Has MGM turned bilingual? (1 Viewer)

[Sven Lorenz]

I was just looking at the DVDSoon.com website (a Canadian shop) and several titles from MGM have been re-released with bilingual covers.

DVDSoon is usually very reliable - so it looks like another company has turned bilingual.

Why is it so difficult to keep making seperate English-only and French-only covers?

I've heard of many Canadians who are now buying all their DVDs from these companies from the US - so the companies are losing money by doing this.

Now only Warner, Fox and Columbia Tristar are left - for all the other DVDs I have to use a US retailer - which is a lot more expensive.

I still have some hope - maybe it's only a mistake by DVDSoon, they don't have pictures of the covers yet - they only list them as 'Keepcase - Bilingual'. Has anyone from Canada seen any bilingual MGM DVDs in a shop?

 

[Greg Madsen]

I was not aware of this. Can you give some examples?

 

[Jeremy Brupaste]

Yes, I can confirm that MGM Canada has turned to the dark side.

Their recent release of Agent Cody Banks 2 is fully bilingual. I've also seen a scan of their upcoming special edition re-release of Species, and that's bilingual as well.

Too bad for them, I used to buy soooo many of their releases. That will all stop now, as I don't buy bilingual covers or support companies who make them. Literally, no fooling, I have at LEAST 350 MGM DVDs upstairs. I'm sad it has to stop for me, but the way I look at it, it's like I'm voting...with my wallet. Then I email the companies and tell them how much money they've lost out on. It hasn't worked so far, but at least my conscience is clean.

And I don't see the point of ordering American releases, as the money all goes to the offending companies anyway (in the long run).

 

[Greg Madsen]

Well darn. Another studio to add to the list of companies that I have to import from the US.

 

[Rob T]

Damn. :frowning:

 

[Michael Pakula]

This is a terrible new policy the studio's have decided to follow when it comes to releasing dvds. I agree with everyone here about releasing two different versions. They just lost another customer. It used to be so fun to just go into a store and pick up all the new releases but they way things are going now I wouldn't be surprised if in the future I end up doing all my purchasing online when all the distributors decide to go bilingual only.


-Mike

 

[Christian Preischl]

MGM really amaze me. They seem to do everything in their power to piss people off (see the "Downgrading SEs" thread). I wonder what they come up with next.

Chris

 

[Mikko Rasinkangas]

Damn, I've been buying MGM dvd's pretty much exclusively from DvdSoon since they are always the cheapest.

Not anymore. I guess it R1-US or R2 for me from now on...

 

[JimChan]

Unfortunately, Fox also changed to bilingual with their latest Predator collector's edition.

 

[Mikko Rasinkangas]

Double damn.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

Really bilingual? Not just a removable English/French piece of paper stuck to the back of the box like they used to do sometimes?

 

[JimChan]

It seems to be so, I've seen both US and Canadian editions (both wrapped), and the latter one contains English/French text at the back. However, I'm not 100% sure if the Canadain version is stuck with a removable paper or not.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

If it's only on the back then it's most likely only a removable paper - Fox did the same thing with Master&Commander and the single releases of the Alien movies.

 

[Rob T]

Hopefully, it's just a removable piece of paper.

 

[PhilipG]

MGM

 

[ChristianB]

Valiant effort, but the studios don't care - why would they. It's all about sales.

I personally am not a fan of them, so I only import DVDs that are my favourite films (when the DVD released here is bilingual). Like Kill Bill for example.

On a side note, I could see this practice used perhaps in the USA? They have a huge and growing Spanish market hungry for DVD so this may warrant studios to release English/Spanish bilingual packaging there? Just a thought.

Christian

 

[Dan Rudolph]

They could easily use the same packaging for the US and Canadian English releases. In fact, this is what Warner, Fox and Columbia do. That way, you don't have to make any extra versions.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

But don't forget that Disney slaps a big, ugly, yellow, non-removable "Version francaise incluse" sticker on every cover of the so-called "English" packaging.

 

[Jeremy Brupaste]

Quebec being 25% of the market IS a sizable chunk of sales, ain't nobody doubtin' that - but of that 25%, how many of them care about bilingual packaging? I'm guessing - maximum - 15%. So for 15% of sales, the studios risk alienating the other 85% of their customer base?

I mean, let's use this little discussion as a little microcosm of DVD buyers. Everybody here seems to be in agreement - these covers suck and when possible, we boycott the companies involved or import the non-bilingual versions. Nobody has chimed in with approval for these eyesores - in fact, I've overheard French people complaining about them too!

 

[Mikko Rasinkangas]

And just to enlighten those who don't know what kind of bilingual packaging we are talking about:

The bilingual packaging of Alliance is utterly stupid. Revesible, but english and french on both sides. If they can afford to make reversible covers, why on earth are both sides bilingual? My simple mind cannot comprehend this.