UPDATE: Okay, this is a sure thing. Below is the complete newsletter text followed by the original article. The best part is that they instantly address the price question I asked above and below. Good news there.
Dear Criterion Collection Newsletter subscriber,
We’ve got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.
Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We’ve picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we’ll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.
Here’s what’s in the pipeline:
- The Third Man
- Bottle Rocket
- Chungking Express
- The Man Who Fell to Earth
- The Last Emperor
- El Norte
- The 400 Blows
- Gimme Shelter
- The Complete Monterey Pop
- Contempt
- Walkabout
- For All Mankind
- The Wages of Fear
Alongside our DVD and Blu-ray box sets of The Last Emperor, we’ll also be putting out the theatrical version as a stand-alone release in both formats, priced at $39.95. Our Blu-ray release of Walkabout will be an all-new edition, featuring new supplements as well as a new transfer; we will also release an updated anamorphic DVD of Nicolas Roeg’s outback masterpiece at the same time.
I love Criterion and their Criterion Collection catalog is impressive. However, they charge way too much money for their releases and considering Blu-ray discs already cost more than they should you have to wonder what Criterion would charge should they decide to go hi-def.
Well, according to Classic Film Show that is exactly what the home entertainment studio is going to do starting October 2008 with the following titles:
- The Third Man
- Bottle Rocket
- Chungking Express
- The Man Who Fell to Earth
- The Last Emperor
- El Norte
- The 400 Blows
- Gimme Shelter
- The Complete Monterey Pop
- Contempt
- Walkabout
- For All Mankind
- The Wages of Fear
I have never heard of this website claiming the news and it is the only place I could find online reporting the information as they say the received the information directly from Criterion with the following quote:
These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.
Considering the Criterion edition of the recently released The Last Emperor is running at $39.99 on Amazon I can’t help but believe it would be at least $54.99 on Blu-ray. I wonder, who would be willing to pay over $50 for one movie? Actually, who is even spending upwards of $30-$35 on current Blu-ray releases? Based on the popular titles on RopeofSilicon in the home video catagory the only time you guys even pay any attention to a Blu-ray title is after I review it.
Are consumers ever going to upgrade on a majority level? And will Criterion’s decision to release their catalog on Blu-ray have any kind of effect on the marketplace?
