Article by Marcus Siu

Rewind five years ago to Valentines Day 2016. That significant date was when the very first Ultra HD Blu-Ray Discs were released in the United States. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released six titles:  The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Salt, Hancock, Chappie, Pineapple Express, and The Smurfs 2. The other major movie studios including Lionsgate, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and Universal followed suit and released a handful of titles a few months later.

My assumption was that Criterion Collection, the cinephiles’ favorite home video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring, and distributing “important classic and contemporary films”, would soon immediately follow the major studios in releasing the latest format.

I was wrong.

In May of 2016, Peter Becker, President, and Jonathan Turrell, CEO, were receiving the “Mel Novikoff” Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival on behalf of their company, international art house cinema sister companies, Janus Films and the Criterion Collection. They were also screening a new print of the Coen Brother’s “Blood Simple”.

Completely frustrated about not finding any current news about Criterion, I got a chance to ask Peter Becker himself, who also happens to be the founder of the Criterion Collection, whether or not the company was planning to release any 4K UHD Blu-rays anytime soon.

Becker immediately responded, “You’re not going to like my answer”.

He was absolutely right, I didn’t like his answer. Becker believed that 4K UHD Blu-rays was probably going to be a niche market and even wondered if there was even much of a demand for the product, at all. He neither confirmed or denied Criterion’s commitment to the new format, but had more of a “let’s wait and see” attitude.

The following year, even Disney released their first slate of 4K UHD Blu-rays.

However, as it turned out, Becker was right. Before 4K UHD Blu-rays were introduced, DVD’s and Blu-ray discs had a 50-50 market share, but for Criterion, it was closer to 60% Blu-rays vs 40% DVD’s. When 4K UHD Blu-rays were introduced, they ate into Blu-ray market sales while DVD’s increased its market share to 60 to 70% in just the last two years.

4K UHD Blu-rays only account for 7 to 7.5% of the market share as of this year, but taking Blu-ray sales down at the same time. Unfortunately, this affects Criterion more than any other movie studio since they had a healthy sale of standard Blu-ray in the first place.

It seems that people who buy DVD’s are more price conscious and never had intended to jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon in the first place, whereas the early adopters of Blu-ray also jumped on the 4K UHD bandwagon. It’s extremely rare for a person who collected mainly DVD’s to transition straight into the 4K UHD world.

As I was doing my biyearly Criterion Blu-ray shopping at the Barnes and Noble sale last July at my local Dublin, California store, I had a lengthy conversation with my “go to movie guy”, Shawn. He is extremely knowledgeable about movies and up-to-date on video releases, especially from boutique labels, like Arrow, Shout Factory! and Criterion. He said that there was a lot of buzz and speculation online that Criterion was possibly going to release UHD Blu-rays for the upcoming Christmas season. This opened up a terrific conversation on which title would be worthy of being their initial first release.

I suggested Seven Samurai, one of the first original titles from Criterion that came out on all of their major digital video format releases over the decades, such as Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray, which was also on my “wish list” from their nearly 1100 extensive film collection. It was spine number two on their DVD/Blu-ray.

However, Shaun thought the film would have to be “super extraordinary” and something not necessarily from Criterion’s existing DVD or Blu-ray catalogue, but a film that would have to be celebrating a big anniversary that also had some connection with them in the past, such as Citizen Kane, which would be celebrating its 70th Anniversary this year. Citizen Kane also happened to also be their first Laserdisc release in 1984.

Not only was “B&N Movie Geek Shaun” dead on predicting Criterion’s 4K debut title, but he also mentioned Mullholland Drive as another alternative title, which was also slated as one of the six initial releases. The other four titles Criterion announced include Menace II Society, The Piano, The Red Shoes, and A Hard Day’s Night.  However, the real treat is that select films will be presented in Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos on the 4K UHD Blu-ray.

Jane Campion’s, The Piano, is the one 4K title that excites me the most, as it always seemed to had subpar treatment on DVD or Blu-ray over the years. It always had screamed for an updated remaster, visually and sonically. Hopefully Criterion will be able to bring Dolby Vision and Atmos to the remaster. I am quite surprised it actually took Criterion so long to acquire the rights to this astonishing film, especially when two of Campion’s earlier films are also in the Criterion Collection.

Back in 2013, as DVD’s were getting cheaper to produce, Criterion began releasing their latest Blu-ray titles in a Dual-Format edition that included the Blu-ray and DVD with the exact same content. After releasing standard Blu-ray releases after five years, the company felt it would give consumers an added value to their purchases on Blu-ray if the DVD was included in the package.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case as there was much backlash from some of the consumers as they complained that they didn’t have enough shelf space to store the DVD’s, let alone Blu-rays, since many of the packages were a little wider than if it just had the one standard Blu-ray in it. Also, if the DVD had the same content in them, they believed it was redundant. Therefore Criterion stopped its Dual-Format Blu-ray/DVD releases.

As for 4K UHD Blu-rays, just like most of the Hollywood studios, Criterion will release their 4K UHD Blu-rays in the Dual-Format edition package, similar to before, but by releasing the 4K UHD releases along with the standard Blu-ray that will also contain the feature film and extras, as well as its special features.

However, this time they will dedicate the feature film with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos on the 4K UHD Blu-ray for the highest possible presentation and bitrate, and also putting the extras, as well as the feature film, onto standard Blu-rays. At least that’s what I understand by looking at the specs for the new Citizen Kane from their website that will have one 4K UHD Blu-ray and 3 standard Blu-ray DVD’s listing at $59.99.

My only wish is that Criterion would have a plan for their loyalty members who previously purchased and already own the Blu-ray DVD title. Instead of having to rebuy the $49.99 4K UHD Blu-ray title, it would be nice if they could just have the option to purchase the 4K UHD disk separately (and perhaps include a 4K UHD case or cover) without the packaging for perhaps $10-$15 so you can just add it to your existing standard Blu-ray title that is already sitting on your shelf. It seems like a shame to have to rebuy the title if you already own it on Blu-ray. Perhaps other loyalists feel the same I do.

Though it took the Criterion Collection over five years to release their first 4K UHD Blu-rays, with boutique labels such as The Shout Factory, Arrow and Kino Lorber beating them to the draw, it looks like from the initial slate of Criterion titles that they just announced and their extensive catalogue to draw from, the future looks bright and rosy for the company and for the latest home video’s format.

November will be a truly historic month for videophiles and fans of Criterion.