Pre-production cost

[Musashi]

I heard one or 2 editorials say that no hi-def format should be proud of anything since barely any movies have sold 6 figures. That being said, I'd like to know if studios are winning or losing on doing hi-def movies.

I should think that if the $$ brought in from selling a disc are greater than the cost of re-mastering/re-encoding in high definition and pressing the discs, that would make the movie a success on Blu-ray. So my question is: what does it cost to re-master and re-encode in 1080p?

[Ascended_Saiyan]

I think that is a question for Paidgeek.

[WriteSimply]

I think for older movies or movies without the budget, the prep cost would be high, especially for the older movies. If the print or negative is in good condition, then no restoration is needed and it goes straight to telecine.

For movies with a budget specifically movies (either shot on film or using digital cameras) using digital intermediates, the cost to transfer to HD is almost absorbed by the production itself as the production need to use DI to color correct every scene.

Once the movie has passed through DI, it needs only to go to film printing, archive and 2K HD master. In fact, the studio can start working on the encode even before the 35mm is even dry.


fuad

[NutsAboutPS3]

I would be very surprised if most HD releases are turning any profit at all at the moment. What we also need to know is how much money the studio receives for each sale after everyone else has taken their slice? $2, perhaps? So if we consider the average reasonable selling HD movie is selling perhaps 10k copies, that would only give them $20k to spend on bringing the disc into production, and I'm sure it must cost more than that.

[GasCat]

I thought I read 500 dollars an hour and it would take two weeks. Probably wrong but no one else is answering so let's speculate. Besides it will push this thread back up and we may get an answer by someone in the know.

[jbuttler007]

With everything going hi-def, companies will eventually have no choice. Imagine any of the companies never going to DVD. The would be out of business. Yes or No.

[Musashi]

Well, still not clear on what it costs to turn a catalog DVD into a quality BD, but even if it's a direct loss, I have to figure in these early stages, any new movie should help increase the sales of all the others. Often times, like for myself, it takes a certain number of available films for me to adopt a new format. When I went blu, I counted about 20 I wanted to start with, and about 70 scheduled for an eventual release.