UHD Disney stopped 4K/UHD releases for most Catalog Titles? (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

How many older live-action titles (pre-1990) can even withstand 4k scans? Won't they be a little too revelatory of things that were never intended to be seen? Tron has the potential to look stunning on UHD because parts of it were shot in 65mm, but what about something like The Moon-Spinners or The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes? That may be why we haven't seen more.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

How many older live-action titles (pre-1990) can even withstand 4k scans? Won't they be a little too revelatory of things that were never intended to be seen? Tron has the potential to look stunning on UHD because parts of it were shot in 65mm, but what about something like The Moon-Spinners or The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes? That may be why we haven't seen more.

I think it depends on quality of available elements. Disney have actually shown themselves to be decent archivers of most material when it comes to animation [they have preserved most if not all of their SE negatives of animation titles], but their record on live action material is not clear [Bedknobs and Broomsticks, anyone?]. I think it's possible to produce 4K masters of films pre-1970 that don't necessarily betray effects tricks or filming shortcuts, so long as originally intended colour grading and other tricks of the trade are properly respected.

 

[RJ992]

Saw it listed on Shudder but in 2D. Is there a link?.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Saw it listed on Shudder but in 2D. Is there a link?.

Watch Found Footage 3D (3D TV VERSION) on Shudder

Don’t get left behind – Enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Shudder's full library of films and series for 7 days.

www.shudder.com

 

[OliverK]

I think it depends on quality of available elements. Disney have actually shown themselves to be decent archivers of most material when it comes to animation [they have preserved most if not all of their SE negatives of animation titles], but their record on live action material is not clear [Bedknobs and Broomsticks, anyone?]. I think it's possible to produce 4K masters of films pre-1970 that don't necessarily betray effects tricks or filming shortcuts, so long as originally intended colour grading and other tricks of the trade are properly respected.

There wouldn't be any issues with The Big Fisherman that was the first film shot in the process that was later called Super Panavision 70.

from Disney fandom:

The Big Fisherman

The Big Fisherman is a 1959 American film directed by Frank Borzage about the later life of Peter, one of the closest disciples of Jesus. The film is adapted from a novel written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The novel is closely related to Douglas' previous book, The Robe, which was also adapted as a...

disney.fandom.com

And a page from the Widescreen Museum with film scans from HTF member @Peter Apruzzese:

Widescreen Museum - The Super Panavision 70 wing 1

 

[MatthewA]

Do they even still own that or was that something Buena Vista picked up for distribution only just so they'd have something to release?

 

[jayembee]

Do they even still own that or was that something Buena Vista picked up for distribution only just so they'd have something to release?

It's not included (or even mentioned) in Leonard Maltin's book The Disney Films, so I'd guess the latter.

 

[Arthur Powell]

If my memory is correct, Roy Disney produced The Big Fisherman on his own and released it through Buena Vista. My guess would be that Disney likely owns it.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Roy doesn't have a production credit, but I have no reason to disbelieve that the film is retained by Disney. We can hope they'll re-up with KLSC and include this one.

 

[darkrock17]

Roy doesn't have a production credit, but I have no reason to disbelieve that the film is retained by Disney. We can hope they'll re-up with KLSC and include this one.

According to the film's wikipedia page, Walt Disney originally turned it down for being too religious. Roy Disney however supported the film and it was released through Buena Vista and is now one of the few religious films associated with the company.

 

[OliverK]

According to the film's wikipedia page, Walt Disney originally turned it down for being too religious. Roy Disney however supported the film and it was released through Buena Vista and is now one of the few religious films associated with the company.

By not releasing it on LD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray and obviously UHD Disney may have done a pretty good job of making people forget that association. Only airing it on TV cropped and in VHS quality hasn't helped that much either.

On the positive side as we have recently seen releases of obscure large format titles like Sony of Norway and Krakatoa I would guess that there is also some hope for The Big Fisherman.

 

[MatthewA]

They do not own everything Buena Vista ever distributed theatrically. For instance, the two PG-rated Ron Miller-era pick-ups Take Down (1979) and Running Brave (1983) don't still seem to be under Disney's control. Although the latter certainly didn't hurt Robby Benson's chances of getting to do the voice of The Beast later on. It got a video release from BV around 1984/1985* and then IIRC some no-name company apparently put out an edited DVD.

