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How much does it cost Lucasfilm to make a DVD?

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I was wondering if any of you know how much it costs Lucasfilm to produce each of their DVDs of their '04 special editions? I heard that they make a huge profit on each DVD that they sell. I bet Lucas outsources most, if not, all of the manufacturing of his merchandising and the things he sells only cost him pennies on the dollar of profit he makes off the stuff.

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread. I'm not sure if this should go here or in the General SW thread. I have come here often and decided to join because I don’t believe a question like this has ever been asked.
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Ah, I wondered what happened to this thread. Now I can edit my original post and keep from looking like a jackass for no reason. But, yeah, as far as I know, DVDs (or any disc-based medium) is much cheaper to produce than cassettes due to the lack of moving parts.

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i believe mastering a regular dvd costs 5,000 american dollars. mastering high def costs 40,000. per title

this is if you have the digital video masters all ready to go.

it does not take into account digital restoration, color correction, additional effects or fixes costs, as well as the elements being transfered from film. Supposedly fox put up the twenty plus million dollars to restore the special editions from scratch starting with the original negative, and of course most of that restoration was done by hand along with the re-comps of original opticals being done with modern computer technology as well as the final digital scanning.

YCM Labs did the restoration.

then it was further restored by Lowry in 0'4, take in the cost to also restored the sound elements and dialogue tracks the sky is the limit on how much they actually spent. If it is that expensive may be why he is reluctant to spend his own money on restoring the oot. On top of that the original negative was altered. that is the best source for a restoration, being a first generation or no generation copy of the film coming right from the camera. that is what they used to restore the bond films by lowry the o-neg. sure Lucas must still have the interpositives or selected takes of those scenes on film rolls but the quality is at least 1 to 2 generations older than the o-neg.

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Originally posted by: Samrogers
I was wondering if any of you know how much it costs Lucasfilm to produce each of their DVDs of their '04 special editions? I heard that they make a huge profit on each DVD that they sell. I bet Lucas outsources most, if not, all of the manufacturing of his merchandising and the things he sells only cost him pennies on the dollar of profit he makes off the stuff.

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread. I'm not sure if this should go here or in the General SW thread. I have come here often and decided to join because I don’t believe a question like this has ever been asked.


I heard that you should get a job and buy the DVD's, then download a preservation of the originals, then change your avatar to something other than what was trendy in 2004.

Not to come down too hard on you, but I've had it with negativity.

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Originally posted by: skyjedi2005
On top of that the original negative was altered. that is the best source for a restoration, being a first generation or no generation copy of the film coming right from the camera. that is what they used to restore the bond films by lowry the o-neg. sure Lucas must still have the interpositives or selected takes of those scenes on film rolls but the quality is at least 1 to 2 generations older than the o-neg.


a depressing, but true statement

also, this leads me to a question I've had. A lot of people said that it was Lowry's digital restoration that screwed up the colors for the '04 dvd, but since this was also the first time that the negatives had been scanned directly into the computer, do you think it's possible the negatives always looked like that? All of the previous releases were off of the IP's.
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"Not to come down too hard on you, but I've had it with negativity."

In all fairness, you could have avoided the thread altogether...

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Originally posted by: skyjedi2005
i believe mastering a regular dvd costs 5,000 american dollars. mastering high def costs 40,000. per title

this is if you have the digital video masters all ready to go.

it does not take into account digital restoration, color correction, additional effects or fixes costs, as well as the elements being transfered from film. Supposedly fox put up the twenty plus million dollars to restore the special editions from scratch starting with the original negative, and of course most of that restoration was done by hand along with the re-comps of original opticals being done with modern computer technology as well as the final digital scanning.

YCM Labs did the restoration.

then it was further restored by Lowry in 0'4, take in the cost to also restored the sound elements and dialogue tracks the sky is the limit on how much they actually spent. If it is that expensive may be why he is reluctant to spend his own money on restoring the oot. On top of that the original negative was altered. that is the best source for a restoration, being a first generation or no generation copy of the film coming right from the camera. that is what they used to restore the bond films by lowry the o-neg. sure Lucas must still have the interpositives or selected takes of those scenes on film rolls but the quality is at least 1 to 2 generations older than the o-neg.


