Lionsgate

[MichaelB]

What was stopping Arrow from acquiring Gothic?

From what I remember, two different rights holders in the US and UK, neither of whom were keen on sublicensing - and they needed both territories to justify the cost of a full-scale restoration.

[M Sanderson]

Cool, thanks for the reminder. I’ll go with the RA Lionsgate of Gothic which got surprisingly good reviews.

[The Narrator Returns]

Tucker: The Man and His Dream - August 28

[dwk]

"Moron movie" Maximum Overdrive is the next Vestron Video release. Due out on October 23.

[dwk]

Little Monsters and Cronenberg's Shivers blu-rays are coming from Lionsgate, supposedly as part of the Vesteon Video line.

[FrauBlucher]

What do folks make about Lionsgate (Studio Canal) releasing Ran 4k for digital version only?

[dwk]

It doesn't shock me. They never bothered to re-released it on Blu-ray using the 2016 4K master. Hell, they can't be bothered to release The Limey on Blu-ray.

[FrauBlucher]

It surprises me that this can go without a physical release and that can be OK with Studio Canal.

[dwk]

StudioCanal made this bed when they licensed their entire catalog to Lionsgate.

I do wonder how much revenue SC did not earn because, except a handful of higher profile titles, Lionsgate essentially shelved all of these films for a decade.

[cdnchris]

Is there going to be a disc release elsewhere?

[dwk]

I think a disc in Germany has been confirmed and a UK disc rumored. I assume like most SC releases the discs will be the same.

[Michael Kerpan]

I wonder --- why does Lionsgate even bother existing....

[Adam X]

When they can’t even keep the Vestron line going, I think they must just enjoy keeping people in a permanent demoralised state of hopefulness.

[beamish14]

The list of holdings that Lionsgate has is just insane. At some point, you need to actually maximize your profit on them, correct?

[Drucker]

Maximize profit by cutting costs.

[knives]

In that case do what Mill Creek do.

[FrauBlucher]

StudioCanal made this bed when they licensed their entire catalog to Lionsgate.

I do wonder how much revenue SC did not earn because, except a handful of higher profile titles, Lionsgate essentially shelved all of these films for a decade.

Right, but when they struck and restruck deals with Kino and Criterion respectively, why would they let Lionsgate keep Ran knowing that it would only be for streaming when the other companies would gladly release it on physical media and still get a streaming release? It doesn't make sense to me. Do Lionsgate have an option to retain the title when its license is up that SC can't override (is there such a thing)?

[dwk]

If I'm remembering correctly, Lionsgate has the first pick, so if they want to keep something they can. This way they can keep the titles they want, your Rambos and Evil Dead II, while the other companies handle the riskier titles.

Who knows why they would keep something like Ran and only sell it digitally. It is extra confusing when previous Lionsgate UHDs were straight ports of the European StudioCanal discs. So they spent no money authoring the discs (which, I think, is one why Lionsgate's UHDs of Canal titles are so inexpensive.)

[dwk]

The Wraith is getting released on Blu as part of the Vestron series on July 20th.

[L.A.]

Too bad Charlie Sheen not participating in the extras. Also (available from Shout! Factory though) Michael Caine’s involvement in the Blu-ray of The Hand would have been nice. This time I am curious; do they simply not care?

[dwk]

Either the actors don't care or are asking for too much money.

[hearthesilence]

I'm guessing they don't care. Not about the film necessarily but putting in the time and effort. The pay most boutiques give for commentaries would probably come off as an insult to a name actor. (No offense to those who are happy to take the check, I would be.)

Back when DVD rentals/sales was anywhere between 25 to 50% of a movie's revenue, I think major studios *may* have had leverage because the commentaries was seen as "promotion" for a movie, and unless you are the rare mega-star or elder statesman who could get away with doing no press, movie stars are typically contractually obligated to do press or promotions of some kind. That doesn't necessarily translate into doing commentaries, and until Schwarzenegger came along and broke precedent, studios did not pay for commentaries since it was considered promotion, but still, I could see how that gets more stars to do them. In certain ways, it can be easier for them than a press junket and they may simply want to get on the studio's good side.

[hearthesilence]

Also, apologies if this sounds too unrelated, but it reminds me of a Talking Heads story someone once told me. When Rhino put out that first box set (not the "brick" but the one with impractical dimensions), they had the band on the phone to talk about promotions. It was pointed out to me that the only way they were going to make money was to get this thing to sell - I thought that would be obvious but there seemed to be the implication that it wasn't a given with box set releases. Anyway, everyone at Rhino (at least in that room) was a huge Talking Heads fan, and Tina Weymouth apparently said "look, if we need to do shows, we'll tour." Immediately, everyone's looking at each other like, "holy shit! Yeah! Yeah!" and then David Byrne chimes in "we're not doing shows."

Anyway, I'm sure if royalties came into play, that would influence how an actor promotes a release, and I'm certain that's why Jack Nicholson did those sit-down interviews for the Batman DVD (which should be on the BD and UHD releases) - he famously got an enormous percentage of that movie, which has paid off astronomically.

[dwk]

Sundown:The Vampire in Retreat is getting released on Blu as part of the Vesteon line on August 17th.

[dwk]

Looks like Lionsgate is issuing the StudioCanal UHD of Ran in the US later this year. Here is the awful art for a Best Buy exclusive steelbook