MovieChat Forums > Thursday (1998) Discussion > THIS is Why you can't find or rent it on...

THIS is Why you can't find or rent it on DVD

posted 14 years ago by brandtrey
33 replies | jump to latest

Just so everybody who gets online, whether it be this site, or any dvd rental or seller site and can't find Thursday and is like, What the F&@!, here's the business side.

OK, Thursday was produced and distributed by Polygram entertainment. Literally, a few months after Thursday was released on DVD for sale, Polygram went bankrupt. Out of Business -- whatever you'd like to call a production studio that doesn't make enough films that do well at the box office.
I'm absolutely not being critical, Polygram did some edgy stuff and I LOVE Thursday also.

Thusly, due to the timing of Polygram ceasing to exist , DVD production was stopped. Rumor is there are only about 1,000 copies available in the original English/USA released version.

And, yes, I do have one. There is no extra material on it. I found it by complete luck and persistence. A seller about 4 years ago had a copy on ebay. Offered him 40 bucks, got him to close his auction, and since the current bid on it was about 20 dollars at the time, he immediately obliged. I literally know people who have offered/payed upwards of 100 dollars for a copy of this hard to find dvd.

Anyway, now you know. Happy viewing.

May the bridges i have burned light the way

[–] ratatatcat29 13 years ago

It's available on Netflix, just added it to my instant queue.

Hey, did you ever try dunking a potato chip in champagne? It's real crazy!

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Defenseman13 12 years ago

English?

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm2339870/

[–] InsideToronto 11 years ago

There's a lot more to this story than Polygram going under. Roger Ebert made it his personal mission to have this film buried. During the Toronto Film Festival, where it premiered, Roger sat directly behind me and I recorded the whole exchange between him and the director during the film's Q&A. Roger felt the film's depiction of black people was racist because they were drug dealers, and ignored, in my opinion, that not one single character in this film was an upstanding law-abiding citizen. All of them were criminals in one way or another. Ebert totally lambasted the film's director - a first-timer in his 20s during the Q&A. I felt sorry for the director. He didn't stand a chance. Ebert then went on to give the film a zero rating in Variety, if I remember correctly, and I was told from people very close to the film that Ebert also made calls to industry execs trying to get the film killed. Is this true? I don't know, but this is what I was told. There was a whole other political issue with this in that Polygram was afraid of Ebert penalizing their other films if they did not bury this one. Whether their fear had any basis in truth is another matter for discussion. The director was told, according to my sources, about two weeks after the Toronto Film Festival that Polygram would not support the film.

Edit: just visited the Facebook profile of the director, Skip Woods. It appears he has turned into a complete douche and any pity I had for him regarding the politics surrounding this film is gone, gone, gone.

[–] sarah-mccoy 11 years ago

If you are referring to this page: https://www.facebook.com/SkipWoodsWriter, I'm pretty sure that's not actually Skip Woods writing that....

[–] InsideToronto 11 years ago

Thank you for pointing this out, Sarah. My bad. Upon reading it, rather than quickly browsing the text, it is clearly not his page and am embarrassed that I did not catch this before adding an edit to my original post. The Skip Woods I met way back then was a nice guy. I hope that is still the case.

[–] sarah-mccoy 11 years ago

If you are referring to this page: https://www.facebook.com/SkipWoodsWriter, I'm pretty sure that's not actually Skip Woods writing that....

[–] chris-benson-sr 11 years ago

As of 19 May 2014, the movie Thursday is available for streaming from Netflix in the USA, here:
http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=60002636
(subscription required).

Hopefully, this lets Messrs. Eckhart, Rourke & Co. get any royalties to which they may be entitled.

Chris Benson

[–] HOKfilms 10 years ago

a friend of mine owns a copy of this movie that he bought new, at the store back when this came out.

He had never heard of the movie and bought it on whim or the worker recommended it.. I dunno.. but the copy was legit, straight off the shelf.

I <3 Emily Blunt

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] taran-rod 9 years ago

I have it as well! The original USA realeased dvd. It's my little gem, i think i the only one in canada to have it xD at least, in my city i'm pretty sure.