Eureka Entertainment are very pleased to announce the acquisition of rights to a sparkling new HD restoration of one of the great silent films – one of the most controversial films of all time – D. W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION.
The film tells the story of the American Civil War and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of two families. The 1915 film has shocked audiences with its attitudes towards race yet remains one of the defining films of the silent era.
THE BIRTH OF A NATION will join Eureka's Masters of Cinema Series, the home of classic silent movies, and will be released later in the year on Blu-ray for the first time in a dual format (DVD & Blu-ray) edition.
Presumably this is the same version of the film as Kino's, rather than the different Photoplay cut (still listed on their website as "coming soon" from the BFI)?
La signora shouldn't susprise anyone since the truly excellent RHV disc, which was already out for a couple of years, was English-friendly and couldn't be bettered in anyway. It was never going to be a big seller and I'm sure this cut it down even further. I eventually sidegraded for the new extra but I'm sure there is many who didn't. I love MoC but this was a pretty pointless release from that point of view!
Coeur fidele was the total opposite, however, and it's sad to hear that that release didn't do too great.
TMDaines wrote:La signora shouldn't susprise anyone since the truly excellent RHV disc, which was already out for a couple of years, was English-friendly and couldn't be bettered in anyway. It was never going to be a big seller and I'm sure this cut it down even further. I eventually sidegraded for the new extra but I'm sure there is many who didn't. I love MoC but this was a pretty pointless release from that point of view!
I don't agree at all. Despite having a great source to work from, the encoding on the RHV DVD of LA SIGNORA DI TUTTI was not stellar. We improved on that, as we did with the English subtitles, and we added a 30 minute Tag Gallagher video piece. Plus the 44-page booklet was one of our best.
The RHV DVD was hard to get hold of in the UK (and expensive) and we're very glad we released it. Of course, we didn't expect it to sell gangbusters, but I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised if they did pick up that disc.
Most disappointing recently has been TWO-LANE BLACKTOP.
You can get a good sense of what's selling from the Amazon sales rankings, which are live and generally reflect what's been sold over the last 2-3 days. They don't give you a sense of anything longterm (unless you monitor them constantly and track them!). Right now:
TWO-LANE BLACKTOP - 12,889 (it was at 30,000 the other day)
REPO MAN - consistently around the 2,000 mark
PUNISHMENT PARK - 9,327
TOUCH OF EVIL - 3,043
SILENT RUNNING - 4,934
If they stay under 5,000 then they're not selling tons, but they're selling consistently. If they go over 10,000 and stay there, then they're not selling much at all.
If something is under 1,000 then it's doing pretty well. A bunch of our releases go under 1,000 on release day, but it's about what happens in the subsequent months! If they sink to 20,000 or worse, then it's curtains really.
LA TETE CONTRE LES MURS - £9.99 - 48,077 -- ouch!
LA SIGNORA DI TUTTI - £10.47 - 46,831 - eek!
I thought that, out of the Blu-Rays, the Antonionis would have been the poorest sellers but looking at Amazon, this doesn't seem to be the case! It's rather surprising to see Two-Lane Blacktop doing poorly and the sales rank for Make Way for Tomorrow is upsetting (although I suppose it may have sold well before the dual repackaging).
peerpee wrote:If something is under 1,000 then it's doing pretty well.
Unsurprisingly, the top 100 is dominated by mainstream blockbusters, TV box sets and sports documentaries. The BFI's The Devils is currently at 128, but I suspect that's unusually strong for a notionally independent-label release.
Calvin wrote:The BFI's Great White Silence looks to have done rather well - #1,094 nearly 10 months after release.
I suspect that's had a bit of a surge recently, what with the Scott centenary in March and all the accompanying publicity - let's face it, if you want actual footage of the Scott expedition, it's your only option.
But I'm very pleased to see that Alice, one of the recent releases that I'm proudest to have contributed to, is at 4,119 nearly a year after its release. Less pleased that Szindbád is at 16,896, mind.
htshell wrote:I'm a bit broke for the next month but both the Franjus were going to be my next purchase even before I saw this
Franju double feature Judex/Nuits Rouges(Shadowman) is one of my favourite MOC releases,I'm surprised that it didn't do well as both films surely have certain cult appeal.Unfortunately Nuits Rouges is non-anamorphic but as such it's really beautiful transfer.La Tete contre les murs is much more obscure than these two so poor sales of that title is more understandable.
I'm kind of shocked that La Silence de la Mer is barely hanging on under 10,000 (9,088)- it's region free, it's a pretty undisputable classic that you can't get in the US, and it's a killer release. What the hell else do people want?
matrixschmatrix wrote:I'm kind of shocked that La Silence de la Mer is barely hanging on under 10,000 (9,088)- it's region free, it's a pretty undisputable classic that you can't get in the US, and it's a killer release. What the hell else do people want?
peerpee wrote:Most disappointing recently has been TWO-LANE BLACKTOP.
You can get a good sense of what's selling from the Amazon sales rankings, which are live and generally reflect what's been sold over the last 2-3 days. They don't give you a sense of anything longterm (unless you monitor them constantly and track them!). Right now:
TWO-LANE BLACKTOP - 12,889 (it was at 30,000 the other day)
REPO MAN - consistently around the 2,000 mark
PUNISHMENT PARK - 9,327
TOUCH OF EVIL - 3,043
SILENT RUNNING - 4,934
If they stay under 5,000 then they're not selling tons, but they're selling consistently. If they go over 10,000 and stay there, then they're not selling much at all.
If something is under 1,000 then it's doing pretty well. A bunch of our releases go under 1,000 on release day, but it's about what happens in the subsequent months! If they sink to 20,000 or worse, then it's curtains really.
LA TETE CONTRE LES MURS - £9.99 - 48,077 -- ouch!
LA SIGNORA DI TUTTI - £10.47 - 46,831 - eek!
Though is the steelbook and normal edition splitting the rank for Two Lane?
Steelbook rank: 11,500
Standard packaging rank: 15,101
It is, but if they're both over 10,000 after just a couple of months. That's not great. REPO MAN is similarly split between regular and SteelBook and that's going great guns, likewise SILENT RUNNING.