Arrow Films

[eerik]

I don't get it. Why won't they just press 1000 copies for the first run with the option to produce more copies if there is demand?

[EddieLarkin]

I don't get it. Why won't they just press 1000 copies for the first run with the option to produce more copies if there is demand?

Presumably they want to do all they can to get a good return on a risky investment. Announcing these as 1,000 copies only, they incentivise people to purchase sooner rather than later, at a normal retail price, rather than a sale price a year down the line.

And it works because now I'll pick these up in a month or two, were as I'd have probably just waited for their 2014 Christmas sale if they were not limited. If Arrow said this pressing will be 1,000 but we might do more, that incentive completely evaporates and they're back to square one. And if they keep mum about an intention to press beyond the previously promised limited amount, they undermine customer confidence in future promises like this and piss off a lot of early supporters.

So it's "manipulative" in a sense, but again, if it's the only way for them to put these ultra niche titles on Blu, I have no problem paying £5 more than I previously intended to. It sucks for the people who won't even discover these releases until it's too late, but what can you do?

[tenia]

It sucks for the people who won't even discover these releases until it's too late, but what can you do?

This has always been my major issue with limited releases like this, but making them this way also means that they will have a lot of pre-orders, which might help them evaluate a bigger demand than what they thought. I'm not interested at all by both, but I can understand, as it has been the case with specific releases from BFI and MoC, how you wouldn't want to produce 3 000 copies of a title to just sell 800 of them.

[TonyleStephanois]

Could someone at Arrow explain this decision?

Hi Minkin, sorry to hear of your disappointment about this situation. We would very much have liked to have announced this decision sooner but we decided to announce it now instead of pre-Christmas where it would definitely have gotten lost in all the news about various sales, new releases reviews and general festive mania and we didn't want to look like where were announcing it repeatedly as if we were milking the limited edition status.

As explained in the quoted post from our Facebook account this is very much a financial decision, these titles were bought with the intention of filling our ArrowDrome range and budgeted as such, since clearly the budget on ArrowDrome is tiny it wasn't an easy decision to release these as Blu-rays (five times the cost of authoring a DVD alone), adding special features (vs no special features on ArrowDrome), manufacturing costs (more than three times the cost of a DVD) and so on. On ArrowDrome where costs are low we can manufacture a couple of thousand units and if they don't sell then that's generally fine whereas if we manufacture a few thousand Blu-rays and we only sell a couple of hundred units, whilst the remaining units remain in storage, selling pretty much only at a forced sale price then we'll never make any money on these titles which will affect onward budgeting on other titles. So it's far better to warn in advance that we can't manufacture more than 1000 units, and we would rather offer these for a limited time only and not be in the red rather than a DVD only and possibly more in the black.

[JamesF]

Apologies if this has been confirmed elsewhere, but does anyone know if there's anything different about Arrow's recent BD reissue of Inferno other than the lovely new Graham Humphreys artwork? Is the disc content identical, or has a different master been used?

[TonyleStephanois]

Apologies if this has been confirmed elsewhere, but does anyone know if there's anything different about Arrow's recent BD reissue of Inferno other than the lovely new Graham Humphreys artwork? Is the disc content identical, or has a different master been used?

It's exactly the same but we removed the 2nd disc, postcards and poster and gave it new artwork to distinguish it from the earlier version since it's a fairly radical change in contents, to be clear the actual Blu-ray disc is exactly the same as the earlier version.

[Minkin]

Could someone at Arrow explain this decision?

Hi Minkin, sorry to hear of your disappointment about this situation...

Hey, thanks for explaining all of the details. My apologies for jumping to conclusions/rising to disappointment/anger. I actually just went ahead and purchased both titles and a few others (since I didn't want to pay 4 quid in shipping) - but it rather worked out nicely since the sale is still going on at the website. I had always planned to blind-buy the two titles, and was mostly worried about missing the chance on these titles (since Twilight Time horror titles at 3000 units sell out within a few hours) - and whether this would be an ongoing trend for non-steelbook/special packaging titles.

