despite the fact that “grindhouse” is not really a word that anyone could possibly have the rights to, i got this email from BCI Eclipse after asking for review copies of their “welcome to the grindhouse” series:
"Thank you so much for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, due to legal issues with the Weinstein Co. around our “Welcome to the Grindhouseâ€
Okay so I don’t normally join these things although I do always find peoples points of view very interesting.
On this occasion I felt compelled to say something.
So not only have the Weinsteins F%cked up The Grindhouse QT’S & RR’S version with poor marketing, they now seem to want to spoil everyone elses fun!
I purchased the entire series so far of “Welcome to the Grindhouse” as well as the two “Grindhouse Experience” 20 film boxsets.
And so far I’ve been really impressed and for someone from England who’s never really been able to experience the original Grindhouse films it’s been an educational and pleasurable experience.
I’m sure both QT & RR would love to see more of these films that they love so much released as I’m sure they realise the recent release of these films is partly down to them and can only lead to more fans wanting to watch their version of The Grindhouse??? And of course it’s a little bit like they’ve now told the world about thier naughty little secret and people are now catching on to it?
The Weinsteins can NOT own the rights to the word Grindhouse??? Surely??? It’s a place so to speak???
But out of all the recent Grindhouse dvd’s released “Welcome to the Grindhouse” does have the dvd covers that most resemble QT’S Grindhouse.
I can only imagine that the company that relased the “W.T.T.G” series is a small company, and I can imagine that the Weinsteins with their money have employed a Lawer that’s written up a nice little threatening letter to stop the small company releasing the series and the small comapny has thought: “Well we can’t afford to take the risk” ????
Anyways thanks for informing me that the series has now stopped as for a while I’ve been checking for the latest in the series to be realeased, and now I can stop wasting my time.
And now I can spend my time waiting for the latest news on the Japanese 6 disc Grindhouse boxset and the American 4 disc Kill Bill boxset! Any news on that???
i guess it was more BCI’s use of the similarly-looking design for their dvds than the word grindhouse… but still… it’s a bit weird…
i guess it’s all rare collector’s items now, now that they’re no longer produced. if they run out of print, they’re criterion-style out of print
I hope the Weinsteins can justify their legal actions. They better have some good plans for the term Grindhouse, such as turning it into a label like "Dragon Dynasty."
Any news on whether BCI is going to continue releasing the films under another title?
This really isn’t out of character for the Weinsteins. I think it’s really just that once Kill Bill was released a lot of companies went to cash in on the film with “the film that inspired Kill Bill” stuck on the cases. In this circumstance, I think the Weinsteins just thought that BCI was cashing in on the Grindhouse brand. Even though the film didn’t do too well, there has been a sort of Grindhouse revival that I was hoping for if the film was a success.
I think the Weinsteins are justified. I mean, if somebody came out with a collection
of baseball movies and called it “The Sandlot Experience” just a few months after the
movie “The Sandlot” was released the makers of the movie would sue. BCI was clearly
using the popularity of Grindhouse the movie to sell DVD’s.
well Weinstein Co didn’t invent the word grindhouse. i’m not so sure if Sandlot is such a common word
[quote=“Sebastian”]
well Weinstein Co didn’t invent the word grindhouse. i’m not so sure if Sandlot is such a common word
[/quote]
That’s kinda my point though. People hear the word Sandlot and they think of that one
particular movie even though the term was popular in baseball long before the movie. Most
mainstream consumers don’t know that grind house is an umbrella term for the place that
used to play low budget exploitation movies. The Tarantino and Rodriguez movie was the
average person’s first experience with the term.
BCI was clearly trying to lull these people into believing that because it says Grind house on it
that it’s in some way connected to the movie grind house. If you let BCI get away with it this,
time, where do you draw the line?
I guess I can see the point of view of The Weinstein Company. TWC is about to release Grindhouse on DVD and BCI is messing with their market. They’re confusing everyone who heard about Grindhouse through word of mouth but aren’t very familiar with the films and end up buying the wrong thing.
yeah it’s the way BCI did it. their dvd covers looklike the grindhouse poster. would be interesting to know if they’re suing the other companies that are doing the same thing but not in a visually similar matter, too
It’s really funny that Grindhouse is being exploited by the same films it was exploiting.