The Strawberry Blonde (1 Viewer)

[BiffGrimes]

Hi everybody. I'm a long time lurker on this forum, but now
I've decided to sign up and join in. Apologies if I get things wrong. Anyhow yesterday was my birthday and I received the Warner Archive DVD of Strawberry Blonde. It's been over 15 years since I watched this delightful movie. Everything about it is perfect......so why no blu Ray ?

 

[Matt Hough]

Welcome to Home Theater Forum! Glad to have you with us.


As for your question, I wish I could answer it. Many of us here could name dozens of similar titles for which there doesn't seem to be a good reason why they haven't made their way to Blu-ray except for the obvious one: lack of sales for classic titles.

 

[Robert Harris]

The cost to produce a Warner Archive quality Blu-ray of a black and white, nitrate feature length production runs about $80,000, presuming no major roadblocks. There are a limited number that can be created annually.

I'm referring to a 4k scan, from an original nitrate negative, that would also be the source of all other derivative materials, such as a DCP.

RAH

 

[Robin9]

The cost to produce a Warner Archive quality Blu-ray of a black and white, nitrate feature length production runs about $80,000, presuming no major roadblocks. There are a limited number that can be created annually.

I'm referring to a 4k scan, from an original nitrate negative, that would also be the source of all other derivative materials, such as a DCP.

RAH

Thank you for that. The obvious question is: were the Warner Archive Blu-ray discs of black-and-white films, such as Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Picture Of Dorian Grey derived from 4K scans from the original nitrate negative?

 

[Dr Griffin]

The cost to produce a Warner Archive quality Blu-ray of a black and white, nitrate feature length production runs about $80,000, presuming no major roadblocks. There are a limited number that can be created annually.

I'm referring to a 4k scan, from an original nitrate negative, that would also be the source of all other derivative materials, such as a DCP.

RAH

So at say $15 a disc, they'd have to sell 5,334 copies to start turning a profit, generally speaking. That is an eye opener for the probable units sold of older more obscure catalog titles, that it is a stretch to even sell that many copies in a country of 320 million people. I previously wouldn't have thought that it would be a problem selling 5000 or so copies of less popular catalog titles considering how many copies of current blockbusters sell.

 

[Steve...O]

I agree with the gist of your post but $15 per disc sounds way too high to me. I'd be surprised if they clear half that amount. Let's not forget that some of that $15 goes to pay for distribution.

 

[Dr Griffin]

We're talking Warner Archive Blu-ray, which actually sell for $18 and change for most of the titles.I would've thought they would be able to sell 5 or 10 thousand of those type catalog titles over a resaonable amount of time to make it worth doing, but that does not seem to be the case for just any catalog title.

 

[Robert Harris]

Thank you for that. The obvious question is: were the Warner Archive Blu-ray discs of black-and-white films, such as Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Picture Of Dorian Grey derived from 4K scans from the original nitrate negative?

Believe DG was. YDD may have been a nitrate fine grain. Don't recall.


But both are gorgeous.