Twilight Time / Redwind

[giovannii84]

TT has a 3-year license on all the films they release, after which point another company could theoretically put them out.

And at a more reasonable price...

[EddieLarkin]

after which point another company could theoretically put them out.

Themselves included. Their licence period for Fright Night is up at the end of this year, and they sort of implied to a user on their Facebook that they would re-licence it if Sony offered.

[kingofthejungle]

I manages to get an autographed Garcia, but this one did disappear really quickly. The last couple of times I got autographed TT's (Christine, Hard Times), I was able to return to the main page after ordering and see the autographed copy still available. That certainly wasn't the case this time.

But I'm with dom, if it was a lottery system for autographed copies, I wouldn't even attempt it.

[swo17]

Yes, if you know you missed out on the offer this time, it makes sense to save the bulk of your purchases until the next offer so it's easier at that time to meet the $100 threshold. It's not as though this company is putting out four must own-titles every month.

[Lowry_Sam]

Yes, if you know you missed out on the offer this time, it makes sense to save the bulk of your purchases until the next offer so it's easier at that time to meet the $100 threshold. It's not as though this company is putting out four must own-titles every month.

Except that I've missed out 3x now, so those same titles (minus the ones I picked up during TCM's sale plus Wild At Heart) have been sitting in my cart for a year now....and they'll just continue to sit there until the next sale/offer that might/not transpire.

[FrauBlucher]

Wild at Heart....Blu-ray.com

[Noiradelic]

Well this is the third time I've had a freebie in my cart & ready to go (@ 4pm), but it wouldn't process my card when I hit confirm, then at 4:01 I get the "cart changed item no longer available message".....I'm beginning to wonder if these free autographed copies are real.

I had no problem getting The Driver when it was the free one. It didn't sell out till 4:04 or so and I was checked out by 4:01. Had the 4 other titles in my cart already, had the Twilight Time new releases page up and ready to refresh. It seems like Alfredo Garcia sold out faster than any of the others (I had it already), not counting the extra copies of Christine, which I was not able to procure. If you have 3 or more minutes to check out, you shouldn't have a problem if you're ready to pounce at 3:59 -- unless you have a problem with your card or something along those lines.

[Moe Dickstein]

I can pretty much guarantee that at least some titles will be reissued after the 3 year window lapses.

[Zot!]

Sigh, this is the first I'm hearing about Twilight Time releasing Wild at Heart. Can anyone comment on the supplements? I have the initial Blu-ray release from the UK (meaning it doesn't have the screwed up audio of the re-release, but it's featureless)

So I bit. I've never ordered from everybody's favorite complany before, but it went seamlessly. Disc looks better in-hand as well. I really didn't want to buy the more expensive release, but the UK release seems pretty sketchy as well, and comes without the extras. Whatever.

[Feego]

I can pretty much guarantee that at least some titles will be reissued after the 3 year window lapses.

Violent Saturday will be the first, as the DVD was released three years ago and the Blu is coming in July.

[Moe Dickstein]

Sort of, because both Violent Saturday and Fate Is The Hunter are upgrades to Blu of previous DVD releases from TT.

What I was referring to are Blu sellouts that would be re-issued after the 3 year term.

[domino harvey]

I really didn't want to buy the more expensive release, but the UK release seems pretty sketchy as well, and comes without the extras. Whatever.

I have the UK Blu (re-release) and it comes with eight episodes of Dumbland and the shorts Lumiere and Company and the Grandmother

[Minkin]

What I was referring to are Blu sellouts that would be re-issued after the 3 year term.

Reissued by Sony/MGM/Criterion? Or would Twilight Time get another 3 years/3000 copies?

I mostly just want Fright Night and Journey to the Center of the Earth -which you'd think would be easy sellers regardless of who puts them out (though I refuse to ever buy any Twilight Time products, so I hope its the former rather than latter).

[chatterjees]

I mostly just want Fright Night and Journey to the Center of the Earth -which you'd think would be easy sellers regardless of who puts them out (though I refuse to ever buy any Twilight Time products, so I hope its the former rather than latter).

Redman confirmed on TT's FB page that they will reissue Fright Night soon. Its not really a confirmation, but here is the direct statement in response to a request for fright night 2 - "no chance of FN2 on blu-ray from us, but an FN reissue remains a possibility, as in fact we stated quite some time ago.".

[Moe Dickstein]

What I was referring to are Blu sellouts that would be re-issued after the 3 year term.

Reissued by Sony/MGM/Criterion? Or would Twilight Time get another 3 years/3000 copies?

I mostly just want Fright Night and Journey to the Center of the Earth -which you'd think would be easy sellers regardless of who puts them out (though I refuse to ever buy any Twilight Time products, so I hope its the former rather than latter).

Reissued by TT, same 3 year/3k copies deal

[Minkin]

Ah damn it. So once a Twilight Time always a Twilight Time by the sounds of it.

This wouldn't be so bad if Sony weren't so awful with their licensing to anybody other than Criterion/Twilight Time. Fright Night begs for an Arrow Video release, not another crappy bluray that will sell out in 12 minutes meaning everyone else has to wait until 2017 for the next round of this BS.

If the studio isn't going to give a shit about the release after 3 years anyway - then whats the point of doing the 3000 units then (as it sits in 3rd party scalper land for 2 years and 11 months).

