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BASE CELEBRATES 45 YEARS…
…EVENT LOOKS BACK – AND TO THE FUTURE TOO
“DVD – HOW BIG SHOULD THE BOX BE?” “WHAT WE DO NEXT WILL DEFINE THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY” ERA YEARBOOK GOES DEEP INTO YEAR-END FIGURES… …AND THE STATE OF THE HIGH STREET AND ENTERTAINENT RETAIL 4K BLU-RAY GROWS IN POPULARITY AMONG UNDER-25S MEDIA CONTINUES TO DRIVE MOVE BACK TO PHYSICAL MEDIA… …MORE PUBLICATIONS GET IN ON THE ACT "PHYSICAL MAKES IT MORE OF AN EXPERIENCE" STRANGER THINGS HEADS TO DISC WRIGHT RUNS TO DISC TOO FILM STORIES FLIES THE FLAG… …AND BULK ORDERS FOR MAG AND FILM SET RADIANCE LOOKS INTO THE CHASM… …AND UNVEILS MAY SLATE… …AND JUNE TOO HOUSEMAID SET TO CLEAN UP AGAIN AS MAGIC TITLE DISAPPEARS FROM THE SHELVES STUDIOCANAL BRINGS THE HAMMER DOWN… …AND SHOWS ITS BACKBONE TOO BFI LOOKS TO Q2 EUREKA REVEALS MAY TITLES SADLER BUILDS EMPIRE RENTAL LIVES ON IN GAME FORM TRAILERS OF THE WEEK SPOTTED OUT AND ABOUT
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It was a good week for… The physical media revival in media continues, as more write about the joys of discs, as Stranger Things becomes the next big streaming title to announce a Blu-ray release…
It was a bad week for… Apologies for our recent absence, this is due to ongoing health issues, thanks for your patience, but at least you get a bumper-sized issue of The Raygun…
We have been watching… So much since we were last here, including a wealth fo Film Stories magazine, see what we've been up to here…
With long-forgotten names and phrases – the London Mafia, James Ferman, the VSDA, Woolworths, Wind Up Records and more – you’d be forgiven that the 45th anniversary celebrations for the British Association for Screen Entertainment, aka BASE, which started life as the BVA four and a half decades ago, would be a trip down memory lane. And while it was great to see some old faces at the event held at Universal’s offices in London last week, there were other words used that highlighted not just where BASE had been, but where it was going too: words such as community, collaboration, innovation and transformation. And as well as looking back to an illustrious and sometimes crazy past (the early days were, as one contributor during the speeches, Spirit’s Rob Callow, noted, “like the Wild West”), it was notable that the birthday celebrations also kept a keen eye on the future and the way forward for BASE. Opening the proceedings, BASE vice chair and Universal EMEA VP for digital distribution Ana Iglesias said: “Forty-five years is quite an achievement, and it speaks to the strength of the community.” BASE co-chair and Lionsgate senior EVP and head of motion picture group Marie-Caire Benson said: “It’s a special milestone. Forty-five years represents generations of collaboration, innovation and a shared passion for screen entertainment, four and a half decades of extraordinary change,” adding that despite new platforms, technology and windows, one thing had remained constant – a desire to connect with audiences. She too highlighted the spirit of collaboration not just within home entertainment but across entertainment too, concluding: “if we’ve discovered one thing over the last 45 years this industry thrives on relationships and we do love a good together.”
BASE executives past and present, the shape of current chief executive Liz Bales and former head Lavinia Carey also looked at BASE and its work. The former highlighted the collaboration and partnership across the different areas BASE was involved with and its work alongside sister organisations such as the Industry Trust and Alliance for Intellectual Property as well as its achievements with promotional activity such as the Mega Movie Weekend and Go Big And Go Home campaign, which Brough together exhibition, retailers and home entertainment distributors. Carey, meanwhile, looked back at work in overcoming prejudices against the industry and outmoded attitudes and the BVA’s work in bringing DVD to the marketplace turning it into the fastest growing consumer electronics launch ever (she also revealed the BVA had bought a DVD player for James Ferman to show him the potential for the format).