It's not included (or even mentioned) in Leonard Maltin's book The Disney Films, so I'd guess the latter.

The Big Fisherman is mentioned in Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley's book The Disney Studio Story which stops right before the Disney animation "renaissance" began. The book mentions its large-format origins and cast but nothing about the content.

EDIT: The Library of Congress shows Disney renewed the copyright in 1987 so they do own it. They just let it slip through the cracks of time because I've never seen it on The Disney Channel or any of the usual venues for Disney movies of this era. Not even a videotape; if it exists, eBay didn't have it, just multiple copies of the original book.

*I owned that; I found it when a video store in my hometown was selling old tapes; it had no logos, and the only thing marking it as having anything to do with Disney was the "Walt Disney and You" promo at the end.

 

[Alex...]

Update via The Bits

Now then, let’s get to some potentially significant Disney news. My industry sources have been telling me for a while now that returning Disney CEO Bob Iger’s reorganization would likely be looking at the possibility of pivoting back to traditional home video formats, given the uncertainty in the theatrical business and the slow ramp-up of streaming and digital. And now Iger appears to have confirmed this while speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco yesterday. Our friends at Media Play News have reported thusly (see link here)...

Disney reported a Q1 operating loss of $212 million on revenue of $2.46 billion in its “content sales/licensing and other” segment, in part due to a dearth of home entertainment releases. The decrease in home entertainment results were due to lower unit sales of new release titles, reflecting fewer releases, and catalog titles.

Iger believes the push toward streaming theatrical titles undermined the licensing and retail businesses.

“Home video, at one point as we called it, was extremely lucrative for our company,” Iger said. “We’re looking at all of that [again].”

The CEO believes content can co-exist on traditional distribution platforms and streaming without damaging either due to differing platform audiences.

“It’s already clear to us that the content exclusivity that we felt would be so valuable in growing subscribers was not as valuable as we thought,” Iger said. “While eventually everything will migrate to streaming. We’re not there yet.”

Well, it certainly took the studio long enough to realize that there’s still quite a bit of money to be made selling content on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD, but thank goodness it finally seems to be happening!

Now here’s the thing: Nothing is official yet, and it might be a few months before these plans start to become more concrete, if indeed this decision is made. But it does appear that Iger’s re-org is considering making physical media more of a priority again. Beyond the James Cameron titles we know are coming to 4K and Blu-ray, it’s likely that consumers won’t really start to see the tangible results of any shift in strategy until 2024. But if this shakes out the way we think it could in the coming months, more Disney and Fox catalog titles may actually start arriving on physical media at long last. Rest assured, we’re all over this story and will have more to say in the coming weeks.

 

[OliverK]

Update via The Bits

Now then, let’s get to some potentially significant Disney news. My industry sources have been telling me for a while now that returning Disney CEO Bob Iger’s reorganization would likely be looking at the possibility of pivoting back to traditional home video formats, given the uncertainty in the theatrical business and the slow ramp-up of streaming and digital. And now Iger appears to have confirmed this while speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco yesterday. Our friends at Media Play News have reported thusly (see link here)...

Disney reported a Q1 operating loss of $212 million on revenue of $2.46 billion in its “content sales/licensing and other” segment, in part due to a dearth of home entertainment releases. The decrease in home entertainment results were due to lower unit sales of new release titles, reflecting fewer releases, and catalog titles.

Iger believes the push toward streaming theatrical titles undermined the licensing and retail businesses.

“Home video, at one point as we called it, was extremely lucrative for our company,” Iger said. “We’re looking at all of that [again].”

The CEO believes content can co-exist on traditional distribution platforms and streaming without damaging either due to differing platform audiences.

“It’s already clear to us that the content exclusivity that we felt would be so valuable in growing subscribers was not as valuable as we thought,” Iger said. “While eventually everything will migrate to streaming. We’re not there yet.”

Well, it certainly took the studio long enough to realize that there’s still quite a bit of money to be made selling content on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD, but thank goodness it finally seems to be happening!

