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DVD READY TO PLAY BY MOVIE'S OPENING DAY
VB in DEPTH: Studios aim to have discs complete as films hit the big screen.

By Jennifer Netherby 5/23/2003

MAY 23 | Two weeks before Walt Disney Co./Pixar Animation Studios' Finding Nemo hit theaters, DVD producers and Buena Vista Home Entertainment had completed virtually all of the extra content for the fourth-quarter home video release.

It's a pattern being repeated throughout the industry.

Record-breaking sequel The Matrix Reloaded was almost finished in DVD form a week after the movie debuted for Warner Bros. on the big screen. And The Real Cancun, in theaters the last week of April, was completed within weeks of the release, allowing New Line Home Entertainment to announce a July 2 video release, early enough to build off the theatrical marketing.

Studios across the board are beginning the DVD production process earlier and earlier and completing it near the theatrical release of the film, recognizing that a shorter theatrical window can be advantageous for DVD sales. Having the DVD completed on time also allows a studio ultimate flexibility in choosing street dates, which can often be pushed up if a film underperforms at theaters.

Buena Vista has put a deadline on most new-release titles for completion by the time the movie debuts theatrically, said VP of marketing Gordon Ho. "With the majority of our DVDs, the bonus features are due at or by theatrical," Ho said. "We try to accommodate special circumstances."

Ho said it often depends on a filmmaker's involvement and whether there is time with the challenges involved in the making of the movie.

Warner Home Video completes most of its new-release DVDs a month after a film's theatrical release and even sooner for bigger releases, said WHV VP of DVD special productions Paul Hemstreet. The more DVDs that must be pressed, the sooner the DVD must be completed, he said.

"There's a shift of how films are understood," Hemstreet said. "Rather than the film completing and the filmmakers thinking the DVD is the final leg, so to speak, we're pulling up the dates to make it all sort of one."

Studios say it's a balancing act: Do they finish extras early to push up the DVD release and benefit from the theatrical marketing campaign, or do they take more time on the extras, which can make a title a bigger seller?

"It's something everybody is going to have to start dealing with," said Artisan Home Entertainment president of sales Jeff Fink. "The benefit to home video releases is the payoff of figuring out how to do that."

Fink said Artisan would like to bump up the time frame for completing the DVD, but it's difficult to do.

"If your initial release of a DVD is going to contain a special number of features and content to make the DVD itself special and unique, it's difficult in that time frame to do so," he said.

All studios say they begin working on the DVD around the start of filming, mapping out ideas for extras and other content.

"The planning process has come further and further out," said Jana Simmons, MGM Home Entertainment director of new release marketing.

"Theatrical views the release of the DVD as an extended release of the movie," said Kelly Sooter, domestic head of DreamWorks Home Entertainment, who noted that her studio is already at work on the Shrek 2 DVD.

Warner sometimes cuts a DVD with early temporary footage used as a space saver on the DVD and replaces it at the last minute with a final transfer. WHV is already talking DVD plans with filmmakers for Scooby-Doo 2 and Looney Tunes: Back in Action, not yet in production, Hemstreet said. DVDs are in production for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Starsky & Hutch.

Justine Brody, VP of marketing at New Line, said it's sometimes difficult to complete a DVD before a film hits theaters because often availability of extras such as deleted scenes aren't even known.

Although having DVDs completed earlier would give 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment more flexibility to set a street date, senior VP of marketing Peter Staddon said, "We're most concerned with making the products as good as they can be. We never want to sacrifice quality of product just to get it ready for a date."

I'm glad that DVDs are being completed so soon. When it's a great movie and I want to own it on DVD I'd rather get the DVD 3-4 months after theatrical release as opposed to, say, the Lord of the Rings 8 month waits.