Several hundred Warner DVDs are going OOP

I'd guess the boxsets will remain in print but you will no longer be able to purchase the titles in those boxsets individually.

Well I'm not surprised. Get them while they're available & cheap (& pressed discs!!!).

No real surprises here. It seems pretty obvious to me at this point that:

1. Someone at Warner's tippy top has decided on restructuring their home video release model.
2. They will let prior licensing agreements expire (e.g., Castle Hill)
3. Their focus for catalog is Blu-ray and Warner Archive, with pressed DVD releases few and far between
4. They feel many of their titles that did not sell well have enough copies unsold out there to not require new press runs

The slight good news is that other companies may be interested in picking up the licensing of those films that are not being renewed, such as Criterion with Stagecoach. But that's really just a silver lining, because I highly doubt any other company is gonna invest the capital that Warner did c.2002-2007.

In light of what is being reported about the DVD market, pressed discs for standard DVDs are on the way out:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/studios-hurt-as-dvd-sales-fall-and-rentals-grow-2009-09-22?dist=dist_smartbrief?dist=dist_smartbrief&dist=dist_smartbrief&dist=dist_smartbrief

We're starting to see a trend towards the rental market c. 1980s-90s. The studios are going to fight that by 1) charging rental companies more to rent their discs, 2) have rental versions of discs with no bonus content, 3) try to have a buy-only / no-rental exclusive window.

Essentially, your average person's shelves are full, except for new release (non-catalog) titles like Transformers 2.

Welcome to a new era of home video everyone!

I agree with the shelves being full, for mine sure are, but I think you are going to see the trend to MOD or download or catalog films.  The brick and mortar rental never did carry many catalog films and made their money on Transformers 2.  The rental market for catalog films is strictly NetFlix and ClassicFlix with ClassicFlix being the only one of the two renting films from the Warner Archives.

It is funny that when laserdiscs died, there were several announced that did not make it to press, one was and Esther Williams collection, now that we are in the middle of big changes in how we get classic films, we get an Esther Williams collection.  Lets she, ended the MGM musicals, she ended laserdiscs, and now she is ending classic dvd's.  There were months where I would buy several classic films each week, hunting them out at Best Buy or Tower Video.  Now this month, I bought two collections last week and will get one collection week after next.  That will be it for October and November is not much better.

I thought I was the only one who remembered the aborted "Esther Williams Collection" on laser disc. PAGAN LOVE SONG was one of the films, as I recall.

While I would LOVE to see more Warner pressed discs, loaded with extras, now that they are essentially a thing of the past, I hope there is enough life left for an Esther Williams Volume 3 set. 

Well, I'm grateful for what I DO have, and wistful for what I once imagined would be coming.  Like the song says, "The times they are a-changing."  But I want to thank Warners for a Golden run there.

I think we'll still see a handful of releases - Esther Williams Vol. 3, hopefully a TCM classics release of the the 3-4 remaining unreleased MGM silents (Greed, The Big Parade, The Wind, The Crowd), perhaps another Errol Flynn collection, and perhaps someday the long-promised Magnificent Ambersons release. But that's about it - real 'A-list' material/sellers, and little else.

So, yes, I agree with you Allen that MOD and streaming is the likely future business model Warner is heading towards in the future for all but a few DVD-only titles - with those that are seen as 'A-list' being few and far between; MOD and Blu-ray will dominate.

Your right, PAGAN LOVE SONG was to be in the group and I also believe so was DUCHESS FROM IDAHO.  I agree with you and want and expect another Esther Williams set, that will include IDAHO.

This always surprises me.  If you enjoy collecting something dont you just buy another shelf, box or other storage system?  People have been collecting books for hundreds of years and you never hear someone saying they dont have room on the shelf for another one!

Transformers, Wizard of Oz, Star Trek and many other films will be selling well this fall. So people suddenly find room for these???

I believe it is more the economy.  People are buying less of just about everything. How are DVDs, CD's and Video Game Discs any different?

I do think we will see the big silent films along with some Erroll Flynn, Bettie Davis, Esther Williams, Andy Hardy, and the rest of Judy Garland on pressed discs.  The format is not dead yet and will carry on for several years.  They will just be more careful which ones they release.  (I still want Raintree County) 

I noticed on the OOP list were the Thin Man films.  I read in Home Media that Warners is pushing ahead to press some of their classic Black & White films in Blu-ray in 2010.  Taking those films off the market  could be precursor to a Blu-ray collection of the films.  The Thin Man series was one of their best selling collections.  Magnificent Ambersons might just go straight to Blu-ray with extras and be offered only as a none frills standard DVD in the WA. Now that would be interesting.

I think the shelf scenario is just another way of saying that a lot of classics being released does not interest the average Joe or Jane.  I am a collector and collect way to much, but I enjoy it, and yes I just buy another cabinet to store them in.  But, even some of the WA titles I am passing over not because of the cost, I use the coupons, but because they are so deep in the vault that I do not find then interesting (IMO).   

Well, WHV stated the silents were coming and that there'll be a Harlow collection in 2011.

Personally, I'll believe it when I see it. 2011 is still too far off.

The market is changing so fast that I doubt they'll actually release these. Anyone remember when we were supposed to get the Harlow set back in 2006? What happened?

With the SD classic market rapidly declining, I sadly expect the Harlow and long awaited silents to end up in the archives. They may officially state otherwise now, but just wait until mid-2010 rolls around (and they've looked at classic SD sales numbers) and then the tune will change. In my opinion, the Big Parade, Red Dust, etc, should've been released YEARS ago.

I think there will be more collections featuring Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Warner has yet to release several key films from both actresses to the archives which seems to suggest that they are holding them back for a pressed release. Same with the Forbidden Hollywood collections. I think we will see another set of those next year.

