Twilight Time / Redwind

[Glowingwabbit]

From Twilight Time:

When we made our store closing announcement on Sunday, we could never have imagined the response from thousands of film collectors who have all come forward to place their final orders with us.

We are incredibly grateful for every one of your orders, and your support of Twilight Time to the bitter end.

As many of you have noted in the past two months, our ability to ship orders in high volume has been impeded by COVID-19, as our warehouse workers are required to follow stringent safety protocols for their protection and yours. This means that we can only process a certain number of shipments per day.

Unfortunately, we have received such a massive influx of thousands of orders in the past 3 days that our warehouse has informed us it will take a few weeks to fully catch up on shipments. All orders are being shipped out in the order received, and our warehouse is working 7 days a week to attempt to get through this backlog as fast as possible.

We ask your patience and understanding while we work diligently to meet this unprecedented demand. Please note that emails to our support staff may also be slightly delayed in receiving a response, as we are also fielding a great number of inquiries at the moment.

Thank you for your support and understanding!

I suspected this would be the case but have no problem waiting.

[Luke M]

I wonder if they had originally sold their movies for the current sale prices they'd still be in business.

[tenia]

I wonder if they had originally sold their movies for the current sale prices they'd still be in business.

Same here. I'm quite curious, more generally, about how many movies sold out at regular prices vs how many sold out because of the sales.

[domino harvey]

I don’t think any non-genre movies ever sold out without the benefit of sales. Their prices and “selling point” of a feature almost no one uses (isolated music tracks) and hardly any market competition when they started became quickly ridiculous once Olive and Kino Lorber started doing what they were doing for far, far less and from normal retailers. I also cannot stand the attitude of “We’re doing you a favor, you should be grateful” from TT, one lapped up and parroted back by its fervent defenders on the Blu-Ray.com forum. And then the arrogance of declaring the format dead due to their own dwindling sales? (Insert chef’s kiss here)

[doctordre]

I wonder if they had originally sold their movies for the current sale prices they'd still be in business.

Their original prices factored in 3,000 unit limit, ongoing overhead, and supporting future releases so it’s probably less of a concern now.

[dwk]

I wonder if they had originally sold their movies for the current sale prices they'd still be in business.

Maybe, maybe not. Nick Redman's death and Fox being bought by Disney were undoubtedly two big factors in them shutting down.

Having said that, this does show the unsustainability of the straight limited edition model when dealing with mainstream or relatively mainstream titles. Especially when said limited editions offer nothing above what you can get from other labels' releases.

[Drucker]

My feeling on Twilight Time has always been that there are, at any moment, a few dozen blu rays I would like to own that I don't. And given the superior product offered by their competitors, superior price point by competitors, and the frequent likelihood that their version would have a shortcoming that was later corrected, I could almost never justify buying their product. The films they are releasing were never really my taste so I'm sure others may disagree, but is there a TT disc that exists in another edition where the TT is the definitive one?

[swo17]

The Song of Bernadette?

[tenia]

Maybe, maybe not. Nick Redman's death and Fox being bought by Disney were undoubtedly two big factors in them shutting down.

But these shouldn't be, should they ? Especially the Fox lockdown : all labels are in the end blocked by this, but they're not going to shut down because of this. As for Redman's passing, my understanding is that he was doing most of the team's cohesion and with him gone, it pretty much got torn apart internally.

To me, they should have survived both of these, and it's mostly their inflexible model that prevented them to be able to go forward.

[Drucker]

The Song of Bernadette?

You got me!

[domino harvey]

But at least they left behind them a legacy of the most consistently awful array of covers of any boutique label (or any label, period, save maybe Alpha Video)

[swo17]

Lack of flexibility is a key issue. Note that Indicator essentially adopted their model with a few key differences

[dwk]

Maybe, maybe not. Nick Redman's death and Fox being bought by Disney were undoubtedly two big factors in them shutting down.

But these shouldn't be, should they ? Especially the Fox lockdown : all labels are in the end blocked by this, but they're not going to shut down because of this. As for Redman's passing, my understanding is that he was doing most of the team's cohesion and with him gone, it pretty much got torn apart internally.

To me, they should have survived both of these, and it's mostly their inflexible model that prevented them to be able to go forward.

