Oliver (1968) (1 Viewer)

[Mark-P]

Only if the German release is region-free. I'll admit, if it's region-free and I can save a few bucks ordering from Amazon.de, I'll do it.

Thats what I'll be looking at too.

I just did a cart test at Amazon.de to find out how much it will be with shipping and it comes out to less than $22 US. I doubt Twilight Time is going to beat that price. Now we just have to wait for word on the region coding.

 

[TonyD]

Nice.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I think Twilight Time can sell way more than 3,000 copies of this.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I think Twilight Time can sell way more than 3,000 copies of this.

I'll be surprised if it sells out within a couple years. It's not an especially well liked Best Picture winner, and the only sell-outs so far for TT seem to be the horror/sci-fi genre types.

 

[Lromero1396]

my only fear is that it will sale out too quickly, christine sold out in the time i left for work and was over before i got home

I'd be afraid; very afraid.

Wow Best Picture winner limited to 3000 copies. Well at least it will be available.

Oh, the humanity!

The very fact that Sony licensed a Best Picture winner is a crime! Now God knows what else they'll license! From Here to Eternity maybe? That would be awful! How the heck can they release Funny Girl themselves and license a Best Picture winner?! Thank heaven I'm not interested in getting this one.

 

[Mark-P]

The very fact that Sony licensed a Best Picture winner is a crime! Now God knows what else they'll license! From Here to Eternity maybe? That would be awful! How the heck can they release Funny Girl themselves and license a Best Picture winner?! Thank heaven I'm not interested in getting this one.

edit: Never mind. I totally missed the sarcasm in that last post.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I have to admit that seeing higher profile titles like OLIVER! and PHILADELPHIA, not to mention AS GOOD AS IT GETS, is still a surprise to me.

Me too. I thought AS Good As It Gets would have had wide appeal.

With TT getting this Best Picture winner (with all their 'limited edition' nonsense), Sony now gets my vote for Worst Studio of 2013.

Ditto.

does this mean that the possibility exist that we may be seeing A Man For All Seasons from TT as well?

Please, No.

I'll be surprised if it sells out within a couple years. It's not an especially well liked Best Picture winner, and the only sell-outs so far for TT seem to be the horror/sci-fi genre types.

Not well liked? Surely you jest? (yeah, I know, don't call you Shirley). As for not all TT releases not selling out, that could ascribed at least partly to the price and the general public not knowing about TT.

 

[MatthewA]

Now this is a pleasant surprise. I'd have thought for sure it would come from Sony (and I don't agree they're the worst; plenty of Columbia and TriStar titles are coming out from everybody but them, and they all look great), but at least it's coming.

 

[ahollis]

I'd be afraid; very afraid.Oh, the humanity!The very fact that Sony licensed a Best Picture winner is a crime! Now God knows what else they'll license! From Here to Eternity maybe? That would be awful! How the heck can they release Funny Girl themselves and license a Best Picture winner?! Thank heaven I'm not interested in getting this one.

They licensed AS GOOD AS IT GETS, a winner of both major acting categories. I have been told that Muss Streisand has a following that would support a "real" release. I guess Ron Moddy, Oliver Reed, and Mark Lester are not as big a draw.

 

[JPCinema]

AS GOOD AS IT GETS did not win Best Picture....a little film called TITANIC won that year.

 

[lukejosephchung]

I think the Sony home video marketing department knows what is and isn't selling in their vast Columbia catalog...they've had 16 YEARS of DVD sales to figure out the sales projections on these titles and know which movies have the bigger marketing base..."Funny GIrl", while not a Best Picture winner, is still a potentially bigger seller than "Oliver!" for the simple fact that its star, Barbra Streisand, still has a huge fan base and is celebrating her 70th birthday this year as well as her debut movie's 45th Anniversary!!!

 

[Richard Gallagher]

AS GOOD AS IT GETS did not win Best Picture....a little film called TITANIC won that year.

Correct, but it did win for Best Actor (Jack Nicholson) and Best Actress (Helen Hunt). A fairly high profile film which has not sold out and apparently is in no danger of selling out soon.

 

[ahollis]

AS GOOD AS IT GETS did not win Best Picture....a little film called TITANIC won that year.