I think most of the titles people have mentioned here are just wishful thinking. Just because something is long overdue, doesn't mean at their lowest ebb, they'll suddenly materialise. I think people have read this news and panicked that they might have to wait for a new technology like blu ray to reach its tenth year of maturity till companies like Warner even consider getting around to these titles.

Yes, it's just a euphemism. Studies have shown that most people do not buy more than 40-50 catalog titles.

I actually believe that standard DVD and Blu-ray can co-exist.  There will be collections released on standard pressed DVD and others will be available through download and DVD-r.  The Blu-ray titles will continue and more than likely will become the standard for recent releases and certain catalog titles what warrant it (Gone With The Wind, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia).  I do not think we will ever see a Blu-ray release of Red Dust, but we will see a collection of Harlow on standard pressed DVD with Red Dust, as we will also see a collection of Andy Hardy, but not on Blu-ray.  Thousands of titles out there would need so much work to get them up to Blu-ray standards that it is just not worth it to the owners. 

Since IDAHO is, imo, a top Williams film I also hope for a Volume 3. JUPITER'S DARLING is a huge guilty pleasure and needs to be in my pressed commercial DVD collection, also.

I worry about that too, when I hear about how much trouble it was to bring Oz to Blu Ray. Sometimes I wish I lived in France, where EVERYONE cares about classic culture (that was the impression I gained while there). But then, I think, maybe part of the reason I like classic film is a feeling that its not totally mainstream to do so, that I'm being a bit underground. I hope you're wrong and that the costs and techniques for blu ray production come down and make it more feasible to bring less visible classics to blu.

IMHO the studio's don't have a clue to what the public wants. Certain movies are given three or four releases on dvd with one new bonus feature that the previous releases didn't have. Blu Ray isn't helping the situation for standard dvd either. The battle between Blu and HD DVD made consumers uneasy also. Customer who purchased the HD DVD player were stuck when Blu won out. The economy is so bad that pushing Blu Ray is one of the worst marketing decisions IMHO. Who is going to pay x amount of dollars for a title that one can find in a standard dvd value bin for $5.00.

Found this on DVDTalk:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/hd-talk/563046-b-w-classics-wb-works.html

If you look at a lot of DVDs of older films they often say "remastered in high definition."**  I'm assuming that means an actual high definition master is made and therefore exists and should there not, then, be much of an issue in just porting over those movies from DVD to blu-ray?

**I'm not talking about crummy PD releases from Madacy and the like that make bs claims about remastering and restoring.  I'm talking about the major studios like WB, Sony, etc.

In theory that would make sense, but most of the those were done at 2k which is considered substandard for hi-def.  Think Wizard of Oz.  It was just done in 2005 with the ultra process, most definitely "remastered in high definition".  They just revisited that one to make it acceptable for Blu.

I guess my point is, if you simply port all those movies to Blu, the studios will likely just give the format a black eye.  Frankly, it doesn't need any more problems.

For all their stupid pointless reissues and bargain discs crammed with 3 or 4 films by genre (action pak, comedy pak, etc) you'd think at the very least WHV could turn something decent out for Halloween... If they truly feel they've run the well dry on viable catalog titles, why not a proper two-discer or dual layered double-feature of the '31 and '41 Jekyll & Hyde (March/Tracy) with additional commentary on the Spencer Tracy version and possibly a short featurette on Hollywood's adaptation of the RLS classic. Certainly an interesting history on celluloid dating back to the silent era shorts, and including the infamous lost Murnau feature version with a young Bela Lugosi from 1920, and John Barrymore's take the same year. A short 15-20 min. docu or clip montage of interviews and such from literary and film historians could easily be turned out.

You'd think such would be warranted for a rather high-tier title and well known, easily marketable classic. Maybe also add, in addition to the existing 1955 Looney Tunes bonus short 'Hyde and Hare' on the Frederic March side, they could include the 1947 MGM cartoon, 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse', 1937's 'The Case of the Stuttering Pig' and 1947's 'The Impatient Patient'. And on the second disc or side, Tashlin's 'Hare Remover' from 1946 as well as  Freleng's 1954 and 1960, 'Dr. Jerkyll's Hide', and 'Hyde and Go Tweet', to make it a definitive release.

With a minor restoration to just minimally clean up the transfer, and the added bitrate from an additional disc plus modern encoding technology, both film tranfers would certainly benefit greatly. Warners could easily repackage and resell this as an upgrade to the old double-sided snapper pack from almost seven years ago! Add the original iconic poster art for a keep case cover and it'd do extremely well on retail shelves this time of year, guaranteed!

I guess there's nobody left with any creativity in Warners marketing dept. these days...
Edited by MarcoBiscotti - 10/13/09 at 6:44pm

When they put together a box set out of prior releases, most of the time they only need to create new packaging. The discs themselves (disc art and all) are from previous production runs. Making a double feature on 1 disc requires a new disc image, pressing, production run, etc.; or in other words, $.

the point is, that a newer transfer would be nice and since nothing's getting released for Oct/halloween anyways (the lugosi/karloff sets been out a few weeks already I guess but thats it) and the fact that the original disc is no longer in stores and an updated packaging at the least would benefit... why not revisit it. afterall, it seems 90% of their market of late is of endless reissues. if the transfer were to benefit significantly, a few extras added (shorts, commentary and whatnot) and the packaging more appealing, Im sure most would revisit this. I would.

its better than another gone with the wind, etc. Im sure it would sell nicely in October.

what about all those value packs with like four lethal weapon movies on one-disc or the tcm greatest films genre releases with stuff like postman, treasure, drive by night, etc. or a bunch of westerns? how is this any different if the ends justify the means (sales profit)?