MGM -- quietly downgrading special editions

Reading through this thread I'm not sure what to think.

There appears to be a fear that these special editions have disappeared and will not likely return any time soon and neither is the case.

MGM stopped distribution of many of their premium titles in order to boost the value of their company during negotiations with Warner and Sony. This is not a case where a studio loses rights to special edition material and the title is forced to go OOP - it was simply a smart business decision to maximize the sales potential of MGM titles.

Now that the sale of MGM appears to be finished, I have no doubt many of these "SE Editions" will get released by Sony. Personally I had hoped Warner would have won the bidding war as I have little doubt they would not only be quick to re-release the previous SE editions, but would likely create far more compelling future editions of MGM's higher profile titles. With Sony we might expect a far slower pace and multiple versions rather than one definitive edition.

Regardless, most of the special edition titles listed in this thread are still readily available online and at B&M retailers because MGM never pulled these titles, but simply stopped supplying additional copies.

At the very least, there is no need to panic and rush out and buy these DVDs. This situation is nothing at all like a rights issue where these DVDs and special features will never be available again.

Nils, you beat me to it! I was just re-reading the entire thread before responding...

I saw a whole pile of The Producers SE at Future Shop (Canada). It is the *true* SE, as I have one since release day! So there *are* some still out there.

FS is having a 3/Cdn$20 (about US$5 each) sale right now of MGM titles. Many of the SE's are the real deal, many are stripped, a few had both versions in the same pile, at my local FS that is. One more for Marko's list is "The Magnificent Seven", which certainly seems to be generally available around here in unstripped SE fashion.

DVDSoon, for example, also has most of these for Cdn$10, but of course you can't see what you're getting.

I have bought a huge number of MGM's lately, as so much of it has been on sale. Two I haven't got, but wanted, queries:

I keep picking up the Jeepers Creepers, but need to know what's missing from the stripped version. It looks to me like the version I keep seeing is "original" SE, but I can't be sure... Was there a slipcover originally? I've noticed that missing original slipcover = stripped generally.

Is The Graduate (not an SE) anamorphic? The package doesn't say, not usual for MGM if it indeed is.

Edit: My mistake, The Graduate is in fact an "SE".

Craig, thanks for the suggestion regarding The Magnificent Seven. I'll update the list to include this.

I'd like to know about The Graduate myself. I'd like to pick this up but I believe it's non-anamorphic, though I don't know for sure.

My copy of the Jeepers Creepers SE lists the following extras on the back cover (haven't watched any of them yet):
Deleted and extended scenes including alternate opening and ending sequences
Director's audio commentary
"Behind the peepers" - a collection of 6 mini-featurettes on the making of the film
Photo gallery
Original theatrical trailer
And more! (whatever this means)

The Graduate DVD from MGM is not anamorphic. But the Region 2 DVD from Europe is 16x9 enhanced. Look for the comparison at DVDBeaver.

Thanks for the info guys! I would have been really annoyed if I had bought The Graduate, since I have largely eliminated non-anamorphic discs from my "collection" lately, as availability allows, and don't want to take a backward step.

Nils, based upon the evidence and my understanding of the way the biz works, I disagree with most of your conclusions in your post #121.
What is/are your source(s) to support these assertions? Or are you speculating?

Although there is an element of speculation in my position as well, it's supported by years of what is typical studio standard operating procedure. It seems to me that these supps are getting dropped for reasons related to talent participations not corporate valuation. In other words, the longer some of these supps are included on new pressings of these titles, the longer the studio may have to continue to compensate any talent which might have had a deal that included points on DVD sales. Although I don't know the rule's exact language, the reason many DVD featurettes are just under 30 minutes is because of a Screen Actors Guild rule that stipulates any involved talent is entitled to a higher scale wage for involvement in a featurette of such length because, I think, if it is over 30 minutes it is no longer considered promotional.

I've seen nothing in all my reading on the deal that says or even suggests that MGM altered their catalog title home video release strategy since deal talks started with Sony in May (or with TW later). This doesn't really even pass the 'giggle test.' I've mentioned in the thread earlier that there appears to be little rhyme or reason to which titles MGM is choosing to strip. You mentioned that they are choosing "premium titles." Clearly all of the titles getting stripped are not "premium titles."

It would be different if MGM was stripping DVDs of their lucrative franchises like the Rocky and Bond pictures, or more "evergreen" titles (perennial strong home vid sellers) like Platoon and Rain Man. When investment bank Houlihan Lokey did their library valuation, the supplementation on current DVDs was not the focus. Film library valuations typically look at what titles have historically generated what kind profits and at case projections for how much revenue they may generate in the future. Furthermore, MGM has not "stopped distribution" of the titles in question--they've deleted some supps. And it just doesn't 'wash' that MGM would do this on marginal (from a valuation perspective) titles like Valley Girl and Jeepers Creepers to allegedly impact how the entire $4.85 billion transaction was valued.
We just don't know yet, Nils. Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment ("CTHE") now has the gargantuan task of dealing with twice as many titles as they were responsible for before the proposed deal. It is entirely likely, indeed quite possible, that CTHE will make very different decisions than MGM historically has about what MGM titles are going to get released--and with what kind of supps--sooner rather than later.

(BTW, the sale is hardly "finished." It will be presented to the MGM board on September 27th and then has to be blessed by both DOJ and the EU. This process is expected to take at least six months.)
Another issue which tips the scale in the direction of these titles not re-appearing in their current incarnations is the UPC issue.