In a speech that brought the house down, the aforementioned Rob Callow from Spirit, a true industry stalwart who joined the industry when there was only a rental business (both he and Carey referred to the London Mafia, the notorious gang of rental dealers based in and around the capital, a phrase which The Raygun’s own Tim Murray had helped coin back in his days at Video Business and VHE) and how it grew, thanks in no small part to visionaries such as Steve Ayres, who created a company called Video Collection International (VCI). Callow said: “His vision was that people would buy cassettes, there had been a few examples in the States that hadn’t worked, but his vision was that people want to own, to collect, and to build up big old collections of films.” And thus, the retail, or as it was initially called, sell through business was born, via Woolworths, that took home entertainment into the stratosphere. And as more retailers joined the party, from record retailers to supermarkets, it became more sophisticated and grew and grew. Callow then turned to the absolute “game-changer” that was DVD, recalling early discussions of the “new-fangled” technology (“How big should the box be? How should we launch it? What should we do?”) at BVA meetings. “There was a whole chat about whether it was going to work. Boy, did it work! It was absolutely, absolutely, incredible.” And then there was the Internet and the change it brought. “I’m proud to say, this industry has been my life’s work,” Callow concluded, “The people in this room are incredibly important to me. It's been the most amazing journey. And the reason people made this journey is because of the innovation, because of the passion, because there were people out there that believed that people would want to buy and collect products, and that people still buy and collect products today. That is a real testament to everybody in this room, the people who are working hard to keep reinventing and coming up with new ways to sell the same thing to consumers. That’s being demonstrated today in physical with the wonderful work that's going on in the collectors' market, which means there is still an incredibly strong, viable, physical market and there’s an incredibly strong, viable digital market, and let's hope that that continues for many, many years to come.”
The event ended with two further contributions, first from Warner’s Trevor Albery, who talked through the work of the Industry Trust and anti-piracy efforts, returning to the theme of collaboration (“I'd come from a trade association background, so I knew collaboration when I saw it, and what really stood out to me was the amazing way that all the members of the Industry Trust were getting together and collaborating”), highlighting the great work done in its campaigns such as Moments Worth Paying For and its partnerships with other organisations. Finally, it was the turn of Sony’s Rob Marsh to close the proceedings, who, after noting that the industry performs best when it collaborates across the eco-system, concluded: “To those who contributed before us, thank you for laying the foundations that enabled this industry to thrive; to those building it today, from innovation, partnership, and collaboration, thank you, for continuing to move the industry forward; to the BASE team, for your commitment, energy and leadership, in bringing the industry together, thank you. And to all of us, our members, parties and contributors, the industry's future will not be shaped by any one company any one window or any one strategy. It'll be shaped by how we choose to work across the eco-system. So, let's keep collaborating, let's keep experimenting and let’s keep shaping the future together. Because this industry matters. The stories we bring to our audiences, they matter. And what we choose to do next, will define the future of the industry.”
We’ve already featured much of the headline news and stats from 2025, a lot which has also crossed over to the consumer side, not least in the feature The Raygun’s Tim Murray penned for Film Stories (you can see it here, see below for more), as well as in The Raygun itself, from the first figures published at the very start of 2026 by ERA, and then fleshed out further by ERA as well as BASE. But the newly published ERA Yearbook throws up even more facts and figures about the state of the market and offers some more fascinating insight into the year just gone and the industry overall. Overall, spending on music, video and games grew by 7.1 per cent, a growth rate only bettered by local entertainment (cinema, gigs, theatre) and overseas holiday, but ahead of all other leisure spending. ERA chief executive Kim Bayley said: “Entertainment’s 7.1 per cent growth in 2025 was certainly above expectations, but these new figures show that in the context of the broader leisure sector 2025 really was a banner year for music, video and games. This reflects the changing role of entertainment in the streaming age from treat or gift to everyday necessity with, for example an average of 2.9 video subscriptions per person.” Bayley also highlighted the fact that the average consumer now watches more than 17 hours of film and TV every week, listens to 12 hours of music and almost four hours of podcasts and plays games for nearly nine hours, adding: “This is dramatic evidence of the ubiquity of entertainment. It means people in the UK now spend over a third of their waking hours engaging with entertainment.”
