What's The Deal With Weird Science? (1 Viewer)

[Matthew H]

Is there a reason as to why the 80s cult favorite Weird Science has been long OOP? Are there any plans for Universal to re-release it soon? I want to see it in its OAR so bad but I'm not about to pay the rediculous prices it's going for on eBay. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Image Entertainment licensed this and a ton of other Universal titles. They've been pretty slow about reissuing them since the license ran out under Universal's banner

 

[Dave H]

I am looking forward to a re-release with a new transfer. The current transfer is poor. Maybe I should put my copy up on EBay while it's hot.

 

[David Lambert]

As for the Image/Universal deal: in a nutshell, in the early days Uni wasn't sure that DVD would take off, and they were in a money bind. They licensed all overseas title distrubution to Columbia, and got a lotta money for that. They made some domestic deals, including licensing about 2-3 dozen titles to Image Entertainment for DVD release. Part of that deal was that Uni would get a % of the overall sales. Some titles I can think of from memory:

Weird Science, Sixteen Candles, Flash Gordon, Amazon Women on the Moon, They Live, Fahrenheit 451, Andromeda Strain, Mask, Midway, Silent Running, Cat People, Quantum Leap, Firestarter, Ghost Story, Legal Eagles, Monty Python's Meaning of Life, Slaughterhouse Five, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.

After Uni saw DVD's take off, they of course wished they hadn't done this stuff, and started taking measures. One was to hold off on important releases (like Back to the Future) until the overseas deal with Columbia expired, so they could get all the foreign distribution profits for themselves.

When Image lowered the prices on their licensed Uni titles just as a matter of course (they lowered prices on a LOT of stuff that month), this of course affected Uni's take on the deal since the overal sales weren't as high with a lower SRP. Uni sued, claiming that SRP's of $9.95 and $14.95 weren't allowed in the contract. I don't recall if a result of the suit was ever announced, but I think the result is plain: it was that Image instead took those titles entirely OOP. The license soon expired anyway, and all of those titles belong once again to Uni.

Uni has started bringing SE's of these out: Cat People, Midway and Silent Running come to mind. There have been rumors that John Hughes is pushing (or being pushed?) for SE releases in 2003 of Breakfast Club and Weird Science, but I've never seen any really hard-and-fast confirmation of these rumors.

Fun movie. I can't believe Uni won't bring it on, esp. if Anthony Michael Hall's version of Dead Zone continues to catch fire...this would be a great way to capitalize on that!

Heh. So, what would you little maniacs like to do first?

 

[John Kilduff]

At the rate it's going, we'll actually be able to create sexy British-accented women and zap them out of our computers before we ever see a re-release of a Universal John Hughes movie.

I'd buy this in a beat.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

From my heart and from my hand, why don't people understand my intentions?

 

[Jeff Adkins]

David,

You forgot to mention the numerous amount of titles they licensed to Goodtimes. I think Goodtimes licensed even more than Image did.

Jeff

 

[David Lambert]

Jeff, it wasn't THAT many, was it? Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I don't think it was more than a dozen or so to Goodtimes. Airport/Airport '75/Airport 1977; Tank, Born In East L.A. (reissue by Uni in Feb 03), Jaws 4: The Revenge, Gray Lady Down, Earthquake, Great Waldo Pepper, Problem Child, and Psycho 2 come to mind. Lesse...that's 11. And I'm not positive those are all Uni properties. What'd I miss?
In any case, I included the Columbia overseas deal to represent that Uni wasn't only taking measures with Image. It was an example of other things they were doing. Otherwise, I tried to keep the story simple.
Sorry if you feel I left out something important!

 

[Brian Kaz]

Maybe I should put my copy up on EBay while it's hot.

That's what I just did. I got $50 for it and it was used!

 

[Eugene Esterly]

Jeff, it wasn't THAT many, was it? Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I don't think it was more than a dozen or so to Goodtimes. Airport/Airport '75/Airport 1977; Tank, Born In East L.A. (reissue by Uni in Feb 03), Jaws 4: The Revenge, Gray Lady Down, Earthquake, Great Waldo Pepper, Problem Child, and Psycho 2 come to mind. Lesse...that's 11. And I'm not positive those are all Uni properties. What'd I miss?

Dr. Giggles is one of Universal's titles which was put onto DVD by Goodtimes (I own the Dr. Giggles DVD. It is pan & scan but I saw on IMDB that Dr. Giggles was filmed in an OAR of 2.35:1)

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Jeff, it wasn't THAT many, was it? Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I don't think it was more than a dozen or so to Goodtimes. Airport/Airport '75/Airport 1977; Tank, Born In East L.A. (reissue by Uni in Feb 03), Jaws 4: The Revenge, Gray Lady Down, Earthquake, Great Waldo Pepper, Problem Child, and Psycho 2 come to mind. Lesse...that's 11. And I'm not positive those are all Uni properties. What'd I miss?

Looks like I stand corrected. Goodtimes released somewhere around 39 or 40 and Image released 48. These Universal titles were also licensed to Goodtimes in addition to the ones you listed:

Halloween II
Halloween III
Psycho III
Dr. Giggles
Judgement Night
Brewster's Millions
Bustin Loose
Car Wash
Front Page, The
Funhouse
Ghost Dad
King Kong Vs. Godzilla
King Ralph
Meanest Men In The West
Mr. Baseball
Munsters Revenge
Nighthawks
New Jersey Drive
Raid On Rommel
Renegades
Sentinel
Shakedown
Shout
Somebody Has To Shoot The Picture
Trespass
Ulzana's Raid
When A Stranger Calls Back
White Palace




Jeff

 

[David Lambert]

Looks like *I* am the one who stands corrected!
Thanks for the correction. Can't believe I forgot Brewester's Millions, as I still own the Goodtimes DVD and haven't bothered to upgrade to the Uni version yet.

 

[JohnS]

It was mentioned last year, that there was going to be the John Hughes Collection(special Editons with commentaries and deleted scenes) such films like Weird Science and Sixteen Candles and Breakfast Club.

All due next summer.

I would really like to see the delted scenes of Weird Science put on the DVD. The deleted scenes were pretty good.
Has anybody else seen those when they play Weird Science on TV

 

[Steve_Knutzen]

Yeah John I know the scenes of which you speak. The only one that really comes to mind at the moment is the segment right after the opening credits where Gary and Wyatt are in the kitchen. I remember watching WS on USA one time and almost shouting "What the Hell!? That's not on my VHS!"

HUGHES COLLECTION WHERE ARE YOU!?