Why So Blu?

This could be cool or suck really bad.

"In the multi-year agreement, Distribution Solutions, a division of Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation, will distribute hundreds of select physical (Blu-ray and DVD) live-action film and television properties from the ABC Signature, 20th Television, Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, and 20th Century Studios content libraries."


https://www.mediaplaynews.com/mill-c...t-with-disney/

rocket1312

It's like Disney is just trolling us at this point.

Adam Tyner

At least they're licensing again, and maybe this'll open the door to relationships with other labels as well.

FWIW, this isn't the first deal of its kind between Mill Creek and Disney. Mill Creek put out a ton of Touchstone, Hollywood, etc. titles around 2011 and 2012. Not sure how far it went.

Disney does seem to prefer the dump truck approach to licensing, where they give a label a bunch of titles but they can't pick-and-choose what they want. That plays better with Mill Creek and KL Studio Classics' business models than with Arrow, Shout Factory, and the like.

dex14

I generally do not buy TV shows anymore, but let them release a big set of all the 24 seasons and movie and I will definitely have at that.

Disney just owns so much stuff now this was inevitable. Allowing licensing on things in their sub-brands is a smart move.

Why So Blu?

Hopefully Mill Creek will get access to quality masters and not crappy ones, otherwise it's the same shit all over again. Mill Creek was always the label for "filler" or "placeholder" copies of films/TV. Mill Creek releasing Fight Club 4K disc and Blood In, Blood Out 4K disc? I don't see that happening.

Adam Tyner

Their previous deal was mostly movies like V.I. Warshawski, Gone Fishin', Camp Nowhere, several Ernest movies, The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag... I mean, there was some stuff I like -- I have their double feature of The Puppet Masters and Deep Rising! -- but...yeah, I definitely wouldn't set high expectations, though maybe we'll be surprised.

John Pannozzi

Solar Opposites blu-rays, please?

Bluelitespecial

This will probably be good for more obscure Disney and Fox titles. I doubt Mill Creek will be doing any 4k releases.

morriscroy

Heh.

The now-former bottom-feeder MillCreek becoming the "savior" of physical media.

orangerunner

I recall in 2012 a lot of Touchstone and Hollywood Films released by Mill Creek ended-up in every Dollar Tree location right across the country. I'm surprised Disney wants to take another run at it 10 years later.

There are a lot of big-name Touchstone films that never had a Blu-ray release, at least in North America;

Ruthless People (1986)
Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
Stakeout (1987)
Outrageous Fortune (1987)
Tin Men (1987)
Shoot to Kill (1988)
Three Men & a Baby / Little Lady
Can't Buy Me Love (1987)
Off Beat (1986)
Turner & Hooch (1989)

.. and so on.

I imagine these will be the typical old but serviceable transfers similar to the 2012-era releases.

morriscroy

Disney doesn't have to lift a finger. It can just sit back collecting easy cash from Mill Creek.

DJariya

As dex said, if they put out a complete series HD master of 24 with the movie, then I might be interested in that. I have the entire series except Legacy, but it's a mix of DVD and BD. Only seasons 7, 8, 9 got released on BD by FOX in the states. But, I know the entire series was available on BD in other territories like Japan.

Most likely, you'll probably be seeing a lot of current TV that isn't getting released like 911, 911 Lonestar, Big Sky get barebones physical media releases. I don't think they give a shit anymore about making bonus content for TV on physical media.

milo bloom

I can't think of any specific titles that I want to see come from this but I'm glad to see it. I just hope they have subtitles as some of the bargain discs I've bought over the years don't and it's getting very hard for me to understand dialog in anything.

Gizmo

Sort of like Amazon with random shows getting Blu-ray on demand releases.

I honestly have seen hardly any TV on BD at any retailers, I thought it was sort of done with. Ghosts was the only show I saw and I was surprised it even got a physical media release.

orangerunner

Someone must have lost a lot of money blowing-out hundreds of thousands of expensive Blu-rays in 2012 for $1 each? You're right, it was probably Mill Creek who took the hit, not Disney.

DJariya

Well, this physical media YouTuber confirmed with his Disney source that this deal does not include any new content. It’s only existing titles that will be re-distributed by Mill Creek. So bottom line, this deal is worthless for most. It’s only to help them get better distribution in stores.

PhantomStranger

It's said those Touchstone Mill Creek discs still haunt shelves to this day.

The issue with Mill Creek is they are beholden to the license holder's transfers. That's not a problem when they license from a studio like Sony, who often provides decent catalog transfers. But the bulk of Disney's live-action transfers have been underwhelming at best, terribly dated at worst.

orangerunner

It's interesting that a lot of those Touchstone Mill Creek titles were picked-up by Kino Lorber around 2018/2019 such as One Good Cop, Straight Talk, Angie, The Doctor, Life With Mikey, A Stranger Among Us etc and sold as $19.95 non-discounted releases.

Bluelitespecial

Films at Home is a really good YouTube channel to follow. I hope with this news means the previously released Ernest movies will be back in Print.

Josh Z

Even if Disney handed them good masters, Mill Creek will just compress the hell out of them to squeeze double or triple features onto a single-layer disc.

Alan Smithee

The Ernest double feature was on a single layer disc but the later ones were dual layer. Blows me away that Camp Nowhere got issued TWICE with a mistaken mono soundtrack though.

Their first round of Buena Vista titles sold for $5 at Target and Fry’s (RIP) so going down to $1 wasn’t too big a stretch. Most of them were adequate. Guess I should buy the rest of the Home Improvement DVDs though before they get reissued crammed onto fewer discs. Would be nice if these companies realized that those of us who still buy discs care about quality and don’t want stuff over compressed to fit on fewer discs (the digital equivalent of using the EP speed on VHS), though Mill Creek also tries to price stuff cheaply which often doesn’t mix.

Didn’t know til now that they were owned by Alliance Entertainment. When I worked at Tower during the last couple years of VHS, they handled all of those instead of Tower’s usual distributor.

DJariya

if you didn’t watch that video, Bill Hunt explains this deal in one brief tweet.

TomOpus

I don't know if you're on that other forum but if you said that over there, you'd probably get banned at worst or laughed at, at best. They hate that guy and always put down his opinions especially on AV quality...even if their views are similar. I'll still see an occasional reference to "FAH"

Bluelitespecial

No I'm not at that "other forum" I'm just saying I enjoy the channel.

TomOpus

I'm willing to bet a lot of them are being hypocrites. They watch him but badmouth him on that forum to be part of the cool kids.

I subscribe. He's pretty harmless. Just a dude who's enthusiastic about physical media and started a channel to give his opinion.