Does 1st Half of 2003 seem weak with regards to DVD releases? (1 Viewer)

[Joel Vardy]

Not that I am complaining after a strong 2nd half of 2002. My wallet can use the rest . But it seems to me that on the whole there are very few classics or otherwise high profile titles announced for 1st half of 2003. Maybe there is still time for more announcements but so far it seems rather slow. For the 2nd half, this might be another story with Grapes of Wrath (June - could be considered first half release - I'll still call it later this year), King Kong (Fall) and possible Indy Trilogy (late fall?)coming out. I'm still hoping for Schindler's List for some point this year and possibly Treasures of the Sierra Madre
Joel

 

[Brian Lawrence]

The Killers
Man Who Fell to Earth
All or Nothing
Color Purple
Metropolis
Beauty and the Beast (Criterion)
Three Colours Trilogy
Europa Europa
Pauline at the Beach
Labyrinth (Suberbit)
My Life as a Dog
Day for Night
In a lonely Place
Who framed Roger Rabbit
Road To Perdition
Little Big Man
Ringu
The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean
West Side Story
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
Assault on Precinct 13

and many more slated for the first half

 

[oscar_merkx]

funny thing is that I am planning to buy more titles this year than last year. I bought nearly 50 and from what I am reading of announcements so far, I will easily top that
cheers

 

[Peter Overduin]

B5
Money Pit
Greek Wedding
Predator 2

Already looking to cost me...

 

[Mark Booth]

Joel,
I know what you mean... I haven't purchased a single DVD this enitre year! And, at this time, the only DVDs I am considering in the next few months are:
The Day The Earth Stood Still
The Color Purple
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
I think '03 will be a LOT less expensive than '02.
Mark

 

[Jon Robertson]

In addition to Brian's superb list, I'd like to add (some have already been released):

Mildred Pierce
All About Eve
How Green Was My Valley
Trouble in Paradise
Pepe le Moko
Straw Dogs
by Brakhage - An Anthology (!!!!)
The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 5-disc boxset
The Spaghetti Western Collection
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Day The Earth Stood Still
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Not to mention in the UK:

The Apu Trilogy boxset
Tarkovsky's Nostalghia 2-disc SE
The War Game
Culloden
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Kes
Tenebrae (with all the Anchor Bay features, but anamorphic!)
Alligator/Alligator II double-disc
The Green Man/School for Scoundrels double-disc
Jean Renoir double bill: La Bete Humaine/Le Crime de Monsieur Lange
Badlands SE
Red Dwarf Series 2
Terror Train (from Anchor Bay)
Fargo SE

 

[Jim_K]

I agree this year (so far) is very weak for catalog titles.
Most of the titles (rumored/in the works) that I'm looking forward to will probably all be released in the late summer/fall. :frowning:
Off the top of my head the only catalog titles I'll be buying so far are:
Day the Earth Stood Still
Das Boot - superbit
Enemy Below
Here are the titles (rumored/in the works) that I'm eagerly waiting for in 2003:
Adventures of Robin Hood - Fall
Thing From Another World - ? rumored
Where Eagles Dare - ? rumored
Haunting - ? rumored
King Kong - Fall
Point Blank - ? rumored
Blade Runner SE - ? rumored
Goodfellas SE - ? rumored
Scarface SE - ? rumored
Mark of Zorro - Fall
My Darling Clementine - ? rumored
Millers Crossing - ? rumored
Escape From New York SE - Dec
Zulu SE - ? rumored
Raging Bull SE - ? rumored
Great Escape SE - ? rumored
Dances With Wolves SE - ? rumored
Once Upon a Time in America - ? rumored
Once Upon a Time in the West - ? rumored
A Matter of Life and Death - ? rumored
Throne of Blood - ? rumored
Ran (new remaster film-only) - ?????????
Indy trilogy - ?

 

[Patrick McCart]

I'm looking forward to...

