Mr. Holland's Opus on Blu? (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

Nice to hear.

It's likely like the other Disney-owned films released in Oz (Splash, Turner and Hooch, Quiz Show, et al)... region-free and strangely absent from US releases.

Think I'll go order me one. Haven't seen the movie in a few years and I want to.

My guess is that with their push for streaming and their subjugation of most Disney-branded catalog titles to the Movie Club, they want the Australian division to do the heavy lifting with titles such as Opus. This is similar to how they let the UK rights holder of Flight of the Navigator release it on Blu-ray and then re-release it with oodles of extras. Except unlike that one, which was a pickup from Producers Sales Organization (who also made Short Circuit), this and the other movies you mentioned are ones that I believe they own outright and weren't co-productions or independently produced titles they picked up here and there.

 

[DVBRD]

My guess is that with their push for streaming and their subjugation of most Disney-branded catalog titles to the Movie Club, they want the Australian division to do the heavy lifting with titles such as Opus. This is similar to how they let the UK rights holder of Flight of the Navigator release it on Blu-ray and then re-release it with oodles of extras. Except unlike that one, which was a pickup from Producers Sales Organization (who also made Short Circuit), this and the other movies you mentioned are ones that I believe they own outright and weren't co-productions or independently produced titles they picked up here and there.

Disney doesn't own Mr. Holland's Opus outside the U.S.; MGM does. It was a co-production with PolyGram, which retained the foreign rights, and those were passed on to MGM along with most of the PolyGram catalogue.

 

[MatthewA]

Thanks. It has been years since I saw the film, so my recollection of who owns it in which countries is somewhat hazy, especially since D+ has it in Canada. There was also the lawsuit over What About Bob? which had nothing to do with this despite being a Touchstone title without joint ownership status. Hopefully that gets a disc somewhere.

Is this even a Disney release? What company put the disc out?

 

[yimitz]

Thanks. It has been years since I saw the film, so my recollection of who owns it in which countries is somewhat hazy, especially since D+ has it in Canada. There was also the lawsuit over What About Bob? which had nothing to do with this despite being a Touchstone title without joint ownership status. Hopefully that gets a disc somewhere.

Is this even a Disney release? What company put the disc out?

It's a "Via Vision" disc. On the disc it says "Licensed from MGM Studios Inc. and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC and made available in Australia / New Zealand by Park Circus Ltd. through Via Vision Entertainment."

There's no mention of Disney per se anywhere on the disc or case, but it does mention Hollywood Pictures in the credits fine print on the back of the case (but I'm guessing most people wouldn't know that was part of Disney).

 

[Harry-N]

The Hollywood Pictures logo appears at the start of the featurette and the trailer.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

So I took a chance on it.

Arrived today, and my review is pretty much the same as everyone else's.

The back cover has a small "B" on it, but it plays on a cheap, unmodified in any way Sanyo Blu player, as do the special features (which sometimes don't). So it's region free, no matter what the case tries to tell me.

At a glance, it looks to be the DVD-era master, but in 1080. And that's fine. More than we got in the US. Oh, and the case says it's 1.85, but it's actually at the correct 2.35 (or 2.39).

 

[Harry-N]

We finished watching MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS on the Aussie Blu-ray this evening. Just for kicks, I tried to turn on subtitles or captions and none exist, This seems curious for a movie that has a profoundly deaf character in it and much of the latter portion of the film deals with that.

Oh well. The sound was seemingly very low level using the standard soundtrack, a DTS-5.1 track, and the track is very dynamic. If you turn it up to hear the dialog, the louder music passages will blow you away. There is also a second audio track that might be a DD 2.0, but it's not available through the menu at all. You just have to switch to it with the remote.

The picture looked lovely throughout, and the movie itself is quite an emotional rollercoaster, as I remember it.

 

[disctrip]

I have the German Blu-Ray that looks great at 2.35:1. It is in English or German with some German sub-titles when things are written in English on the English track. Does anyone else have this and if so, what do you think? It is a Region B disc.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Disney doesn't own Mr. Holland's Opus outside the U.S.; MGM does. It was a co-production with PolyGram, which retained the foreign rights, and those were passed on to MGM along with most of the PolyGram catalogue.

Who would've imagined that MGM, of all people, would be the cause of us getting a decent Blu-ray release of this film?

 

[battlebeast]

Who would've imagined that MGM, of all people, would be the cause of us getting a decent Blu-ray release of this film?

If MGM owns the rights outside the US, why is it on Disney+ in Canada?

 

[Citizen87645]

I think about this movie every so often. Partly because I like it and think about some of the parenting challenges the character faced, now that I myself am a parent..

The other reason being that I was a senior in college when I heard from a classmate they were looking to hire a personal assistant for Richard Dreyfuss, who was filming a movie up in the Portland area.

I may try to track down a copy of this movie now. Since I haven't seen it in over a decade, I'll be fine if it's a DVD from the library. But I'll get the BD at some point now that I'm aware of it.

I did get to see it in theaters when it came out. At the time I was traveling the country for a job, so I don't know where I was in the country without looking it up in my journal. Needless to say, I was pretty smitten with Jean Louisa Kelly after seeing her performance.

 

[Citizen87645]

Curious. There's another listing for it on Amazon with a release date of January 17 and a price of $32.99.

https://www.amazon.com/Hollands-Opus-Blu-ray-Richard-Dreyfuss/dp/B07Y29RYNN

 

[Mike Frezon]

Curious. There's another listing for it on Amazon with a release date of January 17 and a price of $32.99.

https://www.amazon.com/Hollands-Opus-Blu-ray-Richard-Dreyfuss/dp/B07Y29RYNN

Region B/2 only though. So it says, anyway.

 

[DVBRD]

If MGM owns the rights outside the US, why is it on Disney+ in Canada?

My mistake; I should have written outside North America. As far as film distribution goes, the United States and Canada are considered part of the same market, though there have been exceptions where films have separate distribution deals in both territories.

 

[battlebeast]

My mistake; I should have written outside North America. As far as film distribution goes, the United States and Canada are considered part of the same market, though there have been exceptions where films have separate distribution deals in both territories.

Ok. That makes sense.

it’s like that with THE CRYING GAME. I’ve seen it on DVD here but it hasn’t been released down south. (If it has, it was long ago and only for a short time.)

 

[Citizen87645]

I went for the 16.99 listing on Amazon and had the same impression as one of the previous posters. Also played fine on my player though it's listed as Region B.

 

[Mark Booth]

The digital copy through iTunes looks pretty good. It can be rented for $3.99.

Mark