[EddieLarkin]

Although I agree that Fright Night may now be deserving of a more traditional style of release, I will be very surprised if a second batch of 3000 manages to sell anywhere near as fast as the first (especially since a very low order limit will be inevitable from the start). The first 1000 might go to the few that missed out first time pretty quickly, but I reckon the rest will hang around for quite a while.

[Orlac]

Ah damn it. So once a Twilight Time always a Twilight Time by the sounds of it.

This wouldn't be so bad if Sony weren't so awful with their licensing to anybody other than Criterion/Twilight Time. Fright Night begs for an Arrow Video release, not another crappy bluray that will sell out in 12 minutes meaning everyone else has to wait until 2017 for the next round of this BS.

If the studio isn't going to give a shit about the release after 3 years anyway - then whats the point of doing the 3000 units then (as it sits in 3rd party scalper land for 2 years and 11 months).

Is it true that Sony UK doesn't license out at all anymore?

[MichaelB]

If you're aware of them doing so, I'd be very interested to hear about it - clearly, there are plenty of titles in Sony's catalogue that several UK distributors would be very interested in handling.

[Orlac]

If you're aware of them doing so, I'd be very interested to hear about it - clearly, there are plenty of titles in Sony's catalogue that several UK distributors would be very interested in handling.

The only thing that springs to mind was DD Video preparing to release some of the Columbia Hammers such as The Gorgan to DVD a couple of years back, but they went under.

[Adam X]

For those that missed out, Umbrella in Australia have Body Double forthcoming on Blu-Ray. Looks to include all the DVD extras, though there's no region coding or transfer info.

[Moe Dickstein]

Ah damn it. So once a Twilight Time always a Twilight Time by the sounds of it.

This wouldn't be so bad if Sony weren't so awful with their licensing to anybody other than Criterion/Twilight Time. Fright Night begs for an Arrow Video release, not another crappy bluray that will sell out in 12 minutes meaning everyone else has to wait until 2017 for the next round of this BS.

If the studio isn't going to give a shit about the release after 3 years anyway - then whats the point of doing the 3000 units then (as it sits in 3rd party scalper land for 2 years and 11 months).

Sony also licenses may many titles to Mill Creek and Image.

TT pays the full license upfront which is why they do 3k copies. If they did more thats a higher upfront cost and therefore a gamble.

I would hope they would do new cover art or something, that way you can get people to buy it again if they are collectors of the film and packaging etc.

But since you've said you'll never buy TT releases, why would you care if they sold out again?

[warren oates]

How hard would it be this time around for TT to negotiate a provision in each agreement that allowed them an option to exercise the exact same terms for a second full print run, with the same advanced payment, if the title were to sell out before the license expires -- or how about just if they sell out well in advance of the expiry date (say, I don't know, at least a year)?

[Minkin]

TT pays the full license upfront which is why they do 3k copies. If they did more thats a higher upfront cost and therefore a gamble.
But since you've said you'll never buy TT releases, why would you care if they sold out again?

It seems as though there will never be a threat of them winding up with excess stock at the end of 3 years - since they would clearly have whats left sold as part of the $100 promotion, or on sale, etc. That said, even if 5k copies were available, some of these titles would still sell out instantly - simply because they are limited edition and won't be getting repressed for 3 years. So I suppose I understand the 3,000 copy thing. It just seems bizarre to sell out 3000 copies, sell nothing for 2+years, and then do it all over again (Warren's suggestion above seems like it would be the obvious approach for TT)

Though I won't ever buy any TT titles ever - I do know quite a few fans of Fright Night - and these people would never bother with some non-Amazon site like Screen Archives Entertainment/plopping down $40 for the movie. It just seems sad that after three years of waiting, nothing will change again until 2017 - where the whole process will probably repeat again. I was originally apathetic towards TT - since I figured someone else would do something with the title after 3 years - so it would just be a 3 year wait until something better rolled along. I'm sure at least Shout would jump at the chance to release it, but alas, Sony.

I wouldn't have any problem with any of this - if Sony UK would get off their asses and either release stuff or license it out. Seems absurd that Fright Night only has a US blu release and its going for $300 (whereas most every other TT title has a foreign release). But Fright Night is just my darling title - and others are probably equally outraged about their favorites- so I suppose I must accept this as a trend of the end of home video - that it will ultimately become a collector's market with exorbitant prices.

All of that said, I did discover this DVD of Fright Night/Christine/The Blob (80s)/The Seventh Sign - all for only $9 (put out by Sony last year). This seems like the best option until Sony licenses these out in the UK/Germany/etc. Can we perhaps get an email campaign at Sony UK to let Arrow have access to their stuff?

[Moe Dickstein]

And there would just as many people outraged that they broke the terms of the limited release to extend the run. This model comes from the soundtrack world where it runs very successfully, people know the terms and the price and don't wait for discounts and purchase what they deem worth it right at release since there won't be stock down the road to be discounted usually.

I imagine even doing another run after 3 years will irritate some of these people, which is why I hope they do new cover art.

Some people simply like to collect something that has the status of being limited and therefore scarce. I don't think that is TT's prime motivation however. I think tweaking the formula at this point would be sort of a "why fix what's not broken" situation. The success of this model from a business standpoint has allowed Nick and Brian to release more titles every month and get more films out that wouldn't have been released otherwise. They're now doing regular and extensive bonus features, which was my main gripe with the company previously.

I wouldn't expect to see anything from any of these re-issues than another 3 year license for 3k copies. (FYI the signed giveaways don't count in the 3k copies because they are promotional copies given away, such as copies to reviewers are. The license is 3k SOLD)