COMEDY SERIES MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000
FOR WORLDWIDE HOME ENTERTAINMENT
AND DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION
LOS ANGELES, CA – Adding to its expansive library of comedic TV offerings, Shout! Factory secured the worldwide home entertainment and digital download rights to the long running American cult television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K.) This announcement was made by Shout! Factory President Garson Foos.
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Shout! Factory will be the exclusive worldwide home entertainment and digital media distributor for Mystery Science Theater 3000 branded properties which include a vast library of original episodes that have never-been-available on DVD or for digital download.
“Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a true cult-classic series. Its high-camp rendition of B-movies to the small screen makes it one of the most memorable pop culture shows of our time,” said Garson Foos, President of Shout! Factory. “MST3K lines up perfectly with Shout! Factory brand. We’re thrilled to work with Jim to further the legend of MST3K on DVD and in the digital marketplace.”
“We are thrilled to be at Shout! Factory. It is a really a great fit for Mystery Science Theater 3000,” said Jim Mallon, President of Best Brains, Inc. and a producer/director/writer of MST3K. “Shout! Factory totally gets the world of MST3K and has shown great respect for Joel, Mike, the Mads and the quirky little bots. They have already issued us lockers. We look forward to great new releases ahead.”
—————-
Our source at Shout Factory says they are looking at the first release around mid-year and they have not made any decisions about whether they will be single releases or sets.
Volume 10.2 will be the final Rhino release.
Stay tuned for more, as we get it!
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Say hello to the new boss, the same old boss.
(A lil’ joke because the original founder of Rhino went off to form Shout! Factory)
Personally I kind of like this turn of events, Rhino has been falling asleep at the switch and I suppose three different instances where they goofed on securing rights to movies (The Colossal Man, Women of the Prehistoric Planet, and Godzilla VS Megalon for those keeping score at home.) it’s no surprise that they lost the rights to MST3K to Shout! Factory.
I figure Shout! Will have a lot more to offer, I mean they took a gamble and made those Film Crew DVD’s (Which were all awesome)
I would hope that Shout will at least start releasing previously unreleased on DVD episodes for the first while before starting to offer episodes that have already been released.
I can’t wait until I can get my copy of the Giant Gilla Monster from Rhino though so I can forget about any of their impending releases and wait for the Shout! stuff.
Personally, I’m going to miss Rhino…but, if SHOUT!!! is planning on furthering the amount of episodes released on DVD then I’m all for it. Prehaps they can give Sandy Frank an offer he can’t refuse…
This is great news. Shout Factory has given some crazy DVD love to otherwise underappreciated classics. The Home Movies season sets and the Freaks and Geeks collection are wonderful in terms of packaging, presentation, and extras. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can do for MST3K.
I hope Rhino doesn’t forget their promise to release Giant Gila as a single. I refuse to purchase volume 10.2. I hope Shout! doesn’t try to re-release any episodes that are already on Rhino. I agree with Wack’d let’s get those Sandy Frank titles for release
( Time of the Apes, Mighty Jack etc. ) asap!!!!!! I hope ( another one! ) that Shout! would release volumes instead of singles, 4 disks per volume and why not come out with 3 volumes a year and not 2. The rights issues are difficult though.
:shock: I’m telling you guys….BUY Volume 10.2 while it’s available if you want Giant Gila Monster. Rhino really has no obligation to release a single disk now. Why try to please a consumer base that will be going elsewhere in the near future.
I tend to agree…this news could bode ill for the single disk Gila episode. There’s really no incentive for Rhino to cater to the MST3K crowd anymore.
Wow. Jim Mallon hasn’t made me this happy in years. I wonder how this effects any possible Film Crew ventures. Could be interesting.
Any word on how this will effect older MST releases? I’d still expect them to release Gila Monster, either way. Rhino knows damn well that we’ll buy it, which means more money for them. I just hope this doesn’t put older sets out of print anytime soon.
This could go either way in my opinion.
For one rhino has made a good deal of mistakes in the mst3k releases. But shouts also made a great deal of mistakes on there end too.
Ive kind of grown used to the whole 4 disc dvd releases. Anything else would just be kind of wierd.
Also is shout going to release episodes that rhino has already released?
And too what extent will rhino be working with shout?
only time will tell.
