Okay, Mr. Spielberg, we think you're wonderful, BUT... (1 Viewer)

...what is this apparently idiotic strategy you have yet again imposed (having used it with standard DVD some years ago) that now holds up the release of your films on Blu-ray? Only the movies Lucas controls (RAIDERS SERIES) or ones which are out of your hands (CLOSE ENCOUNTERS) have shown up up or are rumored for release. The same reasoning for the earlier dearth is being used again: you want greater saturation of the new format before licensing your movies for release. Look, Mr. Spielberg, it should be blatantly clear to you that greater market saturation of Blu-ray would indisputably occur BECAUSE of the release of your Universal and Dreamworks titles. Let's get the horse in front of the cart this time! People who have held back investing in the format will in the countless thousands pay the price in order to see JURASSIC PARK and JAWS and SCHINDLER'S LIST and WAR OF THE WORLDS and E.T., etc. etc. in high definition. You have the ability all by yourself to jump-start Blu-ray again in a sinking economy...are you going to keep sitting on your gold mine?

The Blu-ray penetration doesn't need a jump start, it's the SD DVD market in which sales have declined.

I would kill for a decent SE of 1941, but I guess I'm in a minority here.

I echo Crawdaddy's reply.

It's all about market penetration.

Why would Spielberg want his blockbuster movies releases to
a market that is still very young and has limited penetration?
Nobody wants to release "Jurassic Park" and have it sell a limited
amount of copies versus another few years when it will sell more
than twice that amount.

This is the same reason why will not see "Star Wars" out on the format
for a good number of years.

Me too!

I must be in the same minority. One of the funniest movies ever made! Incidentally, Universal controls 1941 so it would be up to them, not Spielberg, to release it on blu-ray.

I'm not sure why anyone would blame Spielberg for wanting to maximize his profits. After all he is in the movie business, not the blu-ray business.

Doug

there are some rumors that the first 3 indiana jones movies might be out in bluray later this year. the digital bits reported this a while back.

Jacob

That would be Mr. Lucas rather than Mr. Spielberg.

Doug

Where did he state that he wasn't releasing them for this reason? For instance, in 1997 when DVD was very young, "Men in Black" was announced for release and then pulled from the schedule at Mr. Spielberg's behest (it's an Amblin title). However, that film came out on Blu-Ray this summer to tie into "Hancock." It just seems to me that he doesn't want to dump all of his films on the market in one lump, but like is standard for releasing catalog titles they'll come out when there's a tie-in they can market them with, i.e. anniversary year as was the case with "Close Enounters," sequel, etc.

Yeah! Spielberg needs to get off his lazy butt and get his movies on BluRay without any careful preparation in remastering or extras so we can have it now.

Is it just me or is it starting to feel like Spielberg's movies don't even have that kind of mega Disney-type sales potential anyway? Has Jurassic Park or Jaws been particularly huge on dvd? just curious.

I think there has been 3 different DVD releases of Jaws in the last 10 years so yeah, it sells pretty well...

Technically, Universal could release his films without his say, but they aren't stupid: if you have a working relationship you don't piss off Spielberg.

Here's how his films breakdown per studio (by date of release). Films already released on BD are italicized:

DreamWorks

Amistad (1997)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Minority Report (2002)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The Terminal (2004)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Munich (2005)

Paramount

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Sony

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Hook (1991)

Universal

Duel (1971)
The Sugarland Express (1974)
Jaws (1975)
1941 (1979)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Always (1989)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Warner

Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
The Color Purple (1985)
Empire of the Sun (1987)


Alright, so what do we see?

Well, the most obvious thing is that the films Spielberg has the least control over (Indiana Jones (Lucas), Sony, Warner) are only being held up by their respective studios. In other words, we'll see Hook, The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun when Sony and Warner want us to, and we already know that Lucas plans to release the Indiana Jones films in the Fall.

Everything else is either directly controlled by Spielberg (DreamWorks), or indirectly (Universal). My general feeling is that we'll see these starting to get released if Spielberg is happy with the sales of the catalog Indiana Jones films later this year.

Very nice post, thank you Brandon.

Jeez, Brandon...

You must have one of those CIA, big book of facts.

Nah. Just imdb.com.

I want Speilburg's films out as much as everyone but, I don't want them all comeing out at one time. I think that it would be a good idea to start releasing his lesser known films mid '09 and work up to having the bigger one's released. I think it would be nice to expect Jurassic Park and Jaws by this time next year.

Very harsh dude. Speilburg is not lazy by any means.

I think you missed the point of his post.

Oh yeah. I Read it again, your right.