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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BillyG who wrote (28213)	1/17/1998 10:55:00 AM
From: CPAMarty	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Billy, thanks for the info on WDM. Now here is something that might impact the DVD vs Divx issue; ON VIDEO / Hollywood Says Buy-Buy To Would-Be Renters infoseek.com Newsday Fri, Jan 16 1998 THIS WEEK'S debuts of BUDDY and SOUL FOOD as collectible videos reflects a growing trend in Hollywood - offering minor movies for sale that previously would have gone the rental route. Until the mid-1990s, a movie had to be a Disney animated feature or have grossed over $100 million at the box office (and offered more than R-rated hard-core violence) to premiere on video as a $20 collectible. That rule-of-thumb still applies to mass audience movies. Box office action-comedy blockbuster "Men in Black," for example, sold more than 10 million videos in the past couple of months. But hard-core action flick "Con Air" was released last month as a rental video, even though it had grossed $110 million at the box office. Increasingly, however, Hollywood has been experimenting with selling less successful films directly to collectors, as well. It's riskier, because video rental store owners can buy the film for a fraction of the usual price, but the potential rewards are greater. "Buddy," for instance, had a limited theatrical run in 1997, got mixed reviews, and grossed only $11 million. A benign PG-rated family comedy, it stars Rene Russo as an eccentric socialite who raises a cuddly gorilla, talkative parrot and mischievous chimpanzees in her home. With effects by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, her menagerie joins her at the dinner table and performs household chores. "In the old days, 'Buddy' would have been rental fodder," observed Billboard, the trade weekly. But if Columbia TriStar Home Video had released "Buddy" for rental, they probably would have sold, at most, 100,000 cassettes to video rental stores at $65 wholesale, for a gross of $6.5 million. Instead, they're gambling that by issuing it as a collectible retailing for under $20, it'll sell 2.5 million to 3 million copies at $12 apiece wholesale and gross $30 million to $36 million. (That's how many copies Warner was able to sell last year of its serviceable but undistinguished boy-and-his-dog movie, "Shiloh.") Worst-case scenario? The public won't be interested in owning "Buddy" and the only buyers turn out to be rental stores, which make a killing - paying just $12 a copy instead of $65. Why take the risk? Because video rentals are declining, anyway, and rental stores are ordering fewer copies of movies, while the popularity of movies as collectibles now rivals music and books (an estimated $7.5 billion last year). With VCRs now in nearly 85 million North American homes, it's more possible than ever before to find a buyer for almost any product.