Criterion and Warner Bros.

[Arthur House]

FWIW, I picked up the 2-Disc Bringing Up Baby at Movie Exchange the other day, so if that one happens soon, you know who to thank.

I also got The Trouble With Girls, so if an Elvis phantom page ever comes up...

[FrauBlucher]

There needs to be more Amercan Fritz Lang films in the Collection. While the City Sleeps , Beyond a Reasonable Doubt and Clash by Night are hopefully in play. You would think that WAC would've upgraded them already if they were to stay with WB.

[domino harvey]

Gurl, Fury should be WB's top Lang priority, not those hot messes

[FrauBlucher]

I'm not really a fan of Fury. But if that's what they choose to take off of WB's hands, so be it.

[Robespierre]

How long will the WB licence last? I'm only inquiring because I'm curious if any of these CC editions will go OOP in coming years.

[Omensetter]

I'm not certain how many members here have answers regarding specific licenses, their length, and their parameters (or if they can even divulge such information) but I wouldn't assume it'll last long even if there's good indication (The Philadelphia Story, the home video market) that it'll continue into the new year. The titles Criterion is caressing (Blowup, Barry Lyndon) are must-owns, but if there is any concern about their twenty-whatever titles going out-of-print then, you know, I would just start stockpiling, which means you'll have to own a copy of Woman of the Year.

Someone mentioned in another thread (in the interest of time management, I won't search for it), that Warner straight-up offered them Mildred Pierce while they were inquiring about a different title. It seemed like a credible source when I read it.

[Robespierre]

I've already bought the titles I'm most interested in (still on the fence about The New World). I mainly ask because I wonder if there's an opportunity for a profit to be made here on OOP Criterions... :-k

[Brian C]

Yeah you should probably buy about 30 of each

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

And throw them straight into the trash. If you looking for market speculation on Blu-Rays to make money, you're doomed in this capitalist jungle.

[Omensetter]

Buy a buncha Blowups straight from the Criterion website and help give Zabriskie Point a fighting chance of emerging from Warner's catalogue over whatever next year's In-Laws is.

[Ribs]

If you read up further in the thread, there's pretty good evidence that titles like Barry Lyndon and Philadelphia Story are from a second batch of titles that were likely not part of the original agreement, which probably means things are fairly stable for a few years (and also I'm foolishly willing to believe that Warners will actually extend licensing through to Indicator, which probably would also mean the Criterion titles are safe for the time being).

And, personally, I've picked up every single Warners title so far just by happenstance (not out of an obligation, just I've loved the title selection), and feel the choices overall seem like sure bets as far as being leading sellers for their respective months.

[Robespierre]

Every Melville movie, L'annee derniere, Third Man, Howard's End, Pierrot, etc. all go for absurd prices online. If I can make even 20$ profit on any OOP title that's a win. I mean it's peanuts individually but it'll eventually add up. On a related point, I have a sealed edition of the Animego blu ray edition of Shogun Assassin if anyone is interested in sliding 120$ my way .

Considering I hate both Blow-up and Zabriskie Point, I won't be doing that.

Tha's pretty encouraging news, Ribs. And same here, I've picked up nearly all the WB titles because they actually interest me (aside from TNW which I'm on the fence on, Breaking Point which I have not seen, and Blow-up which I hate). I'll preorder any further Kubrick title and Gun Crazy the day they inevitably announce them.

[DRW.mov]

What's the over under on their relationship eventually yielding Lina Wertmüller's The End of the World In Our Usual Bed In A Night Full of Rain? I'm sure WB has all but forgotten they have it and it would be wonderful to get Wertmüller in as a director. It's also an incredibly underrated and underseen film.

[Noiradelic]

I wouldn't assume it'll last long even if there's good indication (The Philadelphia Story, the home video market) that it'll continue into the new year. ...if there is any concern about their twenty-whatever titles going out-of-print then, you know, I would just start stockpiling

There's no reason to think that any of the WB-licensed Criterions will go OOP. Criterion isn't in the limited-edition business -- they've always held onto titles for as long as they could. None of the titles obtained during the licensing streak that started over 4 years ago have been pulled. You mentioned the home video market, and, yes, physical home video licenses aren't going to become more valuable to WB over time: precisely the opposite. It's not like they're going to yank back Badlands and then license 2001 or Kane, as some here have speculated could eventually happen.

