Criterion U.K.

[TMDaines]

Despite saying that, I think prices will slowly come down and join the ebb and flow of other labels'. A number of titles are £16.29 from Base.com, which I believe is best so far.

[RossyG]

I hope they do that. I want them around but to join the same marketplace as the BFI, Arrow, and MoC with a similar product but at £5 more was a silly move on their part. And if they can't get their prices down to about £13.99 on Amazon and the like then they're wasting their time.

[rapta]

September titles announced

THE SAMURAI TRILOGY - September 5th
CAT PEOPLE - September 26th

Definitely stepping up their game with these two. Wonder how much The Samurai Trilogy will be (their first box set). May get it for birthday or Christmas if it's a far price (although there are a ridiculous number of great UK releases in September from other labels). Cat People is equally great news though!

Fingers still crossed for McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Badlands, My Own Private Idaho etc.

[FrauBlucher]

Has Cineoutsider become their announce partner?

[ianungstad]

Cat People was produced by RKO; so Universal has the rights in the UK. It's good that they've been able to bring another studio on board.

I don't really understand MichaelB's complaint that Criterion hasn't secured high profile titles for the UK market. I think in the few months that Criterion has been operating in the UK they've managed to put together a more noteworthy slate than Arrow has in almost two years in the US. Is the difference that Arrow is happy with the US numbers? I guess that's something the accounting department at Arrow can crow about. The fans? Not so much.

[tenia]

I don't really understand MichaelB's complaint that Criterion hasn't secured high profile titles for the UK market.

They might be high profile for us but they're not big sellers, and the sales figures given so far confirms that awful choice of movies to start their UK launch. What they need is an awfully big commercial release à la Ben Button, or a Wes Anderson, something like this.

[MongooseCmr]

I've heard from 3 different sources that the OCC sales figures for Criterion UK titles is extremely low (100-200 per title!). Thought they'd be doing much better than that. I would have expected them to have done those figures in one shop, in one city, on one weekend.

I was under the impression most home video did about that poorly, Criterion being a large exception

[Calvin]

Cat People was produced by RKO; so Universal has the rights in the UK. It's good that they've been able to bring another studio on board.

I believe the RKO catalog has recently been bought by Warner, hence the recent Citizen Kane release

[tenia]

I believe an independant label releasing catalogue titles would be looking at about 1000 sales on Blu Ray. You might go as low as 500 but 500 is already a bomb. In case of success, sales for catalog can go as high as 3000, or even 8-10 000.

Carlotta told me there can be a 1 to 20 ratio between worst and best selling, so you find back this type of range (500 - 10 000). TF1 Video told me they size their BD projects in France to sell about 1500 to 2000 copies within 2 years, but they actually most likely achieve that within 3 years.

Many UK LE releases are sized at minimum 1000 copies, mostly 2000 (BFI, MoC) or even 3000 (Arrow).

All these figures say 100-200 is not only a bomb, but a disaster. If most of Criterion UK releases were to stay in these figures, it'd be most likely quicker and cheaper for them to just withdraw from this market (except if Criterion somehow has a UK structure able to absorb many releases like that).

[MichaelB]

They're just too expensive for the UK market, and not obviously "special" enough to justify that markup. Just compare Macbeth with the BFI's concurrently-released, absolutely crammed Richard III - what possible justification is there for such a dramatically higher price aside from the brand?

[Stephen]

They're just too expensive for the UK market, and not obviously "special" enough to justify that markup. Just compare Macbeth with the BFI's concurrently-released, absolutely crammed Richard III - what possible justification is there for such a dramatically higher price aside from the brand?

I agree Michael. Just look at the effort put into their releases by Signal One since recently arriving on the UK market & the price point they've set for their heavily featured releases. Eureka's MOC model is probably the market that Criterion should be muscling into while developing similar communication channels to those that Arrow has established with their customer base. Truth is that there are far more buoyant publishing houses in the UK that surpass the standard set by, or completion to Criterion in the US. If anything, their arrival has only upped everyone else’s game while they’ve had something of a tepid launch.

[tenia]

Actually, the question we should be asking ourselves is how Criterion is able to maintain all-year-long (or almost) premium prices in the US. It's not like there isn't any competition there either (though it's true, their rival premium labels aren't having such a lower price point than in the UK).

If anything, their arrival has only upped everyone else’s game while they’ve had something of a tepid launch.

