Warner launches manufacturing-on-demand service
Consumers can order from 150 classic movies
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 3/23/2009
MARCH 23 | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group is launching its own, branded manufacturing-on-demand operation, offering films and TV on DVD titles whose limited sales potential have prevented a traditional retail release.
The manufactured-on-demand DVDs will come with cover art in a shrink-wrapped Amaray case.
Starting March 23, consumers can order 150 classic Warner movies at new studio site WarnerArchive.com for $19.95 each. The studio will ship a made-to-order DVD, in a shrink-wrapped Amaray case with cover art, to consumers within five days of purchase.
Some of the new-to-DVD titles listed at WarnerArchive.com include Possessed, starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford; Once Upon a Honeymoon, Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers; and All Fall Down, Warren Beatty, Eva Marie Saint. Others include Sunrise at Campobello, The Citadel and Mr. Lucky.
Warner intends to add 20 classic films and TV episodes each month to the MOD service, dubbed ‘Warner Archive Collection,’ and expects 300 titles will be available by the end of the year.
At this point, Warner’s MOD offerings can only be bought at the WarnerArchive.com site. But as demand grows, the titles might be available to order at other retail outlets, according to the studio. Also, the service is currently limited to producing titles on standard-definition DVD.
The site offers a try-before-you-buy feature, with which consumers can watch a 30-second clip of the film before finalizing the purchase transaction.
Warner has long been one of the more aggressive studios in releasing its older library titles on DVD, but the studio realized there was a lot more it could be doing to satisfy fans. Warner houses 6,800 theatrical films, of which just 1,200 have so far streeted on DVD.
“We release a lot of ‘first time to DVDs’—there have been around 30 to 35 already in this year’s first quarter—but we’re not making a dent in getting all the movies out to the people who want them,” said George Feltenstein, senior VP of theatrical catalog marketing at Warner Home Video. “And now, we are releasing more new-to-DVD movies on Monday than we have released during all of last year.”
Feltenstein said that the launch titles were based on the volume of consumer requests the studio has fielded over the years.
Likely upcoming TV additions to the MOD service, said Feltenstein, include Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Bourbon Street Beat, Bronco, Lawman and Hawaiian Eye.
Debbie Reynolds, whose The Mating Game is among the MOD launch titles, will head up a publicity blitz for the service. She will appear on The Today Show and Access Hollywood to chat about its rollout.
Amazon.com has been backing MOD for some time with its CreateSpace service, with which filmmakers can customize DVDs to sell direct to the public. However, Warner believes its own service represents the most extensive MOD offering from a major studio to date.
“We are the first studio to lead the way on this,” said Feltenstein. “We like to be the ones who innovate.”
