Sunrise Letter Campaign: Possibly save YOU up to $40. (1 Viewer)

[Seth Paxton]

but I also understand Fox's position and the reasons behind their actions.

Obviously, I could stand to have such understanding shared with me, unless there are things that can't be shared. I'm honestly confused with the reasoning for no sales at all.

Again, no distribution, no large production numbers...I get that fully. It's only the non-sales via internet/mail-in that confuse me totally (based on Sunrise having LOW demand at least). Something doesn't mesh with those ideas.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Seth,
Fox made an internal decision involving this title and how it should be made available to the public. The reasoning behind that decision might not be known to those outside the core group of Fox executives that made the decision, but I'm willing to bet that all aspects were discussed before they chose this route to market the "Sunrise" dvd.



Crawdaddy

 

[RayG]

Does Fox still own Murnau's City Girl (1930)? If the Sunise promotion does well could we see the same thing happen with this title?

 

[Patrick McCart]

Judging from this, I highly doubt City Girl will ever appear on DVD by Fox. The two versions of the film (silent and sound) do not co-exist at this time. Only the silent version exists...and it didn't win any awards.
Thus, we'll have to hope Grapevine Video decides to make a DVD-R version since they have it on VHS.
Keep in mind that if it wasn't for the Oscars Sunrise won, it wouldn't be on DVD period. :frowning:

 

[Kirk Tsai]

I concur with some of the slightly disappointed voices in this thread. Certainly getting Sunrise for free is a great deal, but it's too bad that it won't be avaliable by itself. That being said, I'm glad it IS coming to DVD.

I know that none of the details have been released, but I also sincerely hope the original Hugo Riesenfeld score is preserved. It's a great one.

 

[Ken Situ]

When actual money is involved, much more logistics are needed. It's much easier to give it out for free.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Quote:

Well, with all due respect, it doesn't make any sense to me as anyone who wants Sunrise will be someone who loves classic film. I'd say that at least 90% of those people would buy 3 of those 36 films being released next year anyway, so I don't really see Sunrise as being much of a carrot.
Nonetheless, I'll be looking forward to my free copy of Sunrise. It still doesn't make sense to me and I'd rather just pay $20, but I'll be happy to own it either way.
I appreciate Mr. Staddon providing us with an explanation even though he was not obligated to do so. It's just one of those cases where we disagree. These debates are part of what makes Home Theater Forum so enjoyable to me.
Jeff

 

[Jim Ogilvie]

Hi!

I can certainly understand the emotion being displayed by those who really want this film. I can imagine that I would feel exactly the same way if it were a film that I was interested in. Fortunately, this one doesn't interest me, but I do have a small idea. Forgive me if this has been suggested already.

It would seem that fox does not want to make this film available through the regular distribution channels, for whatever reason. Would it be possible for someone who is really keen on this, to contact one of the reputable DVD online retailers, and maybe arrange an order through them?

What I am suggesting is, that if there can be one distributor that is designated as the distributor of this disc, then perhaps Fox would be more willing to play along?

This way people could order their discs in advance, the orders could accumulate at the retailer, and the discs ordered by them and then sold to whoever ordered them.

This would put Fox in the position of having one distributor of the film, and who knows, they might get a couple of hundred orders from the forum. Fox could do this as a goodwill gesture to the fans of the film, and the retailer would have a feather in their cap with the fans of the film.

Just an idea.

Jim

 

[Brian Perry]

Seth,
Consider the following scenarios:
1. Current (Sunrise incentive)
10,000 people buy 3 titles and get Sunrise for free
Fox grosses $600,000
2. Proposed (No incentive)
8,000 people buy 3 titles
4,000 people buy Sunrise for $20
Fox grosses $560,000
These are simplified examples but Fox feels it will make more with method 1. Whether they are correct is unknown.

 

[NeilEdwards]

This is okay by me. I will gladly buy three Fox movies ... as long as they are new releases and not re-releases of DVD's that I already own.

I do own ALL of the Fox classics that have so far made it to DVD.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

According to David Shepard (who ought to know, since he's produced about half of all the silent DVDs out there), it's the rare silent--Phantom of the Opera or Chaplin come to mind--that sells significantly more than 1000 copies. I don't think Sunrise, which few people have even heard of, falls into that elite category of silent. Wings might, since for some reason it gets all the Best Picture play and Sunrise doesn't.

My guess is that Fox just refused to issue Sunrise, period, until someone got the bright idea of 'Well, let's try using it as a promotion and see what happens.' The whole thing sounds like an experiment. I fear it's an experiment that's not going to have a happy conclusion, but big companies are always trying new marketing angles, so it shouldn't be surprising.

 

[Dave F]

If it is expected to be such a low seller, why don't they just license it to Criterion, where it would be a relatively high-profile title?

-Dave

 

[Patrick McCart]

That's what I was thinking.

Criterion would be more than happy to do a special edition for Sunrise with optimal quality. Kino and Blackhawk would also be glad to handle Sunrise. They do the same for Transit Film and Chaplin's Estate.

Sunrise - Criterion Collection sounds really good.

 

[StevenA]

I wish Fox would license it to Criterion or Kino, but presuming the offer goes ahead as is, will the disc be sent to us in a cardboard sleeve, or with proper packaging?

 

[Robert Crawford]

In 2003, Fox is conducting a major dvd marketing campaign with a theme that represents the best of their classic films that either won an AA or were AA nominated. Knowing that, do you really think that Fox will license out their first film to win any AA as well as a film celebrating it's 75th release anniversary to another distributor? Also, would they do so while conducting a dvd marketing campaign to celebrate the dvd releases of so many classic films that helped make Fox what it is today? To answer my own questions, the answer is a resounding no!
Crawdaddy