And he might also take a bath on them, such is the nature of the spec market. The main thing is that TT is sold out, which is good for them. Thanks for the interview, it is good to hear the perspective of a company like this.
Yes to more Endfield! HELL DRIVERS is cheaply and readily available on a double disc UK set that is loaded with extras. SOUND OF FURY is being restored by the Film Noir Foundation and is controlled by Paramount. I was blown away by this film when I viewed it earlier this year on Netflix Instant.SeanAx said:
I think the current prices might be due to the people who missed it and are now willing paying anything to get a copy. My unsolicited advice is to wait a couple months and see if the prices drop down a little. I'm not saying that you'll see it for $35 ever again but I don't think the $100 prices are going to last.Bob Black said:
Blu-ray.com had several write-ups about the Sony/Twilight Time deal. Here is a link to the original announcement back in August and gives the Fright Night release date. Along with other titles.
Sure, now I've searched and found multiple articles. But show me another release on BD that required immediate purchase due to such a miniscule availability. It isn't tough to sell 3000 copies of a movie that could probably sell 40,000 in a year. This is arguably the best horror / comedy EVER--even better than the Lost Boys. Re-Animator might be the only movie that I would anticipate this much from the same genre. The situation just stinks for fans of this movie, and there are obviously many. Again, I have been buying limited edition movies for decades on multiple formats and have never been relegated to one obscure retailer. The whole situation is ridiculous. I obviously have the "sour grapes" thing going, but this distribution deal has made it impossible for me to get one of my favorite movies without paying a preposterous amount on the secondary market. I would have even bought Mysterious Island as I am a fan of Harryhausen...but I'm reluctant to do business with this company now. I love companies like Criterion that offer stupendous releases and take pride in their products. I also loved Elite Entertainment and their excellent horror releases on DVD back in the day. I owned the limited edition Phantasm set on LD with the gold-plated audio CD as well as all the L.E Treasures Collection from Disney. I am no stranger to limited edition sets. But this arrangement makes it impossible for the many rabid fans of such a film. 3,000 is probably more than enough copies for the other obscure titles they've licensed, but not Fright Night.ahollis said:
And they have a thread in the forums that has been posted in for weeks, if not longer. Mostly people bitching that it cost to much. But this thread has been a big one. Always at the top with new posts, even now. May i recommend Mr. Black...sign up with Screen Archives to receive e mails from them. Sorry it will not help this time, but you never know what they will release in the future.ahollis said:
I did sign up and I also joined their facebook page. But like you said, it's a moot point now. The chances of their licensing another movie that will be a must-own for me is probably small at this point. I won't bitch about the price, though $40 for a catalog title in this day & age are unusual. I understand the economics involved and clearly see why the price needs to be higher than the norm, and I certainly would have paid it without a gripe. It's the ridiculous 3-year window combined with the ridiculously low production run that I don't like. Essentially they've restricted this movie from tens of thousands of fans that would have purchased it and we have no recourse. It doesn't even look like Sony will be able to release this in another region.RickER said:
Read the interview with Mr. Redman, Bob. He says that Twilight Time's deals with Fox and Sony only apply to the U.S. home video divisions of those studios. They have no control over what their overseas branches might release. There's definitely a possibility that FRIGHT NIGHT might appear on a European Sony Blu-ray. In the meantime you can download the film in HD via iTunes and a few other similar services.Bob Black said:
I won't download 'cause I'm a collector. But that's good news on the European front. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll keep my eyes open from now on...Jon Hertzberg said:
Well we surely don't know the specifics behind these decisions. Perhaps Twilight negotiated this release in an agreement to take other less-stellar releases which would clearly not sell as well. I can't imagine Sony is that obtuse to not understand the interest in Fright Night...especially on the heels of the remake. Again, I don't mind exclusive licensing agreements from companies like Criterion, Anchor Bay, Image, Elite, etc...just don't release a ridiculously small amount so the fans get screwed.ahollis said:
Again, read the interview, Bob. It explains a lot in terms of the decision-making on Sony's part. They had no interest in releasing the title themselves and most assuredly crunched plenty of figures to see what night have made it feasible for them to have released it themselves...they certainly would have had to produce and sell a lot more than 3000 units to make it worth their while. All of these discussions have been going on non-stop on this forum and every other major movie / DVD forum for the last couple of months. There has been plenty of nonsense spewed, but there have also been a good number of informative posts from those who work in the industry and know of what they speak, including several on this forum. Sorry you missed out, but I can't say this has exactly been under the radar for anyone who frequents HTF, Blu-ray.com Hi-Def Digest, DVD Talk, DVD Drive-In, AVManiacs, MHVF, AVS, etc...I'm sure I've missed a few sites.Bob Black said:
Bottom line: the film was on sale, including pre-order time, for about 5 weeks before it sold out.
Sony approached Twilight Time about FRIGHT NIGHT, according to Nick Redman. It was not a title that Twilight Time initially saw as fitting their model, but they considered after Sony came to them. This is all in the interview.Bob Black said:
I tend to agree with you Bob... I think the numbers aren't quite right here. Still, good luck to them for selling out on 'Fright Night' - I suspect this will help their overall marketing of other titles, as people will be eager to pr-order titles if they are thinking they might not be around for long. But it's a double-edged sword - it makes owning some of the classics in HD more of an elitist activity, in that you have to be following Twilight Time closely and prepared to pay a high price for the films. I get the arguments about the need to charge higher prices, and welcome seeing films that otherwise might not get a HD release. But I can't accept Mr Redman's opinion that the whole market for pressed bluray disc is awry, and that prices are too low. I think bluray is making good inroads in a tough market overall, and is reaching more people because the big labels are putting out stuff that is close to current DVD pricing. If the prices were kept higher, then I doubt the format would take off. Look at what happened to DVD-A and SACD - the labels did a pathetic job of promoting it, Sony was greedy (with SACD) and so the opportunity to have HD-audio as a standard for home music was lost. Now SACD is an expensive niche product for discerning audiophiles with plenty of money. I guess we'll have to accept that this is the way things are going. But I think that pressed discs have plenty of life left in them yet and all of the people declaring DVD and Bluray dead formats are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by promoting inferior technologies like compressed downloading/streaming of films.Bob Black said:
