A few short weeks ago, Canada’s Maclean’s magazine published an article that raised eyebrows and caused murmurings among DVD aficionados and cinephiles. Headlined, “Say goodbye to big screen classics,” the piece by Jaime Weinman claimed a dramatic slowdown in classic titles on DVD by the major studios and even worse, predicted the end of the boom years when catalog titles were being released at a steady clip.
Certainly there is some legitimacy to Weinman’s claim. As he notes, the Fox Classics division at 20th Century Fox was recently shuttered, dashing hopes of further, extraordinary box sets such as “Ford At Fox” and “Murnau/Borzage.” Universal has made some headway into their classics library, but certainly not to the extent of other studios and who knows if they are likely to continue given the current climate. Paramount’s classic DVDs have been largely non-existent, with “The African Queen,” one of Humphrey Bogart’s most well known films, only making its DVD debut this fall (with the BluRay to follow sometime next year). However, the most sobering comments from Weinman’s article come from Senior Vice President of Warner Home Video, George Feltenstein, a division long regarded for their treatment of the films in their vast catalog.
Feltenstein points to a number of factors that have caused one of the best studios for classic films to rethink their strategy. Foremost, diminishing shelf space (for an already niche product) at retailers like Walmart and Best Buy and BluRay sales of classic titles coming in below expectations have led to “most of the studios [saying] ‘Screw it, we’re out of here, we’re not going to do this.’ ” Troubling words. With that in mind, The Playlist reached out to Jonathan Turell, CEO of The Criterion Collection, to offer his perspective on the state of DVD and to give us insight on how the current economic and cinematic climate affects an independent studio.
While Turell does note that sales are down due to the current economic downturn, they are not seeing the dramatic decrease that have hit the major studios. “If we’re down, we’re down a very small amount. If we took the standard numbers [of dropped sales that other studios are experiencing] we’d be down more, but we’re not.” Furthermore, he does not see any trends in Criterion’s business where classic titles are selling significantly less copies. Turell points to expansion efforts such as the Eclipse line where, “The numbers have exceeded” expectations, and Essential Arthouse as being key factors for Criterion’s ongoing success. These avenues, Turell says, have allowed Criterion to “Expand our market past our core market, [while] never forgetting what we are.”
In his article, Weinman notes as evidence of the decline of classic titles, the recent uptick in contemporary titles to Criterion’s release schedule (they’re releasing two 2008 titles in November for example). However, Turell is quick to dismiss such notions. “There’s been no concerted effort to go to newer films,” he says, adding that the re-prioritizing at the major studios has opened new licensing opportunities for both classic and more contemporary films. Titles that were once sure to fall in to the regular release schedule at the majors are now being more carefully scrutinized, allowing Criterion to appear as an attractive option for these films to be made available. Turell notes all this is to their advantage. “The impact the economy has had is if the studios — and I can’t speak for them — but if George Feltenstein is saying it’s harder for them to find places for their classic films, then the bad economy has enabled us to make deals with studios.”
But what about BluRay? According to Feltenstein, “classics are having a tough time on Blu-Ray.” For Criterion, titles that are released in both formats tend to sell 30-50% in BluRay, but the problem is that the format isn’t bringing any new business in, selling mostly to existing customers who have made the switch. But, if there is one thing in common with Criterion and the rest of the industry in regards to BluRay, it’s cost. Compared to standard DVD, BluRay is still more expensive to author and manufacture, and while Criterion has admirably decided to keep the retail cost down for the new format, it has made the decision on which titles to go Blu with a tricky one. “The cost of authoring is very expensive compared to [Standard Definition], and the cost of manufacturing is multiples [compared to SD]. So if I sell a disc in SD and I sell it in BluRay I can do a much better job of paying overhead if I sell it in SD. We could do what the studios do and charge more for BluRay, but we said we didn’t want do that, and we’re trying not to do that, but it’s very problematic for us….It doesn’t look like BluRay is [bringing in] a new audience, it just [serves] an audience of our customers who have migrated from SD,” says Turell. In addition, while Criterion has done high definition transfers for years now, when viewed through the current capabilities of BluRay, many of them will have to be redone adding another layer of cost to catalog titles that need to be re-released. When it comes to film grain, which some prominent bloggers have complained has been excessive on Criterion’s Blu releases, Turell has a very simple answer to that. “Almost everything we release, we screen a 35mm print beforehand. And we’re trying to get as close to that look and that experience as possible. That’s the mantra, that’s the goal, that’s the mission statement.”
If there has been one factor that every studio and label has experienced equally, it’s been evaporating shelf space at brick and mortar retailers. Tower and Virgin are now distant relics, while places like Best Buy tend to focus mostly on new releases only. But the strength of Criterion’s brand has allowed them to retain some footholds, even as space is becoming more competitive. Borders, for example, has cut back their overall DVD sales, but have added more shelf space for Criterion.
Despite the economic climate and continually changing marketplace, Criterion seems to be weathering the storm simply by continuing to stay true to the core values that have served them well for over twenty years. Whether or not the “boom years” for classic titles on home video are over remains to be seen, but for Criterion the bottom line is, “When we put out a title, it’s still doing pretty well.”