No Blu-Ray for The Boys are Back
I like to think of myself as a well rounded movie viewer. I can enjoy a great movie where tons of money was spent, down to a super low budget indie film. I tend to keep up with the trailers on Apple’s website and I’ll note any film that I think looks good and the date when it comes out in theaters. This past summer I watched a trailer for The Boys are Back, a Miramax drama starring Clive Owen. I think that I can safely state that Clive Owen is one of my favorite actors. From his role in The Inside Man to Children of Men to Shoot ‘Em Up, I always find myself impressed by his performance and choice of movies. This movie looked like no exception.
After watching the trailer for The Boys are Back, I became pretty excited to see it. It was pretty obvious that it wasn’t a huge production movie but I thought for sure that I’d be able to see it once it came out in theaters. However, the weekend that the film was set to hit the box office I was very disappointed to find that it wasn’t showing anywhere around me. I don’t recall ever seeing the trailer on TV and anyone with whom I talked about the film with had never heard of it.
A few weeks ago, I was browsing through the upcoming DVD releases on Now Playing, a free iPhone app that I’m constantly on, and I noticed that The Boys are Back was set to release for purchase on January 26, which was yesterday. I immediately hopped onto Amazon to see what the price was for a Blu-Ray copy of the film. I did find the page on Amazon for the film, but it didn’t show a photo of the product or give me a price whatsoever. However, the DVD copy of the film was available to pre-order. I think that we can all agree that Blu-Ray is the latest generation of purchasing movies. If I’m going to purchase a movie, why would I want to buy it on semi-dated technology?
The weekend before the films release for purchase, I did a little bit of research to see if the film was going to be released on Blu-Ray. With disappointment I learned that since the film didn’t do well, it was only going to be released on DVD. With that I was a little torn as to whether or not I should go and buy it. With Blu-Ray being the current generation, what will be in the future? Will the next system still play DVDs like Blu-Ray players currently do? So I continued to check out how the film did in its initial release in theaters. What I found was that the film only brought in $783,013 in its entirety while it was in theaters. In fact, the film was only released its opening weekend in 6 theaters! At its max, The Boys are Back only played in 108 locations at its peak in theaters and only played for 6 weeks. Compare that to Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel bringing in almost $49 million in its opening weekend alone (To be fair, I know that comparing The Chipmunks and The Boys are Back is kinda kicking below the belt)!
But my complaint is this: Why can I buy a Blu-Ray copy of All About Steve which has a whopping 6% review rating on Rotten Tomatoes, or better yet, I can buy Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (thanks to GGX for finding this one), but I can’t purchase a copy of The Boys are Back on Blu-Ray. For that matter, why can’t I get a copy of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas on Blu-Ray either? That is also a Miramax film; however, this film brought in $9,030,581 while showing in at max 679 locations over its 11 weeks in theaters. That film obviously made more money than The Boys are Back, so why is there no Blu-Ray release?
I don’t think there is a great solution to my complaint, but I just wanted to get it out there. I can understand the money side of things. Miramax needs to make money on its movie and pressing millions of Blu-Ray copies of films like The Boys are Back & The Boy in the Striped Pajamas may not bring them back money on their investment. But why can’t Miramax just press 10,000 copies and just sell them online? Why can’t they just see how it does there and keep pressing them as necessary. I’d be right in line to purchase a Blu-Ray copy of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and also purchase The Boys Are Back for a second time!
