What MoC's have sold best/worst?

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Ledos
Joined: Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:05 am

#26 Post by Ledos » Wed May 23, 2007 2:25 am

peerpee wrote:Call it four Murnaus then. NOSFERATU, PHANTOM, TABU, DER LETZTE MANN.
Is that the order in which they are slated to be released? If not, what number is Nosferatu in the queue?

akaten

#27 Post by akaten » Wed May 23, 2007 4:37 pm

I can understand the point about viewers choosing purchases in a reactive manner, based on consumer awareness Metropolis selling well is an obvious one. Then again we all come across things to start out with in a very peculiar manner, where we go from there is what counts, i.e. the few films I've bought thus far by MOC have been incredibly enjoyable viewing, so I think, I hope that the 'brand' if you will should encourage people to take risks on back catalogue/lesser known films down the line (long tail business model?).

More risks we take, the more likely it is that ambitious releases boxes and those of unknown quantities will surface.

On that note, shall use the summer recess at MOC to play catch up, starting with Toni and Abhijan.

Andreas
Joined: Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:11 am

#28 Post by Andreas » Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:36 pm

Nick, is it possible for you to tell us how many DVDs you have to sell to make a title worth printing?

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Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

#29 Post by Tommaso » Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:02 am

akaten wrote:More risks we take, the more likely it is that ambitious releases boxes and those of unknown quantities will surface.
What I quite like are the trailers on the MoC site, at least they have them for the older releases. They might give you a quick idea about how a particular film looks, and they have encouraged me to buy some films I had never seen before. And I wasn't disappointed.
akaten wrote:On that note, shall use the summer recess at MOC to play catch up, starting with Toni and Abhijan.
"Toni" is a marvel of a film, and I simply cannot understand why it is so often overlooked in the Renoir canon. Enjoy!

akaten

#30 Post by akaten » Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:45 pm

I'm looking at those trailers as I type, thanks Tommaso, FW Murnau's films look especially striking.

Since that post I've bought Toni but not watched it (disposable income, but not disposable time) and if that isn't bad enough have to admit I've yet to see a Jean Renoir film. I suspect thats a cardinal sin round these parts, shall make amends and post thoughts asap.

But yeah about discovering films, and I think this is what I was trying to get at in my post beforehand is often due to making peculiar links, taking a chance on it, or just plain happenstance. I learnt about Fanastic Planet via Madlib sampling and refering to it with his Quasimoto alias (think he pays tribute with a music video as well). All of which made the inclusion of the film score on the dvd all the more appreciated (spot the samples!).

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tryavna
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:38 pm
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#31 Post by tryavna » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:39 pm

akaten wrote:I'm looking at those trailers as I type, thanks Tommaso, FW Murnau's films look especially striking.
From the way you've phrased this sentence, it sounds like you've yet to see a Murnau film either, and that's another cardinal sin. Get busy!

Not to worry, though. I didn't see my first Ozu until about a year or so ago -- yet another cardinal sin.

So many movies, so little time....

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cgray
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:21 pm
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#32 Post by cgray » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:35 am

back on topic:

I'm curious how much MoC stock cd-wow had, and if their "fire sale" or whatever it is ($9.95 for some MoCs) has made a difference in moving some volume.

I probably would not have picked up Michael or Abhijan for >$20, but I have purchased both through the sale. Peerpee has said that neither of those have moved well, but I've been seeing a lot of people on this site and DVDTalk purchase them. Wonder if that helps MoC at all, or if cd-wow is such a small fraction of the sales that it doesn't make any difference.

Just curious...

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Awesome Welles
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
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#33 Post by Awesome Welles » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:48 am

I doubt that there were that many units sold but every little helps. Lots of people here bought quite a few titles. I myself picked up seven to plug those holes (Abhijan included) I don't know what sort of number it takes for a title be considered successful. I can say that in the UK Pan's Labyrinth is the most successful world cinema DVD title ever selling over a million copies. I imagine that if Abhijan sold even 100,000 copies that would be considered a phenomenal success although I am blindly guessing here...

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cgray
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:21 pm
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#34 Post by cgray » Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:12 pm

FSimeoni wrote:I don't know what sort of number it takes for a title be considered successful. I can say that in the UK Pan's Labyrinth is the most successful world cinema DVD title ever selling over a million copies. I imagine that if Abhijan sold even 100,000 copies that would be considered a phenomenal success although I am blindly guessing here...
I would guess that MoC don't need to sell anywhere near 100,000 copies of a predictably less-popular title for it to be considered a success, though I really don't know either.

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domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
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#35 Post by domino harvey » Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:20 pm

I think remove a couple zeros and the title would still be a huge success for MOC.

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MichaelB
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#36 Post by MichaelB » Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:25 pm

FSimeoni wrote: I imagine that if Abhijan sold even 100,000 copies that would be considered a phenomenal success although I am blindly guessing here...
"Phenomenal" would be a bit of an understatement.

Put it like this: the BFI's Jan Å vankmajer set appears to be a roaring success, yet the total number of copies in circulation is a tiny fraction of that!

Domino Harvey is quite right: in this market, if you hit four figures in terms of unit sales you're doing very well indeed.

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Steven H
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
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#37 Post by Steven H » Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:37 pm

I can imagine a thread like this could really put some of the illegal downloading in perspective. I never really gave it any thought until I read in an MoC article that Criterion only sold 640 copies of freaking Andrei Rublev (admittedly, the laserdisc, but still, the DVD probably didn't do *too much* better.)

