Alternative approaches to entertainment distribution/consumption

[wilberfan]

Duh.  On their phones, obviously!

[wilder]

More changes coming in the landscape of physical media production and distribution:

As you may already know from social media or our newsletters, over the summer, there was an industry-wide upheaval in the disc manufacturing process, due to the closure of the last major U.S. disc manufacturing plant. All disc manufacturing is now moved to one plant in Mexico and that's led to delayed shipments for most of our releases.

From this Wall Street Journal article from December '21 about the Paramount Presents line of disc releases:

Now the last of those is making up for that with Paramount Presents, a continuing series of Blu-rays begun last year that currently stands at nearly 30 titles, each from a new transfer scanned in at least 4K. Even those movies previously on Blu-ray (about a third of the current roster) have received a marked upgrade in image quality. The latest, Hal Ashby's beloved "Harold and Maude" (1971), arrived Tuesday.

Each release is limited to between 5,000 and 10,000 copies, so those with affection for the titles in this series should act quickly. One of the best so far, William Wyler's "Roman Holiday" (1953), is already officially sold-out, though copies may still be available through certain third-party sellers.

Some commentary from Criterion Forum members:

My prediction has always been that a collector's market for BDs/UHDs will continue to exist and as others have said the boutique labels are doing a great job (and even some of the majors) of putting out high quality editions of movies. At the same time I also feel that print runs are becoming smaller especially of releases with extras, with the UK having now gone the way of only offering booklets in first print editions across almost all labels and often reducing the typical first print to 2000 copies. I would not be surprised though if we will be seeing price increases in the future similar to the vinyl collector's market.

I think that's inevitable, because the gargantuan elephant in this particular living room revolves around the continuing operation of disc pressing plants. Small-run boutique-label orders alone won't be enough to keep them in business, so when the majors pull out en masse, they're going to have to significantly rethink how they operate - and if they don't shut down altogether the only viable alternative may well be to increase per-unit manufacturing costs.

Vinegar Syndrome limits their releases to between 2,000 units and 6,000 units, and their partner labels typically limit production to between 1,000 and 3,000. According to some reports, the major studios have plans to wind down their own physical media production by the end of this year:

Jerry Beck revealed Warner Bros. plans to end or to phase out DVD and Blu-ray distribution by 2022.

"As of now, there are no plans to commemorate Daffy or Tweety's anniversaries next year, or ever. The company is slowly transitioning away from physical media. There are no plans for any classic cartoons on DVD or Blu-ray that I know of (except for one project we are in the middle of which may come out later this year...or not). Anything is possible...we'll just have to wait and see."

Elaborating further, he continued:

"It includes both Warner Archive and regular Warner Home Video. You'll still see some new releases from both during the rest of 2021, but those were planned out last year. Next year (2022) is when this year's changes will be felt. Yes, the Tex Avery sets sold well enough for the low overhead Archive Collection division. But in the big picture, it's peanuts...and the focus over there is now on streaming (HBO Max)."

And, small hope...

They're most likely talking about Technicolor in Mexico. Most BDs in Europe come from Sony DADC Austria or Technicolor Poland.

[WorldForgot]

Small-run boutique-label orders alone won't be enough to keep them in business, so when the majors pull out en masse, they're going to have to significantly rethink how they operate - and if they don't shut down altogether the only viable alternative may well be to increase per-unit manufacturing costs.

" Yes, the Tex Avery sets sold well enough for the low overhead Archive Collection division. But in the big picture, it's peanuts...and the focus over there is now on streaming (HBO Max).""

Sheesh. Looking dire from the studio side of things. (From all sides?)
5k-8k units doesn't seem bad, to me, though. I feel like most of the market that's buying physical is already browsing pre-orders or blu ray dot com type communities. But maybe I'm wrong and that's still a low first press.

[WorldForgot]

Is this the streaming thread? I sometimes forget

Warner Bros. Discovery Has Bigger Problems Than Its DC Search/

Given the company's daunting challenges, it has become accepted wisdom at the highest levels of the industry that another deal waits in the wings for Warner Bros. Discovery. For reasons related to the complicated structure of that merger, no negotiations can happen until April 2024. But at that point, many industry observers believe that Comcast's Brian Roberts will make a long-awaited move, looking to combine NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery.

That deal would face some interesting antitrust issues but would give his company scale and a viable streaming service. "Obviously Peacock sucks," says one exec with knowledge of both companies. "There are some good synergies. I'm sure [Roberts] is licking his chops because the [WBD] stock is so low. And I think that's Zaslav's endgame. Get the place sold." (Roberts and NBCU CEO Jeff Shell met with Zaslav and board member John Malone during the Allen & Co. gathering in Sun Valley last July, but given the rules against plotting any combination, that was no doubt just a friendly get-together.) A WBD spokesperson responds: "We are building Warner Bros. Discovery for the long term."

Many top industry execs are so convinced a deal will happen that some are pre-mourning an event that may never happen. "People feel like it's Comcast for sure," says the head of one company. "It's going to be so depressing to lose another major studio [after Disney bought Fox]. And Warners was the Tiffany studio."