Breaking News: Paramount and Warner Bros. Announce Home Media Distribution Deal (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

Well, the demonizing of various studios is cyclical. For a while, we despised pre-Sony Columbia for dropping anamorphic editions in favor of pan-and-scan; we hated Disney because they were weren't releasing anything to Blu-ray except animation and current crap; Universal drove some of us to tears with their refusal to provide catalog material, and more recently because they applied DNR like Tammy Bakker applied make-up, etc. Lately we're highly critical of Warner Bros. double-triple-quadrupal-dipping while witholding many worthwhile titles from a first Blu-ray release.
I am guardedly happy about this Paramount deal. If between Olive and Criterion and Warner Bros we can eventually see (in alphabetical order) The ADDAMS FAMILY films, ATLANTIC CITY, BAD NEWS BEARS, CATCH-22, THE COURT JESTER, THE DEAD ZONE, DON'T LOOK NOW, DRAGONSLAYER, THE ELEPHANT MAN, FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, FUNNY FACE, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, HATAR!, HUD, MARATHON MAN, THE NAKED JUNGLE, THE NAKED PREY, NASHVILLE, NEVADA SMITH, NORTH DALLAS FORTY, NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (J. Lewis), THE ODD COUPLE, ORDINARY PEOPLE, PAPER MOON, THE PARALLAX VIEW, A PLACE IN THE SUN, PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYIST, PRETTY BABY, RAGTIME, REDS, ROMAN HOLIDAY, ROMEO AND JULIET (1968), SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER, SECONDS, SERPICO, SHANE, A SIMPLE PLAN, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, STALAG 17, TARGETS, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, TESTAMENT, WAR OF THE WORLDS, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, WILL PENNY, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME...
and of course, add your own favorites.
It seems to me that Paramount continues to maintain the largest proportion of unreleased major, popular, requested titles of any studio when it comes to Blu-ray. Perhaps this will now begin to change.

 

[JoHud]

Here's a thought -- perhaps this deal can get the two Peanuts features Paramount owns Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) released considering their unusual absence compared to Warner Bros' commitment in releasing the Peanuts features they hold the rights to.

 

[Garysb]

Some random thoughts
Is this any different from the deal Warner Bros. has with the Sam Goldwyn company ? People seemed pretty excited about Warner releasing Guy and Dolls , The Best Years of Our Lives, and Hans Christian Andersen on blu for the first time. They were happy that MGM/Fox lost the rights to these pictures. As far as My Fair Lady that unfortunately is a CBS film not Paramount. Not quite sure why Paramount is doing this. They are holding on to the rights to their most popular franchise films like Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Transformers, and probably Mission Impossible so it doesn't appear that Paramount Home Video is disappearing. It will just distribute very few films. I believe Paramount Home Video stayed with Viacom when the company split into CBS Inc and the new Viacom. If CBS owns Paramount Home Video than this deal would make more sense as Paramount was removing many of its films from its former sibling company probably because Warner Bros. offered a better deal.
When Warner Bros took over the distribution of the MGM library most of the releases were the same as the previous MGM/UA video releases ( except the Wizard Of Oz which was their first MGM release)
I am sure anything that is currently in release via Paramount Home Video will be the same via Warner Home Video. I am sorry that the deal does not include TV rights as I would love to see more Paramount titles on TCM. Since this is only a three year deal and it takes time to restore and/or produce a HD master I would assume anything new to blu ray would already have a HD master ready to go. Things like the Audrey Hepburn films already released in blu in Europe.
Since this is a US/Canada deal only, I would assume any blu rays will be region locked. Not a good thing for bargain hunters or seekers of hard to find films.
Hopefully somebody somewhere will post a list of the 600 films included in this deal.

 

[kagemusha98]

LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER finally????!!!

 

[John Doe]

I am guardedly happy about this Paramount deal. If between Olive and Criterion and Warner Bros we can eventually see (in alphabetical order) The ADDAMS FAMILY films, ATLANTIC CITY, BAD NEWS BEARS, CATCH-22, THE COURT JESTER, THE DEAD ZONE, DON'T LOOK NOW, DRAGONSLAYER, THE ELEPHANT MAN, FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, FUNNY FACE, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, HATAR!, HUD, MARATHON MAN, THE NAKED JUNGLE, THE NAKED PREY, NASHVILLE, NEVADA SMITH, NORTH DALLAS FORTY, NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (J. Lewis), THE ODD COUPLE, ORDINARY PEOPLE, PAPER MOON, THE PARALLAX VIEW, A PLACE IN THE SUN, PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYIST, PRETTY BABY, RAGTIME, REDS, ROMAN HOLIDAY, ROMEO AND JULIET (1968), SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER, SECONDS, SERPICO, SHANE, A SIMPLE PLAN, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, STALAG 17, TARGETS, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, TESTAMENT, WAR OF THE WORLDS, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, WILL PENNY, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME...
and of course, add your own favorites.
.