The Special Edition cost 20 million--not the restoration. Creating a few minutes of totally new state-of-the-art CGI sequences and blending CGI into 20 year old footage costs a lot of money. The restoration was a complete overhaul of the film, re-comping all of the many optical effects, digitizing all of the blue-screen elements and plate shots, re-configuring the negative and repairing massively deteriorated footage.

What i am getting at is that it is not very expensive to just put a movie on dvd, nor is it much more expensive to do a less extreme restoration. What Lucasfilm did was more extensive than any other restoration in history because it wasn't just a restoration, it was re-building, re-making and enhancing the films almost from scratch.

The original negative can no longer be used simply to make a new OOT, so to make a copy from this would be problematic--but doable. Basically you could either break apart the SE-neg and put it back in its original OOT configuration, or you could scan the new SE-neg and then scan the missing OOT pieces and put them together in a new DI. This would require a bit of effort on LFL's part, probably running just over $100,000, pretty much a standard price for a DI. The other option would to just take a print--or better yet, a IN or IP--and just run a straight transfer, with the standard dirt/scratch/grain removal filters that come standard in telecine packages. This would not yield a perfectly clean version of the film, but it would be as sharp as any other classic film out there and would be imperfect but reasonably clean--and it would definitly blow everyone away with its resolution and clarity. The cost of doing this is practically peanuts, which is why worthless shit that only few people buy like Smokey and the Bandit 2 and Revenge of the Nerds 3 get the same treatment--way under $50, 000. Add authoring a master and creating a simple menu system and you are looking at a great looking version of Star Wars that would cost Lucasfilm just under $100, 000. So basically, if ever user in this forum bought a copy, Lucasfilm would already be making profit on the disk, and obviously this would sell a few million copies and not just a few hundred.
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Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
"Not to come down too hard on you, but I've had it with negativity."

In all fairness, you could have avoided the thread altogether...


Aw, c'mon MeBe - I'm crusasing against Star Wars haters. At least ones that don't have valid points. Personal mission and all that.
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$13.96.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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Originally posted by: TheCassidy
Originally posted by: Samrogers
I was wondering if any of you know how much it costs Lucasfilm to produce each of their DVDs of their '04 special editions? I heard that they make a huge profit on each DVD that they sell. I bet Lucas outsources most, if not, all of the manufacturing of his merchandising and the things he sells only cost him pennies on the dollar of profit he makes off the stuff.

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread. I'm not sure if this should go here or in the General SW thread. I have come here often and decided to join because I don’t believe a question like this has ever been asked.


I heard that you should get a job and buy the DVD's, then download a preservation of the originals, then change your avatar to something other than what was trendy in 2004.

Not to come down too hard on you, but I've had it with negativity.


Excuse me you're sick of people talking about "star wars" on these boards. I know you people have been talking about a lot of the same stuff over and over again (you hate the prequels, GL sucks, etc.) for the past few years, but I'm new and I still want to talk on these forums about a lot of things you guys are probably sick of and I'm not trying to be a hater. You don't have to comment if you don't like my thread.

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Originally posted by: ReverendBeastly
$13.96.


?????

I appreciate all of your imput about all the processes involved in restoring the films but I was wondering in the end what it really costs Lucasfilm to put each individual DVD on the shelves. Of course it probably depends on how many DVDs they sell.

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Originally posted by: Samrogers

Excuse me you're sick of people talking about "star wars" on these boards. I know you people have been talking about a lot of the same stuff over and over again (you hate the prequels, GL sucks, etc.) for the past few years, but I'm new and I still want to talk on these forums about a lot of things you guys are probably sick of and I'm not trying to be a hater. You don't have to comment if you don't like my thread.


It's the internet sweetheart - comments from complete strangers is what it's all about. I'm not out to get you, honestly, it's just the old addage that unless you have something nice to say...
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Originally posted by: Samrogers
Originally posted by: ReverendBeastly
$13.96.


?????

I appreciate all of your imput about all the processes involved in restoring the films but I was wondering in the end what it really costs Lucasfilm to put each individual DVD on the shelves. Of course it probably depends on how many DVDs they sell.


Lucasfilm made the movies, sure, but you'd probably have to ask Fox Home Video that question. They are the ones to put the DVD's on the shelf, not Lucasfilm.

