Is SONY releasing any pre 1970's films? (1 Viewer)

[Danny_N]

I think the only reason that we have only 48 pre-1970 titles on BD is that they don't sell. Why else would Sony release the Boetticher westerns on DVD but not on BD? Or Paramount release Breakfast At Tiffany's for the third or fourth time on DVD but not on BD? Why does Universal not release any Hitchcock? Fairly recent HD masters exist for all of the above if I'm not mistaken so additional costs can not be the major factor in preventing their release on BD.
Frankly, I've given up hope of seeing many classics on BD and certainly not many of the ones I'd like to see. The only postive is that it has become a very cheap hobby for me as I don't buy much modern stuff and I don't buy DVD's at all anymore.

 

[Brian Borst]

Does the fact that it doesn't sell as good as new titles have to do with the stigma that older titles apparently don't look as good as new titles on Blu-Ray? The most heard comment about catalog titles is that they don't pop, or have that 3d like quality new titles have. Plus the fact that older titles already don't sell as good as new titles, even on DVD.

 

[OliverK]

I would think that for the Boetticher westerns addtional costs for a Blu-Ray boxset would play a lesser role but for the other titles mentioned the existing masters most of the time are not up to the quality standards set by stellar recent releases like South Pacific or Dr. Strangelove so the costs would also be prohibitive for a lot of titles.

 

[OliverK]

I think it is the basic truth that only new films are big moneymakers while older movies do sell some copies but usually not enough to warrant the expenses necessary to do justice to them. Fortunately interest is bound to go up and prices for high rez scans and encodes are going down so in the long run the situation will get better.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I think it's quite simply a matter of, for the most part, out of sight out of mind. The older a film is, the less people there are that have seen it, generally speaking. Why is that? To put it frankly, older people die, and the younger film aficionados are too few to pick up the slack.

 

[Greg_M]

Of the 2,000 plus films on Blu-ray less than 50 are pre-1970 - That's nothing 2.5% There are many pre 1970 films that will look amazing on Blu-ray (70MM)
some 35MM films also have been recently restored

Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra, Sound of Music, Hello, Dolly, Those Maginficent Men n Their Flying Machines, Lord Jim, Agony and the Ecstacy, Star!, Dr Dolittle, Ryan's Daughter, Mutiny on the Bounty, Grand Prix, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Ben Hur, Ten Commandments

35MM Doctor Zhivago, Lion in Winter, Once Upon a Time in the West, Funny Girl

(If Dr Stranglelove can look good so can many of these)

 

[MatthewA]

The Digital Bits says we should be getting "more Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals" in 2010. I'm guessing The Sound of Music and The King and I will be the ones, or maybe Oklahoma!

We'll also be getting the 1971 Willy Wonka (missed the deadline but still worth mentioning) in October and It's A Wonderful Life in time for Christmas, and Ben-Hur and the original King Kong next year:

The Digital Bits Rumor Mill - Current Posts

All is not lost.

 

[Robin9]

Lord Jim would look fantastic on Blu-ray if the original elements are still in good condition. It was filmed in Super Panavision by Freddie Young and released by Columbia. I assume Sony still owns the rights.

 

[OliverK]

Saw a recent 70mm print of Lord Jim this year and it looked very good - too bad it is not a more popular movie. So with a new print you can rest assured that there are elements available that will make for a great Blu-Ray but with the approach Sony is taking I doubt that we will be getting more than one large format movie per year from them and then the number of large format movies that they have is rather small.

As next year we will hopefully see Lawrence released I predict Lord Jim no earlier than 2011.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Given the fact that Warner owns Nearly all pre-1986 MGM titles and cartoons, the majority of the RKO Radio Pictures library, most of the Monogram library and a large portion of United Artists library, its not surprising that they are by far the leader in releasing pre 1970's films.

Though MGM has picked up some older titles, they are mostly "B" films made by poverty row studios like Associated Players & Producers and Producers Releasing Corporation. Not the kinds of titles that will be on Blu-ray any time soon.

Doug

 

[OliverK]

MGM still holds the rights to a lot of interesting United Artists titles including more than half of the movies that were released in anamorphic 70mm:

The Hallelujah Trail
The Greatest Story Ever Told
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Khartoum

 

[Jim_K]

People put too much stock in those rumors. They're wrong more times than right.

I'll believe it when the studio announces it.