Great list!Would love to see ALL of them on Blu-ray!

 

[John Doe]

LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER finally????!!!

If I were you, I wouldn't have high expectations on this one.Perhaps via Olive,but certainly not via Paramount/Warner.Unless you were referring to WAC's MOD DVD?

 

[t1g3r5fan]

Some random thoughts
Is this any different from the deal Warner Bros. has with the Sam Goldwyn company ? People seemed pretty excited about Warner releasing Guy and Dolls , The Best Years of Our Lives, and Hans Christian Andersen on blu for the first time. They were happy that MGM/Fox lost the rights to these pictures. As far as My Fair Lady that unfortunately is a CBS film not Paramount. Not quite sure why Paramount is doing this. They are holding on to the rights to their most popular franchise films like Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Transformers, and probably Mission Impossible so it doesn't appear that Paramount Home Video is disappearing. It will just distribute very few films. I believe Paramount Home Video stayed with Viacom when the company split into CBS Inc and the new Viacom. If CBS owns Paramount Home Video than this deal would make more sense as Paramount was removing many of its films from its former sibling company probably because Warner Bros. offered a better deal.
When Warner Bros took over the distribution of the MGM library most of the releases were the same as the previous MGM/UA video releases ( except the Wizard Of Oz which was their first MGM release)
I am sure anything that is currently in release via Paramount Home Video will be the same via Warner Home Video. I am sorry that the deal does not include TV rights as I would love to see more Paramount titles on TCM. Since this is only a three year deal and it takes time to restore and/or produce a HD master I would assume anything new to blu ray would already have a HD master ready to go. Things like the Audrey Hepburn films already released in blu in Europe.
Since this is a US/Canada deal only, I would assume any blu rays will be region locked. Not a good thing for bargain hunters or seekers of hard to find films.
Hopefully somebody somewhere will post a list of the 600 films included in this deal.

I would also like to know which films are part of this deal too. It would be great to have several OOP titles released through this deal as well as some new titles never before released to either DVD or Blu-ray.

 

[ahollis]

The more I read this announcement, the more it sounds like the MGM/Fox deal with Warners just distributing the Blu-ray, DVD and streaming of the 600 titles. Since it is a 3 year deal then it does not cover the titles that Olive had under licensee or Criterion. It also allows Paramount a MOD program in the same way that MGM/Fox had, where Fox controlled the distribution of the MGM MOD titles. The question I have is does Warner pick the titles or does Paramount and of those 600 titles, will Paramount do any upgrades in the transfers, for with the agreement is only 3 years, I do not see Warner paying for any improvements. I just keep going back to the first paragraph where they say they have an alliance and entered into distribution of ...

This seems like a logical move for Paramount, who does not really wish to handle their classic titles and has seen success with the Olive model. I am sure they will receive a larger amount from the Warner contract than with Olive. This also does not seem to indicate there will not be another deal with Olive, at least in the next three years.

I embrace this deal if it will allow more titles released and it should, I just think there are more questions then answers.

 

[Garysb]

Of all the old majors only Paramount did not have a DVD-r program. Even Universal released a few films such as "A Night To Remember" through the TCM shop as a DVDr. With this deal the Warner Archive gets to expand to include Paramount films. They will now have films from MGM, RKO, Warner Bros., Columbia, and Paramount. Basically all the old majors except Fox and Universal. Thinking about this deal it seems that Warner Bros interest is to expand the Warner Archive rather than release older films on blu ray. I am sure we will get some new classic blu rays but I would guess the majority will be Warner Archive releases. As many have said Warner Bros. has many films it owns from MGM, Warner Bros, and RKO from the 30's to '80s that they have not released on blu. Why would they flood the market with Paramount films from the 50's to the '80's in blu. I am sure a few films will come out in blu, maybe 10 a year from Paramount. That would be 30 new to blu films over the 3 year deal.

