It is only a snapshot. A moment in time when the counting stopped and the page for the week was closed-out and turned. Next week there will be a different number … a different bunch of numbers (that’s just the way it is).
But for now, we can say with absolute confidence that all three of the home entertainment packaged media formats set new all-time records for SKU counts in 2022.
If you are studio-centric and just focused on the activities of what the so-called “Hollywood” studios are doing you may find that hard to believe. DVD is dead for sure, right? It is now the alphabet world of SVOD, AVOD and FAST.
If you believe that, you might be missing the bigger picture. DVD is a workhorse, delivering a whopping 20,078 new SKUs in 2022. That’s a jump of 3,870 over the 2021 record of 16,208 … you have to go all the way back to 2006 (the launch year of Blu-ray) to find the next busiest year — 15,261 new DVD releases.
Sure, it looked as though the DVD format had reached its zenith in 2006 and that it would just slowly fade away, but that didn’t happen. Instead, MOD (manufacturing on demand) kicked in and it suddenly became fashionable.
If you need a hard copy of a sporting event (high school football, basketball, baseball … pick a sport, even girl’s hockey), your favorite recording artist/group in concert (pro-shot; fan-shot) or a deep dive into the world of theatrical films from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, etc., then it is likely out there and someone (either legal … or extra-legal) will be willing to burn you a copy for a price. Pick a category … and there is a market.
The “Hollywood” studios spent 100 years building a theatrical distribution domain that they controlled. That dominance continued thru the arrival of television in the 1950s, the VHS years … and DVD. In fact, only a very few films released theatrically since the launch year of the DVD format (1997) — with a box office take of $25 million or more — have not been a studio release.
Consider this, since 1997 there have been 2,301 (when the final results for 2022 are finally in, that number should increase by two or three films launched over the Christmas/New Year holiday period) theatrical releases that have grossed $25 million or more during their domestic runs. The “Hollywood” studios delivered 2,279 of them, or 99.04 percent of the total.
That defines control. However, the obsession with streaming (yes, Covid was a huge factor in the shift) has laid the groundwork for that 100-year effort to be rendered mute. If you give up the distribution dominance, then the traditional “Hollywood” studio system becomes irrelevant.
That consideration has to be reviewed as we begin 2023. If the studios (and Netflix, and Amazon … and Apple TV) continue to throw $100 million productions into the streaming machine and bypass theatrical venues, then at some point the theatrical exhibition system will be broken beyond repair. Thousands of multiplexes will begin to shudder … a death spiral that will not be recovered from could be in the offing if theatrical exhibition is not brought back into the mix in 2023. 2022 was supposed to be that year, but the numbers (see page 43) didn’t work out that way (three dismal years in a row).
The current scheme (aka: economic model) is suicide. With the potential death of theatrical dominance, how soon before the studios themselves become dinosaurs; extinct? Why do you have to be in “Hollywood” to produce; to distribute; to stream?
Rupert Murdoch may have been right. Sell the Fox library and keep the property … at some point the studio facilities will no longer be necessary and Century City expands as the sound stages are torn down (what remains will be turned into a tourist attraction). Does Sony need to keep the old MGM lot in Culver City? Why Burbank?
And what of Blu-ray? MOD! Yes, think MOD (manufacturing on demand), when you speak of Blu-ray these days.
The DVD format flipped in 2017. That was the first year that MOD eclipsed replicated DVD releases. The preliminary numbers for 2022 show 17,287 DVD MOD releases versus just 2,791 replicated releases.
In 2021, the Blu-ray format flipped for the first time with 2,914 MOD product offerings against 1,853 replicated Blu-ray SKUs. In 2022 the pace accelerated with 3,539 MOD Blu-rays hitting the street versus 1,869 replicated releases.
Streaming is what is driving these record-setting Blu-ray totals during the past two years. Streaming? Shouldn’t it be just the opposite? Shouldn’t the numbers be in freefall instead setting all-time release records for the Blu-ray format?