ERA also broke down industry figures for retail, the high street and more. Its press release noted that vinyl sales (now at an 18-year high) not only helped bricks and mortar stores increase their shares of physical music shares by a third since 2021 (to 41.2 per cent) but also boosted their presence, with 499 stores in high streets around the country, up by 28, joining 120 hmv stores. As Bayley noted: “Record shops are proving they can compete and prosper by doubling down on vinyl and by attracting a new generation of buyers attracted by the IRL (in real life) experience. Shops have reinvented themselves to become cultural hubs on the High Street, offering live performances – around 4,000 of them last year – and an immersive experience the internet cannot match. Record stores have created this success without any help, reinventing themselves as cultural anchors on the UK’s often dismal High Streets. There’s a real fear that without relief this raft of unwelcome new costs could throw their renaissance into reverse.” Drilling down even further into the report, video was given its own section, with a raft of further figures, some of which have already been revealed here in The Raygun: video retail sales up eight per cent to £5.4 billion, digital video sales up 8.4 per cent to £5.29 billion, retail sales of discs down 4.7 per cent to £149 million. Some of the most interesting figures were around retail. In 2016 there were more than 15,000 retailers selling videos, in 2015 the figure was 1,112. The figure was also down from 2024, with the ERA report noting: “According to Kantar, the total number of bricks and mortar retailers stocking physical video underwent another steep fall in 2025, down from 1,463 shops in 2024 to 1,112, a decline of 24 per cent year-on-year. 126 fewer supermarket outlets carried video product in 2025, maintaining a downward trend that has accelerated over recent years. In terms of total numbers though, supermarkets still dominate the bricks and mortar channel, with 926 shops trading in DVD and Bl-ray last year, representing 83 per cent of the UK total. The number of shops in the multiples channel stocking video fell particularly sharply, down 217 outlets to just 10, a decline of 96 per cent, largely down to WHSmith exiting the category altogether.”
We’ll have some more figures in the next few weeks, returning to this so as not to swamp you with figures, but here’s a few more: SVOD remains the most popular way to consume video, with 84 per cent of the population subscribing to at least one service, a figure that rises to 93.7 per cent among under 25s. Digital retail is the next most popular (21.7 per cent, 23.4 per cent among the under 25s), digital rental (18.8 per cent, 18.7 per cent for under 25s), DVDs (13.1 per cent and 11.6 per cent for under 25s), Blu-rays (6.9 and 4.3 per cent respectively), 4K Blu-rays (four per cent and 4.6 per cent). Interesting to note that 4K Blu-ray is more popular among under 25-year-olds than the general population, and more popular in that age group than standard Blu-rays too. This chimes with 4K’s growing stature – its value was up 15.9 per cent in 2025, rising to £36.5 million, making it the fastest growing out of any video category over the year. SVOD may not be growing as fast, but it’s still the dominant category, with penetration up to 18 million homes, 64 per cent of households, showing there is still room for growth. But there is faster growth in the volume of subscriptions than penetration, suggesting more homes are stacking more services. “On average, each household that pays to stream video in the UK has hit three active subscriptions per household, up from 2.9 per cent in 2024,” the report said. More next time…
We at The Raygun have been charting the media’s – and wider public’s – drift back towards physical media for some time now and what seemed to start as a trickle has become if not a flood, then at the very least a fast-flowing river or possibly even a sizeable wave. The latest high-profile addition to the mainstream publications talking about the benefits of Blu-ray and DVD and how consumers, notably younger people, are getting back into watching product you can pick up and play rather than just streaming, is the LA Times. Kicking off a major article, the US newspaper noted in bullet points: “Gen Z is reviving DVDs and Blu-rays, with video rental shops reporting record months and membership numbers as young people embrace physical media. Physical media sales declined just 9 per cent in 2025, compared to drops of over 20 per cent in 2023 and 2024, marking a dramatic shift in a shrinking market. Young customers cite frustration with subscription fatigue and content scattered across platforms, viewing physical media ownership as a form of cultural rebellion.” It cited numerous people, from consumers (“I want something I can put on my shelf,” said one collector who’d recently amassed 200 discs. “I can go shopping in my closet and grab something and pop it in, instead of spending an hour scrolling through Netflix to find something and then just turning on the same TV show”) through to distributors (Criterion’s president Peter Becker, noting its “significant year-over-year increases” said: “In the dawn of streaming, it seemed like maybe this was not going to happen, but it has definitely happened. We’re seeing a lot of evidence that more young people are thinking about physical media in a different way. In an age where so much is available to us on demand, it becomes increasingly important to us”), retailers (it feels like a “golden age” said Robbie McCluskey from rental store Vidiots, and, acknowledging mid-double digit growth for physical media, entertainment retailer Barnes & Noble’s music and video chief Bill Castle said: “We see across all of our platforms, books, vinyl, everything, is way up for us. People want to own things and build libraries. [For younger consumers] it’s convenient. They can listen or watch them at any time. They don’t have to worry about what streaming service has it up.”) and filmmakers (producer and USC professor Ed Saxon said: “Infinite choice is exhausting. People are just tired of all of it. Putting a claim down on a piece of culture is in some ways subversive and fights back against platform control. Physical media isn’t competing with streaming. It’s instead correcting for the context and commitment. As a kind of mass market for older films that don’t have new sources of revenue, beyond new streaming platforms, [physical media] is a nice bonus, and when you add it up across a whole library of films from the studios, it adds up to real money”). Of course, there’s nothing necessarily new in what it says, but the mere fact august publications such as the LA Times are getting in on the act, ensures this story may pick up further traction.
