There has been an awful lot of talk lately, or really over the course of the last two
years, that the DVD sales are declining rapidly. Soon to be non-existent. For all
of those who aren’t aware – everything that goes up, must come down. Things
are going to drop a heck of a lot faster if you make the load that much heavier.
When the DVD boom took off in the early ‘00’s (not sure what we’re calling
them) it represented a vast new revenue territory, much like iTunes did, for the
music industry post-Napster lawsuit. With that came greed from the studios and
distributors. Did we, as consumers really need to buy every episode off “Gilligan’s
Island” on DVD, just to watch it in this wonderful new digital format? Every film
and TV show sitting on the shelves got dusted off and repackaged for every holiday
season from then on in.
Of course the DVD revenue is going to spike. Of course it’s going to tank when the
consumer realizes that they don’t need every show from their childhood sitting on
their shelf.
DVD is still a very strong market for the people that count on it – the Independents.
The Majors are the ones concerned because their tent pole DVD sales are dropping.
Well I would too, if you need to be recouping $100+M because it failed at the box
office. Independents are not looking for numbers of that nature; hence a modest
return on DVD will continue to provide a security net to all of our investors for quite
some time. But let’s not forget, the music industry broke a new revenue stream with
the digital download boom (thanks iTunes) and as much as the film business has
been dabbling in that world for the past five or six years – we’re here now. Trust
me the sky is not falling, there are more revenue streams to recoup your investment
then ever, you just need to know your marketplace before you start the process.
As the great David Brown said “You need three things to make a good movie. The
first is Story. The second is Story. The third is Story.”

There has been an awful lot of talk lately, or really over the course of the last two

years, that the DVD sales are declining rapidly. Soon to be non-existent. For all

of those who aren’t aware – everything that goes up, must come down. Things

are going to drop a heck of a lot faster if you make the load that much heavier.

When the DVD boom took off in the early ‘00’s (not sure what we’re calling

them) it represented a vast new revenue territory, much like iTunes did, for the

music industry post-Napster lawsuit. With that came greed from the studios and

distributors. Did we, as consumers really need to buy every episode off “Gilligan’s

Island” on DVD, just to watch it in this wonderful new digital format? Every film

and TV show sitting on the shelves got dusted off and repackaged for every holiday

season from then on in.

Of course the DVD revenue is going to spike. Of course it’s going to tank when the

consumer realizes that they don’t need every show from their childhood sitting on

their shelf.

DVD is still a very strong market for the people that count on it – the Independents.

The Majors are the ones concerned because their tent pole DVD sales are dropping.

Well I would too, if you need to be recouping $100+M because it failed at the box

office. Independents are not looking for numbers of that nature; hence a modest

return on DVD will continue to provide a security net to all of our investors for quite

some time. But let’s not forget, the music industry broke a new revenue stream with

the digital download boom (thanks iTunes) and as much as the film business has

been dabbling in that world for the past five or six years – we’re here now. Trust

me the sky is not falling, there are more revenue streams to recoup your investment

then ever, you just need to know your marketplace before you start the process.

As the great David Brown said “You need three things to make a good movie. The

first is Story. The second is Story. The third is Story.”

« »