8mm Forum: Did film companies maintain stock or print on demand?

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Posted by Timothy Ramzyk (Member # 718) on February 05, 2013, 06:33 PM:

I was just wondering, did film companies maintain stock of their titles, or did they make them to order? I imagine digest companies did, and Blackhawk had overstock sales and whatnot, but I just wondered if small outfits like Niles, Morecraft, and Reel Images did? The amount of time I waited for films from those places sure made me feel like they waited til they got an order.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 05, 2013, 09:44 PM:

Even into the 2000's Derann usually had the new titles I wanted as soon as I asked for them, when I started to hear "out of stock" and "no longer available" it started to feel that all was not well anymore.

I would imagine the smaller companies still ran in batches if they could, after all it is cheaper that way. Maybe the delay was building up a batch worth of orders.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on February 06, 2013, 07:48 PM:

I speak from experience of many years dealing with Derann and
have never had to wait for a print.They usually had stocks of titles,
it was only later on when the labs were closed and they had to
put in a specific number of print orders to Rank that the hold ups
began, but nothing as compared to now in buying a new print.

Posted by Tony Stucchio (Member # 519) on February 07, 2013, 02:03 PM:

Blackhawk supposedly had stock but everything I ordered back in the '70s seemed to be delayed due to a "back order." Willoughby's in NYC maintained a decent stock of Blackhawk films (mostly Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang), as well as Castle, Columbia, Ken, etc. It was always more fun to go there so you could buy and walk out with a film rather than waiting 2 months for an order from Blackhawk. Even if the film wasn't exactly your first choice, you got the immediate satisfaction.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on February 07, 2013, 06:31 PM:

Apart from Derann, Perry's, Powell, Walton etc, all carried healthy
stocks of not only their own but other releases.The only time I
have ever waited for prints were for the 8 reel "One Million Years
B.C.", "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" & "King Kong" as these
were advertised early and were pre order.

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