Could we ever expect to see lesser known films on Blu?

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Moviefan1203

Eventually almost everything will be released on Blu-ray, it's just a matter of having patience and waiting for titles to be announced. Good things come to those that wait.

I'm afraid after doing a little research I disagree.

George Feltenstein, one of the heads of Warner Home Video, which has one of the biggest libraries out there, has more or less warned that the economics probably aren't there to master obscure titles to blu-ray. Here's a bit from an interview with him from High-Def Digest:

""I don't think you'll find anyone on the planet complaining more about the lack of classic releases on Blu-ray than me," Feltenstein said in a recent phone interview from his Burbank office. As a consumer himself, he personally thinks it's "horrible, ridiculous, and frustrating" that more pre-1970 titles are not available on the format, and believes "thousands upon thousands of people" haven't made the Blu-ray leap because few of the titles on store shelves interest them. (Feltenstein also feels the film industry hindered the public's adoption of the technology because it failed to clearly and accurately communicate the format's vast superiority over standard DVD during its early stages.) As an industry executive, however, he understands all too well the studios' quandary over whether to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on a per title basis to remaster classic films – and that's what it costs if you need to start from "scratch" – when demographic research shows "typical" buyers couldn't care less about the classic genre. And, Feltenstein adds, "The fact that we are in a recession-slash-depression and the world's economy is going to hell in a hand-basket doesn't help things."

All that said, Feltenstein, who dubs himself WHV's "in-house Blu-ray cheerleader," believes WHV has recently made some "bold and aggressive" moves regarding classics, and hopes other studios will follow suit. He cites next month's releases of the biblical epic 'Quo Vadis,' and two Best Picture winners, 'Gigi' and 'An American in Paris,' as a "litmus test" for classics, even though they are "very, very risky titles to put out in this marketplace, which mostly caters to new theatrical releases."

In other words, big and well known classic titles like Singing in the Rain and Ben-Hur, both of which I love, will make it to blu in beautiful transfers, but more obscure stuff is less likely because they just don't sell well enough to make up the $100k to 1 million dollar restoration and master creation process.

That's my rather grim 2 cents, anyway. I suppose we can all help make the economics better by--if we can afford it--buying those classic titles that we like.