Sam_K
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- May 15, 2001
- Messages
- 62
According to Wall Stree Journal, there probably would be another version of Terminator 2 a year from now. 
Here is the article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/...2514136987.htm
*************************************
For Now, at Least, DVD Sales
Are Soaring as Prices Drop
By MARTIN PEERS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sales of digital video disks are soaring, fueled by dropping prices for the disks and players. But even as DVDs make the leap from specialty item to staple, the extras that studios are packing on are growing more sophisticated and costly.
Since DVDs were introduced in 1997, the extras have evolved from simple alternate language tracks to commentaries running over the film's soundtrack to scenes originally left out. Studio executives say most of extras aren't expensive to include. During the shooting of a film, the director might, for example, give digital cameras to assistants to shoot behind-the-scenes footage. Voice-over commentaries are recorded afterward, with cast and crew describing various aspects of each scene -- usually at no additional cost.
Blockbuster Speeds Plans for DVDs, Plans to Take $450 Million in Charges
Studios involved declined to talk about cost other than to say the extra sales generated justified the expense.
The extras are meant to help persuade consumers to buy the disks, rather than renting. "I'm giving you more than you get on television, and more than you get on VHS [videotape]," says Warren Lieberfarb, president of Warner Home Video at Warner Bros. film studio, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. "I'm giving you a rationale for buying it."
Mr. Lieberfarb says the features provide DVDs with an edge over video-on-demand services accessible on the Web and through cable services. Of course, how many waded through the "Thermian" language track on the DVD of the sci-fi comedy "Galaxy Quest" is open to debate.
Some of the sophisticated features include a technology known as Infinifilm, available on some DVDs released by AOL Time Warner's New Line Cinema film unit, that permits viewers to see pop-up menus that provide behind-the-scenes information and related material as the movie unfolds.
Whether such extras are necessary to attract buyers has sparked a debate certain to intensify as costs increase and DVDs become mass-market products.
Edwin Wiggers, a banker from Norwalk, Conn., who owns about 150 DVDs, says he is disappointed if a DVD doesn't provide bonus material. But Gregg Lieberman, an advertising copywriter in New York, "very rarely" watches the special features and says he would buy a DVD only if he wanted to see the movie.
While viewers may give extras mixed reviews, they are clamoring for the disks themselves. For the first eight months of the year, through Aug. 28, DVD sales had jumped to $127.7 million from $58.8 million a year earlier, research firm Alexander & Associates Inc. estimated. Studios are reissuing many old movies on DVD for as low as $10, and they sell disks of new movies within months of the films' theatrical release for as low as $20 each.
DVDs are so popular that Blockbuster Inc., the giant video-rental company, has been clearing shelves to make room. Blockbuster Monday announced $450 million in charges against third- and fourth-quarter earnings partly for the cost of reducing its stock of older video tapes.
The boost to revenue is helping improve the studios' bottom lines. And studio executives expect the disks to have a positive effect for many years, just as the introduction of the compact disk boosted the music industry's revenue for more than a decade. Alexander & Associates estimated that at the end of last year only 16% of households had DVD capability of any kind. This suggests that the real burst of sales is yet to come.
Some Hollywood veterans believe DVD extras may have limited appeal. Michael Bay, the director of "Pearl Harbor," is working on extras for the DVD release, due out later this year, but he concedes "the bulk of the people probably won't go into the supplemental stuff." The extras "are a great thing for film students."
Jonathan Mostow, director of films such as "U-571," says he doesn't watch all the extras. Still, he says, the appeal is "the perception of added value. ... You're getting all this additional material that, should you be interested, is accessible."
In surveys commissioned by various industry players in the past, consumers usually cite sound and picture quality as the main reason for buying DVDs, while the extra features rate somewhat lower.
Yet some in Hollywood are convinced the extras are critical. "Special features are basically one of the main reasons that consumers out there tend to spend more time watching movies on their DVD machines," says Amir Malin, chief executive of Artisan Entertainment Inc., an independent film company in Santa Monica, Calif. Artisan owns video and DVD rights to thousands of movies from independent companies.
Increasingly, studios release several DVD versions of newer movies -- first the basic edition, several months after a film comes out, the more-elaborate editions some time later. Artisan, for instance, put out an "ultimate edition" of "Terminator 2," featuring extras such as previously unseen footage, after releasing a regular DVD of the picture. "Probably a year from now we will go out with a new edition of 'T2' because the demand is out there and people are always looking for additional features on these DVDs," says Mr. Malin. "That's what allows you to continue to refresh the product."
