Sorry for the slow reply - I'm taking a wee break off this week but thought I'd pop on. One thing we have to bear in mind is that on here we all tend to import the versions we want of films - there's a whole majority of punters that don't do that - they like for instance to pick up stuff when they see it in HMV (physical retail can account for 70% of a title saleswise).
Now with Dawn there was talk of an HD master for the Argento cut but once it arrived in the UK it was nothing short of terrible. There simply isn't the time or money to fix it (in essence start from scratch) - the release would have to be put way back into next year.
Saleswise would it be worth it? Doubtful - this is not a title the supermarkets would pick up and Blu-ray sales are just too tiny. Yup - you can get international sales but whilst US discs selling into the UK can get a good sales hold it's not true going the other way and you can't actively court international sales - that goes against the terms of the rights you sign up to.
I can vouch for the fact that no Arrow release yet has caused such hair-tearing - the effort and money that has gone into getting the various extras together (for the first time together) has been huge and there's genuine passion to try and get this right.
My idea once the HD master for the Argento cut was ruled out was at least to put out a release that would allow people who have never imported the Argento cut DVD to be able to buy it and over a span of two DVDs be able to enjoy some of the documentaries as well and once they upgraded to Blu-ray they'd have the Blu-ray disc ready to go.
I can understand for some they'll be happy with their US import and that's cool as long as it's understood that genuinely a lot of passion and caring and investment has gone into the release and for the price of £17.99 it's a billy bargain.
I got into this business as a fan - sadly what I've realised is that what I want isn't always possible but I'm really excited about this release and I know it's going to be a cool edition but this forum is not about everyone agreeing and it is about hopefully providing the kind of feedback that other companies wouldn't bother with.
If I don't answer anything this week thought it's cause I'm not really around so nothing sinister going on!
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