 

[MattPeriolat]

To my mind, this is a really impressive expansion of WB and their distribution library. I actually think its too bad that this deal was not struck a year ago as I like to think WB could have done a better job handling the Paramount library for the centennial. Just an opinion anyway.
Needless to say, between this deal, the 90th anniversary and the proliferation of the Archive program (love it or hate it, it IS successfully getting out titles we ordinarily would not have access to), 2013 is shaping up to be very big for WB and is repositioning them as the class in the Blu ray and DVD market currently.
As for repackages, it's really simple folks - if you don't want it, don't buy it. I'll be doing that, unless there is a major upgrade of extras and materials, for Oz and GWTW next year.

 

[Robin9]

Since this is a US/Canada deal only, I would assume any blu rays will be region locked.

Twilight Time and Olive BRDs are region free and they are, ostensibly, catering for the USA and Canada only. (Ignore what DVD Beaver says about Olive BRDs being Zone A locked. He doesn't know what he's talking about)

 

[ahollis]

Three years, 600 titles, that would be 200 titles a year. I just don't think that is possible. I would guess it could be like the Twilight Time agreement with Fox in that they have 200 titles to pick and choose and if one is not up to par as far as the transfer is concerned they can throw it back. I just hope this gets us SAMSON AND DELI AH on Blu-ray.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by Garysb /t/324225/breaking-news-paramount-and-warner-bros-announce-home-media-distribution-deal/30#post_3984940
Is this any different from the deal Warner Bros. has with the Sam Goldwyn company ?

IIRC, yes. In the case of the Samuel Goldwyn Library, Warner specifically licensed the titles. So, that was a deal for both control of preparing/scheduling and distributing/marketing. By comparison, this deal with Paramount appears to only be the latter.

The big key in this deal is the part that most on this forum will not care about: streaming and download distribution.

 

[Professor Echo]

In response to Garysb above and his wish that TCM would strike a deal with Paramount, a few years ago Robert Osborne told the editor of a magazine called, I think, FILMS OF THE GOLDEN AGE, that TCM had done just that. At that time he said once TCM's contract with SONY/COLUMBIA ran out they would start showing Paramount films on TCM. But that's the last I heard of it.
And, of course, this was for the post 40's PARAMOUNT library and not the classics owned by Universal. Although it may have included some silent films as it's my understanding PARAMOUNT still controls their silents collection.

 

[JoeDoakes]

In response to Garysb above and his wish that TCM would strike a deal with Paramount, a few years ago Robert Osborne told the editor of a magazine called, I think, FILMS OF THE GOLDEN AGE, that TCM had done just that. At that time he said once TCM's contract with SONY/COLUMBIA ran out they would start showing Paramount films on TCM. But that's the last I heard of it.
And, of course, this was for the post 40's PARAMOUNT library and not the classics owned by Universal. Although it may have included some silent films as it's my understanding PARAMOUNT still controls their silents collection.

I bet he was thinking about the Paramounts owned by Universal. Personally, I think Olive is doing pretty well with releasing Paramounts from teh 1950s and beyond. I just hope they get to Secret of the Incas.

 

[Oliver Siegel]

Some member posted the following at monsterkidclassichorrorforum:
"I e-mailed a friend at Olive. He says they are not affected by this in any way, as the Warner deal is for mostly post-1980 titles that appeal to the "Wal-Mart" crowd, and does not include any Republic pictures. The Olive titles, which are mostly "deep buff" films, are safe."

 

[JoHud]

I can't imagine anyone seriously thought Warner was getting Republic titles. The blu-ray deal in regards to newer titles also isn't much of a surprise. Though I imagine if the Warner Archive aspect of the deal is accurate that it will include deep catalog material.

 

[MattPeriolat]

Well, color me disappointed. Basically, sounds like WB may have gotten rights to make some money if they want to reissue the Jack Ryan movies, maybe the Treks. But if they are limited to 1980 and after, frankly, that's a real disappointment as most of Paramounts' good stuff is from the 30s to the 50s.

 

[ricktech12]

I really hope 1492: Conquest of Paradise was one of those 600 hundred titles and if so they are aware it's not out on DVD or Blu-ray in the USA and will release it. It's the only Ridley Scott film in the USA to not recieve some kind of DVD or Blu-ray release, inexcusable it has dragged on this long, no one can watch it if it's not on DVD, Blu-ray unless you import it.

 

[t1g3r5fan]

I really hope 1492: Conquest of Paradise was one of those 600 hundred titles and if so they are aware it's not out on DVD or Blu-ray in the USA and will release it. It's the only Ridley Scott film in the USA to not recieve some kind of DVD or Blu-ray release, inexcusable it has dragged on this long, no one can watch it if it's not on DVD, Blu-ray unless you import it.

I hope so too. I also hope that Michael Mann's The Keep is part of this deal just so we can finally have it on DVD and Blu-ray.