I haven't seen many (if any) differences on the UK market since Criterion arrived. Not sure there could be actually, with what Arrow and MoC have been doing since some years now, with the BFI accelerated pace these past months, and the arrival of S1.

[Stephen]

I haven't seen many (if any) differences on the UK market since Criterion arrived. Not sure there could be actually, with what Arrow and MoC have been doing since some years now, with the BFI accelerated pace these past months, and the arrival of S1.

Well I believe there's been a few:

Second Run's distribution arrangement with Arrow & their move to blu.
Arrow's expansion into deluxe box set territory & limited 1st editions
Arrow's partnership with Flicker Alley
88 Films embracing bespoke cult film restoration via Indigogo projects
Eureka expanding their catalogue with contemporary releases
The rise of Kickstarter fan funded super documentaries
Fabulous Films re-appropriation of mainstream DVD titles into decent Blu upgrades
Severin's return to the UK market
Soda Pictures adventurous & expanding catalogue
The relentless number of releases from 101 films

It all makes the Criterion UK brand feel a little stale. Each of these labels to varying degrees covers Criterion territory, but to date you have to cross the Atlantic for their more adventurous titles.

[TMDaines]

I think tenia meant that he hadn't seen any changes made because of Criterion's arrival, not there hasn't been any at all.

[tenia]

I think tenia meant that he hadn't seen any changes made because of Criterion's arrival, not there hasn't been any at all.

Absolutely. The original quote I was responding to is "their arrival has only upped everyone else’s game" but it has only been a few month since the rumours, announcement and 1st UK Criterion releases anyway, I wouldn't expect drastic to have happened between then and now.

And indeed : most, if not all, the points tackled by Stephen pre-date (in some cases pre-dates by a lot) Criterion's arrival in the UK.

Which only underlines even more how late Criterion have been to try and catch a chunk of this UK market. I still don't understand why they have chosen to do it now, and the results are probably a consequence to this late timing : a market already very competitive with labels having many years of brand identity in the market, relatively low price-points, and a collapsing video market.

A better move might have been (sales figures wise) to implement a UK Hulu rather than starting physical releases.

[MichaelB]

I agree Michael. Just look at the effort put into their releases by Signal One since recently arriving on the UK market & the price point they've set for their heavily featured releases. Eureka's MOC model is probably the market that Criterion should be muscling into while developing similar communication channels to those that Arrow has established with their customer base. Truth is that there are far more buoyant publishing houses in the UK that surpass the standard set by, or completion to Criterion in the US. If anything, their arrival has only upped everyone else’s game while they’ve had something of a tepid launch.

If I upped my game any more, I'd be dead!

In the last seven days alone, I pulled two all-nighters, and two 3am/4am finishes, and that was just on the one project (although admittedly a three-disc box).

I think another crucial point - and this ties into me having to pull regular all-nighters - is that the boutique British labels run on much lower budgets and more limited resources. Second Run, for instance, is a two-man operation working out of their homes. I do 95% of my various jobs at home as well. Technology today means that you don't have to spend a fortune to get something reasonably polished - when I started out in this business, my first extra involved me (as producer/interviewer), a cameraman, a sound recordist and an editor, all of whom had to be hired separately, along with a full day in an edit suite. Now, I do everything myself, so an extra that once cost £1,500 to produce can now be brought in at a third of that - with no appreciable quality difference as far as the viewer is concerned. That's one of the ways that retail prices can be kept as low as they have been.

Signal One is an excellent example of a label that's fully exploiting the benefits of these low overheads right from the start. I do quite a bit of work for them, most recently editing six of the extras for The Seven-Ups - and that's a good case study in how to keep costs low and the quality high. What happened was that Edwin Samuelson shot three interviews in New York (with Philip D'Antoni, Tony Lo Bianco and Randy Jurgensen), squirted the footage over to me electronically, along with a load of stills (both official and from Jurgensen's private collection). I then fashioned this material into six featurettes (three interviews, a piece about the car chase, two stills galleries, one with Jurgensen commentary), squirted the end result over to David Mackenzie in New York for encoding, and the final result is now on sale even though I was still working on the project as recently as two months ago. So that's six distinct and (I hope) valuable extras, produced by just four people (counting interviewer Jonathan Hertzberg) over a fairly limited amount of time, thus keeping overall costs down to a point that would have seemed impossible not too long ago. And yet I can still pay the mortgage and feed my kids.

