There Will Be Blood format? (1 Viewer)

[RogerR]

Does anyone know who has US home video release rights to this film? It was apparently released in the US theatrically by Paramount Vantage, and outside the US by Miramax. If true, should we assume that Paramount will own the US dvd rights, making this an HD-DVD release (as things currently stand)?

 

[JayDerek]

Won't this be the same situation as No Country for Old Men, which will be release on Blu-ray?

NCfOM was also Paramount Vantage/Miramax...

 

[PaulDA]

It depends on the video distribution rights. Flags of Our Fathers and Letter from Iwo Jima were a Paramount/Dreamworks and Warner co-production. Paramount released Flags and Warner released Letters. If those were coming out in July 2008, Flags would be HD DVD and Letters would be Blu-ray. Only those who are format neutral would be able to have both titles in HDM (again, if released in July 2008). So just because one title by the same co-producing studios is Blu-ray only, it doesn't mean the other won't be HD DVD only.

 

[RogerR]

It turns out, imdb.com is listing Paramount as owner of all other (ie, non-theatrical) media rights in the US. I hope this is wrong, as I want to see a Blu-ray release.

 

[Marc Colella]

I thought the same thing until I looked into it a little further.

It looks like it's reversed with TWBB, where theatrical in the US was released by Paramount Vantage.

You can see the difference in the company credits on IMDB:

No Country for Old Men (2007) - Company credits
There Will Be Blood (2007) - Company credits

Boxofficemojo also shows NCFOM having Miramax as the distributor and TWBB with Paramount Vantage.

With a dearth of titles that interest me in Blu-Ray, TWBB would've been something that pushed me closer towards it - but alas it looks like it'll only be on HDDVD (which is a format that also lacks titles I want, but also has a future that doesn't look very promising). So I remain on the sidelines.

I love PTAs works, and going by his first 4 films - they're all with Blu-Ray studios (2 on Sony and 2 on New Line). I would buy any/all of those on Blu-Ray, but Sony/New Line aren't budging.

 

[Douglas Monce]

It appears that Paramount has all media rights to There Will Be Blood. As it stands now I would have to assume that it will be on DVD and HD DVD.

Doug

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Only in the US. FWIW, Amazon.uk has a placeholder that specifically says Disney.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The OP specifically asked about the US rights?

 

[RogerR]

"The OP specifically asked about the US rights?"

Correct. I did.

 

[DonaldB]

I doubt the OP is the only person wondering about this film's HD release. Jesse answered the OP's question about US rights, plus provided extremely useful info about its UK status for the benefit of those who might be interested. Like me. Answering a person's question, then providing bonus info is not a transgression.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Why the defensive comments about transgression?

 

[Jay Gregory]

Assuming that this movie gets a US HDM release (in the same timeframe as the initial DVD release,) and that Paramount remains HD-DVD exclusive at that time, I wonder if Disney would feel compelled to region code a UK BD at all?

Presumably rights holders can demand that the region coding be applied in other regions, but what happens when that rights holder is not part of the BDA (presumably)?

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

The thing is that the rights only extend to the US. For instance, Universal doesn't own the foreign rights to "The Rundown", so not only is the other rights-holder (Sony) free to release the title, they're not obligated to region code. Thus, a region-free Blu-ray of the title will be available from Sony UK next week. Same goes for "Beowulf" and "Sweeney Todd", both of which are HD DVD exclusives here, but thanks to Warner owning the rights in most of the world, combined with an official no-region coding on Blu-ray policy, they'll be available for import.

 

[Jace_A]

Disney has said it will release There Will Be Blood in Europe and Australia in 2008 (see Press Release at link). To date, Disney has rarely region coded its new releases outside the US, and would be mad to do so for this film, given the potential sales it could generate from North America (assuming Paramount are still red only).

Disney Announces New Blu-ray Disc Titles - ComingSoon.net

 

[King Jeff]

I seriously hope that both of these films are released on HD-DVD. I just saw There Will Be Blood tonight, and I loved it. I don't know which film I liked better, though. I looked at Wikipedia at Paramount Vantage releases, and saw that some of them are on HD-DVD, but those were mostly when Warner was still neutral. Look: Paramount Vantage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paramount Vantage releases

Babel
Black Snake Moan
No Country for Old Men
Year of the Dog
A Mighty Heart
Shine a Light
Into the Wild
Margot at the Wedding
How She Move
There Will Be Blood
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
The Eye

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I'm sure they'll be a Blu-Ray released in Japan by Disney. That will be a good last resort in case the Australian & European releases are region coded. The only problem will be the price! At least we know it will have PCM audio.