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Author
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Topic: Best Selling 400ft Digest
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted February 05, 2006 01:04 PM
Anybody know what the all time best selling 400ft digest was? I seem to remember reading in a newspaper many years ago that it was 'The Sound of Music'. Apparently the demand for that title was huge in many countries of the world and Ken Films made a fortune selling hundreds of thousands of prints. I also believe that there were several releases of this 400ft digest, with slight editing differences between them. I just screend mine, after several years, and I must say that it is a pretty good digest, capturing the essence of the movie, but as usual with Ken Films they really scrimped on footage- about 325 ft I reckon on a 400ft reel. Another 75 ft could have done a lot for this digest. That's what I liked about Columbia, you always got a full 400ft reel!
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David Kilderry
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 963
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted February 05, 2006 11:17 PM
I would also guess that Star Wars was the biggest seller, remember they released the second version a little later which hints to large demand for the original.
Here in Australia in 1979 the retail price for a 400ft digest was $59.00. That is the price that K-mart and Waltons sold them for at that time. The Eight Millimeter Film Centre, a store that had shelves and shelves full of 8mm titles, also sold them at that price at that time and most camera stores had them at that too.
All brands were the same price, Columbia, Ken, MGM, Castle (U8) etc. I recall that Disney however were often $65. I recall looking for Pluto's Playfull Pranks at $59 and could not find it at the lower price.
200ft digests and cartoons at the same time were $29.00. At this time the Australian dollar was about 10% stronger than the US dollar.
It only seems like yesterday that my local K-Mart had racks of Super 8's (mostly Castle) and nearby were racks of guns! Both are long gone from Australian K mart stores.
My Star Wars is still very good colour, shame some of my other Ken's are red.
David
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted September 13, 2009 12:49 PM
I would agree that STAR WARS is probably the best seller. Perhaps at that time, "Silver Streak" may have been the biggest seller, but for longevity, I bet that Star Wars way outsold it.
Most of the American prints are faded, sadly, having been mostly put out on Eastman stock. However, the later or last printings were on Kodak SP, (these were in the plastic clamshells), and it is possible to find a good color copy of these.
On the other hand, I would suggest the German Marketing films version, (only a part 1 400ft and 200ft, which while very good, only go up to the end of the Tie Fighter Battle with the Mellenium Falcom ... gee, I've always liked that name for that ship!), as the color on this version has held up very well.
I have a copy of that German version of the complete digest and it is Kodak SP, and the color has the slightest hint of fade, and that's up to debate, as the space shots are still nice and black, but this German Marketing digest was also released in either Agfa or Fuji film stock, and these copies are pristine in color!
That, and the color is much richer in these German/Marketing printas, very saturated!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Carter Bradley
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 156
From: Greensboro, NC, USA
Registered: Dec 2007
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posted September 13, 2009 05:16 PM
I, too would assume "the Sound of Music" and/or "Star Wars" would be the best-selling titles, since these appear so often on US Ebay. On a related note, when Ken released the 200' "Patton speech" in addition to the already available "Patton" in both 200' and 400' versions, I wrote the company and asked if they planned to extend any other releases, such as "The Sound of Music" with perhaps the opening sequence. Their reply was no, that they were only licensed to release the current version. Also on a somewhat related note, I worked in the camera department of a local K-Mart when I was in high school, and the manager would allow me to discount super 8 films at any time in order to buy. Therefore, 400' Ken films cost me $36.88 and 200' $19.88! I was still working when super 8 made it's exit in the early 80s, and I have several films with a $4.88 K-Mart price tag!
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