Criterion and Warner Bros.

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#726 Post by knives » Tue Jun 26, 2018 12:40 pm

Not to mention all the hoops the BFI went through with their edition. Clearly there is somebody who has feelings about the film.

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#727 Post by Drucker » Tue Jun 26, 2018 12:46 pm

And regards to the "lots of films make money in their catalog", I think it's pretty clear that horror films sell better than any other genre on home video, and a deluxe edition of a film that's 1) amazing 2) been suppressed since release would certainly sell better than any other home video release.

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movielocke
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#728 Post by movielocke » Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:19 pm

Drucker wrote:
Tue Jun 26, 2018 12:46 pm
And regards to the "lots of films make money in their catalog", I think it's pretty clear that horror films sell better than any other genre on home video, and a deluxe edition of a film that's 1) amazing 2) been suppressed since release would certainly sell better than any other home video release.
not necessarily, if it's been suppressed, knowledge of such a commodity is necessarily limited to highly informed consumers who are aware of the existence of the commodity and who also have fetishized suppressed commodities as being inherently of high value. Now this can manifest as a fetish for cuban cigars and be extremely well known and successful, but it doesn't necessarily mean that level of success will apply on the scale of a single film in one country being suppressed.

It would probably sell well, but it's not going to sell as well as something like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is probably criterion's gold standard for sales levels.

Werewolf by Night

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#729 Post by Werewolf by Night » Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:31 pm

movielocke wrote:
Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:19 pm
it's not going to sell as well as something like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is probably criterion's gold standard for sales levels
For their Gen-X audience maybe. I would have thought the beloved-by-Boomers Monterey Pop was their top seller given how many times it's been repackaged. But surely The Devils would sell better than something like The Breaking Point (to name a recent release licensed from Warner Bros.)

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MichaelB
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#730 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:19 pm

Of course it would - the BFI's DVD was one of their bestselling titles.

And that's in a country where the full British theatrical cut has been available in some form or other for decades - 35mm, VHS, television airings, you name it.

By contrast, even that version has never been commercially released in the US to my knowledge - Warner Bros cut it to ribbons back in 1971, with shot substitutions making the cuts more severe than a crude running-time comparison might suggest. For a US label to get hold of the rights to distribute even the British theatrical cut, never mind the 2004 semi-restoration, would be a major coup, especially on Blu-ray - and there's no way on God's green earth that Criterion isn't fully aware of this.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#731 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:52 pm

According to some at HTF the 1936 Showboat DVD has gone OOP.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#732 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Oct 27, 2018 12:25 pm

So what of this deal now?

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#733 Post by domino harvey » Sat Oct 27, 2018 12:27 pm

I imagine any films already licensed will remain licensed for whatever the terms are, including ones we don't know about yet. Beyond that, I don't think anyone knows. Since licensing brings in money with limited expenditure for the parent company, it seems plausible that AT&T would be okay with them continuing

albucat
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:06 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#734 Post by albucat » Sat Oct 27, 2018 12:29 pm

Warner Bros. is too complicated an entity to assume that the Filmstruck folks had much to do with the people who license DVDs. They might be, but just as likely they're completely distinct groups. Like a lot else having to do with Filmstruck's demise, we're left to speculate.

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Big Ben
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#735 Post by Big Ben » Sat Oct 27, 2018 1:01 pm

Maybe they can finally get The Devils out now.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#736 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat Oct 27, 2018 3:41 pm

AT&T has to honor any existing deals. Hopefully, they will see the benefit of continued licensing to Criterion and maybe it opens them up to other boutiques.

I think more of an issue is WAC and whether their continued film preservation will survive. The question is will they want to keep paying for restorations.

ModelShopAbschied
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:27 am

Re: The Criterion Channel

#737 Post by ModelShopAbschied » Wed Jan 02, 2019 9:29 pm

So Warner Bros. just purchased the RatPac-Dune Film Library. Can we expect to see some (or all) of these films become available on Criterion Channel? Or do you think these will only be available through Warner's service?