Another high profile publication, Fortune, has also got in on the act. “Subscription-based streaming services have come off their peak during the pandemic years, and young Americans in particular are staging a quiet coup against the subscription economy,” said an article on the site (you can see it here). “Many are now trading their basic-tier, ad-ridden interfaces for the clunky, scratchy, and strangely beautiful world of physical media. From the neon-lit aisles of independent video stores to the vinyl-covered walls of starter apartments, Gen Z is leaving convenience behind to finally hold onto something that’s theirs.” Outlining the rapid growth of streaming throughout the previous decade, it continued: “But in 2026, streaming has lost a lot of steam. People are still more likely to use streaming than cable or satellite services, but the rate of new signups is slowing down. Subscription growth across all the main streamers dipped to seven per cent, down from 12 per cent in 2024 and the first recorded year of single-digit growth, according to Antenna, a subscription economy data provider. Subscription fatigue has set in in America. The average consumer has 4.5 active subscriptions going simultaneously and pays $924 for them, according to Forbes. And perhaps none are as done with renting their entire entertainment libraries from the cloud as Gen Z. Between December and January, 37 per cent of Gen Z subscribers said they had cancelled one or more streaming services that month because of subscription fatigue and another 29 per ccent said they planned to do so soon, according to data from Civic Science, a consumer analytics platform. A whopping 87 per cent of Gen Z respondents reported feeling some level of fatigue with the subscription economy.” It further quotes outlets such as Vidiots, with the store’s Robbie McCluskey again weighing in (“It doesn’t seem like it’s a fad to me at all,” he said, adding that it’s now renting more titles a week, 1,000, than it did in the early 2000s, while the average age of its renters had fallen, with many now in their mid to late 20s). And it adds one telling line from a consumer, Seinfeld fan Rudy Ramirez, who said: “Anything that’s digital is never yours. Amazon’s not going to come into your house and take your DVD movies. They’re yours forever.”
Also following this trend was PC World, with its writer Dave Parrack ditching streaming for a week and reacquainting himself with his Blu-ray collection. “Rather surprisingly, I enjoyed the physical act of taking the Blu-ray off the shelf, opening the case, and inserting the disc into my PS5,” he wrote. “It made the act of watching a film more of an experience than just a brainless, background activity. Clicking ‘Play’ on Netflix just doesn’t have the same impact. (Of course, there may be an element of nostalgia involved here. Someone under 20 may not feel the same way.) The knock-on effect of this was to make me more engaged and committed to watching (and enjoying) the film I’d chosen. It compelled me to set my phone aside and actively watch the narrative instead of having it on the background. It certainly helped that V for Vendetta is a joy to watch, a film full of scenes and lines I was keen to not miss. It was an odd shift in my psyche, and I don’t know how to explain it. Even when I watched the same stuff that I could on a streaming service, my posture as a viewer changed when it was via DVD or Blu-ray. The physical nature of the media made it feel more important somehow, as if I had put in the effort so I should pay attention to it.”
