Digital Videodiscs

For the last decade, Hollywood has been mining comic books and fantasy novels for its blockbuster source material, with Harry Potter, Spider-Man, Batman and Gandalf leading the vivid parade. Looking ahead, though, the next generation of box-office champions may be coming from a different realm: the digital landscape of gaming. "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" hits theaters May 28, and World of Warcraft, Missile Command and even Asteroids are among the gamer brand names that are now in development.

They should just call it Bluebox and really have at it. NCR Corp., which is expanding aggressively in the DVD kiosk business via a partnership with Blockbuster Inc., has acquired competitor DVDPlay in a bid to catch up with market leader Redbox Automated Retail. NCR, which manufacturers self-service retail devices such as ATMs and grocery-store checkout devices, will put the Blockbuster brand name on its $1-a-night-DVD kiosks via a partnership with the struggling home video chain.

About a week before Christmas, I took a stroll around the Los Angeles Toy District and bought a pirated DVD. As I wrote on Dec. 21, curious about the quality of the merchandise for sale on the street, I shelled out five bucks for a copy of the movie "District 9," which was still days away from being available in your local retail store. As I've been informed, quite properly, by readers in and around the movie industry, that casual act made me part of a global problem that is killing jobs and eliminating opportunities for creative people everywhere.

Over the last 12 years, Warner Home Video has released about 1,200 vintage films from its vast library on DVD. But that still leaves about 3,800 feature titles that have yet to make their digital debuts. At the studio's current release rate of 100 per year, they wouldn't all be available until midcentury. So in an industry first, the company today is, in a manner of speaking, inviting the public into the vaults to order what it wants.

An unprecedented round of online price cutting for DVDs started Thursday that could provide a much needed boost for the beleaguered home entertainment industry. Walmart on Thursday slashed the price of its 10 most popular DVDs that will be released soon, including "Star Trek," "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to $10, less than it has charged for highly anticipated new movies in recent years. Target immediately announced that it would match Walmart's price.

On Wednesday evening, Mike Chauvet opened a red envelope from Netflix and popped "The Hangover" into his DVD player. "I try to get most of the movies I watch through Netflix," said the 30-year-old physician, who lives in Queens, N.Y. Now he's going to have to wait for the privilege. Warner Bros. has struck a deal with Netflix Inc. whereby the fast-growing DVD subscription firm won't offer the studio's movies until 28 days after they go on sale. Had the deal been in effect last month, "The Hangover," which went on sale Dec. 15, wouldn't be available on Netflix until Jan. 14. It's part of a strategy by several studios to create staggered releases of DVDs so that the most profitable transactions are available first and cheaper rental options take effect further down the road.

For those who like renting movies, Hollywood may soon have a message: Prepare to wait. In an effort to push consumers toward buying more movies, some major film studios are considering a new policy that would block DVDs from being offered for rental until several weeks after going on sale. Under the plan, new DVD releases would be available on a purchase-only basis for a few weeks, after which time companies such as Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix Inc. would be allowed to rent the DVDs to their customers.

Sony Pictures desperately wanted to release the DVD of the Michael Jackson concert movie "This Is It" for the holiday shopping season but backed down after movie theater owners complained that it would be too soon after the film's theatrical premiere. That thwarted the latest attempt by a Hollywood studio to shorten the "window" between when movies appear in theaters and when they come out on DVD as the industry grapples with a downturn in DVD sales, which have traditionally propped up the movie business.

It's not every day that movie theaters take retribution against a Hollywood studio. Exhibitors usually don't want to annoy the studios on which they rely for movies to keep filmgoers buying tickets. Yet last month major theater chains pulled the family-friendly animated comedy "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" from big screens around the country. The action was intended as a warning shot at Sony Pictures -- and Hollywood in general. Sony said it simply wanted to make its movie available to owners of a new generation of the company's high-definition TVs a month before its release on DVD. But movie theaters weren't having any of it. They feared that moving up the date when people could watch the movie at home would discourage them from making a trip to the local multiplex.

If Hollywood held any lingering doubts about DVD's breakthrough potential a year ago, they're gone now. The digital videodisc format took off like a rocket during its third year, leaving little doubt about its future as a replacement technology similar to the audio CD it closely resembles. Although DVD still has a long way to go before displacing videocassettes, the format passed several milestones during the last 12 months. The Consumer Electronics Assn.

