Straight to DVD

On Oct 27, 2:10 am, Marv Soloff <msol... DeleteThis @verizon.net> wrote:
> How bad does a movie have to be to bypass the theaters (and critics) and
> go straight
> to DVD? What are the guidelines (if any)?
>
> Marv

either really bad, or it's just something they can't figure out how to
sell.

Any number of good movies have gone straight to video over the years,
for a variety of reasons. Donnie Darko, for example.

John Harkness
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

On Oct 27, 9:45 am, Adam Cameron <adam_j....DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Any number of good movies have gone straight to video over the years,
> > for a variety of reasons. Donnie Darko, for example.
>
> It never occurred to me before, but it also seems "straight to video" is
> not a global thing. After your comment, I recalled Donnie Darko being on
> at the NZFF, and thought it also made the general screens as well.
> Consulting IMDB it proces I was wrong about the latter (as far as their
> info goes, anyhow), but seems it WAS released in cinemas in some places,
> eg: many European countries. Or is this a case of incomplete / inaccurate
> info on IMDB?
>
> --
> Adam

It was actually scheduled for theatrical release in the US -- about
two weeks after 9/11. It got pulled and went straight to video.

John Harkness
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

"Marv Soloff" <msoloff RemoveThis @verizon.net> wrote in message
news:GDAUi.186$R%4.23@trnddc05...
>
> How bad does a movie have to be to bypass the theaters (and critics) and
> go straight
> to DVD? What are the guidelines (if any)?
>
> Marv

I'll guess.
Straight to DVD means they couldn't sell it to those who decide what will
be shown on the cinema circuit.

Stone me.
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

Marv Soloff wrote:
>
> How bad does a movie have to be to bypass the theaters (and critics) and
> go straight
> to DVD? What are the guidelines (if any)?

Disney had a marketing strategy for a number of years of producing
sequels to their animated hits exclusively for the "direct to the
tween-girls DVD" market. I understand that the new management has said
no more of those 2nd and 3rd rate productions.

Otherwise, I've always assumed that one of the criteria for
too-bad-to-sell-tickets-for. Formerly, such films were just put up on
the shelf in some vault and promptly forgotten and disavowed by all
concerned. Now, they ship them out to Blockbuster and Amazon and duck.

Or am I wrong?

--
Frank in Seattle
____

Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
"Millennium hand and shrimp."
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

In the Year of the Golden Pig, the Great and Powerful Harkness declared:
>
> Any number of good movies have gone straight to video over the years,
> for a variety of reasons. Donnie Darko, for example.
>

It did get a limited release a few months after 11 September -- I
remember wanting to go see it, but it was only playing at one
theater in downtown DC. Box Office Mojo says its widest release was
58 theaters and it barely earned half a million dollars.
Interestingly, it earned more than three times as much in the UK,
which I think might be a first for an American film.


http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=donniedarko.htm

Gilliam's Tideland got even worse treatment -- it earned just $61k
at 9 theaters.

--
Sean O'Hara <http://diogenes-sinope.blogspot.com>
Abstract reasoning cannot decide any question of fact or existence.
-David Hume
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

Usually if they get really bad good reviews or tickets sold during the
limited releases..............before they release it wide.

----
http://www.moviesitearchive.com

On Oct 26, 11:10 pm, Marv Soloff <msol... RemoveThis @verizon.net> wrote:
> How bad does a movie have to be to bypass the theaters (and critics) and
> go straight
> to DVD? What are the guidelines (if any)?
>
> Marv
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

Remember the early antidote to a project losing steam after first
release? They'd release it to the drive-in circuit down south. First,
them yokels have no taste, second they didn't go to the drive-in to
watch the movie.


--
'... my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends
have always called me.' - Odyssey; Book IX
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

> Any number of good movies have gone straight to video over the years,
> for a variety of reasons. Donnie Darko, for example.

It never occurred to me before, but it also seems "straight to video" is
not a global thing. After your comment, I recalled Donnie Darko being on
at the NZFF, and thought it also made the general screens as well.
Consulting IMDB it proces I was wrong about the latter (as far as their
info goes, anyhow), but seems it WAS released in cinemas in some places,
eg: many European countries. Or is this a case of incomplete / inaccurate
info on IMDB?

--
Adam
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

Straight to video is becoming a marketing strategy. The producers want
to go DVD because that's where the money is (I remember seeing something
like 15% of revenue from your standard theatre release), and they don't
own the theatres anymore, so there is really no inducement for public
showings beyond the opening weekend, which is only a tout to DVD sales.

True?

--
'... my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends
have always called me.' - Odyssey; Book IX
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

Frank R.A.J. Maloney wrote:
> Marv Soloff wrote:
>>
>> How bad does a movie have to be to bypass the theaters (and critics)
>> and go straight
>> to DVD? What are the guidelines (if any)?
>
> Disney had a marketing strategy for a number of years of producing
> sequels to their animated hits exclusively for the "direct to the
> tween-girls DVD" market. I understand that the new management has said
> no more of those 2nd and 3rd rate productions.

One such sequel I saw, _Lion King 2: Simba's Pride_, was actually not a
bad musical. It touched on some enduring adolescent themes but had a
wonky plot.

Miki
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

On Oct 27, 12:41 pm, No Man <woes....DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Straight to video is becoming a marketing strategy. The producers want
> to go DVD because that's where the money is (I remember seeing something
> like 15% of revenue from your standard theatre release), and they don't
> own the theatres anymore, so there is really no inducement for public
> showings beyond the opening weekend, which is only a tout to DVD sales.

I've seen info that a film makes much more than 15% on dvd these days,
its almost a little more than half of all money now.
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD 

Garondo Marondo wrote:
> On Oct 27, 12:41 pm, No Man <woes... DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>Straight to video is becoming a marketing strategy. The producers want
>>to go DVD because that's where the money is (I remember seeing something
>>like 15% of revenue from your standard theatre release), and they don't
>>own the theatres anymore, so there is really no inducement for public
>>showings beyond the opening weekend, which is only a tout to DVD sales.

> I've seen info that a film makes much more than 15% on dvd these days,
> its almost a little more than half of all money now.

No, no, what I meant was, theatrical release amounted to that much, but
the subject was one of those megacorpse monoliths with obsecene sources
of revenue all across the board. I see, looking back at this great
article by Edward J Epstein in Slate, all the big six lose money on
theatre release. However:

--
This brings us to the third, and probably most significant, feature that
the six studios now have in common. They all make the bulk of their
profits from licensing their filmed entertainment for home viewing. Even
as late as 1980, most of the studios’ worldwide revenues still came from
movie theaters. At that point, no matter how large the success of hits
such as Love Story, Jaws, or Star Wars proved to be, all the studios
were losing money on their overall movie business. The deus ex machina
that transformed the movie business was not the selection of better
movies—as studio chiefs would later claim—but the prodigious expansion
in home viewing that came as a result of the video player, cable
networks, pay TV, and the DVD. By 2003 the studios were taking in
almost five times as much revenue from home entertainment as from theaters.

That's at

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/prologue.htm


--
'... my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends
have always called me.' - Odyssey; Book IX
 >> Stay informed about: Straight to DVD