And it’s not just journalists and the media getting into physical media. Seems as if the streaming giants are too. Some have always been happy to see their products make it on to discs, others less so. Last year’s F1 The Movie was the first big Apple-backed title to get a Blu-ray and DVD release, and Netflix has been another not too keen to see products it has bankrolled making their way on to shiny discs. But Arrow has managed to pull off a major coup by signing on the dotted line with the streamer to give a first ever physical release to arguably one of Netflix’s biggest success stories so far – Stranger Things. The complete series, spanning multiple discs across four different SKUs – one standard and one deluxe for Blu-ray and one each on 4K UHD – will be released by Arrow on July 27 in the UK, with North America following a day later. It will include a raft of extra material and exclusive content, including bloopers, interviews with the cast and crew, and behind-the-scenes features. The deluxe version features special, newly commissioned artwork, a 148-page booklet, art cards, a Hellfire Club patch, double-sided posters for each season, and more. Creators Matt and Ross Duffer said: “We always dreamed that Stranger Things could be owned in its entirety, not just as a collector’s set, but as a way to preserve the show for decades to come.” Arrow’s director of sales and marketing Dean Lawson said: “Working with the Netflix team and the Duffer Brothers to bring the definitive physical media release of Stranger Things to fans has been a phenomenal project for Arrow to be a part of. The show is colossal in influence and scale, is beloved globally, has transcended generations, and has been a huge part of the cultural conversation for nearly 10 years now. We at Arrow are thrilled to play a part in bringing this landmark show to physical media and believe we’ve created a box set that fans will be delighted to own, packed with bonus features, curios, and memorabilia from the world of Stranger Things.”
One big name flying the flag for physical media over the past week or two has been director Edgar Wright, who was heavily promoting Paramount’s release of The Running Man across 4K UHD, Blu-ray and Steelbook (while also giving a shout out to the digital release too). The director hosted screenings and signings as far afield as Los Angeles, Glasgow and London. The latter saw him hosting a screening at the Picturehouse Central as well as a signing at hmv’s flagship Oxford Street store, with similar activity up in Scotland too. He further flagged up the release on Instagram too, where he said: “As you probably well know, I still believe in and am an avid collector of physical media. I’m glad I still get to make extras-packed discs for my films, and so I’m excited to release The Running Man on 4K UHD, Blu-Ray and Steelbook. It’s available on 3/3/26 in the US and 3/2/26 in the UK… And, oh yes, just look at all those nutritious extras on the 4K UHD. I know many of you still love additional material and behind-the-goodies, so we’re happy to provide.”
Lastly on the physical media front, The Raygun’s very own Tim Murray has been at it again, rounding up the current state of affairs in the world of physical media for Film Stories, looking at the figures for the end of the year and how business is for the consumer magazine, as well as talking to some of those involved in and around the industry, including the team behind Bulk and indie label Anti Worlds Originals, and those behind Vertigo’s new Visions Home Video imprint. As Bulk producer Andy Starke concluded: ““We’re saying to people, sign up, If you pay me 25 quid directly, we could make another one. I’m not going to put it into my sports car; it’s going to go back into making more films. I’m really realistic about what it is, and it’s tiny, and it’s not for everybody, but, but that’s the point, isn’t it? I get it. If you’re going to make a film for everyone, you’re going to need a hell of a lot of money, and that’s fine. I’ve got nothing against those films at all. But this is just about the reality of being an independent producer or independent distributor.”
That piece is here, and also worth noting is the new issue of Film Stories, which includes more words from Tim Murray, with a whole batch of reviews and some features with a home ent and physical media angle, is also now available. Equally noteworthy is the fact it comes with a cover hand-drawn by Ben Wheatley, with a major feature on his new film Bulk and plenty more. Even more intriguing are special offers available via the magazine’s website – one includes the magazine and a special fanzine created by Wheatley himself, another with the publication a copy of Bulk on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Anti Worlds Originals and one with magazine, fanzine and discs.