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Awesome Welles
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
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#38 Post by Awesome Welles » Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:43 pm

I was thinking that if anything in this market sold in five figure territory that would be considered very successful but I would never have imagined that four figures would be deemed successful!

peerpee
not perpee
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#39 Post by peerpee » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:27 pm

Michael's bang on about the figures. A first pressing for us usually consists of a few thousand. We're still on the first pressing of ABHIJAN and have stacks left, nowhere near a second pressing.

I doubt very, very much that PAN'S LABYRINTH sold 1m copies in the UK. That's one for every 60 homes. No way.

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tavernier
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm

#40 Post by tavernier » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:33 pm

peerpee wrote:I doubt very, very much that PAN'S LABYRINTH sold 1m copies in the UK. That's one for every 60 homes. No way.
I did a double take when I read that too. Is that movie really so popular in the UK?

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MichaelB
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#41 Post by MichaelB » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:36 pm

According to Box Office Mojo, Pan's Labyrinth has grossed $5,556,152 in the UK as of early August.

That's a pretty phenomenal total for a subtitled film (hitting seven figures of any description is mega-blockbuster status), but no way is that going to generate a million DVD units sold. My guess is that a million cinema tickets were sold - which in fact is an entirely plausible extrapolation from those figures (and of course the total number of viewers would probably be far less, as I imagine it notched up a fair number of repeat visits).
Last edited by MichaelB on Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Gigi M.
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#42 Post by Gigi M. » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:42 pm

peerpee wrote:Michael's bang on about the figures. A first pressing for us usually consists of a few thousand. We're still on the first pressing of ABHIJAN and have stacks left, nowhere near a second pressing.
Well, if this is the case, I can imagine Criterion's warehouse packed with thousands of discs. That figures why they only printed 2000 copies of Salo.

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GringoTex
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:57 am

#43 Post by GringoTex » Wed Aug 29, 2007 3:12 pm

peerpee wrote:Michael's bang on about the figures. A first pressing for us usually consists of a few thousand. We're still on the first pressing of ABHIJAN and have stacks left, nowhere near a second pressing.
I'm shocked by this. I'm in the U.S. and I still buy every MoC as a matter of principle (except for F for Fake for obvious reasons). I just assumed there were thousands like me out there in the world, especially in the UK!

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
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#44 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Aug 29, 2007 3:27 pm

MichaelB wrote:(as I imagine it notched up a fair number of repeat visits).
It must be that darn Mark Kermode skewing the figures!

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Awesome Welles
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
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#45 Post by Awesome Welles » Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:54 pm

I have to say when I wrote the figure I did think to myself that it seemed wrong. I don't have the magazine anymore in which I read the figure (which incidentally was RRP Magazine if anyone gets it). I do remember that it was the fastest selling world cinema DVD and that it had become the biggest seller. I suppose it could quite conceivable have been 100,000 copies but not knowing sales figures I don't know if this would make it top dog?

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Steven H
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
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#46 Post by Steven H » Wed Aug 29, 2007 5:42 pm

GringoTex wrote:
peerpee wrote:Michael's bang on about the figures. A first pressing for us usually consists of a few thousand. We're still on the first pressing of ABHIJAN and have stacks left, nowhere near a second pressing.
I'm shocked by this. I'm in the U.S. and I still buy every MoC as a matter of principle (except for F for Fake for obvious reasons). I just assumed there were thousands like me out there in the world, especially in the UK!
Hell, if at least most of the registered users (1141, as of right now) here bought a copy, it would be a bump. We need more brow beating and bullying around here to chunk up sales.

Cinesimilitude
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:43 am

#47 Post by Cinesimilitude » Wed Aug 29, 2007 5:50 pm

Pan's Labyrinth surprises me here in Alberta as well. Although the film is beautiful, and I might be contradicting another of my posts on this very board, I didn't actually care for it at all. It continues to be one of our most rented films in a place where I tell everyone who brings up any subtitled movie it's language of origin, and they'll often put it back. We've had lots of people ask for free rentals because they didn't know the movie wouldn't "talk fuckin' english"(my favorite customer quote) to them.

Meanwhile, we get half as many copies of the far superior (IMO) "The Lives of Others" and we still have copies on the shelf that have never rented.

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Luke M
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:21 pm

#48 Post by Luke M » Wed Aug 29, 2007 5:55 pm

I've been a long time lurker of this forum as I've been interested in Criterion titles for a number of years. However, I did not get into the Masters of Cinema until just a couple months ago. I would say less than half the registered users here are even aware of MOC.

bluesea
Joined: Fri Jun 16, 2006 11:41 am

#49 Post by bluesea » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:50 pm

I wonder where Twentyfour Eyes stands in the scheme of things? That's a title I have wanted forever having viewed it in high school. My instinct tells me that it probably has not done too well, but that's the title that has earned MoC my gratitude and support.

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:25 am
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#50 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:15 am

Luke M wrote:I've been a long time lurker of this forum as I've been interested in Criterion titles for a number of years. However, I did not get into the Masters of Cinema until just a couple months ago. I would say less than half the registered users here are even aware of MOC.
For me it's the opposite. This forum introduced me to MOC, which forced me to buy a region free player. I'm a proud owner of several MOC titles.

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