Why *NO* 2021 big Oscar winners on UHDBD???

[thedoctormd]

I believe Parasite last year was BD only last year and after it won Best Picture, it got the UHD release.

I'm hoping that more of these movies get the 4K disc treatment. I completed the "Oscar Death Race" this year (watched all 56 noms) and there are some amazing movies in there.

[bradnoyes]

A lot of big winners from the past few years didn't get UHD releases until after the awards were over. I've drastically cut down on my 4K purchases lately so I guess this is easy for me to say, but just be patient. The releases will come as things slowly creep back to normal.

[tyrok]

Unfortunately having "Best Picture Winner" on the box doesn't equal sales. Moonlight, Green Book, The Shape of Water and Parasite were just okay sellers on 4K compared to much more mainstream and demo worthy discs.

[jblank]

Originally Posted by vwnut13

Why?

Because nobody has heard of any of these movies.

Exactly. Hollywood hates us, they make these "Oscar" films for themselves, because nobody watches or cares about this pretentious crap. There are very few films that "the plebs" like that are are appreciated by Hollywood.

And before I get the "well what movies would you have nominated", the best film I saw in 2020 was Brandon Cronenberg's 'Possessor'.

[bigbadwoppet]

Originally Posted by jblank

Exactly. Hollywood hates us, they make these "Oscar" films for themselves, because nobody watches or cares about this pretentious crap. There are very few films that "the plebs" like that are are appreciated by Hollywood.

And before I get the "well what movies would you have nominated", the best film I saw in 2020 was Brandon Cronenberg's 'Possessor'.

Hollywood lives in a PC bubble. American cinema has always been about selling tickets so they think art movies have to be the opposite: good filmmaking, storytelling secondary, what really matters is not selling tickets, that proves it's artistic.

The funniest thing about an otherwise dismally unfunny show is that the "sensitive", "minority-representative" filmmaker who won best director has signed up for her next project to a Marvel Comics movie which will end up being as generic as all superhero movies, with zero personal stamp from the filmmaker.

[bradnoyes]

Wow, folks clearly missed having an outlet for all their petty whining and crying these last two weeks, huh?

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by bigbadwoppet

Hollywood lives in a PC bubble. American cinema has always been about selling tickets so they think art movies have to be the opposite: good filmmaking, storytelling secondary, what really matters is not selling tickets, that proves it's artistic.

The funniest thing about an otherwise dismally unfunny show is that the "sensitive", "minority-representative" filmmaker who won best director has signed up for her next project to a Marvel Comics movie which will end up being as generic as all superhero movies, with zero personal stamp from the filmmaker.

Was 4chan not available for this hot take?

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by RBBrittain

How come NONE of this year's "top six" Oscar winners are going to UHDBD? Nomadland is BD-only this week; Judas and the Black Messiah & Minari have also been announced for BD only. Only The Father has the excuse of not even being announced yet. Yet all four of them are available as UHD streams on Vudu (presumably elsewhere), though only Nomadland is available for purchase there (the others are PVOD, $19.99 rental only).

Its still early. All of these films are still in "release" and are in open theaters. But as others have stated, UHD is a niche market and the overall physical market gets smaller every year. The physical disc business in the U.S. was almost $11 billion in 2009. In 2020, it was $2.5 billion.

So far this year (as of 4/3), Blu-ray is down 29% in units and 45% in revenue. The average weekly share of UHD (for the top 20 titles with the greatest share) is just 9.63%. For the top 50 titles, I don't have an exact average number, but it's about 5%. If I'm an exec of an independent film that doesn't really have mass appeal, I've got to think, "why bother?" especially when streaming and VOD is going to be my primary revenue sources for that film and I don't have to invest in manufacturing to support those distribution channels.

Originally, I thought that as streaming came on board, it would be DVD consumers who would move to streaming. But because year-over-year Blu numbers are falling faster than DVD, it's apparently more Blu-ray consumers who have moved to streaming.

