Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Attack of the Rereleases
We’ve entered the age of remakes and rereleases and this is true for both the movie and gaming industries. We’ve never seen this many remakes of older titles, or sequels for nearly antiquated series, movies and games. During the last few months we revisited many older titles such as Black Adder, ‘Allo ‘Allo and The Handmaid’s Tale. These were all rereleases of older titles by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. They have also recently released a numbered set of 70s and 80s classics, and now they have released other 80s and 90s movies such as Look Who’s Talking, Krull, Stripes, Blind Date, Blue Thunder and several others. We had the chance to relive some of these classics, and we’re going to present you with our humble opinion about Sony’s charming rerelease offensive.
We realize that many people are getting sick of browsing through the sales bins, finding older releases with a new box. We reckon that many collectors already have the older films they want on a DVD or Blu-ray format for their own viewing pleasure. Sadly, not all releases remain available throughout the years, and that’s why we often see collector boxes of different movie franchises, different series and even different genres. These combo packages are often interesting for those who have a big gap in their collection, or for casual fans that don’t want to look for too many separate releases. It’s even more interesting when these sets come at a reduced price, or get thrown in the sales section when there’s a too big stock of them. Sadly, some releases can be expensive, especially when looking at the recent ‘Allo ‘Allo set we reviewed a while back. While this collection was certainly a fun trip down memory lane, it also came at a premium price, for a rerelease in a very simplistic package. This is certainly the downside when a company wants to do a simple cashgrab tugging at the heartstrings of (older) fans.
Secondly we have individual releases, which are often interesting for those still looking to replace their old VHS tapes. Disney was a great example of this, as they kept releasing the same movies, over and over again, with a different cover, a different option such as a 3D version, or simply as a ‘limited edition’. This got many Disney nuts on board to replace their older versions with spiffier newer editions that truly shine on their shelves. Sony is doing somewhat the same, albeit somewhat more subtle and simplistic. The releases for October included titles such as Look Who’s Talking, Blind Date and Skrull, which are totally different releases and wouldn’t fit in a box-set. That’s why these releases come at a reduced price, as production costs are also a minimum when there isn’t any extra design for the covers, and there are no procedures in gaining rights to certain productions. This makes it fun to collect older titles such as this, and it also makes it affordable to add these titles to your collection.
We can conclude that rereleases are a matter of personal taste. Companies would not be doing this if they didn’t have a market for these physical rereleases. Sony does a great job in providing these copies to the masses, and they are always in a decent package. Are they truly needed? Not really. Are they fun for collectors? No doubt. We believe that some rereleases are important for those wanting to update their collection, or even fans that are still replacing their VHS movies to a more modern format.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's Attack of the Rereleases,
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