Not only does it make relying on the often inaccurate listings of supps by e-tailers to get the non-stripped version you might want more difficult, but keeping the same UPC on the stripped version makes it unlikely just from a catalog management perspective that these stripped supps would show up on a future DVD version of the title with a entirely new UPC.

I think you're confusing the issue/muddying the waters a bit with the rights issue. You are correct in that this is not like a rights issue. But just because a company owns the rights to particular content outright does not mean that that company is always going to make it available. In other words, no longer owning the rights to something is not the only reason that a studio sometimes decides to make some material unavailable. There's an MGM copyright tag at the end of "The Road To The Sure Thing." So yes, MGM owns the rights to this. But that (obviously) does not mean they will always include it on future Sure Thing DVDs. This issue is further complicated by the fact that its possible inclusion or non-inclusion would now be a CTHE decision.

The only, ahem, sure thing is to buy that version now.

-p

I'm not even sure where to start with your reply, but if it makes you feel better by all means rush out and buy all these supposedly OOP never to be seen again DVDs - I certainly didn't mean to offend. At the very least you'll have some DVDs that you hopefully will enjoy regardless of future re-releases.

How 'bout addressing the issue of where you read that there's a relationship between this SE stripping and MGM sale negotiations with Sony and/or TW por favor?

-p

I've never heard of anyone, even big shots, getting residuals for appearing in special features. Doesn't seem plausible MGM was paying them.

Dan: As just one example, there was a story that went around in the home vid trade press and the online DVD community about Ahnuld getting some crazy sum for participating on the I think Total Recall SE.

But in aggravation, IF talent participations are (part of) the issue, it should be noted that there are clearly bigger titles with A-list talent attached that MGM might be paying more expensive residuals on than the titles for which we've seen SEs stripped.

As I acknowledged above, "there is an element of speculation in my position as well." I think the duplicate UPC issue is odd, bad business and I think unprecedented in the DVD annals. I don't purport to understand MGM's motivations--indeed, I wish some trade paper would run a story quoting (an) MGM home vid exec(s) on the matter. But for now I remain unconvinced that this stripping and the MGM sale are positively correlated in some way.

For instance, if this move was "a smart business decision to maximize the sales potential of MGM titles," one would think that the studio would be tubthumping the fact that the titles' supps are going on "moratorium," something the Lion has done before (w/ Bond boxes). Au contraire, it's being done "on the DL."

-p

By the by, am in the middle of a two-week free Blockbuster Online trial and spun Sure Thing last night as part of my deciding what 'stripper' titles I'm gonna buy.

Surprised at just how much dialogue I remembered from frequent viewings back in the day even though I haven't seen the film in over 14 years. Didn't realize 'til now that that is Tim Robbins driving the Volkswagen that takes Gib and Allison part of the way to L.A. And sheesh: look at how much hair Anthony Edwards used to have. Transfer looked much better than I had expected for a 20 year-old pic of this kind.

-p

Paul, that's exactly the example I was thinking of. IIRC, Arnold was given an outrageous sum, not an outrageuos cut. You'd think if they ever gave cuts for DVD sales, they would have done it there.

Dan, it is of course a good point you make WRT upfront, fixed compensation versus profit participation. But I unfortunately don't know what the Governator and Jake Bloom (his deal lawyer) may have been thinking. Perhaps they wanted to ask for a large upfront sum instead of points on the backend because they didn't expect the title to sell briskly, but knew the studio would market his involvement in the supps. Dunno.

It's interesting that two "stripper" titles, The Sure Thing and Valley Girl, were part of a "Best Of the 80s"/"The Ultimate Winter Vacation" promotion that MGM was doing just one year ago right now. Indeed, the copy of Sure Thing I bought at BB ($9.99) still had stickers on it for this promo.

-p

Just wanna toss out Robocop for speculation. Looks like there's no supps on the stand-alone disc, but the Trilogy box has the extended version (same as director's cut on the Criterion??) of the first pic. Wondering if that might ever be available separately, or if the entire Trilogy box may just be phased out . . .?

-p

Just to provide more detail on the first para of my post #130: the August 2004 issue of DVD Exclusive says Ahnuld "received $75,000 for his commentary on the Total Recall special edition DVD in 2001."

-p

Is the 'snowy' plastic slipcover still on the stripped Fargo SE? What's a Fargo SE supplement to look for the presence or absence of in order to tell if you're looking at the stripper or the 'true' SE--the "Minnesota Nice" docu?

Is Princess Bride still 'safe'--not a futzed with title?

Thanks.

-p

I'm curious too because I ordered Princess Bride as a Christmas gift for someone.

Also, I recently bought This is Spinal Tap. The back claims to have over 1 hour and 45 minutes of bonus features; is this right?

Now that MGM's titles are controlled by Sony, I wonder if some of these supps will re-appear on Blu-ray releases. {fingers crossed}

I bought Platoon SE the other day and was annoyed to find that the 8 page booklet (which is still listed as a special feature on the back) was not there

is this a mistake in my copy or has MGM begun to leave out the booklets from their SEs?

My Rocky, Princess Bride, Silence of the Lambs, etc SEs all purchased within the last year to year and a half still had booklets in them.

Re: MGM -- quietly downgrading special editions

Picked up a copy of The Terminator with the holographic artwork at Best Buy the other day for $11. Despite the back saying double-sided, double layer, it's only a single sided disc. Downgrading is still alive and well in the year 2009.

Re: MGM -- quietly downgrading special editions

They're going to end up scrapping DVDs altogether, panning-and-scanning everything to VHS again and charging $69.99 just like the good old days