I used to come on here and say that if Blu-ray didn't pick up in share, that the studios would eventually lose interest because executives have to make choices as to what to invest in. I said there would be fewer restorations, special features, boxed sets, special packaging, etc. And I would get heavily bad-mouthed and so I stopped posting business analysis. But that's exactly what's happened.

In spite of the fact that most TV's sold today are UHD, most consumers don't seem to give a crap about viewing UHD content. And streaming is cheap and convenient: why spend $25-$50 for a disc when you get streaming content of hundreds of films for $7-$10 month. Even if streaming was a stupid decision, it's the decision that consumers have made. Consumers always opt for convenience over quality and even 1080p quality is already so good, even streaming, there aren't too many people who desire more.

If consumers don't support something it dies. So record stores, bookstores, movie theaters and...physical media. It doesn't mean there's none. It just means it's no longer ubiquitous and largely irrelevant.

[birdztudio]

i really really like to listen to Sound of Metal in Atmos mix...

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by vwnut13

Why?

Because nobody has heard of any of these movies.

That's weird because fans of cinema have heard of all of them, even if they haven't seen them all. I've seen most of them and it wasn't hard to find them, either, across streaming platforms, if you actually put in an ounce of effort and cared to look.

Originally Posted by bigbadwoppet

American cinema has always been about selling tickets

Also weird you think business aren't in the business to make money. You specifically say "American" but American films are generally the ones with the largest budgets of any films worldwide, so yeah, they need to make a profit. Not rocket science. When Argentina and Sweden start making $250 million films, they, too, will need to make a profit as well, that's how business works.

[cuzzin]

Originally Posted by tyrok

Unfortunately having "Best Picture Winner" on the box doesn't equal sales.

True, and the recent watering-down of what it means to be a Best Picture nominee surely won't help matters.

[koberulz]

That's not what "watering-down" means.

[Hydra Spectre]

Originally Posted by tyrok

Unfortunately having "Best Picture Winner" on the box doesn't equal sales. Moonlight, Green Book, The Shape of Water and Parasite were just okay sellers on 4K compared to much more mainstream and demo worthy discs.

I would probably disagree.
I think Parasite is a demo-worthy disc, especially the Korean disc with the Dolby Vision grade.

[bradnoyes]

Originally Posted by Hydra Spectre

I would probably disagree.
I think Parasite is a demo-worthy disc, especially the Korean disc with the Dolby Vision grade.

Agreed. And while I don't love the movie, Green Book also looks great.

[kuzronk]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

The Father was release last April to whatever was barely opened made $3,880,890 Worldwide.

Incorrect, it came out in April this year. US release was around same time VOD.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by kuzronk

Incorrect, it came out in April this year. US release was around same time VOD.

Curious to see what the specs will be for that Blu-ray. It's been reported that the Brazilian Blu-ray will have two hours in extras (check that film's thread), but the UK cinema release isn't until June, so Lionsgate are unlikely to release a Blu-ray here until September/October (and 4K seems pretty unlikely.)

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by tyrok

Unfortunately having "Best Picture Winner" on the box doesn't equal sales. Moonlight, Green Book, The Shape of Water and Parasite were just okay sellers on 4K compared to much more mainstream and demo worthy discs.

Speaking of Moonlight, I don't know how in the hell that had won Best Picture because, it wasn't all that ( which most of those Best Picture winners don't be about nothing) If Moonlight didn't sell many copies on home video, I can see why.

[Bk_Tan]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Its still early. All of these films are still in "release" and are in open theaters. But as others have stated, UHD is a niche market and the overall physical market gets smaller every year. The physical disc business in the U.S. was almost $11 billion in 2009. In 2020, it was $2.5 billion.

So far this year (as of 4/3), Blu-ray is down 29% in units and 45% in revenue. The average weekly share of UHD (for the top 20 titles with the greatest share) is just 9.63%. For the top 50 titles, I don't have an exact average number, but it's about 5%. If I'm an exec of an independent film that doesn't really have mass appeal, I've got to think, "why bother?" especially when streaming and VOD is going to be my primary revenue sources for that film and I don't have to invest in manufacturing to support those distribution channels.