You are correct. Big brain fart on that one. I'm Hang my head in shame.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I think the Sony home video marketing department knows what is and isn't selling in their vast Columbia catalog...they've had 16 YEARS of DVD sales to figure out the sales projections on these titles and know which movies have the bigger marketing base..."Funny GIrl", while not a Best Picture winner, is still a potentially bigger seller than "Oliver!" for the simple fact that its star, Barbra Streisand, still has a huge fan base and is celebrating her 70th birthday this year as well as her debut movie's 45th Anniversary!!!

I agree that Funny Girl has a bigger built-in audience than Oliver, but I still think Oliver would sell well. Not because it won best pic (I didn't even remember that), but because it's its a joy watch listen to.

Correct, but it did win for Best Actor (Jack Nicholson) and Best Actress (Helen Hunt). A fairly high profile film which has not sold out and apparently is in no danger of selling out soon.

If you can't sell 3,000 units of a popular Jack Nicholson film, what does that say about this business model?

 

[ahollis]

If you can't sell 3,000 units of a popular Jack Nicholson film, what does that say about this business model?

I don't think it reflects the business model as much as the poor state of affairs the home Blu-ray market is. Most people who like the film already have the title on DVD and did not see a reason to upgrade.

 

[ROclockCK]

I'll be surprised if it sells out within a couple years. It's not an especially well liked Best Picture winner, and the only sell-outs so far for TT seem to be the horror/sci-fi genre types.

It will at least have the virtue of being an entirely new experience for me Brandon. In the spring of '69, I was so disgusted that 2001: a space odyssey was not nominated for Best Picture, I totally boycotted Oliver! And I've continued avoiding it in every home video format since. At some point, I finally just stopped caring either way. So who knows...now, I might actually be able to enjoy this film on its own terms. It's only taken 45 years to come around to some kind of détente.

Yeah, silly, I know. What can I say...just my '60s frame of mind.

 

[Mark-W]

Christine and Fright Night both appeal to a very specific, internet savvy client.
80s horror film fans know their way around the internet boards.

How many folks out there who would buy Oliver! on Blu-ray will know where to find it?

How many fans of The Blue Lagoon even know it is available on Blu-ray?
(Case in point, my sister would happily pick it up if it showed up at the local retailer.)

I am perfectly happy with TT, but they do not have the marketing to make most consumers who would love this title aware of where to find it.

 

[ROclockCK]

But SAE has an Amazon storefront. Sure, mainstream buyers might miss a TT title that sells out during pre-order, but for everything else, they're easy enough to find these days...if you're actually looking.

I think ahollis has it right; only the faithful will be seriously interesed in this HD upgrade anyway.

 

[Matt Hough]

It will at least have the virtue of being an entirely new experience for me Brandon. In the spring of '69, I was so disgusted that 2001: a space odyssey was not nominated for Best Picture, I totally boycotted Oliver! And I've continued avoiding it in every home video format since. At some point, I finally just stopped caring either way. So who knows...now, I might actually be able to enjoy this film on its own terms. It's only taken 45 years to come around to some kind of détente.

Yeah, silly, I know. What can I say...just my '60s frame of mind.

Did you boycott the other four nominees for Best Picture that year, too? (For the record, they were Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, Rachel Rachel, and Romeo and Juliet.)

 

[ROclockCK]

Did you boycott the other four nominees for Best Picture that year, too? (For the record, they were Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, Rachel Rachel, and Romeo and Juliet.)

Kinda. Sorta.

By the time the '68 nominees were announced, I'd seen Romeo and Juliet, so that ship had already sailed (although I haven't seen it since). And for some reason that I no longer specifically recall, I did relent with Rachel, Rachel during the run-up to the awards (probably the Woodward factor trumped my indignance). But heck, it wasn't until late last year that I finally saw The Lion in Winter (and BTW, loved it; well deserved nominations and wins, although its letterboxed DVD was something of a shuck). To this day though, I still haven't seen Funny Girl either theatrically or on home video...so that's yet another pre-détente musical I can look forward to someday on Blu (this year?) In the wash of it though, Oliver! was really the hot-button picture I was actively boycotting that year...to my mind, it just represented all of the compound-sins the Academy made during their 60s infatuation with stage musicals on film. Actually, it took a 'dragged-kicking-and-screaming' IB Technicolor viewing of a Singin' in the Rain in in the 70s to restore my ability to even enjoy American musicals. These days, they're a blast. In '68, I was having none of it.

And yes Matt, as juvenile as that all must seem now, at the time, the Academy's 2001 snub left me truly that plussed up.