The Day The Earth Stood Still
Metropolis (Kino)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Disney won't fix it, so why not?)
West Side Story: Special Collector's Edition
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Vault Disney
Father of the Bride (1950)
Journey To The Center of the Earth
City Lights: Special Edition
The Great Dictator: Special Edition
The Circus: Special Edition
Phantom of the Opera: Photoplay Edition
Nosferatu: Photoplay Edition

Compared to the 2nd half of 2003:

The Jazz Singer
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Around the World in Eighty Days
King Kong
House of Wax


And this isn't at a point where all of this year's titles have been announced!

 

[Joel Vardy]

Jim,

Your list is very similar to mine. Except for 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' most others are rereleases or lesser titles (though I am looking forward to a guilty pleasure, The Money Pit). No doubt of the rereleases Metropolis is very much deserving but others may be just a way to add some extras and get a 'second wind' (translated to a commercial boost) with an SE rerelease. Usually by this time of the year we are looking at significant numbers (10-20) of name titles over a six month horizon.

I wonder if the studios are taking a look at Classic release financials and that is responsible for the apparent shakeup in the the management ranks of Warner and Paramount? At least Fox has a special promotional classic series with an interesting test with the Sunrise offer. Even so the list on this series is very small, with notable titles that have been omitted. This might sound a bit paranoid but we seem to be in a bit of a 'quiet period'. Perhaps there are a handful of titles that are waiting for new management to give their blessing. The rumor list is unusually long for this time of the year. What this means is probably some slippage beyond 2003 and certain titles may be dropped from release altogether.

Joel

 

[Jim_K]

Joel,
I'm afraid you could be right. There were many titles rumored for 2002 that never materialized. :frowning: The sluggish economy may hold some of the blame.

 

[Chris S]

I think it depends a little on what sort of collector you are. If you like the big boxsets and that sort of thing, then yea the first of the year is always a little slow. I've noticed that the beginning of the year is usually when we see a lot of the smaller catalog titles appear like The Day the Earth Stood Still. Big titles to us movie fans but not really to the average consumer.
If I recall correctly last year was much worse. I think I probably purchased only 3-4 titles total from Jan-April. But I'm glad to see that there are going to be a lot more titles (at least that I'm interested in ) at the start of this year.

 

[Tim RH]

All I know is there's at least 15 titles (mostly catalog product) that I want to own from Feb. to April 1, which is quite a lot for me. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to afford all of them. :frowning:

 

[Alistair_M]

Well here's my buy list for this year so far (I've budgetted for 80 dvds this year so it should be fun!)



Jan:
Donnie Darko On Hand 1 £6.50 PAID
Signs dvdsoon £10.50 PAID
Sense and Sensibility £7.99 splashdvd
Amelie £8.50 PAID
Dr Strangelove splashdvd £7.99

February:
Road To Perdition Preorder (2003-Feb-25) 1 £9.50 PAID
X-men SE £9.50 PAID
Carry On Doctor SE - £8.99 Feb17 splash
Carry on Again Doctor SE - £8.99 Feb17 splash

March:
Green Card £4 dvdimport R1
Who Framed Roger Rabbit : Vista Series Preorder (2003-Mar-25) 1 £9.50 PAID
Day The Earth Stood Still, The Preorder (2003-Mar-04) 1 £7.50 PAID
Star Trek 4 Voyage Home SE - 2 disk R1 £8.50 dvdsoon PAID

------------------------------

Considering:

Jan:
Insonmia R1
Slap Shot 25th Anniversary R4
Duellists, The : Special Edition On Order (2003-Jan-27) £10
Glengarry Glen Ross
Metropolis
24 hour party people
Unforgiven SE £10.50 dvdsoon
One Flew over Cookoo Nest SE dvdsoon £10.50
Ice Age 2 disk SE R1 dvd soon £10.50

Feb:
Bugsy Malone SE 17 Feb - comm
Nixon collectors edn R1
Dog Soldiers

March:
Journey to the centre of the Earth 4 March 2002 R1
Assault on Precint 13 SE new R1 March 11
All creatures great and Small boxset

April 2003:
Breakfast club - 1/4 r1
Red Dragon

May 2003:
Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets - R2
James Bond - Die another Day 5/5/2003 r2
20000 Leagues under the sea 5/15 r1

