Movies to DVDs: Release period?

Ah, c'mon, nobody?

Hi Reyn!

Sorry, I actually don't have the information you asked for. I'm not sure if there actually is a set time that applies to all films.
But it seems that the time between the movie theatre & DVD seems to be very quick with some movies these days. You've gotta be quick to catch them at the cinema!



I suppose this is better than nothing? :wink:

Thanks, Olga. I'm thinking it's about 6 months.....maybe?

You know, Reyn, I'm thinking Little Miss Sunshine was even quicker than that. One minute I was watching it (just released) at the cinema, the next, there it was on the video store shelves! I guess it depends on how popular the film was in the first place?

Yes, I imagine you're right. If it doesn't do well in a theatre, it may do very well as a DVD rental.

I've heard that some go almost straight to DVD sales and not released (or very limited release) in movie theatres.

It depends. Most current releases from major studios can be preordered even before the film comes out. Try popping the following numbers into a standard Amazon search:
B00005JPFH
B00005JPQU

Much older films seem to take forever to come out on DVD. This one isn't, yet:
B00009XENR

Indies seem to take a while, too, see:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390109/

I dunno if there's an actual release schedule and I'm sure marketing and getting the rights is what drives most of it. E. g. older stuff where you're dealing with estates is going to take longer, whereas these days films are made and the DVD rights are a part of the contracts themselves. Converting old film stock and getting together extras probably drives it, too, although you often see bare bones releases with few or no extras, but there's still something that has to be done re getting the images into good shape for release.

Thanks for that, Jes. I'll check it out.

I'd agree that it's a variable, depending on the popularity of the film (and hence the sales in theaters). The longer it's in the theaters the longer it takes to bring it out on DVD. In Boston there are some second-run theaters, used to be called neighborhood theaters, where movies go when they start to tail off in receipts at the star theaters, and when the next crop of films come out. Just about the time movies leave the second-run theaters they seem to come out on DVD (sometimes a little before, sometimes a little after. So I think there's a factor of when the distributors think they've gotten just about all the ticket sales they think they can.

Thanks for confirming my own thoughts on this.

The reason I started this thread was because I'm really ticked that my local theatre chain has put up the price of matinee tickets again. I'm so fed up that I've vowed only to ever go back unless it's something really special. Until then, it's off to rent DVDs.

Little Miss Sunshine premiered on Aug. 18, 2006, and the DVD was released on Dec. 19, 2006, five months later. That actually was sorta' pokey by current standards. Babel, for instance, premiered on Nov. 10, 2006 and the DVD was released on Feb. 20, 2007, a little over three months later. In that case, however, the producers probably rushed the movie into the stores to take advantage of the hype surrounding the Oscars on Feb. 25. Crash premiered on May 6, 2005, and the DVD came out on Sept. 6, 2005, exactly four months afterwards. So one can probably expect popular movies to end up on store shelves about 3-5 months after they premiere in the theaters.

Joe, I was referring to the Oz market regarding Little Miss Sunshine. But here (probably because of the smaller market) non-commercial films can disappear from cinemas faster than a speeding bullet!

Well, one always hopes that the studio will do something to get those older films in shape to release on DVD. That's not always the case, unfortunately.

Right now, Warner Bros. and Universal own the largest collections of old films. Other distributors, such as Criterion, Kino, and Image do a very good job of putting out DVDs of old films, but the selection is limited. Warner Bros., in addition to owning all of its own films, managed to come into possession of the old films of MGM, United Artists, and RKO (UA bought many of the RKO films, then MGM merged with UA, then Ted Turner bought the MGM/UA films for his cable channel TCM, then Turner's communications company was bought out by Time-Warner). Universal, through a series of transactions far too complicated to relate here, ended up with many of the old Paramount films in addition to its own film library. Columbia (now Sony), the remaining major studio, seems to have held onto its film vault, but it has been slow in releasing its older films.

The quality of the DVD releases from these major studios is uneven. In my experience, Warner Bros. does an excellent job with its old films -- restoring the picture and sound quality and releasing the DVDs with lots of extras. Universal, in contrast, seems to do an uneven job with its old films. Its monster movie boxed sets (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.) are well done and contain interesting extra features, but it devotes far less attention to some of its other releases. It's really hit-or-miss with them.

Thanks for that, Joe.