The feature on the Film Stories site talks about new and rejuvenated labels coming to the market, and since we penned that there’s been another new imprint come along in the shape of Chasm, a new label “dedicated to curating a catalogue of under-seen, under-appreciated and underground world genre cinema”. Its distribution is being handled by Radiance films, joining a clutch of indies under the wider Radiance umbrella. Radiance’s Francesco Simeoni said: “We're delighted to bring our latest hosted label to the Radiance family, and Chasm has the makings of a great lineup already acquired. Their launch title, Taxidermia, has gone down a storm with our fanbase and we look forward to helping them connect with audiences and retail customers alike.” Chasm’s Eddie Falvey and Craig Mann in a joint statement said: “Everyone at Chasm is delighted to be launching with Radiance. The Radiance team represents the gold standard when it comes to curating a catalogue of world cinema, and we’re really excited to be working with them. For our part, we want to explore the breadth of contemporary world genre cinema, starting with our Blu-ray premiere of György Pálfi’s body-horror masterpiece Taxidermia. It’s shocking, surreal, imaginative and innovative in equal measure, and we couldn’t think of a film that better captures the aims of the Chasm imprint. What else lurks beneath? Well, we love all films – but we’re especially drawn to the weirder corners of genre cinema, so expect horror, thrillers, crime, science fiction and fantasy, but maybe just not quite as you know them. We look forward to seeing you in the Chasm.”
More from Radiance and also the company’s May slate features a wealth of titles alongside the first Chasm release. The company’s Bruno Savill de Jong said: “We're happy to announce another strong set of titles for May, including a new dual format 4K UHD presentation of De Palma's HI, MOM! which has seen strong sales and noted interest around its inclusion of De Palma's experimental theatre production "Dionysus in '69". We are also pleased to bring forth more Rivette with JEANNE LA PUCELLE and some Belmondo-starring action cinema with LE PROFESSIONNEL. Plus, we are always pleased to bring forward underappreciated gems like the part-yakuza, part-character study AESTHETICS OF A BULLET which we think will be a pleasant surprise for many people.”
Sticking with Radiance and the label has also announced its June slate, with further goodies on the way. The company’s Bruno Savill De Jong continued: “We're very happy with the reactions to our June announcements, particularly to our UHD world premiere of Imamura's THE PORNOGRAPHERS. Plus, we are glad to also celebrate Imamura's final film, WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE, for its UK Blu-ray premiere. We are also excited to present another face familiar to Radiance fans with Jean-Pierre Mocky's early work, the profoundly satirical crime drama SOLO alongside his earlier starring role in George Franju's debut film LA TETE CONTRES LES MURS. We are also pleased to announce a new volume of our popular DIRTY ARTHOUSE zine, this time focusing on "family values" with great writing from around the world on an eclectic collection of cinema.”
It’s arguably the film success story of the past year or so and now, after a record-breaking theatrical run that turned it into one of Lionsgate’s biggest ever releases in the UK, the sensation that is The Housemaid has moved into home entertainment, first making its way to PVOD and PEST with a suitably noisy entrance – where it topped the Official Film Chart for starters. Lionsgate partnered with Amazon Fresh on activity highlighting the release which sees the film plastered all over the retail giant’s packaging. It was, as Lionsgate senior marketing manager, Kirsten Sweeney, noted, “the perfect opportunity to pitch The Housemaid as an at home date night for any Amazon Fresh customers who'd left their Valentine's gifting a little last minute” as the film landed for at home viewing at the start of February. You can see the creative below. Meanwhile, the physical media release for the film, which has taken a mammoth £30 million plus at UK cinemas, lands on Monday March 30, with the Sydney Sweeney starrer released across DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD with a 4K UHD Steelbook to follow. More on this next time.
The Housemaid follows hot on the heels of another Lionsgate biggie, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, the third instalment in the magical franchise which proved that Lionsgate has another trick up its sleeve, as the company’s Imogen Dodds noted, saying: “The Horsemen return with Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, conjuring up a home entertainment line-up that’s nothing short of magical. We released a DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD (complete with a lenticular front that’s a real showstopper) to Steelbook with in-built slip case illusion. Alongside a spellbinding DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD triple-pack for the full franchise, this is one release strategy that truly knows how to pull a rabbit out of the hat.”
