MichaelB wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2026 7:45 pm
With regard to A Clockwork Orange, he asked Warner Bros to withdraw it from UK distribution in 1973, and two decades later the Scala Cinema was sued for copyright infringement for hosting an illicit screening—but the plaintiff was Warner Bros, not Kubrick.
So I’m not actually aware of any legal action specifically initiated by this allegedly “highly litigious individual”, but maybe you can fill me in.
He famously sued to block the release of Fail-Safe. He sued the producers of Space: 1999 for being too similar to 2001. He threatened legal action to block a bio in 1970. He threatened to sue HP because they gave sole credit for 2001’s FX to Doug Trumbull in an ad. The ACO lawsuit against the Scala had to go through WB because they owned it and withdrew it from circulation at his behest, but the suit was definitely at his direction.
Wasn’t Trumbull involved with a documentary on 2001 shortly before his death that was unable to be completed? God, what a litigious man
The Space: 1999 suit reminds me of George Lucas suing the makers of the original Battlestar Galactica
Finch wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2026 12:50 am
At least one boutique seller, Jesse at DiabolikDVD, won't be selling the set:
My 2 cents about the Kubrick boxset....I think it is a boxset that is priced knowing full well that no one is going to buy it at that price and they need to get at least the BN sale price to make it profitable. Also the reason I won't be carrying it
I know it's not apples to apples, but given how strong the market has been for deluxe box sets of albums over the last 15 years, I don't think this is going to have any trouble selling at all. The idea that this is too expensive or and is at risk of not being profitable seems delirious to me.
People paid $200 for a deluxe edition box set of Black and Blue by The Rolling Stones.
I think he means at the price he’d have to sell it at (ie not 50% off) it won’t be profitable for him (because people will buy from BN or Criterion direct instead to get half off). And he’s likely correct
Yes, if everyone knows that it'll be sold at half price almost immediately after release date, and if Jesse can't do that without taking a financial hit, why on earth should he get involved?
If most people never buy at the MSRP of $600, why don't Criterion set the price at a more reasonable level ($500?) and have promotions set at 30 percent discount? The actual selling price will be the same as 50% off the higher price, but will allow more boutique sellers to participate. I used to buy mostly through Amazon or B&N in the past, but these chains have little knowledge or interest in supporting this niche business, so now I use Orbit or Diabolik whenever possible, because they understand better my needs as a customer.
ryannichols7 wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2026 5:20 pm
the big pull here extras wise is new commentaries on 2001 and The Shining by Michael Benson and Lee Unkrich, respectively. I haven't read either book that these gentlemen have written, but knowing Unkrich from Pixar I trust that these will be fantastic tracks
Really hoping they've gone to the effort to include commentary tracks on every film here. Not optimistic, but hoping. These seem like the hardest ones to get WB/the Kubrick estate to approve tracks for, so maybe?
It's much more attractive to have a higher price but with a bigger discount. That's why in France, annual clearance sales are heavily surveiled by authorities : because some shops would artificially increase the supposedly-original price to claim it's getting a bigger discount, when it actually was never sold at the original price.
That's just how our brains function, and is a known cognitive bias.
The issue with Criterion is their lack of more dynamic and frequent sales, meaning that once you get that you can simply wait out for their twice-a-year 50%-off sales, there are few reasons to pay any of their release more than this. I've picked this decades ago, and ha e pretty much since only bought their stuff at this period (especially since their UK pricing brought so little relief on this domain).
Finch wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2026 12:50 am
At least one boutique seller, Jesse at DiabolikDVD, won't be selling the set:
My 2 cents about the Kubrick boxset....I think it is a boxset that is priced knowing full well that no one is going to buy it at that price and they need to get at least the BN sale price to make it profitable. Also the reason I won't be carrying it
Meanwhile, if this movie were some 80s juvenilia packaged with a bunch of action figures, they'd have no issue selling it. This attitude is why I don't buy my stuff from Diabolik
tenia wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2026 1:57 pm
It's much more attractive to have a higher price but with a bigger discount. That's why in France, annual clearance sales are heavily surveiled by authorities : because some shops would artificially increase the supposedly-original price to claim it's getting a bigger discount, when it actually was never sold at the original price.
I don't know if this is true now, but certainly when I worked in retail forty years ago there was a British rule that you could only advertise something at half price if it had provably been on sale at full price for a minimum of 28 days beforehand. I remember when we took delivery of stuff that we all thought was outrageously overpriced we knew for certain that a 50% offer would be brought in the following month, although fortunately it was so glaringly overpriced during the 28-day window that hardly anyone ever bought the items in question.
mfunk9786 wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2026 1:58 pmMeanwhile, if this movie were some 80s juvenilia packaged with a bunch of action figures, they'd have no issue selling it. This attitude is why I don't buy my stuff from Diabolik
That's a really bizarre take. Jesse's been very clear about why he's not stocking it, and it's completely reasonable to me. And he's much more privy to sales figures and profit marging than we are.
beamish14 wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2026 2:43 am
Wasn’t Trumbull involved with a documentary on 2001 shortly before his death that was unable to be completed? God, what a litigious man
The Space: 1999 suit reminds me of George Lucas suing the makers of the original Battlestar Galactica
Yeah, Trumbull did a gorgeous proof-of-concept but WB didn’t move forward. Though Trumbull himself sometimes had a bristly reputation - I got to have an extended conversation with him once and found him warm and fascinating - I got the feeling that he still had very fond feelings toward Kubrick as the years went on and he was a little heartbroken more than angry.
The Galactica lawsuit is exactly what I was thinking of too.
Drucker wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2026 12:56 pm
I know it's not apples to apples, but given how strong the market has been for deluxe box sets of albums over the last 15 years, I don't think this is going to have any trouble selling at all. The idea that this is too expensive or and is at risk of not being profitable seems delirious to me.
People paid $200 for a deluxe edition box set of Black and Blue by The Rolling Stones.
I think this is correct. I’m not gonna critique anyone who chooses to carry or not carry a product, we’re not in their shoes. But there are a decent amount of people who are preordering it right now, and they would pay to have their large investment shipped safely and securely.
