Not exactly an announcement of a new release, just thought I'd put in print what we all know -- classic movie DVD releases are down this year. But not by as much as you'd think (about 20%). The chart below compares releases from minor and major labels during the first three months of this year and last.
As expected, Warner Bros. continues to lead the pack in number of releases and is ahead of last year's pace. VCI is second and is way ahead of last year.
Of the studio labels, Sony is ahead of last year, while Fox and Universal's output are downright pathetic (although good things are coming down the road). Paramount is about even, with both this year and last's being made up entirely of TV shows.
Although Infinity Entertainment hasn't slowed down, the economic downturn has hit smaller labels the hardest. All Day, Flicker, Classic Media, Image Ent., Lions Gate, Shout Factory!, S'More and Weinstein all have zero releases scheduled.
Not included here are PD labels like Mill Creek, Alpha and Televista.
Criteria:
- Only titles that are new to DVD are counted (no re-releases or "Special Editions")
- Boxed sets count the tiles in the set and not the set itself (ex. The recently released Warner Romance Collection counts as 4 and not 1)
- Does not include Blu-ray
- Yellow is for studios behind last year's pace. Green for ahead.
DVD SCORE CARD:
--David Greenstreet
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