Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

I have a very sad feeling the answer is no. Five years ago, I could find Bette Davis or Joan Crawford or Humphrey Bogart titles at Columbia House, Best Buy, Costco, and every other DVD outlet. Now, in 2010, nobody carries those films.

What happened?

I'd hate to think that great old films like Mildred Pierce or Dark Victory will be left behind as hi-def video obliterates DVD in the home video market.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

Well, personally I wouldn't be holding my breath for some of that stuff to be showing up on Blu. That being said, if your rather optimistic prognosis for hi-def obliterating DVD comes true, then the stuff will show up. Personally, I think we're more likely to see this kind of stuff streaming before we'll see it on Blu, but that's just my opinion.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

Outside of Criterion, I'm thinking we'll be lucky to get 7 or 8 classics on Blu-ray per year, and all but one or two will be from WB.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

I would love to see the the Warner Noir or Gangster sets on Blu, but I think nobody under 30 has any interest in movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood, so the studios won't invest the $$ to update them.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

02/16 - Contempt (Lionsgate)
02/16 - The Ladykillers (Lionsgate)
03/23 - The African Queen (Paramount)
04/20 - Battleship Potemkin (Kino)
05/11 - The Magnificent Seven (MGM)
05/25 - Django (Blue Underground)
05/25 - Spartacus (Universal)
06/01 - The Man With No Name Trilogy (MGM)
07/06 - Jason and the Argonauts (Sony)
07/06 - Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Kino)
08/03 - Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Kino)
09/14 - The Twilight Zone: Season 1 (Image)
10/19 - Psycho (Universal)
11/?? - Metropolis (Kino)
12/07 - Fantasia (Disney)
??/?? - Our Hospitality/Sherlock Jr. (Kino)

I'm sure I missed several, not to mention imports and titles yet to be announced. Suffice it to say that 1 or 2 per year might be a slight exaggeration ;) WB also has about 9 or 10 released/announced so far this year.

Don't get me wrong though, I too wish that we were getting a much higher output of classics on the format.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

I guess I should amend my original statement: 7 or 8 Hollywood classics per year, such as the OP was looking for. Other than a handful of titles, this area has been all but ignored by the major studios except WB.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

DVD, in a sense, spoiled us. There is just so much great classic (as well as obscure) material available on the format, and although I hold some hope I really can't see all of it making the leap to BD. That is why, although I am upgrading some of my collection, I suspect I will have a large number of DVDs for a very long time. I love DVDs, and treasure them, and certainly still buy some (if the title in question doesn't get a BD release).

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

King Kong, The Exorcist, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The Maltese Falcon are all on the way this year from WB.

The classic titles will take longer to come out for a couple of reasons. One, the BD demographic is still mainly comprised of young males, who overwhelmingly lean towards action/sci-fi/new releases. They're not interested in older films. Second, the cost of restoring some of these films are very expensive. WB has sunk in millions on 4K restorations of many of their titles. Paramount invested $6 million for The African Queen. Sony is likely spending quite a bit on Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai, the latter is likely coming out this year. The US user base is about 17 million BD capable players. Due to the high cost of restorations, they're likely waiting until more players are sold before they give the okay on some of these films. WB clearly is focusing more on their classic back catalog.

Now that high definition is here, you can't hide all the faults of a transfer like you could on a DVD. The enhanced detail shows the flaws, so they have to spend more time on cleanup.

There are plenty of classics right now to be bought. Next year we'll get Ben Hur and Citizen Kane, and likely a few more gems.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

I posted this breakdown on blu-ray.com a few weeks ago.

According to blu-raystats.com, they had the following breakdown of titles:

1960s
WB: 15
Criterion: 9
MGM: 10
Fox: 5
Paramount: 3
Sony: 3
Lionsgate: 1
Universal: 1

1970s:
WB: 23
Fox: 15
MGM: 8
Paramount: 6
Criterion: 5
Sony: 5
Universal: 1

Before 1960:
WB: 16
Criterion: 8
Fox: 5
Disney: 4
Paramount: 3
Sony: 2
Lionsgate: 1

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

^Those stats are a lot more optimistic than I had originally thought.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

Isn't Singin' in the Rain being re-mastered for a (hopefully) 2011 release? I'm not sure what happened with these two:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/hd-talk/558...late-09-a.html

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

Give it some time, dude. We're still kind of young w/ the format. It's getting better w/ the classics coming out. I keep seeing more and more every year.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

The classics won't be left behind. However, we're talking about titles which are on the list of tens of thousands of titles from studios which need to be transferred...it is going to be a process of just waiting patiently.

Not sure about HD obliterating DVD just yet. DVD has a strong hold on the market. It's been here for 15 years vs. BD being here about 3-4 years? Eventually, Blu-ray titles will take momentum and classic films will be released more frequently. We're seeing this already, actually.

Another factor is getting more manufacturing plants to pump out the BD titles. We're now realizing plants getting used to the new spec and so titles are produced quicker, less issues (could be argued I supposed thanks to BD Live and Java crap), and so forth.

I wouldn't worry too much. Give it another few years. There's still so much to catch up on.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

What's this about there being no classics on Blu-ray? Showgirls was just released, people! :D

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

I think it's one of the ones Warner hinted at that included a Marx Bros. and Errol Flynn title (likely A Night at the Opera and The Sea Hawk respectively); it was mentioned that while the last restoration was fine the HD master was not, so they were going to redo the master.

Re: Will classic films ever make it to Blu-Ray?
 

Dial M for Murder was another title that was often rumored for 2010. It seems to have fallen off the map though.