re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

:thmbsdwn: Leaflets. It is sad to see that Criterion has gone cheap on us while losing some their luster with packaging. One of the things that sold me on spending the extra bucks per movie was the feeling of getting a nicer package than the standard studio releases out there.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

You still are. How many releases coming out even have an insert at all?

</sarcasm>

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Well, I will have 4 of them after picking up Time Bandits today and they are all releases from within the past few weeks. However, I will be even more selective about blind buying Criterions in the future due to the cheapness of these.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Yah, the switch to fold-outs is almost certainly a result of the switch back to separate dvd and blu-ray releases, which is a shame.

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I think Shagrath's point was that other studios aren't even putting any kind of insert in Blu-ray releases. At least Criterion is including something.

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You got it.

I obviously miss the big books from an aesthetic point of view, but I hardly ever read through the whole thing. The film and supplements are way more important to me.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Since they are not putting int he same effort, and materials as before, they MSRP will be dropped to relfect that, right?

:lol: Not a chance.

But at least Criterions can usually be had cheaper than titles from Twilight Time.

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This is true. However, I have seen most of Criterions releases as secondary titles despite many of them being better than a majority of the movies released by major studios. I also knew that we were paying a few dollars more per film due to the fact that there is likely more cost for Criterion to put the best visual and audio version of the film out there, try and gather quality extras as well as license these films in order to do all of this. I have become accustomed to seeing the booklet as part of that and it is sad to see them try and sneak it in there without at least giving a heads up to their customers. I'm also a tad irked that they haven't revised their list for bronzing discs to include a few other titles that I own that are also having problems: Monsoon Wedding and Kagemusha being a few of them. I wonder if this change is to try and recoup lost money from that fiasco? If they save 50 cents per new title sold with the foldout over the booklets then they see it as a slight recoup for each bad disc they had to replace. I would guess that the replacement discs they have going out is costing Criterion at least a dollar apiece.

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We're completely on the same page there. If they do end up eventually revising that list, they have lost any thought I had of them being better than the others. I'll still buy the occasional BD from them because they have the only/best release (Time Bandits will be my next purchase). But now it will really be the same as Fox, Warner, and the rest.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

To be honest, that bronzing list should have already been revised. They have had a couple of months to check into those titles and pave the way for us to get all of our bad discs from that era replaced. I'm not shipping off various packages of discs. They are all going at once or not at all.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

A different way to look at it is that Criterion is cutting back on inserts instead of raising prices. We already know that Criterion wanted to shift to dual-format because it would save them money. Once those savings went away, costs had to be trimmed elsewhere. And as someone who works in the printing industry, I can tell you that printing costs are not going down anytime soon.

I guarantee you that the discs coming out now with the foldouts were in production LONG before the bronzing fiasco. As someone with no knowledge of the situation beyond my own speculation and experience in the manufacturing world, something like this would have to be at least covered partially by the disc manufacturer or an insurance company.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Not if the policy says that the discs only have to be guaranteed to function for a year, which we were way past when this problem was identified. What would be the typical time frame a disc would have to be guaranteed to work? 3 months? A year?

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

I think a raise in price would be a turnoff and further limit their fanbase. Yes, some people would just suck it up and still buy some movies but undoubtedly others would become more limited in what they buy or just move away from Criterions altogether. Let's be honest here and call most Criterion releases what they are and that is niche titles. If saving money is priority number one and they actually saved money by having the dual releases then that is what they should have continued to do. I think they would be less likely to actually lose customers this way than by trimming the quality of their product or raising prices. Having a nice booklet was one of three things that make Criterions what they are.

1. The movie and the special features.
2. The book that usually has pictures and a nice essay or information.
3. Many of the releases (but not all) having nice looking cover art.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

The thing is, the shift to dual-format did raise the price for DVD buyers. The outcry from that segment of their customer base (which I believe includes a lot of libraries, universities, etc.) was probably the biggest reason for going back to separate releases. Assuming that rising production/warehousing costs is a legitimate problem for Criterion, then they're kind of between a rock and a hard place. Raise prices and people get upset; cut content and people get upset. While I certainly will miss the nice fat booklets, if I had to sacrifice one aspect of the Criterion package, that would be what I would choose. I bet the average consumer doesn't even read them most of the time. Especially when one considers the abundance of written material available on the web (which maybe wasn't the case even a decade ago), the booklets seem less and less valuable.