 

[Osato]

I was hoping that Universal would release the Alfred Hitchcock films on blu ray this year. It is nice to hear that Warner Bros will hopefully be bringing North By Northwest to blu ray in 2009. I noted that It's A Wonderful Life is coming to blu ray this year too and I would like to get that one as well.

Outside of 1960's Bond films and the Adam West 1966 Batman film I haven't picked up many older films on blu ray.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I guess what is fortunate for me (or more truthfully, my wallet) is that there are still very few titles currently out that are must haves. I either have them on DVD already and can't justify upgrading, the BRs have issues (mediocre transfers, missing extras found on DVD) or they are simply too expensive (and yes, I remember the LD days - my value for dollar has changed a lot since then).

I can't see what the market is for the majority of newer films, I have no interest in them. They may be fine for a rental, but have no rewatch value. The titles I'm interested in have proven their worth over the decades as films I will rewatch many times.

Regarding Sony, I would be very surprised if their catalogue of HD transfers doesn't extend to the majority of the titles they've released on DVD. I don't think most people would expect anything but a bare bones release for deep catalogue titles, so the slowness of release is likely a marketing decision.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Jim, I think your view is a bit too doom-and-gloom. Sony will release those catalog titles I listed as "Guaranteed" - not all at once, but they are, by far, their biggest pre-70s catalog titles. Bigger than most of the current 7 they already released. The reason they have not yet come out is 1) Sony has really raised their bar of A/V presentation the last few years, and 2) they haven't found a marketing window they like yet.

And there have been plenty of catalog titles released in the 1st 6 months of 2009. 171 by my count by the major studios (Warner, Fox, MGM, Sony, Paramount, Universal, Buena Vista, Lionsgate). It's just a lot of them are not pre-70s. They skew 80s-90s. Which is understandable. Blu-ray has grown over the past year despite the bad economy and the downtrend in DVD sales.

No, releases will continue to come. It's all a matter of when.

 

[Danny_N]

So 6 more from Sony ... guaranteed ... at some point. I'm overwhelmed by this generous drop in the ocean.

I have no doubt that the studios want to sell us their pre-1970 catalogue in HD. They want to make money from their catalogue after all and they don't create HD masters to let them gather dust. I just don't think we'll see many of them on BD. That is not to say that BD is not a viable format but for most of the pre-1970 catalogue titles for which there is no market on BD I'm pretty sure we'll see video on demand or burn on demand as an alternative method of delivery within the next 5 years.

 

[Brandon Conway]

BD on demand would be prohibitively expensive for the foreseeable future.

I'm sure there will be others than those six, but any other titles are more of a guessing game, IMO, and would likely be widescreen color films from the 50s-60s. Easy Rider is rumored to be on the way this Fall, so that's one more of the "big six". I think the most telling sign of what Sony's plans are for older catalog is when they release their first Academy Ratio black & white films. I bet they'll be observing the sales of Paramount's release of It's a Wonderful Life this fall quite closely. It's by far Capra's most popular film, and if it only sells mildly - at Christmas time, no less - I don't see Sony rushing to release It Happened One Night or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

 

[Robin9]

It's good to hear that the elements are available for a great Blu-ray disc but you're probably correct that we have a long wait for Lord Jim.

Another movie originally distributed by Columbia that would look great on Blu-ray is Barabbas. Does anyone know if Sony owns the rights or have they reverted to the Dino Di Laurentiis estate?

 

[Jim_K]

Oh we'll see a few here and there as the studios flounder around trying to figure out what sells and how to turn a profit. Unfortunately the latest trend seems to be trying to introduce premium pricing ala Warners Box-O Junk exclusives and Disney/Miramax raising their SRP to $45 for a basic catalog release.............
Amazon.com: Hero Special Edition [Blu-ray]: Jet Li, Daoming Chen, Donnie Yen, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang: Movies & TV

Laserdisc pricing...........Oh joy!

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I guess you missed the DVD release cycle. While there were catalog titles being released, the majority were using outdated (LD) transfers. It took a lot longer than three years before we saw deep catalog and/or proper transfers being released. There are still titles being released to DVD for the first time, more than a decade after format launch. I would prefer to wait for a proper BR release than suffer (again) through a glut of rehashed transfers filling space until a proper release is prepared.

It is easy to be impatient, but the studios know that the majority of sales come within the first few weeks of release, and until the market is big enough to have significant numbers (sales) on catalog titles, they will dribble out like they have in every previous format. We are still very early in the HD life cycle.