The opening graph of this Macleans piece on classic films losing their home video champions in studios is so depressing I’ll just let it speak for itself:
Though DVD sales are down, current movies are still guaranteed a DVD release. But for anything made earlier, collectors may be out of luck. Most of the studios have trimmed their schedule of classic movies on DVD to almost nothing; 20th Century Fox recently eliminated its Fox Classics website after cancelling plans for unreleased classics like A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Even the prestigious Criterion Collection has cut back the number of classic foreign movies it releases, and brought out a much-derided current film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, to make extra money. George Feltenstein, a senior vice-president at Warner Home Video (which still has some classics scheduled), says that “most of the studios have pretty much said ‘Screw it, we’re out of here, we’re not going to do this.’”
Of course, the answer here, as the writer mentions briefly, is establishing an online home for these films. But I’m not so big on “burn on demand” as I am simply being able to stream the films at an outlet such as, say, The Auteurs. More of that, please. Though I’m sure studios will cork that up if they can’t find a way to monetize it.
Same as it ever was…
Comments
11 responses to “Will classic films no longer find audiences on DVD?”
This was really depressing/upsetting to me because I’m young, so I haven’t had a chance to see many of the classics and now seeing them will even more difficult.
I don’t get why the studios don’t re-release them. The only thing that would cost would be the marketing [and production of the actual DVDs, but that’s minimal] but it’s not like they have to make a new movie. And if studio logic is only market ‘proven commodities’ [sequels and remakes], shouldn’t this fall under it?
Going through Netflix’s list of Oscar nominees and winners (they stubbornly don’t have a Palme d’Or section), I was surprised how many films were unavailable. It seems so nonsensical. You don’t need to make a million copies and put them on the shelves of Best Buy, just have them available on Netflix and Amazon.
What a terrible shame — so happy I have such a large collection of DVD’s with the classics intact — makes me very, vry sad for future generations who may struggle to find great films like The Bride of Frankenstein or City Lights while dreck like G.I. Joe will be readily available…so very sad.
DVD in general is dying, if not dead.
And I think we’re approaching an age where every film in a studio’s vault will be available by direct stream to your TV. And then they’ll be far less consensus on what old films are actually classics and worth seeing.
I have to agree with Chad.
Just the other day I noticed that Woody Allen’s first film, “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” was not available on Netflix, but was coming soon – but only to the streaming service.
As broadband expands and becomes more affordable and faster, it will become the preferred choice for most.
Ah, so that explains why The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is part of Criterion… also may help to explain why Armageddon and The Rock have also recently gotten Criterion releases.
DVD isn’t dying yet. It’s just very cheap right now, so they’re making less profit from it but I’m buying myself crazy these past few months. Classics too FYI.
“also may help to explain why Armageddon and The Rock have also recently gotten Criterion releases.”
They were released years ago. Criterion has always released occasional mainstream titles to acquire the funds to give us Kurosawa, Bresson and Tarkovsky.
Looks like I’ll never get a chance to own Wings or Cavalcade on DVD. sad news for me.
Just appreciate Turner Classic Movies, for those of you who watch. For those of you who don’t, you’re missing out.
You can see all of the films you want to see if you’re patient. “Wings” has been played occasionally, but it makes it worth the wait when TCM posts its new schedule and one of the films you’ve always wanted to see pops up. It feels like more of an event when that happens.
Even still, this is disappointing news from the studios. This and their stonewalling of Redbox.