How do studios determine what to release next?
 

Watching back-catalog movies being re-released in HD, I see movies that would greatly benefit, and then I see movies that make me wonder why that one now? (Blazing Saddles for example).

I'm just curious how the studios choose what to release next.

I think the mindset goes something like:

"What's recognizable enough for people to say 'oh, I remember that' while not being so popular that we'd be leaving a bunch of money on the table by dumping it on this tiny userbase?"

Universal especially seemed to be sticking with the "fairly recent underperforming, kinda-action-ish theatrical releases" with a lot of their early titles.

Speaking of Universal, why'd they release The Bourne Supremacy on HD DVD before The Bourne Identity? Don't get me wrong, I love the disc to death but I would have asumed they'd release them in order.

"eenie....meenie...myniee...moe!"

Others: "ooooh....good choice."

*applause*

Something like that...

If you notice, most of the back catalogue movies are films that have seen recent DVD re-releases, which seem to have been made with new 5k masters. Coincidence?

Don't you mean 4k? And last I heard, VERY few are getting 4k masters. Has this changed?

Simply because The Bourne Identity is the top dog rare D-VHS title and they like teasing those of us who never payed $250 for it. :)

I thought studios were using 5K masters at this point. And I know The Searchers got a new master.

I'd like to see a source on that one. As far as I knew (when they did Star Wars) they were saying that very few movies got a 4k master.

I went to look it up on Wikipedia and got "Master K," a prominent S&M author. :lol:

Never heard of 5K, any help on that? All Google returns is running races, maybe your memory is playing tricks.

Master K any good? As an author, I mean. ;)

Well, one factor is whether their research tells them a title will appeal to the early adopter males between the ages of 20 and 40. We haven't seen too many titles aimed at kids, women, and older men. Even the odd chick flick like Rumor Has It has Jennifer Aniston (which straight men other than me seem to think is hot). As more people get into it, we'll see more variety.

Then, there are cross promotions and seasonal releases (but I'm sure you knew that already). Obviously, with Superman Returns on the way, there's no better time to release the older Superman movies. With Christmas coming, that's the time to release Christmas titles like The Polar Express and Christmas Vacation. If we don't get Jaws next summer, it will probably be a summer after that.

I'm not so sure we're going to see any Spielberg titles for a while. Didn't it take a few years before any showed up on dvd?

That would be my guess. As for The Bourne Supremacy being released before The Bourne Identity, I can think of 2 reasons. Supremacy was a bigger box office hit and a more recent film than Identity. And secondly, the IME feature may have been easier to produce for the more recent Supremacy.

Either way, I like how the studios are selecting a diverse mix of titles for HD-DVD. So far the title selection for Blu-rry has been dreadful. Even if the transfers had been stellar and all the extras included for that format, I'd still have no desire to get a player.

I'm sure they're waiting to release the "Ultra Explosive" edition on SD-DVD before they make their move.

Need to milk Identity for all it's worth.

Are you saying you have no interest in Stealth, Hitch, and XXX?!

Yes, but I was just saying that Jaws gets released in the summer, so we have to wait for the first summer they can release Spielberg titles.

I could say something here, but it could be sensed as a slam against Sony... so I'll refrain.... jeesh it's like walking on pins and needles here in the HiDef forum.

Yep, you nailed it. The amount of time and effort is one of the biggest reasons for releasing titles this early. They want to have as large of a library as possible especially now that they are competing against Blu-Ray. They dont want Blu Ray to be able to say they have the most titles available. Movies that have had recent masters made for recent SD DVD releases will definitly get pushed to the front of the pack. Backdraft is a perfect example. They had the master from the DVHS version already available which means it took little effort getting a HD-DVD release ready. Titles that will have to have new masters made will go through a much more stringent selection process.

At this stage of the game this is without a doubt the single biggest factor in what gets released first. Thats why we are also seeing such a large range of films and some titles that have us scratching our head why this one before that one.

PS....

Don't be silly. I was referring to Memento and The Terminator.;)

I'd still love to know who the person was at Universal who said "hey, we should release The Bone Collector on HD DVD". zzzz......zzzzz.....