Over at Studiocanal, the company is continuing with a string of releases, including more from its selection of Hammer titles. Up on the block first, released on March 23, was Fear In The Night, which will be followed by two titles on Monday April 6, in the shape of Demons Of The Mind and Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb. Commenting on the releases, the company’s Piers Slade said: “Following on from our extremely successful 4K UHD Collector's Editions of Scars of Dracula and The Horror of Frankenstein, we are thrilled to be giving three more Hammer gems the same treatment. Fear in the Night, Demons of the Mind, and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb will all be presented on 4K UHD for the first time. Each collector's edition includes striking new artwork by Johnny …, two posters and a booklet featuring new essays and the original press kits.
A week after that, on April 13, there’s another release from Studiocanal, this time for an early Guillermo del Toro film that sees another of the maestro’s classics making its way to ultra-high definition. The company’s Pier Slade, again, said: “We are very excited to be releasing Guillermo del Toro's early masterpiece, The Devil's Backbone, as a 4K UHD Collector's Edition. The brand-new set includes fantastic new artwork by Krishna Bala Shenoi, two posters, and a booklet containing four insightful essays about the film. Widely regarded as one of the finest horror films ever made, this is a perfect release for horror fans to pick up.”
More forthcoming slate announcements and among those also unveiling forthcoming wares has been the BFI, which revealed its Q2 titles, taking in April, May and June. Here’s the organisation’s Ben Stoddart to talk us through the titles. He said: “The BFI’s Q2 slate starts with Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water, which is adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch’s novel of the same name. Having premiered at the London Film Festival in 2025 and then released in cinemas earlier this year, we’re excited to bring Stewart’s impressive directorial debut to BFI Blu-ray in April. May sees the first UK HD release of sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars (1953), packed with new and archive extras, the film will also be released on 4K UHD. Invaders is joined in May by Red Beard, the latest in our recent series of Kurosawa films on Blu-ray. Marking the final collaboration between Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune, Red Beard is another classic epic from one of the true masters. If May wasn’t packed enough, we’re also very pleased to be releasing two 70s films by director Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock). Weir was one of the key directors of the Australian New Wave and alongside a season of this work at BFI Southbank, we’ll be releasing a UHD and BD of The Cars That Ate Paris which alongside a wealth of other extras, will also include Weir’s 1979 film – The Plumber. Rounding off the quarter in June is a 4K UHD of the classic Rocco and His Brothers, a landmark of gay and experimental cinema in James Bidgood’s Pink Narcissus (which will also be showing at BFI Flare in March) and Val Guest’s science fiction musical comedy, Toomorrow, starring the one and only Olivia Newton-John.”
Also announcing has been Eureka, which shared its titles due in May. As ever, the company’s Marcus Garwood has run through the titles due out in the late spring/early summer month, saying: “We’ll be taking in the screen delights of France, the USA and East Germany this coming May as The Masters of Cinema Series goes on tour. We touch down in France first with the unsung master of French cinema, Maurice Tourneur, and his 1944 crime drama Cécile Is Dead. This screen adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novel stars Albert Préjean as Inspector Maigret and Santa Relli as Cécile Pardon. Cécile Is Dead boasts noir-tinged cinematography by Pierre Montazel, art direction by Guy de Gastyne — renowned for his work with Marcel L’Herbier and René Clair — and a score by Roger Dumas, who also composed for Tourneur’s The Devil’s Hand. The release features a limited edition O-card slipcase with striking new artwork, alongside a limited edition booklet containing new writing. Next, we head to East Germany as we continue our DEFA strand with one of the GDR’s most accomplished filmmakers, Frank Beyer, and his intense 1966 political drama Trace of Stones. A nuanced exploration of socialism in practice, the film was perceived as a critique of East Germany’s national ideology and was swiftly withdrawn from cinemas. Beyer did not direct another feature until 1975, and Trace of Stones remained suppressed until after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Masters of Cinema is proud to present this extraordinary work on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. The release includes a limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork, as well as a limited edition booklet.”
Continuing Eureka’s May slate the company’s Marcus Garwood added: “Finally, we cross the Atlantic for the last stop on our May tour: a UK-first 4K UHD release of Buster Keaton’s The General. Arguably the greatest comedian of the silent era, Keaton reached the height of his powers with this masterpiece, which he co-directed, co-wrote, co-produced and starred in. A breathtaking showcase of comic invention, The General features some of the finest slapstick set pieces ever committed to film. This essential collector’s edition, released to mark the film’s 100th anniversary, includes a limited edition O-card slipcase and a limited edition booklet featuring archival materials and new essays. Extensive disc extras include a new audio commentary by film historian David Kalat, a new video essay by Imogen Sara Smith — author of Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy — and a newly produced video essay exploring locomotives in Keaton’s films.”
