HD DVD Studio Payoffs Continue to Haunt DreamWorks

[admin]

How much money did Toshiba lose developing and promoting its doomed disc format? We may never know the wealth hemorrhaged by the Japanese electronics manufacturer. News of studio payoffs have come to light and continue to haunt DreamWorks.

Discuss "HD DVD Studio Payoffs Continue to Haunt DreamWorks" here. Read the article.

 

[j_garcia]

That is pretty crappy. I'm sure they will work something out, Toshiba can't leave a studio like that hanging in the wind after they dropped their own format.

 

[stratman]

That is pretty crappy. I'm sure they will work something out, Toshiba can't leave a studio like that hanging in the wind after they dropped their own format.

Any dime store lawyer can get them off that mess.

 

[GlocksRock]

That's ridiculous, how can Toshiba hold them to that after they dropped out of the HD DVD game.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Toshiba may be out of the hd-dvd game, that doesn't mean they don't have any hard feelings about about it. They could hold Dreamworks and others to the contract just to be spiteful or more likely as a 'negotiating tool' in an attempt to try to recover some of their lost investment.

Jack

 

[westcott]

I think the pay off of studio by the technologies should be made illegal. If consumers must gamble with their money on the technologies, I think the studios should share the same risks.

Their decision should be made on technical and production cost merits, not bribery.

This behaviour would totally eliminate the little guy, should they have been involved in such development and investment.

 

[allargon]

Please... Anyone who thinks Blu-Ray studios (and Universal by Toshiba) didn't get payoffs is seriously delusional.

You guys are acting like Dreamworks Animation is the victim here. They are just trying to shake Toshiba down for more money for at most two titles--Bee Movie and Kung Fu Panda. If they are being paid tens of millions or so to be exclusive, they won't make up for it with the sale of those titles on Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray sales are too small at this stage.

I can't believe you guys think it's Toshiba keeping Dreamworks Animation from releasing Bee Movie on Blu-ray.

 

[smurphy522]

Dreamworks could probably manufacture X # of units for each "to be released" movie and then, after that, get by on a manuf. per demand basis.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

Please... Anyone who thinks Blu-Ray studios (and Universal by Toshiba) didn't get payoffs is seriously delusional.

You guys are acting like Dreamworks Animation is the victim here. They are just trying to shake Toshiba down for more money for at most two titles--Bee Movie and Kung Fu Panda. If they are being paid tens of millions or so to be exclusive, they won't make up for it with the sale of those titles on Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray sales are too small at this stage.

I can't believe you guys think it's Toshiba keeping Dreamworks Animation from releasing Bee Movie on Blu-ray.

Well stated....

I couldn't agree more.

 

[stratman]

NEWS: 29 February 2008 9:12 GMT by Stuart Miles


Dreamworks has performed a massive U-turn and now cancelled all future planned HD DVD releases including Bee Movie due to be released on the 11 March.

The studio, along with its parent company Paramount, has now officially confirmed that they will both be stopping their support of Toshiba's HD DVD format after 4 March.

Although DreamWorks chief exec Jeffrey Katzenberg said earlier in the week that the studio has "a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through" all future releases have been cancelled.

Paramount (and its subsidiary DreamWorks) had nearly a half-dozen HD DVD titles scheduled for release through the first half of the year.

Paramount's final HD DVD titles will be Things We Lost in the Fire and Into the Wild, both coming 4 March in the US, however according to the Hollywood Reporter the studio will not release any Blu-ray titles until the summer.

>> Via - Highdefdigest.com
>> Via - Hollywoodreporter.com

And that's the end of that!

 

[GlocksRock]

not all bad news for owners of HD DVD players. I know I would still like to get some more use out of my player before any new titles stop coming out. I don't care to buy movies, only rent them, so once I've seen all the HD DVD movies I care to rent, I'll just keep it as a nice upconverting player for when I upgrade my bedroom tv to a flat panel HDTV.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

not all bad news for owners of HD DVD players. I know I would still like to get some more use out of my player before any new titles stop coming out. I don't care to buy movies, only rent them, so once I've seen all the HD DVD movies I care to rent, I'll just keep it as a nice upconverting player for when I upgrade my bedroom tv to a flat panel HDTV.

Yeah, if I see $5 HD DVD movies, I'll be buying a bunch!