About the Rifftrax movie choices, and related stuff.

[Gaseous Snake]

The second  third  ????  coming of TNWD.

[Lady Kitsch]

A couple of suggestions:

1. This summer presents several chances to do older movies that would tie in profitably with new releases.  The X-Files was mentioned before, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom would be a fine tie-in and Star Wars: A New Hope would be a good release with the Clone Wars cartoon coming out in August. 

2. Perhaps Rifftrax could come up with a special category of Riffs for older movies which would need to cost more to make a profit to distinguish them from the regular Riffs.  Maybe it could be called "Rifftrax Gold Class" or something. 

I'm also quite pleased to read that the chick flick Rifftraxs apparently sell so badly, as a chick who hates chick flicks.

[Invader_quirk]

Wow, did The Next Walt Disney steal your account?

I was referring to him, yes.

[Invader_quirk]

I like ya Invader but that just doesn't make any sense to me....explain some more.

I'm just saying that all riffing is riffing, and shouldn't be called "fan riffing". That'd be like saying that all films other than those made by the biggest companies are "fan films". I think that dubbing them fan-riffs cheapens them when those people did just as much work as Rifftrax does.

[Minnesota]

defensive much?

[Invader_quirk]

defensive much?

Ummm not intentionally. Tone's really hard to convey over the webs. >___<

[Tyrant]

I haven't read all the way through this thread yet (it's really long and I'm really lazy), but I know what it's about and I think my opinions can stand on their own anyway.

First, I'm thrilled that Bill has been participating in the discussion when he can. He's a busy man and it says a lot when he finds the few minutes needed to make posts here. Thanks Bill!! I wish I could eat your brain so I can absorb your powers. I also wish Kevin would post. He looks very cuddly.

Second, I love the shorts. They make for a very nice 'fix' between the movies and, unfortunately, I actually remember a few of them from elementary school (Safety Woman was safely tucked into the depths of my subconscious until recently, so I guess thanks for reminding me she existed). I'm not sure how anyone could have any complaints about them (assuming there have been some complaints), but to each their own.

As for the meat of this whole shebang, I may possibly be the least picky Rifftrax fan ever when I say I really don't care at all what's riffed so long as it's riffed well. You guys could do a reality show ep or a news story from CNN and I would still watch it and love it. I can understand why people would complain and have issues with the recent movie choices, however.

The ting of disappointment when I know I won't be driving all over NM with Pak to find a weird, bad movie that hasn't seen the light of day in 10+ years sitting on a Blockbuster shelf (and making Pak ask for it when I'm too embarrassed to do so) is not an alien thing to me . I still continually and faithfully wait with bated breath to see if Alien or the animated TF movie will ever be riffed, understanding the entire time why it may not happen. I'm neither a writer nor on the business end of Rifftrax and as such, I trust the decisions that are made regarding the movie choices.

  I'm not saying that everyone needs to be as trusting/content as me. I mean, because I am so content with what we get, I can't even offer any awesome suggestions on how to improve on it (and man, there are some awesome suggestions on this thread). Ingenuity usually only occurs when there's some level of discontent present. After so many dry years of no MST3K, I'm like Charlie in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory where I'm "just happy to be here". Not saying anyone else does, but I don't take Rifftrax for granted and am eternally grateful it exists and for all the hardworking people behind the scenes that make it as awesome as it is.

  Probably nothing new or useful in this post, but just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. 

[mrbasehart]

I'm thinking that they'll build on the shorts idea, and do public domain movies available via download.  Or perhaps they'll even be tied to some online company that can supply them with the movies...

And Conor says as much in the 20Qs thread.  I'll just silently back away.

[Artie]

I am totally on board with the donation idea.

When I first discovered Rifftrax (and what discovery it was!) I knew that there were some movies that were just perfect for Rifftrax.  I would gladly donate extra to see a movie like Starship Troopers or Dune have get "the treatment" because I know that I would enjoy them for years (decades?) to come.

It's really sad to see Glitter on the low selling list as it has recently become one of my favorite riffs.  It really is good people!

[excalibear]

Honestly I say mix it up once in a while, throw in a fan demanded film or something just as a sorbet to cleanse the pallet.

"Xanadu" is about to get reissued in June.

I would sit through that turd burger again to hear Mike and the Gang scream in pain. If they survived "The Wild Women of Wongo" they can survive Xanadu

[Chaos]

For the people who say the (very useful) list of titles posted a few pages back by Conor does not tell us whether the real problem with those titles on the bottom list are because they are old or because they are primarily solo riffs, there is an easy solution, though it would take a new Trax from RiffTrax to answer.

Mike should solo riff a new release. If it sells better than Raiders of the Lost Ark (an older movie that was riffed by all 3 guys), then you can see for the most part, older movies and non-mainstream movies are the problem, and not inherently solo riffs.

That being said, I think that most of the titles on the bottom of the list had inherent problems. In general, "chick flicks" do not do well. TV show riffs do not do well. Really old movies that you can only obtain by buying the DVD (Missle to the Moon) do not do well. The fact that several of these were solo riffs on top of the other factors didn't help (I personally have found several of the Mike solo riffs to be hilarious, but that formula does not work for everyone, and I freely admit that I TEND to enjoy the multi-riffs more than the solo ones, because of the interaction between the riffers).

I suspect that 3 man riffs of '90s films would do better than the titles on the bottom of the list, but probably still not quite good enough to make it as worthwhile as doing the more recent stuff. At the end of the day, an 80% drop in sales is an 80% drop in sales. I too would love to see some more classic cheese get riffed (by everyone, not just Mike), and I'd also love to see some Kevin & Bill, or just Kevin, or just Bill riffs, just for the variety that would bring. But I'm willing to wait for these new site developments and new offering ideas that the guys are working on, and I'm certainly not going to get ANGRY at them for riffing a new release movie. I may not necessarily watch it right away (I'm not a completist), but I don't begrudge them making a riff of it so that they CAN STAY IN BUSINESS.

[gammer]

Good points Chaos.

Another thing I'd like to point out about the one's that didn't sell well is this:
Most of them were released when the fan base was smaller. I'd be willing to bet that if they were released now, they'd probably do a bit better.
I think new releases tend to sell better now because they are new to a larger fan base. But to have something old in a catalog...its too easy for someone to skim past it.

On the Missile to the Moon subject...I feel it would have done better if either a) the source video was easy to get from someone other then RiffTrax and/or b) it was available as a VOD right away.
Personally, I had no problem purchasing the DVD from RiffTrax, waiting for it to arrive in the mail and then watching it. But I know some folks couldn't be bothered. Which is too bad, because it was a definite MST style movie, for sure.

[Conor]

Like I said before, the issue is not necessarily New movies.  Raiders and Jurassic Park are in part popular because people can pull them off their shelves, they are very popular DVDs.  The same reason that the Star Wars original Trilogy or Star Trek titles are popular as well, because the same people who are interested in RiffTrax/Mst3k already have them. 

[Compound]

I'm working on a longer reply to something above, but I'll toss this out here.

Conor? Have you guys done any research on the breakdown of how we (the Rifftrax viewer) are getting the movies? If more of us are renting than buying or vice versa?

[Compound]

Oh, and BTW,  is the "This Just in" blurb ever going to change to note that Cloverfield is out?