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I'm actually surprised Criterion is still making DVDs. I guess they sell enough DVD that they can't forgo those sales.

Their market is aimed towards cinephiles and I have to believe a major subset of that market are cinephiles who will pay more for the best picture quality possible (one of the reasons of buying Criterion). If they were to drop DVD altogether, I wonder how many of their DVD customers would finally just switch to BD. Maybe it's too big a risk for Criterion to take?

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Hint in this month's newsletter is an easy one to guess...Limelight

http://i6.cmail1.com/ei/r/A3/4AF/4B0...wacky12-14.jpg

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Are Criterion collectors "average consumers"? It's a fair question.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

looking forward to the original The Vanishing.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

As mentioned earlier, they get a huge number of sales from libraries and universities. I'm sure their average retail customer is getting the blu-ray version.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

I have a friend who owns over 7400 DVDs/BDs and owns every single release Criterion has put out. He still buys a DVD version over a BD simply because of price, the PQ is practically secondary.

I think he's nuts.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Nevermind buying DVD over BD... 7,400 movies?! That's nuts right there.

If he were to watch 4 movies a day (which would be roughly 6-7 hours a day of viewing), it would still take him roughly 5 years to get through all of them.

I know to each their own and everything... but damn - seems like a waste of money or life (depending on how much viewing he does).

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

He's a collector, of course he's wasting his time and money.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Year-end hint drawing:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-pr...2015_large.jpg

The girl standing in the bottom center looks surprisingly like Nausicaa. We also seem to have Inside Llewyn David and The Brood coming this year.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

There were some releases on last year's year-end hint that still haven't been announced, weren't there? I know either Chaplin's The Kid or The Circus was one of the titles and it's still MIA. Now it looks like Limelight is coming beforehand.

I wish they'd consider making a limited amount of actual booklets and need be sell them independently in their online store.

With Criterion you always felt like you're getting so much more than just a movie, which is why those booklets were so nice.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Looking forward to The Fisher King.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

I'm not seeing that...

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

http://s27.postimg.org/7lnt2q5cz/nausicaa.jpg http://content7.flixster.com/movie/1...890909_800.jpg

The pose, hair blowing in the wind, she's even holding a long rifle.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

i just bought INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and MOONRISE KINGDOM so you're welcome folks

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Thanks!

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A Criterion Ghibli! -eek-

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Oh look, another Wes Anderson film. Ugh.
Wish they'd at least stop posting hints to the Wes Anderson films... we know it'll come anyway - there's no surprise to it.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

If that's really Inside Llewyn Davis, it seems like a waste. It doesn't need a new transfer, and the Coens typically aren't that enthusiastic about extras. I could understand if it was 10 or more years later and it could use some retrospective interviews, but that's not the case. I know Universal wouldn't want to let it go, but The Big Lebowski badly needs a remastering. Or at least do something that's still import-only, like Barton Fink or The Man Who Wasn't There.

Between the ship and the confrontation between the two groups of guys, I don't suppose 1492 could be there somewhere, could it?

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

I'm seeing Katniss Everdeen ;)

well, I could see a Criterion 'Nausiaa' since the US Disney release doesn't have the commentary track that is on the Japanese and UK bluray editions.

what's up with the two suns?

EDIT:

"Two Days, One Night."

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Agreed. And it's not even like it's being done by Criterion for sales reasons, since Inside Llewyn Davis definitely isn't a big seller - even by Coen Bros. standards. If I wanted the film, I would've just bought the current release for less than $5.99 - which will be no worse than the Criterion release.

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Apparently Nausicaa just got remastered in Japan, but I would never expect Disney to let Criterion release it.

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That's an extreme long-shot, I would guess, but would be amazing if true.

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I don't think we'll ever see a director's cut of 1492 since Scott just keeps out chugging out new movies left and right, but someone at least could release the international cut of the film

I'm thinking the boats and men could be The New World

also Nausicaa doesn't wear heels.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Jokingly I thought it was a Heavy Metal reference w/ the girl and hair flowing...but I don't remember her having a rifle. Maybe a pistol.

Have Disney ever shared or outsourced a release to anyone?

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Yes. Criterion released Armageddon, The Rock, and Chasing Amy on DVD.