Is there any chance at all of getting Moulin Rouge on UHD? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Cooper]

I think it was on Digital Bits a while back that I read that Disney has no plans to continue to release catalog titles on UHD. Given that Moulin Rouge is a Fox title, which means Disney now owns it, are my hopes for a UHD version completely dashed? Or is there still some hope?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Until we get more clarification from Disney, I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I remember at one point hoping Fox would release an upconverted 3D version of that film. I was told, at the time, that Baz Luhrmann was busy on another project but the studio would try.

Aaaah, the good'ol days.

As Robert said, the problem right now is Disney. They don't seem to want to release any catalog titles to 4k anymore.

I think there would be a better chance of seeing it on 4k digitally.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think it’ll certainly be remastered for 4K UHD distribution on Disney+ and/or Hulu, and once that happens (if not sooner), it’ll hit the digital storefronts.

UHD disc is much more difficult to predict. That format just isn’t doing much sales wise, and catalog titles on physical media in general has been a dwindling business for at least the past decade. I think it was @Cranston37 who posted that the sales numbers show UHD disc is less than 1% of the home entertainment market, and most of that is made up of sales of new titles. This isn’t a question of Disney being evil or anything; it’s just a matter of the format not expanding beyond a niche of a niche.

I remember when the former head of Fox‘s home entertainment department, James Finn, would post here regularly and in early 2016 he said Fox was fully committed to day and date releases of all future titles on UHD disc, and that pronouncement didn’t even last that full year. They had a bunch of catalog titles ready to go but the sales numbers weren’t there from the start. So this is something that was troublesome for the industry and the format long before Disney bought Fox.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Helping matters, maybe, is that Moulin Rouge! was the big new hit show on Broadway before the pandemic hit. It will almost certainly return when Broadway does, and a national tour has already been announced, even though it is on hold. It is something that could be a cross-promotional partner. Disney loves corporate synergy. I'm not saying that the mere existence of the Broadway production would convince Disney to sell a 4K disc. But the production would cause, essentially, free press that would reflect back on the film, if they ever decided to do anything with it.

 

[Worth]

I think the only Fox title likely to get a 4K disc that hasn't already been released or announced is The Sound of Music, as that was a top seller on blu-ray.

 

[SFMike]

Really sad as this movie begs for 4K and should get it.

 

[JohnRice]

I just watched this for the first time in several years, and while the video quality is a bit spotty (blacks tend to block up), what really struck me is the soundtrack is not good. Kind of bright and harsh, with no immersion. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's almost like each channel is completely independent of each other, rather than working together to create a complete soundfield.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I just watched this for the first time in several years, and while the video quality is a bit spotty (blacks tend to block up), what really struck me is the soundtrack is not good. Kind of bright and harsh, with no immersion. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's almost like each channel is completely independent of each other, rather than working together to create a complete soundfield.

I love this movie and would die for a 4k disc presentation. However, I still think it's highly unlikely given the fact that Disney hasn't announced a single Fox disc release in ... what ... over two years? Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Furthermore -- again to be corrected if wrong -- the number of Fox titles that Disney has released to disc since their takeover in 2019 is about 6 at best.

 

[JohnRice]

I love this movie and would die for a 4k disc presentation. However, I still think it's highly unlikely given the fact that Disney hasn't announced a single Fox disc release in ... what ... over two years? Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Furthermore -- again to be corrected if wrong -- the number of Fox titles that Disney has released to disc since their takeover in 2019 is about 6 at best.

I suspect you're right Ron. It'll probably have to be streaming only, or from someone like Shout!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Coincidentally, this just appeared in my email feed...

Disney Q2 Home Entertainment Revenue Slips Due to Lower Catalog Sales - Media Play News

The Walt Disney Company May 11 said “content sales/licensing and other” revenue, which includes packaged media and transactional VOD, declined 3% to $1.9 billion, compared with $1.84 billion in revenue … Continue reading "Disney Q2 Home Entertainment Revenue Slips Due to Lower Catalog Sales"

www.mediaplaynews.com

 

[Kyle_D]

From that article:

Speaking on the May 11 fiscal call, CFO Christine McCarthy said the decline in home entertainment revenue included management’s “strategic decision” to re-direct Disney titles to direct-to-consumer streaming channels, rather than legacy retail channels.

“As a reminder, these results are deliberately aligned with our decision to utilize our content on our own direct-to-consumer services,” McCarthy said.

That quote pretty much says it all.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m not sure how much Moulin Rouge would gain from going to 4K. I don’t recall if the film was fully completed as a DI but even if not, it’s incredibly effects heavy and all of that work back then would have been done at 2K resolution. Any 4K release would by necessity be an upscale of that.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is practically an entire generation’s worth of films, say from late-90s through at least the mid-2010s (and plenty still to this day) that are 2K productions and that’s just what they are. Sure, they can upscale them to 4K and do a new pass on color timing, but the underlying assets are 2K and that’s just what they are.

 

[JohnRice]

I’m not sure how much Moulin Rouge would gain from going to 4K. I don’t recall if the film was fully completed as a DI but even if not, it’s incredibly effects heavy and all of that work back then would have been done at 2K resolution. Any 4K release would by necessity be an upscale of that.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is practically an entire generation’s worth of films, say from late-90s through at least the mid-2010s (and plenty still to this day) that are 2K productions and that’s just what they are. Sure, they can upscale them to 4K and do a new pass on color timing, but the underlying assets are 2K and that’s just what they are.

Sure, but the real point I was making is that the soundtrack is severely sub-par compared to what it should be. Plus, 4K is more than resolution. The bit depth and shadow detail capability are also far greater. This is an early BR, I believe. It can be improved on, significantly. Personally, I'd say resolution is the least valuable aspect of 4K.

