hasslein

I was on the fence with Demetrius & the Gladiators, waited too long & missed the sale. Wonder how may copies are left. It was difficult to pull the trigger because Best Buy has the two pack of The Robe & The Bible for $7.99 this week. Should of had Demetrius in it instead of The Bible. I hate the Twilight Time business model, but Demetrius I blame Fox for not doing the right thing & releasing it with the Robe.

g

You may have better luck complaining to twilight time on their facebook page. They have helped people sometimes. Screen archives is just a middleman for them.

Proglodite

There are good things about Screen Archives...and there are bad things. Their inability to modify an order is perhaps the most frustrating one. If you pre-order and item that's not going to ship for three or four weeks, then why can't you add items to that order???

The one-two punch that pretty much soured me on the whole Twilight Time/Screen Archives was (1) the Journey to the Center of the Earth pre-order Pat Boone autographed copy - their site crashed and couldn't handle the traffic. They should have just instituted some sort of lottery system. (2) Getting an e-mail about the Christine pre-order of the Blu-ray and already less than 200 copies were left - as a person who'd bought ever TT title up to that point, I was annoyed to no end that apparently I wasn't special enough to be forewarned about that release...and even more annoyed when weeks later people/dealers were offering multiple copies for sale on Amazon (all at $100+). And I suppose the third nail in the coffin was no subtitles on Swamp Water (the PAL DVD release had subtitles).

So I don't waste any sleep over Twilight Time anymore - I gave them plenty of support during their first year and a half of existence, but I no longer feel the obligation. I still have a couple of their releases in my permanent collection - the rest went the way of Amazon long ago (and some of them at a healthy profit, so my bitterness is more directed to Screen Archives and their inability to allow modifications to unshipped orders - given their high shipping rates, has definitely cost them some of my business over the years).

Peter

laidbacklarkin

thanks, I didn't know that. Its a moot point now as am no longer interested in this company anymore - but helps to know for the future

izatright

Why are so many people taking their mishaps with Twilight Time personally? They're a small company that's only been around 3 years and are bound to make a lot of mistakes along the way. Instead of throwing down and saying, "No more!" why not just buy a title if and when you want it? And if you don't want or need another, then make that your reason, not your isolated bad experiences.

With all due respect to the man, we don't need Manzanas of Twilight Time.

PhantomStranger

People are paying $30 and up for their Blu-rays, when other distributors price their releases regularly under $20. No one would be complaining if we were paying $12 a disc. Olive Films largely trades in the same exact type of older catalog releases on Blu-ray and does it completely differently.

Proglodite

I think Olive Films are way over-priced for being bare-boned single-layered releases (in general - I know there are one or two exceptions). They should be retailing for $12.99 with sale prices in the $8 or $9 range...TT at least gives isolated scores on every release, and the liner notes by Jean Kirgo are consistently the best-written of any company...and it's nice to see them licensing some of the pre-existing special features (documentaries, commentaries, etc). TT wins against Olive in almost every area...except distribution (with TT's built-in limited runs, there's only so much they can do).

Peter

noiradelic

Olive wins in a landslide as far as price. You can get an Olive title for $14. That's less than half the price of a TT. TT special features other than isolated scores (which I couldn't care less about) are a relatively new development, so a majority of their releases don't have them.

TT have had no sales at all (not counting the free autographed copies, for which you generally have to drop $128 to receive) up till now -- no 10% off sales, no Black Friday free shipping codes, nada -- and they only had the sale this last week to move stock before the licenses run out. It's a label for collectors to whom money is little object, and the less fortunate film fans be damned.

Gobear

I ordered a week ago, no shipping notice so far. Up til now, I've never ordered from TT because $30 for a bare-bones Blu is too steep. I only ordered this time because I could see paying Criterion-sale prices for two movies that I really wanted to own, Nicholas and Alexandra and Lost Horizon.

I think this will be my last experience with them, discount sales notwithstanding.

Proglodite

I was very impressed with Nicholas and Alexandra - that one I kept in my personal collection; along with Bonjour Tristesse. --Peter

PhantomStranger

I don't think Screen Archives is prepared to quickly handle a sale of this magnitude. My order hasn't shipped, either.

izatright

Unfortunately, markets like Criterion, Shout Factory and Twilight Time are the future of home video. As companies focus their attention on new releases and downloads, expect the under performing older title market to decrease as well. You simply won't GET these titles for your $12 preferred price because businesses like Twilight Time are the only ones interested in releasing them. And they can't make money on $12 for 3000 copies, nor do the majority of their licensed titles even sell 3000 copies. They're not swimming in money charging $30 a pop.

"So therefore in order for Twilight Time to break even on one of our titles we would have to sell almost two-thirds of the run to actually be in the black, 1500-2000 units just to recoup."
- Nick Redmon, Home Theater Forum

But I've said too much. Back to bargains!

DVD Polizei

Well, since you mentioned digital downloading...why not sell a digital download for $15, instead of a $30 blu-ray with a case and artwork I could care less about. I'll make my own artwork and get a case myself.

I agree with Nick, however, and I've read his comments in the past when he mentions that movie collecting is a niche market, and if you like certain movies, you'll have to adjust accordingly. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to adjust just yet. And I'm still not sure why TT thought Christine and Fright Night would only need a run of 3000.

Proglodite

TT's licensing with the studios only allows for 3000 copies and exclusivity for three or four years. After that, the studio can mass release an item if they wish (which will almost certainly happen with Fright Night and Christine given their sales figures). As to whether these future re-releases will contain the isolated music tracks is another question - I know plenty of DVD releases that had the isolated score, but not their Blu-ray counterpart. --Peter