Of course Lucas or his marketing people went to Fox and said, "I'd like to put Star Wars out on DVD...again..." and they went from there.
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Originally posted by: TheCassidy
Originally posted by: Samrogers

Excuse me you're sick of people talking about "star wars" on these boards. I know you people have been talking about a lot of the same stuff over and over again (you hate the prequels, GL sucks, etc.) for the past few years, but I'm new and I still want to talk on these forums about a lot of things you guys are probably sick of and I'm not trying to be a hater. You don't have to comment if you don't like my thread.


It's the internet sweetheart - comments from complete strangers is what it's all about. I'm not out to get you, honestly, it's just the old addage that unless you have something nice to say...


I didn't ask for attitude, sweetcakes.

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“Your feeble original trilogy is no match for the power of the special editions!”

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Originally posted by: Samrogers
I was wondering if any of you know how much it costs Lucasfilm to produce each of their DVDs of their '04 special editions? I heard that they make a huge profit on each DVD that they sell. I bet Lucas outsources most, if not, all of the manufacturing of his merchandising and the things he sells only cost him pennies on the dollar of profit he makes off the stuff.

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread. I'm not sure if this should go here or in the General SW thread. I have come here often and decided to join because I don’t believe a question like this has ever been asked.


Of course everything is outsourced. No studio has their own disc pressing factory or t-shirt print shop on site. Like any other studio, Lucasfilm (or perhaps 20th Century Fox) pays some other company to print the discs, package, and deliver them to stores. You could have left Lucasfilm out of your question entirely and asked, "How much does it cost to make a DVD? I heard that studios make a huge profit on each DVD they sell." And it's true that they do, because it costs maybe a couple bucks at most to press a disc, print the artwork, and package it in a case. It doesn't cost Lucasfilm any more or less than any other studio to make DVDs.

Of course, producing a DVD requires a certain amount of pre-mastering and design before it can be sent off for printing. You have to pay someone (like Lowry Digital) to transfer and clean up your prints, someone else to master the audio and video, someone else (like Van Ling) to create the DVD menus, and someone else to compile all the materials and author and encode the disc. Who knows how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they paid for all that, but the pre-mastering work on the 2004 DVDs was outstanding. Unfortunately it was a handful of "deliberate creative decisions" that were the problem. But of course sales of the DVDs in 2004 set records and millions were sold around the world.

Now think about the most recent release of the GOUT. Basically all they did was take the LD master tapes and combine them with some super-cheesy menus that were probably whipped up by some bargain-basement design studio in a day or two, and presto: a super-cheap authored DVD master to combine with the existing SE DVDS.

But now that that's already been done and they have masters ready to go, every time they re-release the DVDs, all they're paying is the cost to manufacture the discs and packaging. Are they making a huge profit off of them? Based on how much it costs to produce them, of course they are.

And guess what? Even though they've been re-released every year for the last three years, people are still buying them.

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I heard it cost a studio just 9 cents per blank dvd-9 disc.

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"Aw, c'mon MeBe - I'm crusasing against Star Wars haters."

Uhm, why do you think I'm working on the X0 Project?

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Originally posted by: zombie84
The other option would to just take a print--or better yet, a IN or IP--and just run a straight transfer, with the standard dirt/scratch/grain removal filters that come standard in telecine packages. This would not yield a perfectly clean version of the film, but it would be as sharp as any other classic film out there and would be imperfect but reasonably clean--and it would definitly blow everyone away with its resolution and clarity. The cost of doing this is practically peanuts, which is why worthless shit that only few people buy like Smokey and the Bandit 2 and Revenge of the Nerds 3 get the same treatment--way under $50, 000. Add authoring a master and creating a simple menu system and you are looking at a great looking version of Star Wars that would cost Lucasfilm just under $100, 000. So basically, if ever user in this forum bought a copy, Lucasfilm would already be making profit on the disk, and obviously this would sell a few million copies and not just a few hundred.


Which is exactly what I was thinking would happen when the news broke back in early May. Weren't all of the original theatrical releases off of IP's anyway? And as you said, most old movies are put to dvd via IP at best, not the o-neg. And if telecines of the OOT were still being made as of 1995, doesn't that seriously call into question LFL's statement about the existing film copies being in bad condition? I mean, maybe after another 12 years they are now in bad condition, but I still wouldn't know.