Back to the BASE 45th anniversary event, where we bumped into old friend of The Raygun’s and industry stalwart Jon Sadler, whose Magus Films operation is releasing its first title as a distributor on Friday March 27 in the shape of thriller Empire Of Lies. Sadler boasts extensive industry experience across some four decades, stretching back to the 1990s and taking in all strands of the business, across retail and distribution, consultancy and, most recently, as the author of the excellent tome Film Marketing And Distribution An Independent Filmmaker’s Guide, aimed at guiding wannabe directors and producers through the industry. The film will land digitally on April 13 after its theatrical bow and Sadler told The Raygun: “I’ve been thinking about moving into distribution for a while. It’s obviously a tough market and not an easy one to build a sustainable business around on its own, but it felt like a natural extension of what I already do. In the case of Empire of Lies, the writer/director Matthew Hope — who I previously worked with at Revolver on The Veteran — got in touch after completing the film, looking for distribution advice. He was keen to self-distribute, and I stepped in to support and effectively act as distributor on his behalf. It’s been an interesting model, as I’ve also been handling the marketing — creating the key assets, managing social, and doing the outreach to cinemas — alongside bringing in Strike Media for PR. On the operational side, that’s meant setting up BBFC certification, working with a materials supplier, and partnering with Sparky Pictures for the home entertainment aggregation. It’s been quite a journey, but we’ve secured a number of cinema screenings, including Q&As, and have also taken private hire at Genesis for a preview event, which we ticketed ourselves.”
We’ll end by returning to some of the matters we’ve covered here already in this lengthy newsletter: physical media and the good old days of the rental industry. For you may have missed it elsewhere, but one of the biggest games on the Steam network right now is one of two different variations on the theme of running your own video rental store. That’s right. Retro Rewind, which sold more than 100,000 downloads in its first week on Steam, and the lesser-selling Rewind 99, both give players the chance to run their own fictional video rental store in the 1990s. One of the co-creators of the former, which is now earning plenty of publicity, Samuel Gauthier, told the Hollywood Reporter: “I was thinking of the time I was younger. I was going to my local video store — the little one, because there was not a big Blockbuster in my town. I once spoke with my children and said, ‘When I was younger, there was a time where we went (out) to rent movies.’ They could not [picture it]. I thought, maybe we should do something like that so I can show them. It started as simple as that.” Over in The Guardian, Dominik Diamond reviewed Retro Rewind saying: “Retro Rewind’s appeal is more than 90s-specific nostalgia. This is nostalgia for the analogue life; for simple tasks with predictable outcomes; for working hard and reaping predictable rewards in a job that isn’t about to be taken by AI. This is escapism into the last decade that felt safe. We thought Bush, Berlusconi and Blair were bad, but they seem cute and cuddly compared to the ghoulish monsters in control today. And it is a game made by two developers, not a globe-spanning, highly optimised collective of a thousand people funded by Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushner. Fourteen quid and it’s yours. It is so completely at odds with our times, unyoked to the runaway horse of greed, that it actually feels quite zeitgeisty. It has made me feel all of this without actually being a brilliant game. Despite my misgivings, though, I can say with my hand on my heart, Retro Rewind feels like the greatest game on the planet to play right now.
SPOTTED OUT AND ABOUT
 That Amazon Fresh bag for The Housemaid, perfect for the home…
 Small Prophets stars Pearce Quigley and Mackenzie Crook in Fopp Covent Garden signing copies of the home entertainment release of the acclaimed series.
 The Raygun, is 15 years old and continues to report on the home entertainment industry and its ever-changing face. To ensure we can continue to bring you the latest news, opinion and analysis from a business we love and care passionately about, you can support our independent journalism by donating to us via Ko-fi… Thank you.
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Due from Lightbulb…
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I found something…
One of the recent biggies…
And one of the biggest trailer launches ever…
More Mummy…
The Toys are back…
As tears go by…
Field of dreams…
Moana returns…
THE OBLIGATORY GDPR BIT
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