How much does it cost a studio to release a BD?

[Raymond23]

I was watching my Planet of the Apes set recently. I have never seen these films before and was amazed at the low budget the later films has (the 4th film had a budget of $1.2 Million). Because of this, they only filmed on one location. While flipping through the book, that came with the set, I started wondering if the studio invested more if re-mastering the 5 movies, setting up the BD special features and producing the 200 page hardcover book then they did on some of the movies.

I really have no idea what studios budget for this kind of thing. Has anyone ever read anything about this? Specifically wondering what the costs are on 1) a current feture film that will be released on BD within 6 months of theatrical release, 2)old feature films that must be remastered and rescanned (ie: Dr No or similar films where the source material is in less then optimal condition) and 3)deluxe sets like Planet of the Apes, Star Trek Motion Picture Collection (or Star Trek TOS-Season 1 for that matter).

Anyone ever read any data about this?

[OrlandoEastwood]

I asked the question a while back, I believe it's around $3 a disc.

[pEgLeG]

Originally Posted by Raymond23

I was watching my Planet of the Apes set recently. I have never seen these films before and was amazed at the low budget the later films has (the 4th film had a budget of $1.2 Million). Because of this, they only filmed on one location. While flipping through the book, that came with the set, I started wondering if the studio invested more if re-mastering the 5 movies, setting up the BD special features and producing the 200 page hardcover book then they did on some of the movies.

I really have no idea what studios budget for this kind of thing. Has anyone ever read anything about this? Specifically wondering what the costs are on 1) a current feture film that will be released on BD within 6 months of theatrical release, 2)old feature films that must be remastered and rescanned (ie: Dr No or similar films where the source material is in less then optimal condition) and 3)deluxe sets like Planet of the Apes, Star Trek Motion Picture Collection (or Star Trek TOS-Season 1 for that matter).

Anyone ever read any data about this?

I'm curious about this myself.

[Jwilly019]

Originally Posted by pEgLeG

I'm curious about this myself.

+1

[Clark Kent]

We have been told it takes approximately 7500 units sold for a major studio to break-even on a catalog title. That figure is probably lower for a smaller studio with less overhead. Costs obviously vary for a recent film new to home video, where many of the costs associated with releasing a Blu-ray are included or derived from the theatrical run.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

I asked the question a while back, I believe it's around $3 a disc.

If you're talking about the cost of physically creating it, that's probably not far off (a little high if anything), but that doesn't account for all the work that goes into creating the cover art, any inserts, new special features for the disc, or mastering/encoding of the actual movie.

Either way, a "per disc" value would be inaccurate because different movies get made in different quantities. One movie might get way more prints without much effort put in, while something else (like this Planet of the Apes set) would get TONS of work and fewer quantity. Some things might even be packed with special features, but in reality required little work to put together because it's really just a collection of special features that had all been available and did not need to be made specifically for the release (often these are features which were included in previous DVD releases, sometimes dating back to the age of LD).

[Raymond23]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

I asked the question a while back, I believe it's around $3 a disc.

I'm inquiering about the total budget for the project, not the physical cost of pressing a disc, printing an insert and making a case once it's in the factory.

What is the total cost that is budgeted between the decision to make a BD to when the first BD gets made.

Again, I expect a huge range (ie: Planet of the Apes set-5 old films and a 200 page book will cost a lot more then QOS being ported to BD with a few extras...)