I went ahead and watched Hellgate this evening and found it to be a lot of fun. The Netflix streaming was terribly quality - so I very much look forward to your disc (plus I am excited for the Video Nasty conversation with Kenneth Hall). I am therefore quite glad that these made it to bluray rather than Arrowdrome. Keep doing what you're doing.

[MichaelB]

Rewind interviews an unnamed Arrow insider.

[cdnchris]

I assume it's all based on market, but I find it interesting that Universal has no qualms about licencing Videodrome to Criterion in North America, but seem more than seem reluctant to do so in the UK. That's a film that screams for an Arrow release.

[Calvin]

I assume it's all based on market, but I find it interesting that Universal has no qualms about licencing Videodrome to Criterion in North America, but seem more than seem reluctant to do so in the UK. That's a film that screams for an Arrow release.

They must be using the same logic there as Sony, who will happily licence out some of their biggest catalog films in the US but won't licence out anything in the UK.

[What A Disgrace]

When will the Q2 releases be announced?

[MichaelB]

I assume it's all based on market, but I find it interesting that Universal has no qualms about licencing Videodrome to Criterion in North America, but seem more than seem reluctant to do so in the UK. That's a film that screams for an Arrow release.

I understand that Arrow has tried to get it (it's a bit "well, duh!" as far as perfect Arrow releases are concerned, isn't it?), but failed.

[Stefan Andersson]

A Blu of Femme Fatale would be appreciated. Very underrated DePalma film.

[Calvin]

A Blu of Femme Fatale would be appreciated. Very underrated DePalma film.

Presuming Warner still have the rights, Arrow won't be able to get their hands on that one.

[MichaelB]

Presuming Warner still have the rights, Arrow won't be able to get their hands on that one.

Arrow can't get their hands on the vast majority of his back catalogue - certainly not the Paramount, Sony or Warner titles. And I think they've pretty much exhausted the MGM and Fox holdings.

[Calvin]

Presuming Warner still have the rights, Arrow won't be able to get their hands on that one.

Arrow can't get their hands on the vast majority of his back catalogue - certainly not the Paramount, Sony or Warner titles. And I think they've pretty much exhausted the MGM and Fox holdings.

I think the only MGM De Palma's left are Carrie (which MGM have already released themselves) and the underrated Hi, Mom!, which I'd love to see get an Arrow release - ideally packaged with the public domain (?) Greetings and the Troma-owned The Wedding Party for a De Palma/De Niro trio.

[MichaelB]

Yes, if there's an existing UK Blu-ray you can forget about Arrow doing one for several years minimum.

[GaryC]

There was a UK DVD of Hi, Mom! on a budget label (Prism) back in 2003, under the title Blue Manhattan. It's completely barebones and 4:3 open-matte.

[EddieLarkin]

Q2 titles:

[EddieLarkin]

Also, "Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection" here, artwork TBC.

[What A Disgrace]

Jesus Christ.

[EddieLarkin]

Dates:

April:

14th: Sisters
21st: Koyaanisqatsi & Powaqqatsi
28th: The Delta Force, Theatre of Blood

May:

5th: The Beast Within
12th: Pit and the Pendulum
19th: L'Assassino
26th: Porky's

June:

9th: The Complete Dr Phibes
16th: Milano Calibro 9
23rd: The 'Burbs
30th: Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection

All going for special pre-order prices at the Arrow web store, though money is taken straight away, rather than at dispatch.

[What A Disgrace]

I can't imagine Criterion's June slate competing with Arrow's, even if Criterion really kicks it up a knotch. That's just an astounding lineup.

[Forrest Taft]

I pre-ordered 4 titles, and chose the free shipping option…Does that mean Arrow won't ship them out till they've all been released? It was a bit unclear when I chose one of the shipping options if titles would ship separately or not when choosing this shipping option. Don't want to wait till the end of june for Sisters...

[EddieLarkin]

If you're in the UK the free shipping is available on everything individually, so no they'll be dispatched as they become available.