From the article linked above:
Here again are the films in the library:

Gravity
Grudge Match
The LEGO Movie
A Winter’s Tale
300 Rise of an Empire
Godzilla
Blended
Edge of Tomorrow
Jersey Boys
Tammy
Midnight Special
How To Be Single
In The Heart of the Sea
Creed
Our Brand Is Crisis
Pan
The Intern
Black Mass
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Into the Storm
If I Stay
This Is Where I Leave You
Annabelle
The Judge
Horrible Bosses 2
Inherent Vice
American Sniper
Jupiter Ascending
Vacation
Magic Mike XXL
Max
Entourage
San Andreas
Mad Max: Fury Road
Hot Pursuit
Get Hard
Run All Night
Focus
Batman v Superman
Barbershop The Next Cut
Keanu
The Nice Guys
Me Before You
The Conjuring 2
Central Intelligence
The Legend of Tarzan
Lights Out
Suicide Squad
War Dogs
Ready Player One
Tomb Raider
Night Game
The 15:17 to Paris
Paddington 2
Justice League
Sully
Storks
The Accountant
Collateral Beauty
Live By Night
The LEGO Batman Movie
Geostorm
The LEGO Ninjago Movie
It
Annabelle Creation
Dunkirk
The War Horse
Wonder Woman
Everything Everything
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Unforgettable
Fist Fight
Kong: Skull Island
C.H.I.P.S.
Going in Style
Godzilla

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mfunk9786
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#738 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Jan 02, 2019 9:50 pm

Between this and the New Year's Clue thread I want to jump out of my skin

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sir_luke
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#739 Post by sir_luke » Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:50 pm

Looking forward to the Ninjago digipack.

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Luke M
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#740 Post by Luke M » Thu Jan 03, 2019 12:20 am

I’d like to see what they’d do with Inherent Vice

flyonthewall2983
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#741 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:45 am

What I don't get is that WB put out all those films already. Does this deal mean they also get films that were at other studios with the RatPac-Dune people behind them?

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#742 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Wed Jan 09, 2019 11:18 am

There's no indication that's the case, this is just Warner Bros. buying out RatPac-Dune's minority stake in the films they co-financed. WB already had majority ownership and the distribution rights, so I doubt this changes anything with regard to Criterion or other potential outside licensors.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#743 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:06 pm

That was Ratner and Mnuchin's production company, wasn't it. No wonder they are looking to clear house.

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Yaanu
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2013 12:18 am

Re: The Criterion Channel

#744 Post by Yaanu » Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:13 pm

Here are the RatPac/Warner films whose directors already have a presence in the Criterion Collection:
  • Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
  • Our Brand Is Crisis (David Gordon Green)
  • Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  • Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)
Not very hefty, but it's still a foot in the door for any potential Criterion release. Well, maybe not for "Our Brand Is Crisis".

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Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#745 Post by Ribs » Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:37 pm

This is literally just a boring royalties thing; WB is just buying the remaining stake of those films and will now get all future revenue from those titles rather than just most of it, and still maintain the same level of control (as they were already majority holders) vis a vis licensing and the like. They had first option to bid and chose to exercise that right to receive full or near-full ownership of those titles. No impact on anything other than revenue streams at all.

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captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#746 Post by captveg » Fri Jan 11, 2019 4:20 pm

Exactly. This is WB deciding to pay off Ratner now so they will not be tied to him anymore rather than to be paying his company for the profits on these films over an indefinite future time.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#747 Post by FrauBlucher » Mon Apr 15, 2019 5:54 pm

We can officially retire this list.....
ianungstad wrote:
Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:46 pm
About a week ago Warner Brothers discontinued a number of Archive releases that generated some speculation that they may have been licensed to Criterion including:

Dreams (Akira Kurosawa)
Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)
The Breaking Point (Michael Curtiz)
Barcelona (Whit Stillman)

The OOP list this week has a few more Warner titles that seem like they may go to Criterion:

Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan)
Klute (Alan Pakula)
Day for Night (Francois Truffaut)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur) Both the individual Cat People and the Val Lewton box are officially discontinued this week.
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)

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yoloswegmaster
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:57 pm

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#748 Post by yoloswegmaster » Mon Apr 15, 2019 5:57 pm

When is the round 3 list coming?



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