Well, according to that press release, er, article :
The series lasted 11 seasons and includes 198 episodes, all of which are ultimately bound for both DVD and digital distribution through Shout! Factory.
Right.
All of them.
Including the KTMA episodes.
:roll:
Sure they will.
I’ll believe that when I see it.
Another article, with slightly different info
“The series lasted 11 seasons and includes 198 episodes, all of which are ultimately bound for both DVD and digital distribution through Shout! Factory.”
ALL? How do they plan on doing that? Blackmailing Sandy Frank?
last time i heard sandy frank no longer owns the rights to those films.
Shout Factory is a subsidiary of Rhino, so it’s really not that big of news, except that a new division of the same company (that was formed for special projects like this).
The whole thing with Jim “taking his ball and going home” was debunked by Kevin (likely the one on best terms with Jim) who said that the film crew thing was delayed because the exec at Rhino who was in charge of the Film Crew project left Rhino for a bit (putting the project in jeopardy) but came back when they decided to form Shout Factory.. so the project came back online, and we have our 4 Film Crew discs as proof.
It’s not as big of a conspiracy of people made it out to be… so everyone relax.
http://www.noth
Shout isn’t owned by Rhino, Sony distributes their DVDs.
They also didn’t make the Film Crew releases, Rhino did, Shout just picked them up when Jim Mallon got in the way. If anything, I think Mallon working with Shout might bode ill for more Film Crew releases.
I think we need a Shout Factory Poll..although Puma Man will win it, it would be nice if we got to see what fans would want, maybe there are new fans out there..
Talk about the end of an era…I will miss Rhino
Shout Factory also releases the Elvira double features and the prints on those just suck, check some reviews on their Elvira DVD discs. I really hope they give the time & care, or the MST3K world is going to be really pissed off to the point where we will saying bring back Rhino…
I look forward to what they will release first, but they better not release what we already own..maybe Rhino will let them know what they have out there..
majorjoe23 is right. Shout! Factory was started by three former Rhino executives but the two companies are not associated with each other.
Really surprising news for sure! I think it’s a good move for MST3k. ShoutFactory will kick Rhino’s ass in the extras, menus, and DVD cover department. Hopefully the Rhino sets won’t go immediately out of print either.
Read my likelihood list for an idea on what may or may not be coming from Shout:
https://www.mst3kinfo.com/ward_e/listlikely.html
or
http://forrestcrow.proboards47.com/index.cgi?board=mstchat&action=display&thread=1152828151&page=1
Hopefully Shout will be better at securing movie rights than Rhino…
I was going to see if I could start a “call-to-arms” to get Rhino to release “The Day the Earth Froze” (#422) and “Jack Frost” (#813) as a Russo-Finnish double-feature (my wife and I always watch the two back-to-back).
Anybody want to take it to Shout! Factory instead??
So…Sony is behind SHOUT FACTORY…? Does this mean we might see some of the Universal stuff from Season Eight on DVD?
I too will miss RHINO. They were a great little company that seemed to care about the fans. SHOUT FACTORY is terrific, though. Hopefully they will speed up the releases and make them more substantial. Double the number of episodes per set, and include all of the cool little bumpers with the infamous Penn Jillette voice overs…There’s SO MUCH that could be done with MST3K for DVD that Rhino failed to do.
This could be good!
Season sets!
I’m not sure Sony is really behind Shout, but they distribute their discs.
so…wait…sony and universal are related, right?
i wonder how this news is connected to yesterday’s big movie announcement…
I dont know who owns whom, all I care about it making sure all of us MST3K fans get good quality releases from the Shout Factory..otherwise..we will be the ones doing the “Shout”ing..
I have already emailed Shout Factory about MST3K & quality and Rhino about the single Gila Monster DVD.
I hope to not get the usual automated cut and paste response from Dr Rhino..well as a “Dr” he does a lot of cutting I suppose :mrgreen:
I would get that Shout Factory would release things about the same as Rhino in terms of getting rights, but I could be way wrong and all those “extremely unlikely” releases from Travis will wind up out on DVD….you know Shout wants to debut with something groundbreaking, just like any Season premeire…maybe we could see Gamera or Puma Man or something from Universal. :?:
I know that Shout Factory has liscenced some Unviersal owned TV shows for DVD release. If they could get them to do that, they may be able to get some of the Uni MSTed films.
