Which North American Distributor should be the "home" of the Heisei and Millennium Eras?

[Chrispy_G]

Assuming that Criterion has the Showa Era(outside of Universal obviously being free to release King Kong vs Godzilla whenever they want).....and holds on tight to it, and has zero interest in anything beyond the Showa era(even a one-off Shin Godzilla release would be epic).....who should the other Eras find a "home" with?

Theoretically, Kraken has Return of Godzilla for another 2 years.
Godzilla vs Biollante might be with Lionsgate/Echo Bridge indefinitely
Sony has remaining Heisei and all of the Millennium series for the foreseeable future

I have to assume that none of the above 3 companies are going to do anything more with the films. Sony might repackage the discs they've already released.

So...in a scenario where a home release company gets one or both the Heisei and Millennium series....with the intent of releasing each "era" completely together, on Blu Ray, with any amount of bonus materials......who do you think might be the best fit?

I think it would almost have to be some combination of either Mill Creek or Shout Factory. Shout Factory has developed a good reputation of not only giving genre titles releases with worthwhile bonus content, but also with new transfers....so they put some effort into their titles.

But with Mothra and Ultraman, Mill Creek seems to be getting into the Kaiju genre pretty hard themselves.

I feel like either of these companies would be pretty friendly and respectable to any Godzilla films they released.

[o.supreme]

I mentioned on another forum....Sony released the BRD of all it's Heisei & Millennium films back in 2014. Criterion had to acquire quite a bit of material and negotiate with Toho to release its *Showa BRD Set*. How difficult do you think it would be for Sony (or Mill Creek at this point) to negotiate with Toho, Lionsgate (for Biollante) and Kraken (for RoG) to release a full Heisei/Millennium set?

Think of it. 13 films all in one set, that would basically be the *equivalent* to the Criterion set. Also since all the dubs except 2000, which Toho doesn't seem to have an issue with- are Toho dubs, there would be much less disappointment by the fans. Of course the original American Theatrical film *Godzilla 1985* could not be included, but that would be one omission, as opposed to the many that the Criterion set has.

[Chrispy_G]

Indeed. The hurdles for a Heisei and Millennium Collection seem minor relative to the Showa Era. Heck, if Sony had the ambition and saw the value....they could give us a pretty amazing set themselves already. More-so because they could/would freely include their 98 film.

One set for 1984-1995....1985 would be a nice inclusion but I would be at peace if it weren't.

One set for 1998-2004

Heck, Sony also owns Funimation now, which has the Shin Godzilla rights. Can't imagine some cross-company deals couldn't be struck...

Just like that, if Sony tried, everything Godzilla live action(outside the MonsterVerse) from 1984 to now could all be theirs to milk. They could probably just as easily arrange for Funimation to have it all for at least a big set or two.

I just hope that The Showa Era sells crazy well and that hype builds well for Godzilla vs Kong, and that maybe it will wake some of these other companies up to the upside of doing some kind of set or higher grade release of the REST of the series.

[JAGzilla]

I would really like to see the post-89 Heisei movies get individual Blu-ray or at least DVD releases. Or a set that gives each film its own case. I've always held off on the two-packs because I'm a (very casual) collector, dammit. I'd much rather have each movie in its own case for shelf display purposes. I make a few exceptions here and there, though, like with the Gamera Legacy set, since no other options are readily available.

[Chrispy_G]

I've always thought that individual Steelbook cases for each Heisei film using the Ohrai Poster Artwork would make for some of the most gorgeous additions to my collection ever.

[o.supreme]

I would really like to see the post-89 Heisei movies get individual Blu-ray or at least DVD releases. Or a set that gives each film its own case. I've always held off on the two-packs because I'm a (very casual) collector, dammit. I'd much rather have each movie in its own case for shelf display purposes. I make a few exceptions here and there, though, like with the Gamera Legacy set, since no other options are readily available.

Although the SONY BRD came in 2-packs, at least they all had there own discs (as opposed to the awful flipper discs of 1998). Once coujdl simply purchase empty BRD cases and make your own artwork if you wnat them al intheir own case.

I think what we have for the heisei/millennium series is sufficient (sans the omission of G 1985). All 13 films are on their own individual BRD, and all have dual language options. However, the only way I'd buy again, is if, as previously mentioned they were all released as one nice box set.

[Terasawa]

The only reason I'd double dip on these movies is if they got significantly better transfers. But they won't.

[JAGzilla]

Once coujdl simply purchase empty BRD cases and make your own artwork if you wnat them al intheir own case.

Yeah... that's true. But it wouldn't be the same.

I'll try waiting another year or two, see if anything new gets announced. I haven't seen most of the Heisei films since 2013 or earlier, though, so I may have to break and get the stupid two-packs eventually.