Here is the article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/...2514136987.htm
*************************************
For Now, at Least, DVD Sales
Are Soaring as Prices Drop
By MARTIN PEERS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sales of digital video disks are soaring, fueled by dropping prices for the disks and players. But even as DVDs make the leap from specialty item to staple, the extras that studios are packing on are growing more sophisticated and costly.
Since DVDs were introduced in 1997, the extras have evolved from simple alternate language tracks to commentaries running over the film's soundtrack to scenes originally left out. Studio executives say most of extras aren't expensive to include. During the shooting of a film, the director might, for example, give digital cameras to assistants to shoot behind-the-scenes footage. Voice-over commentaries are recorded afterward, with cast and crew describing various aspects of each scene -- usually at no additional cost.
Blockbuster Speeds Plans for DVDs, Plans to Take $450 Million in Charges
Studios involved declined to talk about cost other than to say the extra sales generated justified the expense.
The extras are meant to help persuade consumers to buy the disks, rather than renting. "I'm giving you more than you get on television, and more than you get on VHS [videotape]," says Warren Lieberfarb, president of Warner Home Video at Warner Bros. film studio, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. "I'm giving you a rationale for buying it."
Mr. Lieberfarb says the features provide DVDs with an edge over video-on-demand services accessible on the Web and through cable services. Of course, how many waded through the "Thermian" language track on the DVD of the sci-fi comedy "Galaxy Quest" is open to debate.
Some of the sophisticated features include a technology known as Infinifilm, available on some DVDs released by AOL Time Warner's New Line Cinema film unit, that permits viewers to see pop-up menus that provide behind-the-scenes information and related material as the movie unfolds.
Whether such extras are necessary to attract buyers has sparked a debate certain to intensify as costs increase and DVDs become mass-market products.
Edwin Wiggers, a banker from Norwalk, Conn., who owns about 150 DVDs, says he is disappointed if a DVD doesn't provide bonus material. But Gregg Lieberman, an advertising copywriter in New York, "very rarely" watches the special features and says he would buy a DVD only if he wanted to see the movie.
While viewers may give extras mixed reviews, they are clamoring for the disks themselves. For the first eight months of the year, through Aug. 28, DVD sales had jumped to $127.7 million from $58.8 million a year earlier, research firm Alexander & Associates Inc. estimated. Studios are reissuing many old movies on DVD for as low as $10, and they sell disks of new movies within months of the films' theatrical release for as low as $20 each.
DVDs are so popular that Blockbuster Inc., the giant video-rental company, has been clearing shelves to make room. Blockbuster Monday announced $450 million in charges against third- and fourth-quarter earnings partly for the cost of reducing its stock of older video tapes.
The boost to revenue is helping improve the studios' bottom lines. And studio executives expect the disks to have a positive effect for many years, just as the introduction of the compact disk boosted the music industry's revenue for more than a decade. Alexander & Associates estimated that at the end of last year only 16% of households had DVD capability of any kind. This suggests that the real burst of sales is yet to come.
Some Hollywood veterans believe DVD extras may have limited appeal. Michael Bay, the director of "Pearl Harbor," is working on extras for the DVD release, due out later this year, but he concedes "the bulk of the people probably won't go into the supplemental stuff." The extras "are a great thing for film students."
Jonathan Mostow, director of films such as "U-571," says he doesn't watch all the extras. Still, he says, the appeal is "the perception of added value. ... You're getting all this additional material that, should you be interested, is accessible."
In surveys commissioned by various industry players in the past, consumers usually cite sound and picture quality as the main reason for buying DVDs, while the extra features rate somewhat lower.
Yet some in Hollywood are convinced the extras are critical. "Special features are basically one of the main reasons that consumers out there tend to spend more time watching movies on their DVD machines," says Amir Malin, chief executive of Artisan Entertainment Inc., an independent film company in Santa Monica, Calif. Artisan owns video and DVD rights to thousands of movies from independent companies.
Increasingly, studios release several DVD versions of newer movies -- first the basic edition, several months after a film comes out, the more-elaborate editions some time later. Artisan, for instance, put out an "ultimate edition" of "Terminator 2," featuring extras such as previously unseen footage, after releasing a regular DVD of the picture. "Probably a year from now we will go out with a new edition of 'T2' because the demand is out there and people are always looking for additional features on these DVDs," says Mr. Malin. "That's what allows you to continue to refresh the product."