 

[dukiejosh54]

I think Moulin Rouge would definitely benefit from a 4K release. Even if you don't think there will be much added resolution, this movie so spectacular looking that I think that adding HDR/Dolby Vision would really be worth the upgrade.

 

[Capt D McMars]

I think it was on Digital Bits a while back that I read that Disney has no plans to continue to release catalog titles on UHD. Given that Moulin Rouge is a Fox title, which means Disney now owns it, are my hopes for a UHD version completely dashed? Or is there still some hope?

...and at a nice price!!!
See on Amazon

 

[Nick*Z]

I think it’ll certainly be remastered for 4K UHD distribution on Disney+ and/or Hulu, and once that happens (if not sooner), it’ll hit the digital storefronts.

UHD disc is much more difficult to predict. That format just isn’t doing much sales wise, and catalog titles on physical media in general has been a dwindling business for at least the past decade. I think it was @Cranston37 who posted that the sales numbers show UHD disc is less than 1% of the home entertainment market, and most of that is made up of sales of new titles. This isn’t a question of Disney being evil or anything; it’s just a matter of the format not expanding beyond a niche of a niche.

I remember when the former head of Fox‘s home entertainment department, James Finn, would post here regularly and in early 2016 he said Fox was fully committed to day and date releases of all future titles on UHD disc, and that pronouncement didn’t even last that full year. They had a bunch of catalog titles ready to go but the sales numbers weren’t there from the start. So this is something that was troublesome for the industry and the format long before Disney bought Fox.

The problem with 4K in general is the willy-nilly nature of releases from all the major studios. It's the same problem that originally afflicted Blu-ray releases. Some studios were releasing ONLY new content to Blu, and only after that had been sufficiently mined, did they turn to trying their hand at 'classics' on Blu. Now, that the floodgates have been opened in standard Blu, we've seen some studios or third-party distributors aggressively marketing 4K reissues.

Problem is, not every movie released in Blu needs a new 4K reissue. I just finished comparing my Criterion Blu to Kino's recent In the Heat of the Night and the results are negligible at best. It loos better - yes. But you really have to look for those subtler upgrades - even in projection. A new format can only thrive if the image and sound quality it represents is a 'night vs. day' experience from the previous format.

That's the primary reason DVD took off like wild fire over VHS. Blu-ray has only begun to eclipse DVD as the dominant format, not simply for its more aggressive marketing of hi-def content, but also because DVD releases have been dying out. Bottom line: the only way to push content successfully in a new format is to (A) offer something better on the new format and (B) by retiring previous formats so that forced obsolescence dictates to consumer interest.

The industry is still producing DVD content in 2022. Stupid idea. Badly done. It's hand its day. Retire DVD. If you want 4K to succeed, start releasing new content ONLY to 4K with no Blu-ray counterpart. Warner is testing these waters with their upcoming release of Giant in 4K only. We'll see how that works out.

 

[Worth]

The industry is still producing DVD content in 2022. Stupid idea. Badly done. It's hand its day. Retire DVD. If you want 4K to succeed, start releasing new content ONLY to 4K with no Blu-ray counterpart.

I think that ship has sailed. Disc sales are in steady decline and have been for years now. If distributors discontinued both DVD and blu-ray tomorrow, I doubt it would move the needle much on UHD. Those who have been DVD-only to this point would more likely switch to streaming or on-demand cable/satellite than purchase a UHD player and start buying a new format.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I think that ship has sailed. Disc sales are in steady decline and have been for years now. If distributors discontinued both DVD and blu-ray tomorrow, I doubt it would move the needle much on UHD. Those who have been DVD-only to this point would more likely switch to streaming or on-demand cable/satellite than purchase a UHD player and start buying a new format.

You are spot on with that comment.

Many of my older relatives who only had a DVD player for the years when Blu-ray was the reigning format, never upgraded. And now, they have ditched their DVD player for streaming.

I know this is hard to see outside of our "bubble," but for the majority of consumers it's not about quality, it's about convenience. That's why music on CD has become extinct as the record stores that sold them.

 

[Capt D McMars]

I think that ship has sailed. Disc sales are in steady decline and have been for years now. If distributors discontinued both DVD and blu-ray tomorrow, I doubt it would move the needle much on UHD. Those who have been DVD-only to this point would more likely switch to streaming or on-demand cable/satellite than purchase a UHD player and start buying a new format.

Agreed to a point...yes, still producing DVDs is like a company still making music cassetts or VHS, those formats have had their day and should be discontinued. Inferrer formats should always be retired for the improved and superior formats. Continuing to produce them is only a money drain to the company.

That being said, many collectors, of a certain age, have made those adjustments to thier collections and upgraded, often, to the proven surperior format as they became available.

4K Still has some growing to do as a format, and until it finally finds it's "Big Boy Pants" and is proven it'self to be a-lot more consistent, it's the Bluray fomat that has the better track record in showing quality and consistancy. For all those wanting a phisicle format for thier collections, this untimatly will be the way to go...BUT!!!
Before I start spending my hard earned cash, and dropping money to upgrade to 4K ( buying not just the discs, but all of the new equiptment and cables that goes along with those discs ) I will wait, watch and see how it plays out first.
I hope that it stabilizes as a format, and I'm sure it will over time, and becomes the format of choice. BUT, I'm not climbing onto the 4K bus, just becuse it's the newest puppy in the pond, LOL!!

One thing I've consistently seen over the last 40 yrs in this marketplace is there will always be a bigger, better, newer and more improved version for some company to sell to an eager & willing home audience, wether these fomats or streaming or hologram interactive formats - live long and may the company prosper.