Sony Pictures to celebrate Columbia Pictures 100th Anniversary in 2024 (1 Viewer)

[Todd Erwin]

Hopefully, this explains why a fourth volume of the Columbia Classics 4K Collection was delayed this year.

 

[Bert Greene]

Hmm, CBC, the Corned-Beef-and-Cabbage studio, has actually made it to 100. Seems like a good time to petition for a big ole "Jack Holt" box-set on blu-ray. Okay, well maybe just a smaller, more modest "Jinx Falkenburg" collection.

Sony? hello. Sony? tap-tap. Sony? Anyone there?

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Since 1942 MGM has had complete ownership of Wind for 81 years now.

MGM hasn't had anything to do with GWTW since the late 1990s.

 

[battlebeast]

I would dearly love any of the Columbia box set titles in singles, especially SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND FHTE. Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll have. A 4k player…

I’m torn as to if I want to upgrade all my BP NOM BLU RAYS to 4k… :/

 

[RICK BOND]

The Three Stooges shorts in HD Please ! 2024 is the 90th anniversary ! (1934)

 

[trajan007]

FUNNY GIRL----SILVERADO----LORD JIM 4K

 

[RBailey]

I'm hoping for a complete set of Andy Clyde short subjects. Somehow, I think I'll be disappointed.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

MGM hasn't had anything to do with GWTW since the late 1990s.

1986, to be precise. That was when Ted Turner bought the MGM library. Turner had licenced it back to MGM for video release, but MGM arranged with WB to distribute its titles on video as of 1990.

 

[Bernard McNair]

I have not made the jump to 4K and I hope that any new releases are also released on Blu.

 

[SD_Brian]

I have not made the jump to 4K and I hope that any new releases are also released on Blu.

While it's always possible they could change, Columbia's practice has mostly been to bundle the old Blu in with the new 4K.

 

[Carl David]

I was dumbfounded that AORH (1938) was not announced for 4k during the 100th Anniversary year. That is one of their crown jewel titles and would have gone a long way in representing their classic film interests for the year rather than the more modern titles they chose to release instead (none of which weren't bad decisions by any means)

Would presume some crown jewels of the Columbia vault would be Gilda, The Big Heat, 3:10 to Yuma, All That Jazz, Last Action Hero, Gattaca, Terminator 3 & Moneyball to name a few over the decades that have not been released on 4k UHD yet.

They might throw us a curveball and give us a 50s noir gem in any potential box set.

Who wouldn't buy that package?

Regardless of what they choose we know for sure there will be at least 1 title in there that will be a WTF?

In which case it then becomes a "think I will wait until they release them separately".

It's probably going to have Sex Tape, After Earth & Hollow Man included isn't it?

 

[Dick]

I just KNEW Warners were going to release (1938) Adventures Of Robin Hood to look as good as Wizard Of Oz in 4K!... (I was wrong)

Although you're probably correct, it ain't over 'til it's over...

 

[Patrick McCart]

A Three Stooges collection seems like a certainty between it being Columbia and the team's anniversary of being at the studio. Really excited to see what we get.

Yup. I mostly kept my comments to myself over the past few months when I realized that we were at the close of Warner's 100th Anniversary year when we realized we got...what...about eight 4k releases from the studio?

Completely underwhelmed. And then one of their most requested releases, THE EXORCIST comes out in a bare-boned release with one of the worst photoshopped covers that ever adorned a home video release.

...but then we have already talked endlessly about that.

I suppose in this day and age, Warner Bros. can't be completely criticized for what we got this year. Physical media is on the decline and there just isn't the kind of budget for a studio to release the kind of output we would expect from an anniversary year. And, if rumors about GONE WITH THE WIND for MGM's 100th are even true, the cost of its restoration has to be significant for Warner. Finally, Warner has thrown a lot of money into their Archive program, restoring a wealth of titles throughout the year. That's very costly for them.

So, in the end, I tend to give them slack.

With Sony, I hope that they do single 4k releases of some of the titles that were exclusive to their Columbia Classics sets.

Including this month and next, we're actually at 22 UHDs of just Warner Bros. films. Their anniversary was in September, so that might be why we're getting the 4Ks of The Roaring Twenties and McCabe & Mrs. Miller from Criterion in February.

Columbia isn't as lucky as their anniversary is in January.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Would presume some crown jewels of the Columbia vault would be Gilda, The Big Heat, 3:10 to Yuma, All That Jazz, Last Action Hero, Gattaca, Terminator 3 & Moneyball to name a few over the decades that have not been released on 4k UHD yet.

They might throw us a curveball and give us a 50s noir gem in any potential box set.

Who wouldn't buy that package?

Regardless of what they choose we know for sure there will be at least 1 title in there that will be a WTF?

In which case it then becomes a "think I will wait until they release them separately".

It's probably going to have Sex Tape, After Earth & Hollow Man included isn't it?

All That Jazz is Fox, and T3 is WB. I’m looking at the 4K of Last Action Hero as I type this.

 

[Carl David]

All That Jazz is Fox, and T3 is WB. I’m looking at the 4K of Last Action Hero as I type this. View attachment 204059

Never knew LAH got a 4k release.

 

[compson]

Would presume some crown jewels of the Columbia vault would be Gilda, The Big Heat, 3:10 to Yuma, All That Jazz, Last Action Hero, Gattaca, Terminator 3 & Moneyball to name a few over the decades that have not been released on 4k UHD yet.

They might throw us a curveball and give us a 50s noir gem in any potential box set.

Who wouldn't buy that package?

Regardless of what they choose we know for sure there will be at least 1 title in there that will be a WTF?

In which case it then becomes a "think I will wait until they release them separately".

It's probably going to have Sex Tape, After Earth & Hollow Man included isn't it?

Gattaca is available in 4K.

See on Amazon

 

[Garysb]

What I and most likely many people would not want is the equivalent of the Disney 100 film animation box set which for Columbia would be films already released in one big box set or the Warner Bros 4 25 film box sets of previous releases. Sadly anniversary sets tend to be repackaging of what we already have, rather than something new as others have said. On the other hand Sony released the 3 volumes of the Columbia Classics which were all new to 4K. If they had been released in 2024 there would have been great excitement and many complaints from those who didn't want all the films in the sets. So I think what would please the most people are lots of individually released films with 100 Anniversary stickers on them that are new to 4K and no box sets. Even the Three Stooges would probably get complaints from people who only want the Curleys with no Shemp or Joe Besser shorts.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

A Three Stooges collection seems like a certainty between it being Columbia and the team's anniversary of being at the studio. Really excited to see what we get.



Including this month and next, we're actually at 22 UHDs of just Warner Bros. films. Their anniversary was in September, so that might be why we're getting the 4Ks of The Roaring Twenties and McCabe & Mrs. Miller from Criterion in February.

Columbia isn't as lucky as their anniversary is in January.

Patrick,

Warner released 22 4k titles under their 100th Anniversary banner this year? That seems awfully high.

I did a quick Google search to verify that and came up with this

List of Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary Blu-ray & 4k Blu-ray Movies | HD Report

hd-report.com

Your count is close, if not accurate, but technically that involves boxed sets of existing transfers and a lot of new releases.

Actual classic restorations appearing on 4k for the first time are around 10 titles. I am not counting anything from Criterion.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

What I and most likely many people would not want is the equivalent of the Disney 100 film animation box set which for Columbia would be films already released in one big box set or the Warner Bros 4 25 film box sets of previous releases. Sadly anniversary sets tend to be repackaging of what we already have, rather than something new as others have said. On the other hand Sony released the 3 volumes of the Columbia Classics which were all new to 4K. If they had been released in 2024 there would have been great excitement and many complaints from those who didn't want all the films in the sets. So I think what would please the most people are lots of individually released films with 100 Anniversary stickers on them that are new to 4K and no box sets. Even the Three Stooges would probably get complaints from people who only want the Curleys with no Shemp or Joe Besser shorts.

Of course, I don't speak for everyone but I don't personally like the boxed sets from Columbia and Warner.

The Columbia sets are enticing only because (if memory serves me correctly) they generally don't package titles you may already own. They offer titles appearing on 4k for the first time and geared toward the collector.

The Warner boxed sets contain mostly titles that have been out on the market. They seem to be orientated toward giving as a Christmas gift to someone who has a very small collection.

But, in both cases, these sets are exorbitantly expensive. Furthermore, in the case of Columbia's offering, it hand-ties those who don't want to pay for the expensive set to get the individual titles they want.

I appreciate the boxed set offerings as I feel collectors should be given that opportunity to own something specially packaged like that. From my perspective on this forum, it seems like many of you buy and enjoy the Columbia sets. I just don't know how well they sell outside our little bubble here given their price point.

 

[Garysb]

Sony could easily do 4K box sets similar to the DVD sets they did such as a Frank Capra set or Cary Grant late 30's- early 40's films set and they would make a small group, myself included, very happy and excited to have all the films in the set. However the number of people who felt that way would be fairly small and I expect sets like that would lose money. What I think Sony tried to do with it's Columbia Classics sets was to try to appeal to the largest group possible by offering dissimilar films in one set. It may have worked for volume 1 and less so for volume 2. How do you get people to buy a box set in sufficient quantities to make it possible for a studio to make enough of a profit to continue to produce more sets? I don't have the answer.