Fox joining the "Unannounced Double-Dip Club"? (1 Viewer)

[Christian Preischl]

As many of you know, Fox are releasing a single disc version of "The Day after Tomorrow" in the US. As of now there has been no official announcement regarding a possible 2-disc set, yet region 2 will get a single and a double disc set simultaneously.

Now it seems, that there'll be yet another Fox title that'll get a single discer in R1 only. There'll be a single disc version of "Garfield" with only an audio commentary and a few sneak peeks for other movies (wft?), whereas R2 will get a 2 disc SE packed with extras on the same day as the single disc set (Source: dvdtimes.co.uk) While I'm not really interested in this title, it's still somewhat annoying to see it happen again.

The unannounced double dip has been a particular specialty of Columbia, to the point where I don't feel like buying any new Columbia title at all on release date. I'm not talking about back-catalogue titles, I'm talking about new movies released for the first time on DVD (Monster/Underworld/Hellboy are fine examples). As somebody who actually does care about extras, I gotta say that it'd be a shame if the otherwise excellent Fox joined that club.

Chris

 

[Jeff_HR]

Seems to me to be NAKED GREED!! They want to squeeze every last $$$ out of every one of us.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

So is the the plan to release a 2-disc Garfield later in R1, so that all the suckers that bought the 1-disc version will "have to" buy the 2-disc version?

 

[Christian Preischl]

Jeff, I'm not sure. That's why there's (still) a question mark in the subject line. In the case of Garfield maybe they just went 1-disc because the film tanked (relatively). However, I just for the life of me cannot imagine that being the case with Day After Tomorrow, which did very well. And quite obviously the SE is already finished in both cases.

Chris

 

[Chad R]

My first thought would be that they want to wait and see how the disc sells before spending the money on the extras. But, as you point out other regions are getting special editions which means they already have spent the money, and there's no good reason why they wouldn't release the special edition first.

It does appear to just be greed.

 

[Travis W.]

I'm not buying Day After Tomorrow or Man on Fire on street date. When I saw that both films were slim in the extra features department I knew better to stay away. If and when there is a two disc special edition of both of these then I'll buy them.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Guys, it's pretty obvious what's happened here: The studios have now established the DVD equivalent of a "rental window".

Remember when VHS was king of the hill? New titles would initially be released for around $79.95; and then, after 90-120 days, they would reissue them for around $19.95. The idea, of course, was that you would rent during those first 90 days and then purchase the title after it was reissued at a more popular price.

These "mostly bare bones" DVD releases of new titles amount to the same thing. These are discs to be rented; not collected. Or, if you do decide to purchase them anyway (since, unlike the VHS model the initial prices for the discs are very reasonable), you'll need to do the "double-dip" to eventually get the version that you want for your collection.

The studios warned us several years ago that they wanted to re-establish a "rental window" for new titles on DVD, and darn if they haven't found a way to make that work!

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Club Dread came out as a movie-only edition back in May.

A full blown special edition comes out in September with an entirely new cut of the film.

The members of Broken Lizard wanted to the movie-only release to contain commentaries, but FOX almost told them no.

Seriously, the audience for Club Dread ain't that big.

FOX, which used to be one of the best DVD studios out there (bar none), is slowly becoming on my shit list. Hell, the way they handled The Girl Next Door release is total bullshit (the DVD in other regions is single-sided, here in the states we got a double-sided disc).

 

[Eric Larsen]

UK got a 2 disc League of Extraordinary Gentlemen last year from Fox while R1 did not.

I've tended to support most of Fox's multi-disc sets with hopes of them releasing those that I'd want (Romancing the Stone, Mel Brooks, and yes - the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!)

Thanks for the heads up.