Sony and Universal are NOT related! Where did that come from??? NBC owns Universal and the SciFi Channel among others. Sony and BMG have merged. Shout! is an independent video company with a distribution deal through Sony, apparently. Universal distributed MST3K – The Movie and will be re-releasing a new anamorphic widescreen DVD in May. MST3K – the series – was on the SciFI Channel for it’s last three seasons and they had access to the Universal library at that point, but the show was still owned by Best Brains. The rights question always comes up with any of the films they featured on the show, and besides the Sandy Frank stuff, and the Toho stuff, and maybe even the Russian stuff, will Shout! be able to get a license for the Universal stuff?
All I know is, I was going to wait until the next 20% off sale before buying the last few sets I needed, but I think I may take the cautious stand of buying them now, just in case Rhino pulls them.
Anyone else intrigued by the prospect of downloadable MST3K episodes (assuming that’s what they mean by “digital marketplace”)?
I’s assume that’s what they mean.
If Rhino don’t release a Giant Gila Monster single disc I’d possibly hold off and wait to see if Shout! do. There’s a chance they’ll do some previously released stuff.
And for those wondering how Jim working with Shout! will effect the Film Crew, I doubt much since Bill effectively killed off any hope of new ones on the Rifftrax blog. Film Crew appears to be gone with Rifftrax in its place.
I just hope that Shout keeps in mind all of the episodes most of us have already purchased when they chose how to distribute the show. It would seriously suck if the fans will be forced into re-buying everything they already own just to get a few episodes they don’t have (10.2).
:mrgreen: I just hope that Shout! releases more sets per year as opposed to Rhino only releasing 2 a year.Plus,let’s hope they include more extras as well,like maybe an interview with Joel,Trace and Frank and maybe other rarities.How about these episodes for future release? Fire Maidens of Outer Space,Racket Girls,Girls Town(with maybe an interview with Mamie Van Doren),Night of the Bloodbeast,Operation Double 007,Beast of Yucca Flats;just to name a few…
Hey Philip, I would actually get those Rhino sets as soon as you can. Your better off going to deepdiscount.com to get those the site is super cheap and you don’t have to wait for a sale ( I don’t work for them ). Shipping is super slow though. You don’t want to wait, they might pull the plug all together and give up selling all of their previous MST3K volumes. Eventually with anything the rights will expire at sometime, who knows? I was lucky enough to buy the original volume 10 in 11/06 at Best Buy 2 months after Rhino pulled it. I learned my lesson GET THEM AS SOON AS THEY COME OUT!
@frankstv: “I would actually get those Rhino sets as soon as you can. Your better off going to deepdiscount.com to get those the site is super cheap and you don’t have to wait for a sale ”
It’s actually the DeepDiscount sale I was talking about. (Left that detail out.) They have one every June and November. They’re still the lowest price right now, but that 20% adds up.
But, as I said, I don’t think I want to risk another Volume 10 disaster (I never got it), so I’ll probably buy the ones I need right away.
The Rhino-Shout Factory connection is that Garson Foos used to be one of the heads of Rhino back in the day and launched Shout! Factory after leaving Rhino about five years ago. My friend Mike used to work for them.
Rhino, release The Giant Gila Monster as a single disc… and a flight of angels sing thee to thy rest :grin:
@philip. Cool. The 20% does add up but you are taking a chance if you wait till June. Who knows whats going to happen from now until June. Im a real nerd when it comes to DVD quality and I would rather upgrade to Rhino/Shout from all of my fan copies
( DVD R-s ). It’s a tough decision.
Just got the following response from Dr. Rhino regarding the single disc release:
“Dear David,
A single disc of The Giant Gila Monster is scheduled for a 2/5/08 release, exclusively at http://www.rhino.com.
Dr. Rhino”
Dave :mrgreen:
If I don’t see that single Gila disc on 2/5 I will put my leg up BIGTIME in protest!
Seriously, though, I do hope that changing companies means we will see some unlikely releases of MST3K episodes.
First off, I’d like to thank Rhino for what they’ve done to release the episodes they have. I hope they follow through with their promise to release Gila as a single episode. If not, I’ll have to buy 10.2. I’m just that much of a mystie, and Gila was one of the first episodes I saw, albeit in hour-long chunks. (We didn’t get Comedy Central until after MST jumped to Sci-Fi.) I’d also like to welcome Shout! (again) and wish it well in releasing as many as possible. I’m imagining that they made the statement on releasing all 198 episodes without looking at rights and personal grudges and the fact that they may not even have full episodes of all the KTMA shows. Nevertheless, I applaud their enthusiasm, and hope they will do what they can to release (hopefully, maybe!) all the Comedy Central/Sci Fi episodes that they possibly can.
Hopefully the Shout Factory will release many more episodes with a faster release schedule than Rhino. New episode releases from Rhino have been far apart on the calendar of late and a bit too slow for my taste.
As for personal favorites, I’d love a 4-disc set of the Robert Lippert movies featured in Season Two, some of the best, most hilarious episodes ever: Rocketship X-M, Jungle Goddess, Lost Continent, and King Dinosaur.
Now, maybe I should consider auctioning off my DVD copy of MST3K The Movie while it still goes for a lot of money before it’s re-released. :wink:
I don’t like this repeated mention of “digital distribution”. I want to be able to OWN episodes, not download them. If they release something online in some manner, it had better also be released on dvd. Not the one without the other, absolutely not.
I don’t get all this love for Puma Man. How about Samsom vs. the Vampire Women or Warrior of the Lost World? They were far far better.
I’m one person who didn’t purchase Volume 10, so I won’t threaten Rhino over the status of the Gila Monster single. I hope Shout does release singles. I like the packaging for the volumes, but I tend to ignore episodes that don’t have a horror/sci-fi/fantasy theme of some kind. I’d just as soon not bother with stuff like Catalina Caper that are still idiotic and forgettable with any amount of riffing attached and don’t even have a rubber monster to laugh at.
Why Rhino get the chomp?
I have a few questions. Does this mean that Rhino will recall their collections, that are in stores now, or will Shout re-release them at hopefully a lower cost? Also, which movie in Collection 9 caused it to be recalled? About the movie being re-released, I’m so glad. It will give new MSTies the chance to see a true classic. I own the original Image DVD, which I picked up for $10 at a Gamestop a couple years ago. I’m still going to pick up the new one coming out.
Hi-Keeba
“I don’t like this repeated mention of “digital distribution”. I want to be able to OWN episodes, not download them. If they release something online in some manner, it had better also be released on dvd. Not the one without the other, absolutely not.”
Future hater.
I have to agree with the comment above about wanting DVD releases, not downloads. The Cinematic Titanic poll of customers showed that 4 out of 5 people still prefer to buy a complete DVD, so I hope Shout Factory gets the point too and gives us what we want. To quote a joke made on MST3K during Design For Dreaming, “Just because it’s futuristic doesn’t mean it’s practical”. When are these companies going to realize that most customers don’t want downloads, they still want to buy a finished product? They should stop pushing what they think we want and give us what we actually want.
As for episodes, I also do not get the love by some people of the Puma Man episode, although it’s always fun to see a great actor like Donald Pleasance in such a terrible film. It’s an average episode and doesn’t begin to compare to classics like Lost Continent, First Spaceship on Venus, Rocketship X-M, Gamera, Robot Monster which inpsired catch phrases and gags that would remain icons of the show for years to come. Even somewhat later greats like Magic Voyage of Sinbad, Danger Death Ray, Quest of the Delta Knights, Horror of Party Beach, Warrior of the Lost World, Day The Earth Froze and especially the terrific Outlaw (of Gor) would be much better choices for earlier rather than later release than Puma Man.
Is he talking about Thepu Maman?
Dear Shout: Please show…
203 : Jungle Goddess
311 : It Conquered the World
314 : Mighty Jack
1005 : Blood Waters of Doctor Z
(& maybe something from KTMA. Come on, MST3K, you can’t escape your past …)
A poster at CT states that he’s received and e-mail from Dr. Rhino:
“A single disc of The Giant Gila Monster is scheduled for a 2/5/08 release”
In my opinion, the only episodes that wouldn’t break my heart if they were never released would be the KTMA episodes, all of season one, and a handful of seasons two-three stuff-particularly Jungle Goddess, King Dinosaur, First Spaceship On Venus… the quality just isn’t that high. I certainly demand a release of Final Sacrifice, though. Its one of my top three favorite episodes.
And by the way, I love the future- so long as its my version of it :P
AS long as they DONT do season releases It should be okay.