I have been thinking a lot lately about how easy/or hard it might be to release a movie on Blu-Ray.

Hypothetical release: Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburg.

This movie has a BR release in the UK so I am thinking all you would really need is to license the movie from whoever owned the rights, then you could license the BR transfer and special features from 88 Films and basically just re-press what they released with a Region A encoding.

More difficult: Aquire special features from the old DVD that are held by the now out of business Power Program Lucky 13 label. Or the special features on the I-On New Media German DVD release.

Even more difficult: Commission new special features. Find people you could hire to do a commentary on the film or hunt down those associated with it's production.

The questions: Are their rights databases or companies that specialize in finding them or say hunting down actors for retrospective commentaries? Also where do you even get Blu-Rays made? I have seen a lot of adds online for BR production but it seems like they are all MOD facilities. Who makes the discs for say Vinegar Syndrome and Severin? And do they just order the discs and cases separate and put them together at their companies or are these manufacturing plants full service?

If you are not contracting bluray disc manufacturing to Thomson/Technicolor's giant Guadalajara, Mexico disc manufacturing plant, then you'll be rolling the dice on disc quality control. Too many defective or outright poorly manufactured discs, will result in tons of returned inventory.

ViacomCBS, Universal, Warner, Disney, etc ... and even some "bottom feeder" movie companies like Cinedigm, has been manufacturing their cd/dvd/bluray/4Kbluray discs at this giant Technicolor plant in Guadalajara, Mexico. If you ever see any dvd/bluray titles released by major movie companies with "made in mexico" written on the back cover, it is likely manufactured at this particular Technicolor plant in Mexico.

Do you know what the IFPI codes are for Vinegar Syndrome or Severin released discs?

IFPI codes are usually written in the first tranparent ring away from the center hole of a cd/dvd/bluray disc. They are easy to miss if you don't know about ifpi codes.

For example, if you look for the IFPI code on a dvd or bluray disc released by Paramount/ViacomCBS, Universal, Warner, or Disney over the past decade in america, it will have an IFPI code of KK** where the * are alphanumeric wildcards. IFPI KK** is the code for Thomson/Technicolor's plant in Guadalajara, Mexico.

If you have any 20th Century Fox or Lionsgate dvd or bluray discs released over the past decade, it will likely have an IFPI code 2F** which is the code for the Technicolor disc manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama. Some 20th Century Fox dvd discs might have an IFPI code 60** which is the code for the former Technicolor/Cinram disc manufacturing plant in Toronto, Canada.

Shout Factory just did that with UK label Anime Limited's Bartender: 15th Anniversary Blu-ray. Shout reused the entire disc and encoded it as Region A instead of Region B. It's been happening for awhile on niche anime titles that may not do much business.