Quote:
Originally posted by Holo
[BI went to Suncoast Video, a retail chain, to inquire about buying Eddie Murphy's standups Raw and Delirious. I was told flatly that they were taken off the market deliberately so Eddie's current films would be paid attention to, and probably also in an attempt to clean up Ed's rep for his newer family film roles, much like Bill Cosby in the 70's. They told me they couldn't even order it for me. So in order to enjoy his vids again I had to download them, since I don't rent movies at all [/B]
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I've been in the home video business, doing marketing and sales for several studios for about twelve years now, and I've heard just about every "theory" that have absolutely no basis - just like these. Don't believe everything you hear, and if I were you I'd never go back to a store that blatantly makes stuff up like this to tell their customers.
Paramount owns the rights to both Raw and Delirious, and several of Murphy's older titles (Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hours). In fact, the last Eddie Murphy film that Paramount made was Vampire in Brooklyn, and they don't have a new Murphy film on the horizon. Why would Paramount care whether Murphy's films he makes for other studios do well? And if they aren't releasing any new Murphy films in the near future, and in fact their older films are all more "adult oriented", would it not be counter-productive to Paramount to promote the Eddie Murphy of today as "family friendly"?
Thousands of films are not available on video/DVD today for many reasons. Rights expire. Special Editions are being worked on, so they want to clean the market out of the older releases and build up some demand for the re-release. Titles are pulled to be re-promoted in the hope of increasing sales (yes, it's evil capitalism at work). Hell, the most common reason is that the studio would love to have it released, but their release schedule is already full for the near future - and yes, this is important. Retailers would revolt if all of a sudden there were five hundred new releases a week. They don't have the buy dollars or the shelf space to keep up with it. You think you can't find what you're looking for now. Retailers, and yes even consumers, are already complaining about too many releases flooding the market between all of the major and independent studios.
Sorry, this is a little off topic, but it is an example of why you shouldn't believe everything you hear. I got into an argument with some chucklehead yesterday about WKRP in Cincinatti - a TV series that is much talked about in the industry because of the difficulty in getting it released. There isn't a studio out there who wouldn't LOVE to get clearance on this, but because of the music that is played in the background, nobody can afford to, or get clearance from the music labels on every song! It would be simple to release it with the original Rock 'n Roll replaced by canned music - but kudo's to the studio, they won't do that. The music is just as important a character in that series as the actors themselves! New Video did get clearance on a few episodes, enough to put out a "best of" set a few years ago, but not on the whole series. But this clerk at a very prominent retailer argued with me, and told me - and several of his customers - that he knew that it was because Howard Hesseman was blocking the release. Huh?!? How??? I can only imagine the crap he's telling the average consumer about other titles in order to appear that he knows what the hell he's talking about.
Bottom line is that the studios aren't charity houses. They do this to make money, just like every other business out there. And if Disney can make more money because advertising a ten year moratorium on a title will create a purchasing frenzy with the consumers, why shouldn't they do that? No matter what, that does NOT give thieves the right to steal the movie.
Sorry, this is a touchy subject to me. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll back slowly off the soap box so I don't twist an ankle...