For the last decade, Hollywood has been mining comic books and fantasy novels for its blockbuster source material, with Harry Potter, Spider-Man, Batman and Gandalf leading the vivid parade. Looking ahead, though, the next generation of box-office champions may be coming from a different realm: the digital landscape of gaming. "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" hits theaters May 28, and World of Warcraft, Missile Command and even Asteroids are among the gamer brand names that are now in development.

On Wednesday evening, Mike Chauvet opened a red envelope from Netflix and popped "The Hangover" into his DVD player. "I try to get most of the movies I watch through Netflix," said the 30-year-old physician, who lives in Queens, N.Y. Now he's going to have to wait for the privilege. Warner Bros. has struck a deal with Netflix Inc. whereby the fast-growing DVD subscription firm won't offer the studio's movies until 28 days after they go on sale. Had the deal been in effect last month, "The Hangover," which went on sale Dec. 15, wouldn't be available on Netflix until Jan. 14. It's part of a strategy by several studios to create staggered releases of DVDs so that the most profitable transactions are available first and cheaper rental options take effect further down the road.

About a week before Christmas, I took a stroll around the Los Angeles Toy District and bought a pirated DVD. As I wrote on Dec. 21, curious about the quality of the merchandise for sale on the street, I shelled out five bucks for a copy of the movie "District 9," which was still days away from being available in your local retail store. As I've been informed, quite properly, by readers in and around the movie industry, that casual act made me part of a global problem that is killing jobs and eliminating opportunities for creative people everywhere.

It's not every day that movie theaters take retribution against a Hollywood studio. Exhibitors usually don't want to annoy the studios on which they rely for movies to keep filmgoers buying tickets. Yet last month major theater chains pulled the family-friendly animated comedy "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" from big screens around the country. The action was intended as a warning shot at Sony Pictures -- and Hollywood in general. Sony said it simply wanted to make its movie available to owners of a new generation of the company's high-definition TVs a month before its release on DVD. But movie theaters weren't having any of it. They feared that moving up the date when people could watch the movie at home would discourage them from making a trip to the local multiplex.

They should just call it Bluebox and really have at it. NCR Corp., which is expanding aggressively in the DVD kiosk business via a partnership with Blockbuster Inc., has acquired competitor DVDPlay in a bid to catch up with market leader Redbox Automated Retail. NCR, which manufacturers self-service retail devices such as ATMs and grocery-store checkout devices, will put the Blockbuster brand name on its $1-a-night-DVD kiosks via a partnership with the struggling home video chain.

To celebrate the movie's 70th birthday, Warner Home Video is releasing a newly restored and remastered version today of "Gone With the Wind" for the first time on Blu-ray, as well as a standard DVD. The Technicolor film has never looked better because of new digital software and the fact that Warners was able to scan the original negative. "It is in beautiful condition," says George Feltenstein, senior vice president of theatrical catalog marketing for Warners, of the negative.

Good news for fans of classic Hollywood. Two film collections -- one featuring a screen legend from the 1930s and the other offering some prime film noirs from the 1950s -- have recently been released on DVD. Claudette Colbert was one of the top female stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood, winning an Oscar for 1934's romantic comedy "It Happened One Night." But she was more than just a comic performer. Colbert also was a deft dramatic actress who earned two more best actress nominations -- 1935's "Private Worlds" and 1944's "Since You Went Away" -- for complex, serious roles.

An unprecedented round of online price cutting for DVDs started Thursday that could provide a much needed boost for the beleaguered home entertainment industry. Walmart on Thursday slashed the price of its 10 most popular DVDs that will be released soon, including "Star Trek," "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to $10, less than it has charged for highly anticipated new movies in recent years. Target immediately announced that it would match Walmart's price.

Sony Pictures desperately wanted to release the DVD of the Michael Jackson concert movie "This Is It" for the holiday shopping season but backed down after movie theater owners complained that it would be too soon after the film's theatrical premiere. That thwarted the latest attempt by a Hollywood studio to shorten the "window" between when movies appear in theaters and when they come out on DVD as the industry grapples with a downturn in DVD sales, which have traditionally propped up the movie business.

For those who like renting movies, Hollywood may soon have a message: Prepare to wait. In an effort to push consumers toward buying more movies, some major film studios are considering a new policy that would block DVDs from being offered for rental until several weeks after going on sale. Under the plan, new DVD releases would be available on a purchase-only basis for a few weeks, after which time companies such as Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix Inc. would be allowed to rent the DVDs to their customers.