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Topic: Fox Repertory Catalog

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-06-2019 07:56 PM

quote: Martin McCaffery
They had their big animated films on, IIRC, a five year cycle

I always figured it was seven years, but yeah, that's what they did.

Somewhere in the archives of Boxoffice there is a quote from somebody at Disney saying they would never release their classic animated movies on video because they were not meant to be watched on TV sets.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-06-2019 10:37 PM

Hmmm... Maybe, then, I should look around my basement to see if I can find that old, VHS copy of "Song of the South" that I've got squirreled away, down there. [Wink]

They'd have a shit fit if a clean copy of THAT ever got out into the wild.

Yes, I understand that a copy of an aged VHS video tape should, by no means, be even remotely considered a "clean" copy. I just think it would be funny to see the looks on their faces if that ever happened. [Wink]

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-06-2019 11:07 PM

I believe that there is a PAL laserdisc copy of SotS that is considered to be the best home-format version that was officially released.

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Chris Haller
Film Handler

Posts: 68
From: Rochester, NY, USA
Registered: Dec 2015

posted 08-06-2019 11:48 PM

quote: Scott Norwood
I believe that there is a PAL laserdisc copy of SotS that is considered to be the best home-format version that was officially released.

As far as I know, that title is claimed by the Hong Kong release. It's a dual audio release of the film with a Catonese and English track. As a result, there's no subtitles.

All of the Japanese releases of the film featured at least minimal subtitling during musical numbers.

I have the last release of the movie. It's in English with digital audio, but the entire film is subtitled in Japanese!

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-07-2019 06:22 PM

The latest from the Art House Convergence mail list:

quote:
I promised that I’d give an update as soon as I heard, but others have already posted the good news. Fox can now accept repertory bookings and the rich history of Fox titles which we’ve been able to share with our audiences is still available to theaters - good news after a brief scare.

There will be a change on “kids shows” which will no longer be allowed. As of right now, this is the one substantial policy change which more closely adheres to Disney’s practice of prohibiting these shows.

At least one theatre is was told the films are still not available. We'll see if there are others.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 08-08-2019 09:03 AM

A fun bit of conspiracy theory speculation: perhaps another reason why Disney has cut off Fox' catalog from repertory play in commercial theaters is that Disney intends to remake the living hell out of all those Fox movies. Can't have any of the originals, such as Home Alone playing in theaters when they intend to remake Home Alone.

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Ed Gordon
Film Handler

Posts: 31
From: Mountlake Terrace, WA, USA
Registered: May 2019

posted 08-08-2019 09:37 AM

quote:
Fans will soon get to relive the joy of Home Alone when Disney launches its highly anticipated streaming service. The only problem is that Kevin McCalister's masterful plots and schemes against burglars Harry and Marv may be a bit different than what was portrayed in the 1990 classic.

Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed plans for Disney+ to include 20th Century Fox classics like Home Alone, Night at the Museum, Cheaper by the Dozen and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, however, during an investment call he noted the films would be "reimagined" for the new streaming service, CNN reported on Wednesday.

https://www.newsweek.com/home-alone-disney-streaming-service-reboot-twitter-1453028

It's true, you can't make this stuff up!

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-08-2019 10:48 AM

The Disney ads for Home Video of their classic animated titles would always tell you to hurry up and buy it on DVD before it goes back into the VAULT! The reality was, that if a video retail store bought a quantity of discs of that title and they didn't sell them all by the date Disney claimed it would be gone, that store could keep selling them as long as they had them in stock. Copyright law isn't involved with the property ownership of the physical medium as the whole debacle of the FBI vs Roddy McDowell eventually defined (he was never charged or arrested because it was bogus raid). If you own the disc of Song of the South, no one can stop you from selling it, not even the whole gaggle of lawyers at the Rodent House.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-08-2019 11:49 AM

quote:
There will be a change on “kids shows” which will no longer be allowed.

Because we wouldn't the kids to be entertained or maybe get into the habit of going to the cinema and enjoying movies or anything. Better to have them stay at home and play video games.

