James R | On 18, Jun 2019

Border, Suspiria and Under the Silver Lake will all be released on DVD and Blu-ray this year, as part of MUBI’s latest move into discs.

Then curated streaming service has been expanding its horizons in recent years, acquiring a growing number of movies for exclusive release both online and in cinemas. It has also added a transactional element to compliment its subscription model, with some of its exclusive titles available to rent online, following their initial SVOD window. Now, it’s going one more step further by releasing a trio of films on DVD and Blu-ray, including Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria.

Ali Abbasi’s Oscar-nominated genre-bender Border will kick off the shift in gears, arriving on disc on 15th July, hot on the heels of its online release. David Robert Mitchell’s neo-noir Under the Silver Lake will follow on 26th August, and Suspiria arriving in time for Halloween on 7th October.
 
Kevin Chan, Senior Acquisitions Manager for MUBI says: ‘We are extremely excited to be able to bring film lovers in the UK these three remarkable films on physical formats, marking a first for MUBI. Along with our MUBI GO cinema initiative, we continue in our mission to make the work of exciting filmmaking talent accessible to a wide range of audiences across many different platforms. We look forward to making further stylishly presented Home Entertainment releases available in the future.’
 
The decision is a dramatic one for the streamer, but follows repeated calls from horror fans to make the Suspiria remake available outside of Amazon Prime Video, after MUBI distributed the film in cinemas.

MUBI VP of Marketing Jon Barrenechea told Cue in a recent interview that even with the physical video market in decline, he is confident their DVD releases will find a home.

“Physical home entertainment remains a strong format for collectors, it is a cinephileʼs medium and that is where we see ourselves – as a specialist film company,” he explained.

The move, though, isn’t a wholesale one, and will not be a standard strategy for all of its exclusive titles. Rather, MUBI plans to release a handful of discs a year.

“We saw a lot of demand for some of the titles we released in cinemas,” he added. “We donʼt want to do this for everything, just titles where we think there is significant interest, be it because of the genre, director or it having cult status like Suspiria.”

MUBI has teamed up with Elevation Sales to handle the releases, with the discs to be available from retailers including HMV, Amazon, Fopp and Zavvi.

“There remains a large number of people who only purchase DVDs and who donʼt have a Blu-ray player. We want to make the films accessible to all,” Jon continued.

The DVD and Blu-ray packaging will be consistent with the look and feel of MUBI as a brand with spines designed to encourage collectors, while Blu-rays will come with extras – although there is no aim to rival or emulate labels such as The Criterion Collection.

“We have a very vibrant short films programme on the MUBI platform and have often played short films by the filmmakers who might be releasing films, so one idea is to add short films by the same filmmakers to the Blu- ray package. We are not aiming at Criterionʼs market, we are not taking a ‘completestʼ approach with extensive liner notes and multiple discs of features, it is more about creating a high-quality product that offers great value,” he added.

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