling me it's *my* fault their titles are selling poorly. If I had the money I'd buy every Shout Factory disc DAY ONE, and every other label's too. It's just not realistic though. This thread used to blaze through 5 or 6 pages of posts a day (if not more) and now it's barely bumped. That's a sign that something more is going on than meets the eye, and it's not cheap customers.

[leopardskinpillbox]

Originally Posted by Rockercub

Why does that irritate you though? If a release with compression issues is good enough for you, you get to enjoy it. The videophile, on the other hand, doesn't. It seems to me like you should be happy and the videophile should be irritated.

I'm not irritated with Scream Factory, I get irritated at the constant negativity certain people always throw their way. I think they are a remarkable company. Let's face it, people like me get irritated over the constant complaining and video-philes get irritated with people like me for complaining about the complainers.

I will say this though, that I also get irritated with Scream Factory when they complain about certain titles/collections not selling. Did they really think that some of them would? I'm a Scream Factory fanboy for all intents and purposes and I wouldn't touch some of their titles with a 10-foot pole.

[jaws3dfan]

Originally Posted by dsman71

Just think about all the people sitting by their PC or having their handheld devices ready for 4pm PST on September 30th for the TT per-orders of Vampires, Scream and Scream Again, and Count Yorga..

Hey!!! I resemble that remark

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by leopardskinpillbox

I'm not irritated with Scream Factory, I get irritated at the constant negativity certain people always throw their way. I think they are a remarkable company. Let's face it, people like me get irritated over the constant complaining and video-philes get irritated with people like me for complaining about the complainers.

I will say this though, that I also get irritated with Scream Factory when they complain about certain titles/collections not selling. Did they really think that some of them would? I'm a Scream Factory fanboy for all intents and purposes and I wouldn't touch some of their titles with a 10-foot pole.

I actively want them all. I just can't afford to get every blu-ray they release on day one, month after month after month.

It's not the titles they are selecting that's causing this. It's a myriad of factors.

[jaws3dfan]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

I actively want them all. I just can't afford to get every blu-ray they release on day one, month after month after month.

It's not the titles they are selecting that's causing this. It's a myriad of factors.

This is so true, when Shout first announced their SCREAM FACTORY division I instantly wanted to buy every title....I had no idea there would be so many titles and so quickly, I fell way behind on my purchases and now their are about 75 titles I want/need to own the SF collection.

[rdodolak]

I do think the glut of titles coming out from all labels is having an overall effect. I'd also wager, though, that the percentage of customers that are completists is rather small too. I don't consider myself a completist but I still have a hard time keeping up with all the titles I'm interested in. At this rate I think Kino could be in a worse position, than Scream, if that well runs dry sooner rather than later, unless they sign a deal with another studio.

[JackForrester]

Originally Posted by nousefouraname

Psycho IV... at least it's part of a well known franchise with a built in fanbase.

Unless you're a completist I don't see how that's reason enough to release a bad film, just because it's part of a well known franchise.

Originally Posted by nousefouraname

is garbage even to pretty well versed horror fans. It's stuff that's meant for completists and the top 10% of horror fans that want to own every obscure movie ever made.

I'm sorry, I don't want to sound disrespectful to your taste or anyone else's, but that is pretty much my opinion on Psycho IV and the reason why Scream shouldn't waste their time and money with it.

Believe me, I'm not against that movie's release, or any other movie's release. If I don't like it I just don't buy it, simple as that. But Scream already said they have no interest in this film and some people act like it's such a big tragedy. And let's face it, it's not.

[jthefrank]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

Keep in mind that SO MANY catalog titles are coming out from every company and also independent directors and studios.

Let's say that Joe requests Scarecrows. Maybe the month it comes out, Joe also sees 14 other catalog releases he wants just as bad, but can only afford 6. Maybe Scarecrows didn't make the cut, doesn't mean Joe didn't want it though. Cut to the next month, now 12 more titles are buried on top of that one, maybe it still doesn't make the cut. Maybe Joe won't actually pick it up until about a year later when he catches it on sale.... That's what's happening to genre collectors all over America right now.

A premium price on EVERYTHING is making it harder to buy a lot of titles, at least that's my personal experience lately. Now most of my favorite labels are limited editions with set prices in a small availability window. There's no putting it off, there are no deals or discounts, and if I miss it there's a good chance I will NEVER be able to own that particular film in HD. It's stressful.

Pretty much. I had to make a conscious decision earlier this year in deciding that it was going to be OK if I didn't have every release from Code Red, or Scorpion, or Cult Epics and so forth. You'd drive yourself mad trying to keep up. It may be another year or two before I get around to getting New Year's Evil.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by JackForrester

Unless you're a completist I don't see how that's reason enough to release a bad film just because it's part of a well known franchise.



I'm sorry, I don't want to sound disrespectful to your taste or anyone else's, but that is pretty much my opinion on Psycho IV and the reason why Scream shouldn't waste their time and money with it.

Believe me, I'm not against that movie's release, or any other movie's release. If I don't like it I just don't buy it, simple as that. But Scream already said they have no interest in this film and some people act like it's such a big tragedy. And let's face it, it's not.

I think the lesson to be learned here is to never flat out deny a film release possibility while also never directly confirming interest in releasing a film as well. Ambiguity all around sadly leads to the least number of complaints.