Sony (among other studios) are not really pushing catalog sales anymore since they are in the toilet. This film, like As Good As it Gets, deserves a wide releases. Oh well, another Blu-ray that won't see my money but I'll watch another way.

Sony is trying to push its catalog on Blu-ray out through Image, Mill Creek, and Twilight Time. Unless it's a blockbuster or prestigious title, they don't care anymore.

Can't say it enough- Sony's divisions are so damned disconnected from each other. They kept trying to sell SACD players long after their own record company had quit releasing them. Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right one is doing. (And meanwhile, since "digital is the future", they want me to instead "buy" standard-def copies of their movies on Vudu, without even a rental option. Good luck with that! Ooh- and I can get Sleepless in Seattle in HDX for only $13.99!)

I have never ordered from them but if someone would kindly let me know when Hard Times goes up for pre-order I would appreciated it. How far out do they typically have a pre-order?

I signed up for their email list in the hopes that's how you get notified for pre-orders.

I'd look at selling the players like how you can still buy VHS players. It's for the people that already have the media for it but the player breaks or something and they need a new one.

Hooray! More expensive Blu-Rays from Twilight Time!

I know right? I mean I hate when companies force me to buy their product at a price I don't like. If only I could just ignore their output and move on with my day....

Yeah, for those of us who love our catalogue titles, it is so hard to ignore the TT titles and move on with our day. Such a double-edged sword. And, TT knows this, of course and it's how they "justify" the $35+tax+shipping per title.

(I assume this is in reference to SACD players) VHS was around for over 25 years before new titles stopped being released on it, and of course had sold billions before that. SACD never had a chance- it was great, but aside from an initial run of titles from Sony's music labels, hardly anything was even put out for it. Sony COULD have pushed it a lot harder if they really wanted to. (And how could I forget how Sony first invented the Beta format, promoted its alleged superiority over VHS for years, then finally sold out and began making VHS decks?)

Just glad that other companies are doing what they can with Blu-Ray without needing help from Sony.

It's not up yet. They won't start taking pre-orders until a couple weeks before the release date.

With that said, any Twilight Time releases (that aren't already sold out) can be ordered from http://www.screenarchives.com.

That's true and is where I recall seeing bits of it years ago. However they switched formats recently and combined with the FX network. So now Fox Movie Channel is broadcasting from early morning through mid afternoon, and then FXM takes over and even has commercials and airs edited and non-OAR prints from what I've seen. FMC is still uncut, commercial free and in the correct OAR most of the time.

So unfortunately films FMC may be airing that I'd like to watch are on at inconvenient times(and I don't have a DVR), and am usually at work during the day. Or if off, I'm just not in the mood to watch Trouble Man, a blackploitation film from the early 70's at 9 a.m. That seemed like a fun film from what I saw, but I'm just not in the mood for such a flick at that hour. So it's a shame they switched to this lousy new format, and I hope the FX network decides to just create it's own movie channel instead of trying to share with another network.

When As Good As It Gets was announced, people were up in arms. How could a popular Oscar winning movie with a major star like Jack Nicholson get foisted off to Twilight Time? Surely, this movie would easily sell hundreds of thousands of copies. It'll sell out at TT instantly. Nobody will ever get a chance to buy it. Whoa is me, how unfair!

Yet here we are a year later, and TT still hasn't managed to move 3,000 units. The market for catalog titles is D-E-A-D.

Anyone who thinks that Sleepless in Seattle will do any better are only fooling themselves.

Yeah I can't say I'm surprised at all AGAIG didn't sell out. As you say it'll be the same with Sleepless in Seattle and probably Philadelphia. These aren't visually stunning films that would scream HD to the average person. I like having every film I want to own in HD so I'll happily pay TT's price for them, but I am also aware I am in the extreme minority on that.

While I personally don't think Sleepless in Seattle and As Good As It Gets would sell huge quantities if given a studio release, the argument about them not even selling 3000 units in a year is a little disingenuous. I would imagine that the market for titles like this would not be the kind of people who do their shopping on the Screen Archives website. These are titles that scream Wal-Mart dump bin or Best Buy end-cap to me. I don't begrudge Sony for licensing these to TT because it's money in hand for them, nor do I begrudge TT for grabbing them because they are mainstream titles that make more people aware of their company, but citing their lack of sales as a barometer of the catalog title market would be like selling Snickers bars exclusively in health food stores (for twice the price of other candy bars) and saying the lack of sales is indicative of the sagging popularity of candy.

I don't think the audience for AGAIG is a small cult following that would know about TT and pay their $30+ prices per movie. It is a mainstream movie that should had shown up at Target and Walmart during a mother's day promotion for $9.99, and sold 10s of thousands or more.

Your statement was missing some qualifiers. And if As Good As It Gets was one third the price, they easily would have sold more than three time the number they have, even without being in physical stores. I think they (and other niche companies) will recognize this and adapt accordingly. If you've got a title that 5,000 people really, really want, it makes sense to limit it to 3,000 copies and charge a premium. If you've got a title ten times that number people kind of want, make more and charge less. AGAIG is running $50 on Amazon. No casual movie fan is going to pony that up when the norm has dropped to $10 - $20. Hell, I enjoy the movie quite a bit, have a huge collection and have dropped $50 on a handful of hard to get titles, but wouldn't even consider dropping that much on AGAIG.

The more I think about it, the more I will likely pass on Body Double. One of those that if it ever is available to stream on Netflix or watch on HBO in HD in the future, I will just check it out at that time. No reason to pay such a high price for a disc that I will likely only watch once over 5 years.

Exactly, if someone saw As Good, or Sleepless blu-ray in the bargain bin at Wal-mart for $5-$10, they would totally snatch it up. To buy it (having to pretty much seek it out) online, for $30 is not even closet to the same thing. That's for genre films.

Depends on the title. Some of these are selling out before they're even released.

The market for catalog titles is pretty much dead. I think it's probably limited to the bargain bins or cult titles (horror, sci-fi, auteur directors with a following, etc). In other words, people looking for something cheap at Wal-Mart or movie geeks.

Twilight Time is definitely going after the latter market, but movies like "As Good as it Gets" or "Sleepless in Seattle" are more for the former.

I just wonder about At Long Last Love. They say they are pressing it but it is not a Twilight Time title, nor is it limited press, does that mean it will still be exorbitantly priced?

That is exactly how I see the demand for those two movies. Those movies were popular with very casual movie fans, outside the hardcore Internet movie-buying demographic. I'd probably buy Sleepless in Seattle if I saw it for $7.88 in a Walmart bin but Twilight Time is not getting $30 from me, for something that plays on TBS seemingly every other month.

+1

I hope its just a temporary exclusive. I would like that one, but I really want Body Double too. Too bad Sony couldn't give it to Criterion or Image.