Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

[manicsounds]

With all the early Paramount titles at Universal, their obscure titles going to Olive, premium titles at Criterion, and many majors going to Warner, looks like Paramount are just being lazy on releasing their stuff on their own.

[Jeff]

With all the early Paramount titles at Universal, their obscure titles going to Olive, premium titles at Criterion, and many majors going to Warner, looks like Paramount are just being lazy on releasing their stuff on their own.

I don't know that it's necessarily laziness. They simply want out of the physical media distribution business. I think lots of people do. They know there is value in the library, but exploiting that value for a profit is becoming an increasingly difficult niche business.

[captveg]

This deal does allow for some good box set releases of series that are split between the two companies, such as Friday the 13th.

[Cold Bishop]

Deal includes UltraViolet access to Paramount titles on Warner’s Flixster

This line makes me vomit so hard...

[dx23]

I wonder now if we are going to see Zodiac as well as other Paramount BDs that have gone out of print being re-released in the near future.

[felipe]

That means My Fair Lady is coming back to Warner? Great.

[AfterTheRain]

I hoping that the long requested Samson and Delilah will finally see the light of day on both Blu and DVD because of this deal.

[manicsounds]

It's what everyone's been waiting for: Paramount titles via Warner Archive DVD-Rs!

[felipe]

It's what everyone's been waiting for: Paramount titles via Warner Archive DVD-Rs!

Which is way better than the nothing we've been getting for Paramount.
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Which titles do you guys think will be first in line? Maybe A place in the sun or Shane? The Audrey Hepburn titles?

[CSM126]

That means My Fair Lady is coming back to Warner? Great.

Uh...it doesn't say that. MFL is a CBS property and as such may well not be a part of the deal (there is no mention of CBS titles being among those licensed).

[captveg]

And again, these titles aren't licensed by Warner for Warner to do whatever they please. Paramount's people will still need to schedule and prep anything that Warner would then distribute. "600 titles" sounds to me like "stuff Paramount has released before that Warner can repackage for us", and the titles mentioned ("Braveheart, Gladiator, Ghost, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Chinatown...") seem to back that up.

Basically, Paramount doesn't want to be in the distribution/packaging business anymore except for a few exceptions ("Transformers, Star Trek and Indiana Jones").

[felipe]

But if Paramount doesn't want to be in the distributions business any longer, why don't they let Warner prepare the titles and release them as they please?

And why not license Transformers too? Because they believe they'll be able to make money with Transformers and they wouldn't with other films? I'm not sure I get this deal.

[dx23]

But if Paramount doesn't want to be in the distributions business any longer, why don't they let Warner prepare the titles and release them as they please?

And why not license Transformers too? Because they believe they'll be able to make money with Transformers and they wouldn't with other films? I'm not sure I get this deal.

For your first question, Warner has a recently established digital distribution program that will allow them to put these Paramount films through the awful Ultraviolet/Flixter crap. The digital distribution is the key here as the studios feel that is the next step in distributing films and "reducing" piracy. Maybe Warner would do some better releases for some of these films but it is most likely that they are simply going to re-release the same stuff Paramount provides. Why would Warner spend more money in extras if they already have fully loaded discs that they can sell for $10 without doing any extra work?

For your second question, the heads at Paramount probably think (and they are most likely right) that franchises like Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Transformers, etc., will earn them more money if they do the work themselves than licensing those to a third party. Paramount is not getting out of the movie business, they are simply giving away catalog titles to the highest bidder.

[felipe]

Ok, just to make sure then, does this announcement mean anything concerning new to blu-ray catalog titles (such as Shane, A place in the sun, Ordinary people, etc)?

[CSM126]

Ok, just to make sure then, does this announcement mean anything concerning new to blu-ray catalog titles (such as Shane, A place in the sun, Ordinary people, etc)?

They didn't say, so how would we know?

[felipe]

People here love making predictions, so why not?

[Jeff]

Ok, just to make sure then, does this announcement mean anything concerning new to blu-ray catalog titles (such as Shane, A place in the sun, Ordinary people, etc)?

Not really, no. Warner's large home video infrastructure may allow for Paramount to increase their volume of titles, but that's just speculation. Nothing has been "licensed" to anybody. This is just a distribution agreement, like Fox distributes MGM's product and Image distributes Criterion's product. Unless you're a wholesale buyer, the distributor doesn't really affect you at all.

[dx23]

The problem here is that felipe is confusing distribution and licensing. Warner is just distributing. The benefits to the consumer is that we will probably see out of print blu-rays coming back to print, all these films will have digital distribution through the Ultraviolet/Flixter and we MAY see some boxsets that have WB and Paramount films in it. Maybe a complete Jason collection, or theme sets for stars and directors.

Still, with B&M stores slashing inventory on physical media, the biggest impact of this deal is digital distribution.

[felipe]

But doesn't the article mention Warner will release new blu-ray titles and special editions?

[knives]

That are designed by Paramount same as how Fox recently released new blu-ray titles and special editions for the Bond films.

[captveg]

Yep. For example, if we applied this deal to 2012's releases, the new Paramount Blu-ray releases in 2012 (Wings, Sunset Boulevard, etc.) would still be scheduled/authored by Paramount but distributed/packaged by Warner.

[andyli]

blu-ray.com on Sunset Blvd.

[manicsounds]

Catch Me If You Can review at BlurayDefinition

[Jeff]

Jack Clayton's dreadful adaptation of The Great Gatsby is due on Blu-ray on January 1.

[knives]

I don't know if that is hilarious or frustrating in the face of The Parallax View getting shafted.