Criterion Blu-ray collection delayed again until at least December

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 16th 2008 at 4:33PM

We'd like to think that anything put out by Criterion would be worth the wait, but this is getting a wee bit annoying. After first announcing that a gaggle of Criterion Blu-ray Discs would be out by October, we were hit with the unfortunate news that things were being pushed back 'til November. Here we are in that very month, and now we're staring yet another month-long delay in the face. For reasons unknown, classics like Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express, The Third Man, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Last Emperor have all been knocked back to December with the exception of the last film, which is being delayed until January of 2009. Bah, humbug!

[Via Sound & Vision, thanks Anthony]

Filed under: Blu-ray

Tags: bd, blu-ray, bottle rocket, BottleRocket, chungking express, ChungkingExpress, Criterion, Criterion collection, CriterionCollection, delay, delayed, the man who fell to earth, the third man, TheLastEmperor, TheManWhoFellToEarth, TheThirdMan

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highest Ranked

ropeburn @ Nov 16th 2008 6:18PM

maybe they don't have confidence in the holiday shoppers?

Highly Ranked

Multi-format-mayhem @ Nov 16th 2008 7:13PM

It's easy to see why they are stalling and in no rush
(maybe they'll never come at all?).

The PS3 gang just aren't interested and there are obviously (looking at the stats for the quality stuff that has gone out already) too few buyers into quality.

Simple. Sad by true.

Neutral

Arkadin @ Nov 16th 2008 9:47PM

yeah I'm sure Criterion is delaying these releases because of the poor sales of other titles.
gimme a break!
that is just about the stupidest crap I've ever read.
good grief.

Highest Ranked

Bozster @ Nov 17th 2008 1:29AM

I'm sad to say but you offer no real analysis nor argument but ignorantly dismiss things. This is what mostly ticks me about blu-ray fans.

First of all.. do you have any idea how much it costs Criterion to remaster the discs to high-definition? Of course it's about money and sales. If they can't recover and make good money they will not release them.. simple as that.. so far except for high-profile PS3 owning audience movies who simply don't buy anything or barely anything from "real" movies that are similar to the range of movies Criterion sells. Criterion is not selling Iron Man or Batman.. they sell niche audience movies and selling to a niche from a niche market is highly unprofitable. I don't see why that's so hard for everyone to see.

But let's say that they have them done but are waiting to see how holiday player sales go, the problems they are mostly having is Profile and features related. Unfortunately Blu-Ray has serious issue because of things just not working on all players (I've witnessed it too many times and many other people who own a BD player I know have too) and Criterion is most likely having QA issues.

It's probably tough enough selling to a highly niche audience among the niche format, having returns of re-distribution of titles is a cost they simply don't want to have.

Do you understand that even Iron-Man's number are just a drop in the sea for 1 title when compared to DVDs.

It's not that hard to understand, all you need to do is look at things objectively and read a little about how things work and how much they cost.

Highly Ranked

squiggleslash @ Nov 17th 2008 10:39AM

The only sales thus far of BD titles that have been really impressive have been for those that do well with the PS3 demographic, which isn't really Criterion's. So it's actually quite possible Criterion are going to delay things until the numbers start to make sense.

Comment: They'd probably have almost as many sales right now if they pressed HD DVDs instead of BDs, given the number of standalone players of both technologies stands at a little under 1.5M each.

That said, it doesn't really match the article to claim that this has anything to do with sales. What we're seeing is one month delays, for the most part. If sales were the problem, they'd remove the release dates completely. My guess is that Criterion's real problem is getting duplicator time, as unlike HD DVD, Blu-ray requires completely new presses and after HD DVD was vanquished earlier in the year, the number of studios that needed BDs pressed increased by 50%. That's put a strain on Blu-ray replication capacity.

Highly Ranked

Bozster @ Nov 17th 2008 12:59PM

squiggleslash,

I agree completely. I think that they might be looking at sales but my stronger believe is production problems as well, but let's not fool ourselves, they do look at sales too. It's either incompatibilities with players or replication. Either way, Criterion will press considerably less copies then for example Iron-Man so they might be last on the list for replication considering that even today 2 years into Blu-Ray's lifespan I believe we have only a few real replication factories that offer those services like Sony DADC or one more big place (I think they have 8 or something like that in total).

It's really a disgrace that years into the format's life replication is so poorly organized and something that obviously was the problem for Blu-Ray from day one on a massive scale or with multiple clients.

Highly Ranked

Rob78 @ Nov 17th 2008 3:53AM

Why not just put them on servers and get on with encoding the next set?

Neutral

ROFLquest @ Nov 18th 2008 7:18PM

@Bozster

Criterion movies are already remastered in hi-def (from criterionco.com FAQ: "we know how good our films can look in high definition because we’ve been doing all our mastering and restoration in HD for years"). Please have your facts straight before criticizing another poster.

I'm a PS3 and blu-ray fan and have pre-ordered all of Criterion's offerings. Makes me pisssy to read these lame generalizations.

Neutral

ROFLquest @ Nov 18th 2008 7:28PM

@squiggleslash:

"The only sales thus far of BD titles that have been really impressive have been for those that do well with the PS3 demographic, which isn't really Criterion's."

I take issue with your premise. The blu-ray catalog is not that impressive to date, at least from the point of view of the Criterion demographic. I can count on one hand the number of worthwhile titles (and I've ponied up for them, getting "The Godfather Trilogy", "Oldboy", "Kill Bill 1 & 2", among others). I don't think you can back up that statement until it's been tested. I'm much more apt to rent "Wall-E" or "Dark Knight" than add them to a permanent collection. Give me some ownership-worthy titles, and I will own them.

Neutral

LonnieDvD @ Nov 18th 2008 8:21PM

Merry Christmas Blu-Ray owners....or not. No matter, The Dark Knight will keep everyone happy until January.

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