So, TARZAN ISTANBUL'DA DVD is finally out. "So what?" must have been the first response of "fans", provided they even knew about it.
It came out last Friday, October 12th and since then I was forced to re-think about Onar's future.
To cut a long story short, sales dropped even more.
I managed to sell a few copies the first day of release and since then, ZERO, NIX, NADA, CAPUT, etc.
My older releases used to have a particular dynamics. I kept selling a few items every day for about a month and then things slowed down.
Now, I sold a few dvd's for 1 day and then everything stopped.
Even worse, half my wholesale clients quit buying from me and the few that remained just ordered 3-5 dvd's for the sake of appearances.
Ok, I still have 1 good and faithful wholesale client and thanks to him I'm still in business.
So, now it's as good a time as ever to face the reality and fight with it.
Although over the past months I've been trying to improve my products in every possible way and although I dropped the prices by 2-3 euro and although lots of people admit and appreciate it, the result is nevertheless negative and leathal.
It's obvious that there are not 1200 fans of this genre on earth who can support me.
So, I must address to the correct number of fans that is not even 500.
Now, my idea is this:
I will quit pressing 1200 pieces.
I will be pressing a SUPER-MEGA-LIMITED edition of 500 copies.
However, since my costs will remain the same (COPYRIGHTS- AUTHORING- SUBS- FACTORY etc) I will have to raise the price.
But since I will stick to only one wholesale customer who will buy a small quantity and since I will have to sell the rest alone I will be able to keep prices at a reasonable level.
Normally, since all costs will be the same while the copies will go down to 500, the prices would have to go more than double.
But now, I figure I will be able to retail them at only 23-25 euro, while my faithful retailer will probably offer them at a similar price.
Now if you have heard of a more limited edition at a cheaper price, go ahead and post it here!
As for my previous plan of releasing 1 dvd per month I guess it will have to be modified according to people's response.
For the moment, I'll still try to release CASUS KIRAN in November, on 1200 copies.
But after that, right now I don't know which film I must release, or when.
I wish I could afford Christmas time.
I'm ready to listen to your thoughts and ideas.
You can just post them via a comment here.
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14 comments:
I am very sad to hear that sales are going from bad to worse for you Bill, especially since I seriously believe that Onar Films is probably THE most important label around.
However, I think that dropping the number of copies might be a good thing as of now, the hardcore fans will most definetly still buy it and with a dwindling supply sales might go even faster. (I myself am definetly a sucker for limited ed..)
Anyway, maybe it would be an idea to release some of mr Arkins films since he is the biggest and badest of them all and has the largest fan base. Perhaps this would increase sales and leading to more people in Turkey discovering your releases, all this is just guess-work on my part but I feel pretty sure that at least a few of his fans in the home country would want to pick it up.
Death Warrior would certainly look good out on DVD.
Maybe also shifting from Super Hero to more violent action and bloody horror, likely to appeal to the young generation of gorehounds who are getting more mature and ready to explore the other parts of exploitation cinema..
Sorry, I'm rambling.. but I just cannot understand that in a world of 6 billion people there isn't 1000 who are ready to buy and appriciate real culture!
I will stand firmly by your side doing what little I can to support you and this wonderfull dream of yours.
Thank you.
Hi Bill,
I'm one of your new customers from Germany via Ebay as you know. It makes me wonder that I'm one of a dying species of filmbuffs who're interested in some more obscure genres. I would encourage you to go on with your releases. As it said: You should try to make some Arkin DVDs. Look at the enormous prices buyers would pay on Ebay for VHS copys of Arkin movies. What's about all those fumetti-based turkish movies like Zagor, Kinova, Commander Micki a.s.o.? All those Bonelli collectors should be very interested in movie versions of their faves.
I'll buy in the next weeks some more of your releases, you could bet on it.
Keep on going and best regards
Thomas from Germany
Dear hunterfromthefuture and Thomas...
Thanks for your thoughts and moral support!
Here are my objections:
1- Arkin films would sell better?
Why? Everybody has his films on cheapo bootlegs so why bother spending cash on my dvd's? People used to tell me "release 3 Dev Adam! Release Supermen Donuyor! People are nuts about them..."
The result? My sales dropped and I have lost most of my retailers.
2- Move to bloody horror??
I did! I released TURKISH HORROR DOUBLE BILL & KARANLIK SULAR. Big flops! I even imported and distributed fresh turkish horror obscure gems like GEN, BEYZA'NIN KADINLARI etc..
Result? TOTAL ANNIHILATION! My horror releases are my biggest flops and my horror imports are the death of me. Even xploitedcinema, my best friend, refused to buy those again because nobody buys them from him!!!!! And so I'll stuff them in my ass.
3- fumetti-based turkish movies??