The various streaming services are serving-up pristine masters of both their series programming and new movies — both theatrical and direct to video feature films.
Blu-ray is now being used for capacity, not as designed, for its expanded bandwidth for quality. An entire eight or ten-episode series, the moment it has completed its delivery cycle — whether that is one episode at a time or an entire series drop — is available almost immediately as a single-disc Blu-ray product offering from multiple sources.
Instead of the rights’ owner incorporating this strategy into their distribution scheme, they largely choose to ignore it … again, the mindset is: SVOD, AVOD and FAST.
You want to see a flood? Between 2006 (the launch year of the Blu-ray format) and 2017 there were a total of 90 single-disc TV on Blu-ray releases. 90! In 2020, the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdowns, we saw 79 hit the market. The following year, 2021, the number jumped to 409 … and this past year (2022), the preliminary count is an astonishing 1,098 (see page 28 for the most current Blu-ray release grid … by year, by category).
Remember the Best Picture-winner for 2021? Director Sian Heder’s CODA? If you want a copy for your film library, you have to purchase a pirated copy … Apple TV+ hasn’t bothered to license the film (as of yet) to a legitimate source. They are not the only ones to neglect the home entertainment packaged media marketplace … remember, DVD, Blu-ray and even 4K Ultra HD are dying formats.
Apple TV+’s streaming offerings — along the those of the studios, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc., etc., etc. — are plucked from the air and immediately released on Blu-ray from multiple sources … and no one seems to care.
Streaming has put piracy on steroids … and at the same time has been a knife-in-the-back to theatrical exhibition. You want insane? Welcome to the entertainment industry these days, a delirious mix of greed, stupidity and panic.
You want another example of how out of control it is? When this publication was launched in 1997, a decision was made to categorize films released theatrically (sound era) from the Jazz Singer through the end of 1996 as Theatrical Catalog and all films released from Jan. 1, 1997 onward as New Theatrical. This way the “window” from theatrical exhibition venues to a subsequent release in the home entertainment packaged media marketplace count be measured (see page 40 and page 42 for the most current charts on the subject).
In 2019, there were 1,212 Theatrical Catalog releases on DVD. In 2020, there were 1,441 such releases. With the mind-set on streaming, the “alternate” marketplace has come to the understanding that all films released between 1930 and 1980 are now in the public domain — the copyright owners have given up.
Old movies? Who cares? We have to feed the streaming beast with new stuff every week. In 2021, the release count for these “old” movies on DVD more than doubled to 2,918!
The year just-ending (2022), the preliminary total is an eye-popping 5,649 new Theatrical Catalog releases on DVD. If rights’ owners ignore it, then someone else will fill the vacuum. It’s the Wild West … Dodge City in its heyday had better law and order!
And finally, 4K Ultra HD. Yes, a record-year for that format as well.
The format was launched in 2016 with 111 SKUs. There wasn’t a lot of “growth” during the subsequent years … 160 or so on average every year.
This past year (2022), the number doubled to 334. The “Hollywood” studio dominance for the format plummeted to just 51.2 percent of the release total (171) as others expanded their libraries of 4K Ultra HD titles.
In 2021, we witnessed the first MOD releases for the 4K Ultra HD format, seven in total. This past year the number of MOD product offerings expanded to 34. It will be interesting to see how that trend continues in 2023.
In summary, the combined format output (DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD) for 2022 (a preliminary count) was 25,820 SKUs. To put that into context, the previous year (2021) the number was 21,136 and the year before that (2020) the result was 15,807 … literally a jump of 10,000 new titles in just 24 months.
If you think the home entertainment packaged media marketplace — physical media — is dying, you haven’t been by the graveyard lately!
Welcome to 2023 and new adventures in the ghostly-worlds of home entertainment and theatrical exhibition. It should be a very interesting year, of that we can all agree!
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