Sunday's New York Times has an article as part of a ppecial section: The DVD Comes of Age on the increasing importance of DVD sales for Hollywood's bottom line. The heaviest buyer tend to be males who buy action movies to show off their home theater systems (well, it doesn't mention the show off part or go into the online communities like Home Theater Forum).
Home video sales accounted for more than 58 percent of Hollywood's income last year, more than twice as much as box-office revenues. Sales of DVD's to consumers are the biggest, most profitable and fastest-growing component of that revenue.
For studio executives, that means the home video market is no longer the afterthought it was when renting videotapes dominated the business. "It is becoming, in a lot of ways, the primary market in determining whether to green light a movie or not," said Chris McGuirk, vice chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
What the studios are finding so far is that DVD's are a man's world, where the films that get the biggest bounce from the box-office sales are movies like "Rush Hour 2," "The Bourne Identity" and "XXX." "The male-oriented action movies are the ones that have worked well on DVD," said Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of the Miramax Films division of the Walt Disney Company. "It is almost like buying records when you were a kid and running out to get the new Led Zeppelin. Men tend to be a little more compulsive."
Personally, my DVD collection is mostly musically related (Stop Making Sense, Singing in the Rain, Hedwig), classics (Citizen Kane) and a few more interesting action films (Matrix, Fight Club, Fellowship of the Ring extended edition). But I've been buying less DVDs, partly because I belong to Greencine, partly because I've been broke.
While even bad action films sell well, better films don't:
Since 1997, the home video revenue of films that earned more than $50 million at the box office has doubled, while the home video revenue of films earning less than $10 million at the box office has fallen, according to a study by Adams Media Research.
The James Bond film "Die Another Day," for example, has sold 3.41 million copies on DVD since its release in June, according to the trade publication Video Store Magazine. At the other extreme, "Frida," a film about the artist Frida Kahlo starring Selma Hayek, sold just 250,000 since its release the same month. [Though I'm sure the Bond DVD had a much bigger marketing budget than Frida].
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Article comments
1 - jadester
another point is price. I'm not sure what it's like in the US, but generally here in england it's quite a bit cheaper to go see a film at the cinema than buying the dvd (at least until the dvd is about 10+ years old, or if the film did really badly at the cinemas). So, you'd be more prepared to risk go seeing a film you might not like at the cinema than buying it on dvd.
2 - TDavid
jadester - at the theater here in the US (Washington state) it costs the two of usually $15 USD and then one can't see a movie without popcorn, so there's another $10-15. Therefore, the theater experience ends up being 30-40 bones and most standalone DVD movies are selling for around 20 bucks.
3 - Brian Flemming
Thanks for this post, Steve.
I'm designing the DVD and packaging for my movie right now, and this is a useful reminder to keep the audience for the DVD format itself in mind -- i.e., emphasize the 5.1 surround sound and other elements.
Question for anybody--
When you are deciding whether to buy a DVD, what factors (other than the stars in the movie or the fact you saw and liked it) make you decide one way or another? Is there something in particular you look for?
4 - TDavid
Brian - for me, anyway, when it comes to DVD purchases it's the *extras*. Pack as much of that as you can in there.
One thing that is a bit frustrating as a consumer is that often a DVD will be released new and then 6 months later it will be re-released with all the real goodies it should have had to begin with. I realize this is planned marketing, but I think it's cool to get behind the scenes footage, outtakes and the like so now I am more hesitant to buy a DVD title when it comes out and wait for the release with the real good extras down the road.
Take T2 for example. It has been released at least 3 times, with the newest version being also available in Windows Media 9 format.
Thank goodness there is always eBay for selling off the older versions of DVDs ;)
Hope this helps!
5 - Brian Flemming
TDavid,
It does help. Thanks for the input.