Quote:
Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs  Plus, as with many cult releases, region plays a big factor still in as much as there is still a significant market that only buy domestic titles and will not import. Taking Scream Factory thread on Blu-ray.com as a flip-side example, the amount of people on there who request titles that already have releases over here or in Europe is quite staggering, and that is a 'hardcore' collector community. The average cult film fan will be more likely to pick titles up in store or may not be familiar with the title and blind-buy on faith of reviews or word of mouth, or because the blurb on the back sounds good (with Tarantino being such a fan, films such as this have filtered down through into mainstream film fandom too). |
Forums like this do tend to create the impression that the vast majority of people shop around globally, but the reality seems to be very different.
When I started work on Arrow's
The Night of the Hunter and realised that my budget would only stretch to a single-disc release, I initially thought "What's the point? Won't people just import the two-disc Criterion?" - but this ignores several points, namely:
1. The Criterion is Region A, and the overwhelming majority of UK-based Blu-ray users are locked to Region B.
2. The Criterion is an expensive premium edition, retailing at $49.99 RRP. True, you can certainly get it for less, but you're unlikely to be able to get it brand new for under £20 inc. shipping...
3. ...which means that you're playing the Customs lottery and might well end up spending a fair bit more!
Whereas you should be able to pick the Arrow edition up for half that, and while the Criterion is unquestionably the superior package, the Arrow is considerably better than merely half as good! (Crucially, it's based on the same UCLA restoration, and also has that amazing 159-minute "making-of" documentary).
In other words, it was absolutely worth doing.