Is that the order in which they are slated to be released? If not, what number is Nosferatu in the queue?peerpee wrote:Call it four Murnaus then. NOSFERATU, PHANTOM, TABU, DER LETZTE MANN.
What MoC's have sold best/worst?
I can understand the point about viewers choosing purchases in a reactive manner, based on consumer awareness Metropolis selling well is an obvious one. Then again we all come across things to start out with in a very peculiar manner, where we go from there is what counts, i.e. the few films I've bought thus far by MOC have been incredibly enjoyable viewing, so I think, I hope that the 'brand' if you will should encourage people to take risks on back catalogue/lesser known films down the line (long tail business model?).
More risks we take, the more likely it is that ambitious releases boxes and those of unknown quantities will surface.
On that note, shall use the summer recess at MOC to play catch up, starting with Toni and Abhijan.
More risks we take, the more likely it is that ambitious releases boxes and those of unknown quantities will surface.
On that note, shall use the summer recess at MOC to play catch up, starting with Toni and Abhijan.
- Tommaso
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am
What I quite like are the trailers on the MoC site, at least they have them for the older releases. They might give you a quick idea about how a particular film looks, and they have encouraged me to buy some films I had never seen before. And I wasn't disappointed.akaten wrote:More risks we take, the more likely it is that ambitious releases boxes and those of unknown quantities will surface.
"Toni" is a marvel of a film, and I simply cannot understand why it is so often overlooked in the Renoir canon. Enjoy!akaten wrote:On that note, shall use the summer recess at MOC to play catch up, starting with Toni and Abhijan.
I'm looking at those trailers as I type, thanks Tommaso, FW Murnau's films look especially striking.
Since that post I've bought Toni but not watched it (disposable income, but not disposable time) and if that isn't bad enough have to admit I've yet to see a Jean Renoir film. I suspect thats a cardinal sin round these parts, shall make amends and post thoughts asap.
But yeah about discovering films, and I think this is what I was trying to get at in my post beforehand is often due to making peculiar links, taking a chance on it, or just plain happenstance. I learnt about Fanastic Planet via Madlib sampling and refering to it with his Quasimoto alias (think he pays tribute with a music video as well). All of which made the inclusion of the film score on the dvd all the more appreciated (spot the samples!).
Since that post I've bought Toni but not watched it (disposable income, but not disposable time) and if that isn't bad enough have to admit I've yet to see a Jean Renoir film. I suspect thats a cardinal sin round these parts, shall make amends and post thoughts asap.
But yeah about discovering films, and I think this is what I was trying to get at in my post beforehand is often due to making peculiar links, taking a chance on it, or just plain happenstance. I learnt about Fanastic Planet via Madlib sampling and refering to it with his Quasimoto alias (think he pays tribute with a music video as well). All of which made the inclusion of the film score on the dvd all the more appreciated (spot the samples!).
- tryavna
- Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:38 pm
- Location: North Carolina
From the way you've phrased this sentence, it sounds like you've yet to see a Murnau film either, and that's another cardinal sin. Get busy!akaten wrote:I'm looking at those trailers as I type, thanks Tommaso, FW Murnau's films look especially striking.
Not to worry, though. I didn't see my first Ozu until about a year or so ago -- yet another cardinal sin.
So many movies, so little time....
- cgray
- Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:21 pm
- Location: Erie, CO
back on topic:
I'm curious how much MoC stock cd-wow had, and if their "fire sale" or whatever it is ($9.95 for some MoCs) has made a difference in moving some volume.
I probably would not have picked up Michael or Abhijan for >$20, but I have purchased both through the sale. Peerpee has said that neither of those have moved well, but I've been seeing a lot of people on this site and DVDTalk purchase them. Wonder if that helps MoC at all, or if cd-wow is such a small fraction of the sales that it doesn't make any difference.
Just curious...
I'm curious how much MoC stock cd-wow had, and if their "fire sale" or whatever it is ($9.95 for some MoCs) has made a difference in moving some volume.
I probably would not have picked up Michael or Abhijan for >$20, but I have purchased both through the sale. Peerpee has said that neither of those have moved well, but I've been seeing a lot of people on this site and DVDTalk purchase them. Wonder if that helps MoC at all, or if cd-wow is such a small fraction of the sales that it doesn't make any difference.
Just curious...
- Awesome Welles
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
- Location: London
I doubt that there were that many units sold but every little helps. Lots of people here bought quite a few titles. I myself picked up seven to plug those holes (Abhijan included) I don't know what sort of number it takes for a title be considered successful. I can say that in the UK Pan's Labyrinth is the most successful world cinema DVD title ever selling over a million copies. I imagine that if Abhijan sold even 100,000 copies that would be considered a phenomenal success although I am blindly guessing here...
- cgray
- Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:21 pm
- Location: Erie, CO
I would guess that MoC don't need to sell anywhere near 100,000 copies of a predictably less-popular title for it to be considered a success, though I really don't know either.FSimeoni wrote:I don't know what sort of number it takes for a title be considered successful. I can say that in the UK Pan's Labyrinth is the most successful world cinema DVD title ever selling over a million copies. I imagine that if Abhijan sold even 100,000 copies that would be considered a phenomenal success although I am blindly guessing here...