Originally, I thought that as streaming came on board, it would be DVD consumers who would move to streaming. But because year-over-year Blu numbers are falling faster than DVD, it's apparently more Blu-ray consumers who have moved to streaming.

I used to come on here and say that if Blu-ray didn't pick up in share, that the studios would eventually lose interest because executives have to make choices as to what to invest in. I said there would be fewer restorations, special features, boxed sets, special packaging, etc. And I would get heavily bad-mouthed and so I stopped posting business analysis. But that's exactly what's happened.

In spite of the fact that most TV's sold today are UHD, most consumers don't seem to give a crap about viewing UHD content. And streaming is cheap and convenient: why spend $25-$50 for a disc when you get streaming content of hundreds of films for $7-$10 month. Even if streaming was a stupid decision, it's the decision that consumers have made. Consumers always opt for convenience over quality and even 1080p quality is already so good, even streaming, there aren't too many people who desire more.

If consumers don't support something it dies. So record stores, bookstores, movie theaters and...physical media. It doesn't mean there's none. It just means it's no longer ubiquitous and largely irrelevant.

What do you think the future holds?

Perhaps DVD was too successful and you could say it's a pity it wasn't HD already back then to save more films. Especially now that Blu-Ray prices are basically comparable to DVDs.

The problem is that the DVD but especially the Blu-Ray and the UHD are for a small % of the world. It's a technology that has been passed before it's even had a chance to reach the majority of the world. Kind of like credit cards in China and the Internet in Africa.

Streaming will reach or has reached less wealthy countries before the populace even got a chance to appreciate physical media. In my own country in SEA, physical media was always too expensive for unknown reasons. The markup was greater than the exchange rate and just not feasible for most people to buy into. And then pirated DVDs popped up and then torrents and downloads, and now streaming services.

The last generation has already grown up with ubiquitous piracy of music and movies. The ownership model has no hold over them and streaming now has made it so that at least some return returns back to the creators.

I'm not sure there's any way but down and we've not hit the bottom yet. It should be able to continue as a niche, but probably without the low prices we see today for studio films. Or perhaps everything will be to order/MOD though at what price would it be worthwhile for the studios?

After all, most of the people streaming these days would have spent close to nothing on physical media before this and now the studio is basically selling them the equivalent of a couple discs every month.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Give it time, more people will want an exceptional cinema experience at home when they get tired of video games and streaming quality.

But you have to remember that DVD is the most popular home format and HD and 4K HDR streams are of better quality so when people wish to purchase an upgrade they actually have 5 choices that I can think of. HD Stream, Blu-Ray Disc, 4K HDR Stream, A monthly payment Streaming Service, and physical 4K Discs.

The market/pie has splintered into 5 sectors of income loss with the added alternatives of streaming services so 5 slices of pie unlike when it was just DVD, and early HD-DVD(which died)/Blu-Ray releases. In 2008 it was get a DVD or Blu-Ray. 50/50 split. So the profit margin was BIGGER.

They're fighting for 20% of the breadcrumbs now! And get this most releases SUCK! Lack Original Audio or any new extras, or conversely no NEW ATMOS audio! SO in the end what should be there is not there, and what is is a small slice of profit available for let down releases on average. I'm not even factoring price/amount of players available compared to DVD/BR players for 5 years into the format either!

IMHO 4K streaming like Vudu will win the format (it supports HDR/DV 5.1-Atmos at a bitrate loss but not noticeable enough to matter and higher than anything else Netflix/Prime, but I will buy be enticed by the classics that have great 4K UHD physical releases like The Good The Bad The Ugly, Django, Goodfellas etc. if they do them JUSTICE if they don't I usually grab the Vudu Digital 4K for cheap on sale and hold out for a quality 4K UHD release.

New movies like Oscar winners will fall into the DVD/BR/Streaming market using my logic hopefully this makes more sense to you.

[unberechenbar]

Glad I found this thread since I had the same question even though there's so much toxicity here. I wonder if the situation will be any different next year.