UK Criterion titles could be increasing to £23
There’s no way around it — it’s very concerning.
The pre-orders available for Region B Criterion titles (on retailers such as Amazon and HMV) list the titles in July as available for £22.99. Gulp.
These are not the more expensive digipacks such as The Irishman or Mirror (which can retail at up to £26) but the ‘plain’ plastic clamshell releases that have, up to now, been £18.
If these listings are accurate — and there’s no reason to think they’re not — some Criterion fans, including yours truly, are going to have serious second thoughts about picking up fresh titles.
And what of the sporadic 2-for-£25 sale? It is safe to assume that is almost certainly not going to include titles that RRP at £23 (it almost never includes the aforementioned deluxe digipacks).
However, if we’re being brutally honest, such a price increase was always likely.
Criterion releases have an RRP of $40 in the United States — although they are almost always marked down to $30. That’s £24.30.
However Region A collectors are able to take advantage of FOUR 50% off sales a year (two months-long offers by Barnes and Noble and two 24-hour flash sales by Criterion themselves).
The trade-off for the lack of 50% sales in the UK was often excused by the fact Region B collectors enjoyed a lower standard RRP and a smaller selection of titles.
Now that trade-off is going up in smoke even as a fan of Criterion it’s hard to defend £23 for a ‘standard’ blu-ray.
And when the hell are Criterion going to put out their 4K titles in Region B? Although I don’t want to guess how much they will cost (The Red Shoes is $50 in the US).