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
"Phenomenal" would be a bit of an understatement.FSimeoni wrote: I imagine that if Abhijan sold even 100,000 copies that would be considered a phenomenal success although I am blindly guessing here...
Put it like this: the BFI's Jan Å vankmajer set appears to be a roaring success, yet the total number of copies in circulation is a tiny fraction of that!
Domino Harvey is quite right: in this market, if you hit four figures in terms of unit sales you're doing very well indeed.
- Steven H
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
- Location: NC
I can imagine a thread like this could really put some of the illegal downloading in perspective. I never really gave it any thought until I read in an MoC article that Criterion only sold 640 copies of freaking Andrei Rublev (admittedly, the laserdisc, but still, the DVD probably didn't do *too much* better.)
- Awesome Welles
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
- Location: London
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- not perpee
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm
Michael's bang on about the figures. A first pressing for us usually consists of a few thousand. We're still on the first pressing of ABHIJAN and have stacks left, nowhere near a second pressing.
I doubt very, very much that PAN'S LABYRINTH sold 1m copies in the UK. That's one for every 60 homes. No way.
I doubt very, very much that PAN'S LABYRINTH sold 1m copies in the UK. That's one for every 60 homes. No way.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
According to Box Office Mojo, Pan's Labyrinth has grossed $5,556,152 in the UK as of early August.
That's a pretty phenomenal total for a subtitled film (hitting seven figures of any description is mega-blockbuster status), but no way is that going to generate a million DVD units sold. My guess is that a million cinema tickets were sold - which in fact is an entirely plausible extrapolation from those figures (and of course the total number of viewers would probably be far less, as I imagine it notched up a fair number of repeat visits).
That's a pretty phenomenal total for a subtitled film (hitting seven figures of any description is mega-blockbuster status), but no way is that going to generate a million DVD units sold. My guess is that a million cinema tickets were sold - which in fact is an entirely plausible extrapolation from those figures (and of course the total number of viewers would probably be far less, as I imagine it notched up a fair number of repeat visits).
Last edited by MichaelB on Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Gigi M.
- Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:09 pm
- Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Rep
Well, if this is the case, I can imagine Criterion's warehouse packed with thousands of discs. That figures why they only printed 2000 copies of Salo.peerpee wrote:Michael's bang on about the figures. A first pressing for us usually consists of a few thousand. We're still on the first pressing of ABHIJAN and have stacks left, nowhere near a second pressing.
- GringoTex
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:57 am
I'm shocked by this. I'm in the U.S. and I still buy every MoC as a matter of principle (except for F for Fake for obvious reasons). I just assumed there were thousands like me out there in the world, especially in the UK!peerpee wrote:Michael's bang on about the figures. A first pressing for us usually consists of a few thousand. We're still on the first pressing of ABHIJAN and have stacks left, nowhere near a second pressing.
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
- Awesome Welles
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
- Location: London
I have to say when I wrote the figure I did think to myself that it seemed wrong. I don't have the magazine anymore in which I read the figure (which incidentally was RRP Magazine if anyone gets it). I do remember that it was the fastest selling world cinema DVD and that it had become the biggest seller. I suppose it could quite conceivable have been 100,000 copies but not knowing sales figures I don't know if this would make it top dog?
- Steven H
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
- Location: NC
Hell, if at least most of the registered users (1141, as of right now) here bought a copy, it would be a bump. We need more brow beating and bullying around here to chunk up sales.GringoTex wrote:I'm shocked by this. I'm in the U.S. and I still buy every MoC as a matter of principle (except for F for Fake for obvious reasons). I just assumed there were thousands like me out there in the world, especially in the UK!peerpee wrote:Michael's bang on about the figures. A first pressing for us usually consists of a few thousand. We're still on the first pressing of ABHIJAN and have stacks left, nowhere near a second pressing.
-
- Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:43 am
Pan's Labyrinth surprises me here in Alberta as well. Although the film is beautiful, and I might be contradicting another of my posts on this very board, I didn't actually care for it at all. It continues to be one of our most rented films in a place where I tell everyone who brings up any subtitled movie it's language of origin, and they'll often put it back. We've had lots of people ask for free rentals because they didn't know the movie wouldn't "talk fuckin' english"(my favorite customer quote) to them.
Meanwhile, we get half as many copies of the far superior (IMO) "The Lives of Others" and we still have copies on the shelf that have never rented.
Meanwhile, we get half as many copies of the far superior (IMO) "The Lives of Others" and we still have copies on the shelf that have never rented.
- Luke M
- Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:21 pm
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- Joined: Fri Jun 16, 2006 11:41 am
- The Elegant Dandy Fop
- Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:25 am
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
For me it's the opposite. This forum introduced me to MOC, which forced me to buy a region free player. I'm a proud owner of several MOC titles.Luke M wrote:I've been a long time lurker of this forum as I've been interested in Criterion titles for a number of years. However, I did not get into the Masters of Cinema until just a couple months ago. I would say less than half the registered users here are even aware of MOC.