It would seem that Sony has lost interest in releasing any catalogue product on Blu-ray at all and has struck licencing deals left and right in the US (TT, Mill Creek, Criterion, Grindhouse Releasing, etc) - which is an incredibly odd move considering its consumer electronics division was responsible for introducing the format to market, especially when you also take into account the commitment other majors continue to make. It should be also pointed out that Nick Redman (co-founder of Twilight Time) has said that the 3000 figure is not something that they've stumbled upon haphazardly, it's a number that works for almost everything they've done (and is derived from the ltd ed soundtrack CDs he was responsible for releasing from back in the 1990s too), but as you say, occasionally a title will come along that takes them by surprise but those (namely Body Double Christine, Fright Night and Night of the Living Dead) and anomalies, most takes months to sell out.

It's certainly odd that Sony has not released Fright Night or Christine elsewhere given how quickly the TT discs sold out but sitting on something and being canny is a typical studio trait - studio execs don't have the confidence to follow through with something but don't want to give someone else the opportunity to make a success either - so keeping hold of something and doing nothing with it becomes the safest option. It's very frustrating, I know, as I really want Fright Night and was unable to buy it at the time as I was seriously skint. But hey ho - my point stands though - if people want to own some of these titles they should embrace the TT releases and as I also mentioned, Screen Archives is customs friendly too :)

Not sure I wholly agree. It's impossible to set an ideal number for a print run and expect that to work with everything. The only people 'surprised' with the sales of Fright Night were TT themselves. I know I was working at Blockbuster at the time and we got a whole bunch of Fright Night DVD's into our store based on the fact sony were backing the major theatrical release of the remake and we sold out of them all. Personally I would love to own those TT discs and I don't think the discs themselves are overly dear, it's more the postage. I have a real problem with items going missing in the post so there is no way i'd risk the cheaper postage option as TT refuse point blank tu guarantee anything that way. The more expensive postage is almost the same price as the disc which makes them eye wateringly expensive.

I would argue that each territory needs its own equivalent of TT if the studios want to release stuff this way to give fans outside of America a chance at owning these titles rather than being forced to seek them out VOD or worse still piracy. The days of massive print runs are over, I think most would agree with that. But these films need to still be available/accessible to viewers in some form simply as a deterrent to piracy.

I agree on your points about accessibility of these titles to all territories and of course there are labels like Arrow, Koch and Wildside here in Europe who would jump at the chance to get them, so it's back once more to the issue of Sony and its refusal to licence them. Bizarre.

One small criticism of your last post, it's Screen Archives that is responsible for the sales and sending of Twilight Time's product, not TT itself. I buy almost every month, use standard shipping option and have not had anything go astray, BTW. I'm sure you'd be covered through PayPal if items weren't to arrive, anyway.

Fair enough. Though you clearly dont have the problems i get with dissapearing packages. Wether screen archives or tt deciding print runs its still a tricky issue as the sales on a fritz lang film noir and a john carpenter stephen king adaptation will always br different. Releasing fright night as a limited editon right as the remake was hitting cinemas was a really really bad idea whoever made it.

As you say, it's about damn time a proper Mallrats BD was released, and this looks very much like a proper Mallrats BD!

I can recall of only one parcel going astray in the past 18 months/two years, mate - was something I ordered from eBay. Everything else has arrived in good time. I guess I am very lucky.

Just to pick up on the point that you made about Fright Night, again, this is something that I am sure TT could not have helped. From what I gather, they have a complicated licencing deal with the majors that differs from any those in place with other distributors - they commit to 3K units whether they sell or not and those are pressed immediately, in one go and I am sure this is the reason why Fox, MGM and Sony have struck deals with them as it's a no-brainer given that they will get a fairly sizeable chunk of money for each and every one of the titles rather than the usual upfront and percentage of units sold.

Now, you'd have thought Sony would have though about hanging onto Fright Night themselves, as, as you quite correctly mentioned, it was issued around the same time as the remake. It's a very odd decision but again, so is the fact that the second film hasn't had a decent DVD or Blu-ray release either. The theatrical platform for the remake would have been the ideal time to get that out.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but Prom Night is coming from Synapse in the US

'Satans Blade' MIGHT be getting a blu release, from Slasher//Video. Haven't heard of the label, and only have a vague recollection of the VHS cover - I definitely haven't seen the film itself.
So it's strange that I'm sort of excited - I think I'm falling for these obscure 80's horrors - Just Before Dawn, The Dorm That Dripped Blood etc.
Anyone seen the film? Any good?

Bluray.com thread here - Satan's Blade (1984) - 30th Anniversary Edition from Slasher // Video in 2014! - Blu-ray Forum

Dark Sky/MPI are apparently releasing 'Death Spa' on BD on the 24th May.

'Curtains' cover revealed - apparently the original poster art.