I've read in a couple blogs and forums that both Blue Underground and Casa Negra willing be shutting down in 2008. Has anyone heard this and can confirm it? :bluesad:
If this is true, it just SUCKS. Better scoop up some of their stuff before it goes OOP.
I've heard that things haven't gone quite as well for Blue Underground as they had thought that it would. I think that their biggest problem is just re-releasing stuff that Anchor Bay had already put out a while back.
I used to be friends with a girl who worked for Bill Lustig and the gang at BU, but since she flipped out and randomly decided not to reply to my emails anymore, I probably won't be able to provide any more insight into the matter than anyone else. I did email her though, so if by some divine hiccup in the cosmic consciousness she decides to start talking to me again, I'll pass on anything I find out.
Well I like a lot of BU releases but they are a little to proud of their stuff and that is what is hurting them, while most folks are selling older movie releases from under $5 to $10 new in many cases, BU still list their issues at $30-$40 ... I'll surf their site looking at titles and then go to eBay or used on Amazon to get it at less than half the price, their new price and MSRP is just to high IMHO.
Now I'll gonna have to find those titles I've wanted from them, but I'm not paying their new prices.
edit: grammar-o
I really like Blue Underground's releases. Like Cheeze said, they do like to price their stuff a bit high. Considering though the amount of extras you get with some of the releases, the price is justified. I love my double disc copy of Dead and Buried and Blue Underground did a great job with it. They wanted quite a bit for it when it was released and I ended up picking up a two pack of both it and Two Evil Eyes for less than what BU was asking for the one film alone.
I wish the company the best, and hope they stick around. They do put a lot of care into their releases instead of just throwing out some badly transferred film on a barebones disc.
Indeed these are the end times.....
Bill Lustig is an awesome guy and I got to meet him in person when I caught a double feature of "Maniac Cop" and "Maniac Cop 2" a couple of years back. It really sucks to hear that BU may be going under. Sad to see a company that puts so much into their releases get the shaft. :bluesad:
As for pricing, look at Criterion and Synapse's prices for their releases. They put out some crazy, high quality stuff, and their prices are usually fairly expensive. It's what smaller companies have to do to keep afloat.