[rapta]

I agree Michael. Just look at the effort put into their releases by Signal One since recently arriving on the UK market & the price point they've set for their heavily featured releases. Eureka's MOC model is probably the market that Criterion should be muscling into while developing similar communication channels to those that Arrow has established with their customer base. Truth is that there are far more buoyant publishing houses in the UK that surpass the standard set by, or completion to Criterion in the US. If anything, their arrival has only upped everyone else’s game while they’ve had something of a tepid launch.

If I upped my game any more, I'd be dead!

In the last seven days alone, I pulled two all-nighters, and two 3am/4am finishes, and that was just on the one project (although admittedly a three-disc box).

I think another crucial point - and this ties into me having to pull regular all-nighters - is that the boutique British labels run on much lower budgets and more limited resources. Second Run, for instance, is a two-man operation working out of their homes. I do 95% of my various jobs at home as well. Technology today means that you don't have to spend a fortune to get something reasonably polished - when I started out in this business, my first extra involved me (as producer/interviewer), a cameraman, a sound recordist and an editor, all of whom had to be hired separately, along with a full day in an edit suite. Now, I do everything myself, so an extra that once cost £1,500 to produce can now be brought in at a third of that - with no appreciable quality difference as far as the viewer is concerned. That's one of the ways that retail prices can be kept as low as they have been.

Signal One is an excellent example of a label that's fully exploiting the benefits of these low overheads right from the start. I do quite a bit of work for them, most recently editing six of the extras for The Seven-Ups - and that's a good case study in how to keep costs low and the quality high. What happened was that Edwin Samuelson shot three interviews in New York (with Philip D'Antoni, Tony Lo Bianco and Randy Jurgensen), squirted the footage over to me electronically, along with a load of stills (both official and from Jurgensen's private collection). I then fashioned this material into six featurettes (three interviews, a piece about the car chase, two stills galleries, one with Jurgensen commentary), squirted the end result over to David Mackenzie in New York for encoding, and the final result is now on sale even though I was still working on the project as recently as two months ago. So that's six distinct and (I hope) valuable extras, produced by just four people (counting interviewer Jonathan Hertzberg) over a fairly limited amount of time, thus keeping overall costs down to a point that would have seemed impossible not too long ago. And yet I can still pay the mortgage and feed my kids.

And this is why I'm grateful for UK labels such as this one and the lengths you guys go to. I paid literally half the price of any given Criterion UK release for Signal One's The Seven-Ups. Not only was it high on my list of 'most-wanted' titles, but it looks to be well worth the wait. I shall be checking it out very soon.

Are you working on any of their other releases, Michael? Be interested to see if S1 will top the Carlotta release of The Panic in Needle Park (yet another title I'm very happy is being released by such a consistent label).

[MichaelB]

I'm cutting stuff for Eyewitness this week, but my lips are otherwise sealed.

[rapta]

I'm cutting stuff for Eyewitness this week, but my lips are otherwise sealed.

Fair enough! I'll admit I've never seen that one, but happy to see more Yates turn up on Blu-ray.

[dwk]

October releases:
10th - The Emigrants/The New Land
24th - Day for Night

[TMDaines]

I'll have both of them if the price is right.

[coatesy82]

I don't really understand MichaelB's complaint that Criterion hasn't secured high profile titles for the UK market.

They might be high profile for us but they're not big sellers, and the sales figures given so far confirms that awful choice of movies to start their UK launch. What they need is an awfully big commercial release à la Ben Button, or a Wes Anderson, something like this.

Totally agree. As someone who has firstly longed to own Criterion releases for years but never invested in a multi-region player and secondly wanted to be able to own some of Wes Anderson's films on Blu-ray... Anderson Criterion releases would be good. Also people who don't even know what Criterion is would just be happy to be able to own those films.

Was very happy to see Samurai Trilogy listed. That's one I did buy on region 1 DVD (for the artwork as much as the films).

[rapta]

Apparently November releases for the UK are going to be Punch-Drunk Love and Dreams, which is great news. Both are out on the 21st, less than a week after the US get them.

Still hoping for more Warner Bros (e.g. Badlands, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, My Own Private Idaho) and Sony (e.g. The Fisher King, Bottle Rocket, The Last Picture Show) titles in the new year. Maybe the Altman will be a December title?

[Forrest Taft]

Haven't seen any announcement for the november titles, but Dreams and Punch Drunk Love can both be pre-ordered for £17.99 each (14.99 after VAT removal ) on amazon UK.

[perkizitore]

Where are the December titles?