Sony and Fox were the two companies that TT worked with the most and the damage of cutting off that one major source of titles cant be overstated.

Other labels havent really been hurt by the Fox lockdown because Fox was never the major source of titles for them.

[domino harvey]

Kino Lorber Studio Classics released a ton

[tenia]

Sony and Fox were the two companies that TT worked with the most and the damage of cutting off that one major source of titles cant be overstated.

Other labels havent really been hurt by the Fox lockdown because Fox was never the major source of titles for them.

I'm not saying Fox's lockdown isn't a factor, but that there were certainly ways around that, just like any other label has been doing since (Indicator have also released many Fox titles, though Sony is their main source). So why TT didn't diversify to avoid such a situation of putting all their eggs in the same basket ?

Note that it's been very difficult to obtain Fox titles since 2018, but TT's sales peaked in 2016 to plummet in 2017. The Fox issues actually only came later. Licences prices have also gone up, something that I doubt was unique to them.

Again, it's hard not to feel some kind of risky nonchalance at TT about their model and their sources.

[domino harvey]

TT also licensed from the same studios as Indicator and/or KLSC: Sony, StudioCanal, and Universal. They weren’t just a Fox outlet. But because they took forever, theirs were some of the last Fox titles released, so it just felt like it

[Cronenfly]

Does anyone foresee another drop in prices? I already got what I wanted most but was considering a second order. $12 each for most is a fair price but what with the expensive shipping and trying to triage what I’m spending on this, I’m kind of feeling like I should wait a little. I won’t be too broken up if anything on my list sells out, anyways.

[domino harvey]

I don’t think any but the latest titles with an existent large stock are going to make it to June before they sell out, so no, prices are about as low as they’re gonna get

[Boosmahn]

Next Stop, Greenwich Village (a Fox title) was out-of-stock yesterday but is back now, though I'm not sure how long it'll last.

[Ribs]

I would also say that Indicator definitely didn’t release “many” Fox titles - they had one deal that ended a year+ ago. And the Fox titles from Arrow, Eureka, and Criterion have not exactly been abundant of late as presumably they approach the end of their titles allotted in whatever their prior deals were (I’m sure a handful more will still pop up). TT’s model just was always built on the false idea of the death of home video which will not be the case - their competitors all adopting better models and basically no one else emulating them sealed their fate, regardless of the access to certain libraries disappearing.

[Cronenfly]

I’m curious if they will even have anything to hand over to Screen Archives come July. Most of what I’m looking at now is fairly recent but I suppose it’s impossible to know what will last and what will not.

[dwk]

tenia I don't disagree with what you are saying. I think swo17 is correct, they weren't flexible, they had a mindset that this is the end of physical media, and when that turned out not to be the case, they couldn't, or wouldn't, shift their business model. Like, I get the impression that MGM ended up not being too thrilled with their deal with TT, and they forced TT to re-release a number of the titles that sold out. TT did this, but clearly were not happy about it and that really was the end of them licensing MGM titles. The rigidity of their model worked against the needs of a company that could have kept them in titles for quite awhile.

TT also licensed from the same studios as Indicator and/or KLSC: Sony, StudioCanal, and Universal. They weren’t just a Fox outlet. But because they took forever, theirs were some of the last Fox titles released, so it just felt like it

I'm unaware of any StudioCanal titles, and the Universal deal apparently was only for a few titles and it seems like that door likely would've gotten shut as KLSC licensed a big batch of the Universal titles that would've appealed to TT's base.

[Feego]

I’m curious if they will even have anything to hand over to Screen Archives come July. Most of what I’m looking at now is fairly recent but I suppose it’s impossible to know what will last and what will not.

I bet those remaining DVD copies of Woman Obsessed and Violent Saturday that have been languishing for 9 years and even at $2.50 still aren't being designated as low stock will still be around!

[domino harvey]

I'm unaware of any StudioCanal titles

Is L-Shaped Room held by another studio in the states?

[swo17]

Sony?

But at least they left behind them a legacy of the most consistently awful array of covers of any boutique label (or any label, period, save maybe Alpha Video)

Them's fightin' words!

SpoilerShow

Or maybe you just need to lie down and have a nap

SpoilerShow