[Luke M]

I wouldn't assume it'll last long even if there's good indication (The Philadelphia Story, the home video market) that it'll continue into the new year. ...if there is any concern about their twenty-whatever titles going out-of-print then, you know, I would just start stockpiling

There's no reason to think that any of the WB-licensed Criterions will go OOP. Criterion isn't in the limited-edition business -- they've always held onto titles for as long as they could. None of the titles obtained during the licensing streak that started over 4 years ago have been pulled. You mentioned the home video market, and, yes, physical home video licenses aren't going to become more valuable to WB over time: precisely the opposite. It's not like they're going to yank back Badlands and then license 2001 or Kane, as some here have speculated could eventually happen.

Right. The upside to physical media’s slow death is seeing Criterion release films you never thought they’d get.

[Omensetter]

There's no reason to think that any of the WB-licensed Criterions will go OOP. Criterion isn't in the limited-edition business -- they've always held onto titles for as long as they could. None of the titles obtained during the licensing streak that started over 4 years ago have been pulled. You mentioned the home video market, and, yes, physical home video licenses aren't going to become more valuable to WB over time: precisely the opposite. It's not like they're going to yank back Badlands and then license 2001 or Kane, as some here have speculated could eventually happen.

Oh, I completely agree. My comments came from assuming another person was concerned about titles going out-of-print.

[aox]

Has there been any mention of The Wild Bunch as a possibility?

[Noiradelic]

As that's a popular western and the Blu-ray's in print, I'd put that in the "later rather than sooner" (if at all) category. They may have Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

[flyonthewall2983]

I would think it would be due a new release soon anyway (or at least in time for it's 50th anniversary in two years) because it was one of the first Blu-ray releases WB put out, and a new 4K restoration of it wouldn't seem out of the question.

[hearthesilence]

At least that has a release somewhere in the world! (BFI) I'm dying to see Crime de Monseiur Lange!

If someone else besides Studio Canal puts this out on BD, I hope they do their own master because the new restoration flat out sucks. If we're lucky, there's a raw transfer available that doesn't have the awful grain management I saw at the restoration's NYFF screening this afternoon.

[kcota17]

Yeah it'll be interesting to see what they do with early WB blu-ray titles like The Wild Bunch, 2001 and The Searchers. They'll all most likely just get 4K releases from Warners.

[Drucker]

Was The Searchers restoration that produced the original blu-ray not 4k? I'm intrigued by it and North by Northwest. There are a ton of posts about their last restorations, how millions were spent to do them, and after all that the releases were still a bit disappointing. Comparing both blu-rays to the 35mm releases I've seen I actually don't believe they fare too poorly, which makes me wonder if they are merely victims of a terrible encode and perhaps some 2008-era grain management that looks bad, but the underlying restorations already look great.

[FlickeringWindow]

Was The Searchers restoration that produced the original blu-ray not 4k? I'm intrigued by it and North by Northwest. There are a ton of posts about their last restorations, how millions were spent to do them, and after all that the releases were still a bit disappointing. Comparing both blu-rays to the 35mm releases I've seen I actually don't believe they fare too poorly, which makes me wonder if they are merely victims of a terrible encode and perhaps some 2008-era grain management that looks bad, but the underlying restorations already look great.

The Searchers was 4K circa-2004 from the 8 perf 35mm color separations since the camera negative was too faded.

North by Northwest was 4K (likely scanned in 6/8K) circa-2009 from the 8 perf faded camera negative plus the 8 perf B&W yellow separation to replace the missing color on the negative.

Both are VC-1 lower bitrate encodes on Blu, though.

[tenia]

The NxNW scan was indeed 8K and downscaled to 4K for restoration.
As for the result, I think they are just results of the time. I'm quite sure that if Warner was to perform the same type of workflow now on these, the results would be better because the experience in digital restoration and scanning are better now.
I don't know if the 2015 BFI 4K restoration of Doctor Zhivago is a clear improvement over what Warner did in 2010, but that would be another movie I tend to compare (digital PQ wise) to NxNW and The Searchers and which would need to be improved upon too. I saw the Warner restoration in theaters 2 years ago, and it just wasn't good enough anymore.

[yoloswegmaster]

Warner has discontinued A Clockwork Orange and Papillon. Could they be potential Criterion releases?