Home video is gone? (1 Viewer)

[Thomas T]

From the industry trade paper The Hollywood Reporter discussing how Netflix is revolutionizing how films are made and distributed: “But other industry players argue that Netflix should be celebrated, not condemned, for 
backing the type of movies that have become nearly impossible to finance using 
the old model, which combined 
a theatrical release with revenue from TV sales and home video. With home video gone, 
TV revenue down and the theatrical business dominated by studio tentpoles, Netflix is one of the few entities willing to finance non-mainstream movies.”
Netflix’s acclaimed and Oscar nominated 2016 film Mudbound was never released on DVD or blu ray (although I have a copy on DVD sent to me when I was on the 2016 SAG nominating committee), an indication that home video revenue is no longer necessary in the age of streaming and downloading. The acclaimed 2017 film Beatriz At Dinner didn’t even merit a blu ray release although it got a quiet DVD release. Another reason to be...

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[Bob Cashill]

Sony Pictures Classics is bypassing Blu for a number of its releases, as if they have to perform at a certain level to earn one.

 

[Thomas T]

Sony Pictures Classics is bypassing Blu for a number of its releases, as if they have to perform at a certain level to earn one.

Well, thankfully Twilight Time has a deal with Sony and as a boutique label can possibly take on some of the Sony Pictures Classics line (which does not refer to 1930s Columbia films but to current smaller indie films, usually foreign) but sadly will be greeted by complaints of "nothing for me here" or "Where is Pepe?".

 

[skylark68]

I just wonder how many of these films will be considered "lost" in 50 or 60 years...

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I think what the “Hollywood Reporter” is referring to here is direct-to-DVD movies. It does seem to be true that the market for that is not currently big enough to support a decent budget for those kinds of titles; and direct-to-streaming is taking up the slack.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Netflix is particularly notorious for not releasing things on home media.

 

[Thomas T]

I'm not a Netflix subscriber and their attempt to withhold their product from blu ray/DVD in an attempt to force you to subscribe ("if you want to see it, you have to subscribe") irritates me. Now, to irritate me even more, I've just found out that PBS has lost the rights to The Great British Baking Show (go ahead laugh , I'm a fan) and the new season will be a Netflix exclusive.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Absolutely won't laugh, it's a fantastic show!

In that particular case, the rights situation was a little more complicated. PBS has a long-running deal with the BBC, which is where GBBB (called The Great British Bake Off over there) originally aired. However, the show wasn't actually made by the BBC, but by a production company called Love Productions. Love Productions left the BBC and signed a new deal with a for-profit network, and PBS didn't have a partnership with that network. This allowed them to make a deal with Netflix. The first "new" Netflix season aired in the UK last year; they changed three of the four hosts, with only Paul Hollywood remaining. It's still an enjoyable show but perhaps not quite as magic as it used to be. Still worth watching of course.

I think PBS would have kept it if they could. At least PBS did make a deal for the remaining seasons with the original host lineup, as those had never actually aired here. One just finished airing on PBS last week, but had actually been filmed years earlier.

 

[Conrad_SSS]

The irony of this is that certain programming made directly for NETFLIX (Sony's "The Crown") is an example, have sold exceptionally well on physical discs.

 

[Ethan Riley]

It sure did-- but they don't like to put out the Marvel shows, "Stranger Things" only seems to exist as a Target exclusive, "A Series of Unfortunate Events" never came out...The list goes on and on. Netflix is kind of unpredictable in DVD land.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

As pretty much a "classics only" person, I've found that Netflix has a pretty miserable stable of said classics, a number of which seem to shrink every year, especially the rarer stuff. I have no interest in most all new films having lost any real enthusiasm for new releases, with few exceptions, sometime in the early 80's. Too many treasures from the silent and golden age yet to uncover. I imagine the physical media may continue to exist for folks like us. We still buy it and enjoy owning it. After we're dead who know what will happen. Hate to say it, but I could give a rat's buttocks about the "contemporary" situation. Home video may be gone but collectors, archivists and historians still remain through some miracle. I ran into a large group of "flapper girls" at a TCM festival a few years back, a group of 20 somethings who talked only of Valentino, Swanson, Brooks and Jannings. It made my decade!

 

[TravisR]

I ran into a large group of "flapper girls" at a TCM festival a few years back, a group of 20 somethings who talked only of Valentino, Swanson, Brooks and Jannings. It made my decade!

Every now and then, the kids today renew my faith in humanity.

 

[Interdimensional]

From the industry trade paper The Hollywood Reporter discussing how Netflix is revolutionizing how films are made and distributed: "But other industry players argue that Netflix should be celebrated, not condemned, for 
backing the type of movies that have become nearly impossible to finance using 
the old model, which combined 
a theatrical release with revenue from TV sales and home video. With home video gone, 
TV revenue down and the theatrical business dominated by studio tentpoles, Netflix is one of the few entities willing to finance non-mainstream movies."

...So if 'home video' is gone, and TV revenue is down, what could possibly be the reason for that? What could have caused this crisis? Where could those paying audiences have gone to?

 

[Angelo Colombus]

There is only one reason I will subscribe to Netflix at the end of the year and that is to see Orson Welles's The Other Side of the Wind which will be shown in November. Then will cancel again like I did 10 years ago.

 

[Dick]

Netflix is particularly notorious for not releasing things on home media.

I will not forgive them for refusing to provide Blu-rays of MUDBOUND and OKJA.

 

[jcroy]

I just wonder how many of these films will be considered "lost" in 50 or 60 years...

If they do exist in any obvious form in 50 or 100+ years, most likely it will be a pirated copy on a future "holocron" version of bit torrent.



http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sith_holocron/Legends
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Holocron

 

[jcroy]

I ran into a large group of "flapper girls" at a TCM festival a few years back, a group of 20 somethings who talked only of Valentino, Swanson, Brooks and Jannings. It made my decade!

(Not to be too cynical).

How many of these 20 something "flapper girls" were just doing a TCM festival version of "cosplay", and not from any genuine interest in 1920s era pop culture ? Or were hired as a festival equivalent of a "booth babe" ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotional_model

 

[Alan Tully]

...So if 'home video' is gone, and TV revenue is down, what could possibly be the reason for that? What could have caused this crisis? Where could those paying audiences have gone to?

Well apparently the younger generation is watching far less telly than we used to, & drinking less, & having less sex & babies. They're letting us down. So it's we few, we happy few, we band of brothers that love old movies, & we're getting fewer all the time.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

(Not to be too cynical).

How many of these 20 something "flapper girls" were just doing a TCM festival version of "cosplay", and not from any genuine interest in 1920s era pop culture ? Or were hired as a festival equivalent of a "booth babe" ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotional_model

Well, they did their homework then. Seems quite a bit of studying for a "cosplay" prank, as they knew an amazing amount about silent films and stars. They were in the line with chattel like us to see "How the West Was Won" so the "booth babe" scenario isn't very likely.

 

[bmasters9]

As pretty much a "classics only" person, I've found that Netflix has a pretty miserable stable of said classics, a number of which seem to shrink every year, especially the rarer stuff.

You're pretty much after my own heart-- all Netflix has in the way of classics is the Treks, Andy Griffith, Cheers and The Twilight Zone; if it's not one of those, you're basically out of luck!