Link This |
Email this |
Blog This |
Comments (2)
Direct-to-DVD titles don't all fit in one box
February 15, 2008
There currently seem to be two ways of looking at the direct-to-video business. From one—the ‘call them DVD Premieres’ viewpoint—all direct-to-video product has been upgraded to extend major studio franchises. Think Disney animation, Dr. Dolittle and Bring it On Again... and again.
In fact, when Wendy Wilson and Laurence Lerman were reporting the DVD premieres story on page 8, they found many studio execs were anxious to talk about the biz, until they found out it was that genre direct-to-video stuff we wanted to know about, in which case they took a pass.
The word ‘schlock’ may have been used.
Not by us, of course.
Never mind that most of the studios that release the franchise DVD premieres also release the genre direct-to-video stuff. But they don’t want to talk about that.
The other approach to direct-to-video is native to Entertainment Weekly and other consumer reads of that ilk. It’s demonstrated by a recent EW cover line: MICHELLE PFEIFFER Dumped to DVD?!
Eewwwww!
Michelle/Jennifer/Jessica makes a film intended for theatrical release that for some reason—often not related to the quality of the work—bypasses the box-office and the consumer magazine reporter calls the trade magazine editor and asks “Does this mean her career is over? Has anyone ever come back from direct-to-video?”
Many, in fact, have come back, and I believe Pfeiffer is doing just fine since she made I Could Never Be Your Woman, the Amy Heckerling vehicle in question. (Though the jokes are dated and Pfeiffer has little chemistry with co-star Paul Rudd, Woman is not without charm.)
More to the point, there are still big, global stars who dwell in the realm of direct-to-video—the action-oriented, non-franchise kind—on purpose, because the titles still rent well, and increasingly sell, on retail shelves around the world, and turn a profit without theatrical release. After all, finances, not the trajectory of a star, generally determine the release pattern for a film.
This is the third kind of direct-to-video business, the traditional one that existed before the studios built it with franchise extension. It just doesn’t enjoy the visibility or respect that it used to
Posted by Marcy Magiera on February 15, 2008 | Comments (2)