June 2003:
Towering Inferno SE - Region 2 (warners)
Grapes of Wrath 3 June R1

July 2003:
Once upon a time in America - 2 disk SE - region 2 (warners)

August:
Two Towers 2 disk

October 2003:
Matrix Reloaded

Nov 2003:
Two Towers Extended 4 disk SE


-----
Films with good reviews:

Far from Heaven - tomcarver
Punch-Drunk Love
Catch Me If You Can - Spielberg
Solaris
Gangs of New York
The Hours - tomcarver
One hour Photo
Adaptation
About Schmidt - tomcarver
The Magdalene Sisters
The Pianist - tomcarver
Bowling for Columbine
Lost in La Mancha - about terry gilliam
Lantana
24 hour party people - steve coogan

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

I'm pretty much on the same buying platform. I generally buy 20-30 discs per quarter and this spring looks no different.

Bruce

 

[David Coleman]

I totally agree! So far I'm amazed for me how few titles i'd be interested in have been announced for the 1st half of the year! So far here's my list and it's real small:

NYPD BLUE: SEASON ONE
LEGENDS OF THE FALL(SUPERBIT)
DAS BOOT (SUPERBIT)
STARGATE: UE
THE COLOR PURPLE: SE

and under the rumored category

FAME

A very small list and all but 2 are re-issues which is all the more suprising for me.

David

 

[Carl Walker]

Can't say that I agree...

Only Money Pit and One Hour Photo for me, thanks.

 

[Jim Tudor]

Looking forward to:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: CC
Angel: Season 1
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Road to Perdition
The Fast Runner
Metropolis (Kino)
Beauty & the Beast: CC
Straw Dogs: CC
Day the Earth Stood Still
Day for Night
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Futurama: Season 1
What's Up Doc
Day of the Dead
Thelma & Louise: SE
Star Trek IV: SE
Antoine Doinel set: CC
Beatles Anthology (has this been confirmed??)
Three Colors trilogy
Femme Fatale
Challenge of the Superfriends
Batman: TAS - TOTDK
Full Frontal

That's PLENTY, but I'm sure there may be more. Just hope I can actually afford all this stuff.

JiM T

 

[RichSL]

I'm along the same lines of thinking as Brian Lawrence and Jon Robertson...there's more than plenty!! to look forward to..not to mention SE's of the Miyazaki animated classics (Spirited Away,Laputa etc.....) and also the Lone Wolf & Cub series to be released from Animeigo.

 

[Marc Colella]

I'll be spending a few bucks in early 2003:

Punch-Drunk Love
Three Colours Trilogy (Blue, Blance and Rouge)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: CC
My Life as a Dog: CC
Cinema Paradiso - New Edition
Fargo: SE (rumoured)
Barton Fink (rumoured)
Miller's Crossing (rumoured)
Far From Heaven (no announcement yet)

 

[Joel Vardy]

My point with this thread is that aside from rumors, that are always present, we are going through a relative 'dry spell' for the first half of this year. If we discount all the rereleases this may be driest it's been for a couple of years. Again, no complaints, this was due to happen as the list of 'A' titles dries up and the long awaited titles get stretched out for reasons we can only speculate:

- the economy
- changes in studio management
- commercial considerations
- saturation of a maturing market
- changes in consumer taste

Since my collection is approaching 1200 this may be more a factor for my collection than those still early in their 'library building' process. My tastes tend to be also more eclectic and this may just represent the saturation of my personal 'market potential' rather than those of others now representing HTF. I thought my purchases would come down to 20-30 this year (which is a relatively small amount compared to the rate I was going over the last 5 years -- ~240/yr.) and unless many of the so-called rumors come to pass it may be hard for me to see sustaining the 2-3 titles/month that number represents.

Meanwhile, I am culling down my collection of non-anamorphic titles by giving them to my brother as the rereleases come out with improved (and new) transfers and interesting new material. I look forward to the odd new and fresh title that will be available every few months until the transition to some new format stops the flow altogether.

Joel