Now here’s the thing: Nothing is official yet, and it might be a few months before these plans start to become more concrete, if indeed this decision is made. But it does appear that Iger’s re-org is considering making physical media more of a priority again. Beyond the James Cameron titles we know are coming to 4K and Blu-ray, it’s likely that consumers won’t really start to see the tangible results of any shift in strategy until 2024. But if this shakes out the way we think it could in the coming months, more Disney and Fox catalog titles may actually start arriving on physical media at long last. Rest assured, we’re all over this story and will have more to say in the coming weeks.

Sounds good to me. If Fox had kept the rest of their library minus the Star Wars and Marvel stuff we would probably have UHD releases of Patton and The Sound of Music by now. Disney can win me over if they start out with a UHD release of Patton and one of the other Fox large format titles with a 4K DCP.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Deleted

 

[Robert Crawford]

While I am very concerned about this revelation with Disney saying they are going to stop putting out movies on disc. So many people will be cut out of getting new movies because of this. Those that live in areas that have subpar internet speeds are not good candidates for digital distribution. Personally while I do have a number of films digitally I still prefer to build my library with actual physical discs. There are titles that I prefer they be on physical discs and legal /licensing issues will not cause them to be taken down. If Disney / Fox plans on cutting catalog titles being put on disc then I will get the titles that are still in circulation while I can. After that it will allow me to build my library with films from other studios. Studios that will get my money instead of Disney. Not saying I will not buy any content digitally but just saying studios that put out physical media will get more of my money. Maybe some of the boutique labels will put out some of the titles but that assumes Disney will let them.

Did I read a different Bill Hunt article than you? I thought Iger implied they're going to release more catalog movies on disc while slowing down new theatrical movie releases with a concentration on quality over quantity. Let's face it, many of their new movie releases have been mediocre which is being reflected in box office receipts.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I thought Iger implied they're going to release more catalog movies on disc while slowing down new theatrical movie releases with a concentration on quality over quantity.

That’s exactly what it said. It’s stated that when they began Disney+, they believed having titles exclusive to streaming would gain them more revenue in subscriptions than they’d lose in physical media sales. After several years worth of data, they now have come to understand that while streaming exclusives are valuable, they are not the only source of value, and in the future, they will consider releasing some titles which had been exclusive to streaming on disc to see if it generates enough revenue in other formats to be worthwhile.

For future reference we probably shouldn’t be copying and pasting entire articles from the Digital Bits into this forum. That’s their copyrighted content. I think a link and a brief summary should suffice.

 

[Malcolm R]

I'm not sure I'm convinced that this will open the floodgates for catalog titles (though I'd like to see some of the Touchstone 80's comedies on blu-ray, like Ruthless People and Outrageous Fortune), I'm hoping it may be good news for some of the newer releases that have been D+ exclusives showing up on disc after a suitable exclusive streaming window, such as Hocus Pocus 2, Artemis Fowl, Peter Pan & Wendy, and maybe some of the Marvel TV series.

I'm probably one of those consumers that Iger feels were left behind. I'm interested in some of their titles, enough to buy disc versions (or maybe digital versions), but am not interested in subscribing to D+. So that means money that could be in Disney's pocket remains in mine, for now.

 

[RobertMG]

All you good people here have said it Disney like some put streaming up front and most are now laying off staff in the process they set back their once lucrative home vid market every tool should be used to make value for their shareholders if they do not want to build up their home vid dept let KINO release titles

 

[David Norman]

Did I read a different Bill Hunt article than you? I thought Iger implied they're going to release more catalog movies on disc while slowing down new theatrical movie releases with a concentration on quality over quantity. Let's face it, many of their new movie releases have been mediocre which is being reflected in box office receipts.

Sounds like somebody may have skipped from the thread title in 2020 to make a post without reading the linked article that revived the semi-dead thread.

OTOH, if Bill is correct it won;t hurt my feelings. I never have thought of streaming/discs had to be an either/or situation. Disney+ could
very easily feed the thirst of a small but not dead appetite for owning something esp if somehow they started adding a bit of exclusive extras to the disc to distinguish them