This DVD thing is just a fad...
WEEKLY U.S. TITLE SALES HIT 304,000
12/14/98 DVD Report
(c) 1998 Phillips Business Information, Inc.
Chalk up another record-breaking week for DVD-Video: software unit sales in the U.S. cracked the 300,000 mark for the first time in the week ending December 6, led by Columbia/TriStar's Steven Spielberg-produced The Mask of Zorro and Paramount's catalog blockbuster The Hunt For Red October. Spielberg's OK for the release of Zorro has been interpreted as a sign of more DVD things to come from the prolific producer/director, whose clout has so far prevented the release of many of his DVD titles.
Also charting for the first time last week were two reissues from Warner Home Video. The $24.95 special edition of The Exorcist, featuring audio commentary and a documentary, debuted at #11, despite the fact that the film was previously released in a no-frills edition in 1997. Also arriving were the first shipments of a retouched version of The Devil's Advocate that has blurred images of a sculpture in the office of Al Pacino, who plays the devil. An artist sued the movie studio earlier this year, claiming the filmmakers appropriated his own sculpture for the film without permission.
Warner Bros. reached a settlement with the artist that allowed them to distribute tapes and discs that had already been manufactured, but required that any subsequent reissue eliminated the image of the sculpture. The original DVDs, which bore a boxed disclaimer on the back cover, have largely vanished from store shelves.
In other studio news, Buena Vista Home Video is testing the waters this week with the release of two new discs at the $39.99 price point previously favored only by "boutique" label the Criterion Collection. Both Scream and Good Will Hunting hit store shelves with audio commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, and other goodies to entice high-end collectors. Interestingly, Scream has already been released in a $29.99 edition with the same audio commentary, while a no-frills version of Good Will Hunting is due from BV in January.
The experiment is particularly interesting since MGM recently saw two different versions of the same James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, hit the VideoScan Top 20 during the same week - the new $34.95 "special edition" and the original $24.95 release from earlier this year charted at #4 and #19, respectively, for the week ending November 29.
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