(Seriously, though, I wonder how they define "kids shows.")

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 08-08-2019 01:44 PM

quote: Frank Angel
If you own the disc of Song of the South, no one can stop you from selling it, not even the whole gaggle of lawyers at the Rodent House.

It's also, so I am told, widely available on unofficial consumer media releases in Japan, where the movie is now in the public domain.

Shortly before emigrating from the UK, I was put in touch with someone who had a pristine 16mm diacetate IB print of it, struck in 1948. He wanted to raise a Volkswagen salute to Mickey, by screening it on the university campus where I worked, taking advantage of an educational use = fair use exemption in British copyright law. However, the law contains wording that made it ambiguous and messy as to whether the conference we wanted to screen it at actually qualified as educational or not (the exact wording was something like "official course of instruction"), the university's lawyers got cold feet at the prospect of a rodent infestation, and the show never happened (apart from a very private screening for a select few of us while this was still in the proposal stage).

Trying not to veer into politics, but in the current political climate, I'm not surprised that even so much of a hint of a Disney-sanctioned re-release of SOTS is well and truly off the table. If a major studio announced a blockbuster remake of one of the most infamous Nazi propaganda movies, it would probably be less controversial!

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Mark Strube
Master Film Handler

Posts: 322
From: Milwaukee, WI, United States
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 08-08-2019 07:10 PM

So "adult" Fox repertory titles are again available to commercial movie theaters? I just sent an email to our film buyers but I probably won't hear back until tomorrow.

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Mark Strube
Master Film Handler

Posts: 322
From: Milwaukee, WI, United States
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 08-09-2019 12:55 PM

Update: the "good news" only applies to strictly art house theaters. I program for first-run theaters and run repertory shows as extra revenue on slow nights. Fox repertory is still unavailable to mainstream theaters. Oh well.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 08-09-2019 01:04 PM

Maybe you should split your business in three... one that runs the building and rents it out, one that does the first-run movies and just happens to rent the building to do so and one that does the repertoire titles and also just rents the building to do so... The "brothel model". [Wink]

Might be nasty, but it's not like Hollywood never operates with those kind of tricks. They literally came up with the whole concept that's named after them: "Hollywood Accounting", just to screw others over to increase their own profits...

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-09-2019 03:23 PM

Marcel is right. And it wouldn't be a "trick" as much as just playing by their own rules. If a "Cinema Art Society" rents your theatre for their screenings and Disney is OK with that kind of booking, then start a damn Cinema Art Society.

Is that true, that SONG OF THE SOUTH is in Public Domain? I never heard that, and to be honest, I can't imagine Disney ever, EVER, under any circumstances, letting anything go into Public Domain status.

When FANTASIA was about to go PD at the end of its 50 years, they spent over a year trying to find any loop-whole, and nuance in the law that they could get around it or thwart it.
When they couldn't they remained undaunted and simply got their army of lawyers together, jetted over to Washington, wined and dined the politicians, plied them with wine, women (well, probably more like young girls and/or boys) and forget the song -- I am sure it was more like piles and piles o' MONEY. And then magically, just before FANTASIA became PD...you know, the intellectual property of The People, it became copyrighted property again of the life of the "author" plus 50 years. So not knowing what the life of the Disney Entertainment Group is, who knows when FANTASIA will become Public Domain. Well, we do know actually, NEEE-VER.

So in the face of THOSE tricks, I say quibbling over or bending definitions a bit so you can make MONEY for THEM, doesn't even qualify and anything to gnash one's teeth or rend one's garments over.

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Mark Ogden
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 943
From: Little Falls, N.J.
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-09-2019 04:32 PM

I'm not entirely sure how that could have happened. Fantasia is not a Berne Convention title, and hence the fifty-year rule should not apply. Under the original "28 plus 28" copyright law, the film would have not gone into public domain until 1996, six years after its' fiftieth anniversary, but the copyright act of 1976 extended the ownership of the film to 28 plus 67, or 2035. Can you provide any additional information, or a citation for this? I follow entertainment law as it applies to movies, and I'm really curious.

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