Ok, I released 3 KILINK films 2 years ago and I still got 100's of copies lying around me! Now, I sell 1 copy of them every 50 days!!! The italians don't give a damn about them!
One of the principle reasons I started Worldweird Cinema was to try and get the word out about your incredible DVDs. That that seems to be a failure saddens me deeply and makes me question why I even continue to do anything with it. But know I will always support anything you release Bill. As long as Onar exists, Worldweird will be their to cover it in all its blood-soaked glory.
But I would agree that Cuneyt Arkin DVDs with english subtitles and special features would be a bigger draw than say the TARZAN films or maybe even the fumetti/serial-style superhero movies.
But then again, I though for sure there would be lots of people that would go for the Turkish Horror release. So what do I know.
If Onar goes away, Worldweird will probably go away too. If fans are so foolish as to ignore your DVDs then why the hell should I bother try to convert them?
Just know I love what you do and will weep if it goes away.
JARED
sorry to hear about the situation with your dvd sales.i've got two of your videos and have been watching them regularly. hopefully sales will pick up.i personally don't like horror films but those turkish action/superhero flicks are pretty good.best wishes.
Sorry to hear about your difficulties Bill (promise to buy Tarzan from you later this week!)
For what it's worth, my feeling is that cleaned up prints, English subs and special features for Arkin films would certainly have a market. We may all have cheap bootlegs but I for one would love to upgrade to a decent release of Death Warrior.
Also, the Turkish remakes/parodies (Man who saves the world, Tourist Omer in Star Trek, Seytan etc.) may be available on bootleg but Tourist Omer especially would greatly benefit from subs and a cleaned up print.
Anyway, I shall be buying Tarzan later this week, and continuing to support Onar Films (and happy to pay a small price hike for such great collectors items)
iain
Hi, pal.
Sad to hear all these bad news. Myself I'm starting a brand of Asian trash movies here, in Spain. I hope to have some luck in the project.
I would like to distribute some of your crazy flicks here, with spanish subs so, if interested, you can contact me at dlopezXcineasia.net
Good luck with Tarzan, anyway!
Hope everything goes well my friend... But like a few people already said, the world needs a better-looking, English-speaking DEATH WARRIOR! Love that film so much, I'd co-finance your release :) :) :)- Lefteris
Another release I'd love to see would be Drakula Istanbul'da with cleaned up print and English subtitles.
I´m a sucker for trailer comps, and you have put lots of great trailers on your releases. How bout a compilation disc? with the old ones, and some that you haven´t released?
The release of comps have really exploded the last few years, so a collection of crazy Turkish cinema would be a nice addition to everyones collection!
Hey Jon!
I admit a dvd full of trailers would be a brilliant idea.
BUT...I really wonder...given that my dvd's themselves don't sell as well as I expected (forcing me to press 500 pcs ONLY, from now on) WHY would anyone give a damn for a bunch of trailers? And WHO would be that person?
a- The ones who have my dvd's have already seen the trailers and know they will see the others sooner or later. So, WHY bother?
b- The ones who DON'T have my dvd's would probably NOT give a damn anyway because if they liked this kind of stuff they would have already bought my dvd's which would then bring us to case "a" above.
Another dead-end I'm afraid.
But I THANK you for your kind interest and support all the same!
I think that people who like trailers, and buys compilation discs, will buy regardless of whats on them, be that grindhouse or schi-fi or Turkish stuff. If they bought a comp they might get their eyes open and buy your stuff... but that is a big "might", and I can understand that you don´t want to risk your money :)
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I am a little curious though, do you have to pay fees to release the trailers, similar fees as you pay for using the films?
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Keep up the good work!
Dear Jon,
I agree there are people who like buying comp dvd's with trailers no matter if they intend to buy the actual movies.
BUT, this means:
1- Those guys DON"T have my other dvd's because if they did they wouldn't bother with a comp dvd.
2- Those guys will probably NEVER buy my other dvd's because if they liked this stuff they would have already done so.
3- How many of them are there? I mean, there are not enough fans to support my super-limited releases, so I really think the strict trailer-fans would be much fewer.
Finally, to be honest I have NOT heard of any succesful (commercially) comp/trailers dvd, apart from Something Weird's. Can you indicate/ propose a few others so that I form a better idea on this trend?
And, about trailer fees, I use trailers of movies I have already bought, so no need to pay extra for the trailers.
Right now, I have released 10 films, I have another 5-6 aside, I just bought another 6 recently (I'LL SOON MAKE ANNOUNCEMENTS!) and I'm currently negotiating over some more.
But still, I know that from my few buyers, not even 1 out of 10 would bother buying a trailer dvd...So, I would have to find a new huge number of trailer-only-fans and I seriously doubt it.
Ban 1 Productions and Synapse Films have released the 42nd Street Forever series, and Ban 1 have also made a few other comp releases.
Anyway, looking forward to see what´s up next from OF!
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