No One Cares About Old Movies ... Except Consumers

No one cares about “old” movies.  

Except consumers.  

Their wishes, demands and collecting obsessions are being serviced, but not by traditional sources.

These two things are … they built vast film libraries hand-in-hand with a dominant theatrical distribution system. 

VHS, followed by the DVD revolution, were both fed by these film libraries that were owned — bought and sold over the years — by the traditional “Hollywood” studios.   20th Century-Fox, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, United Artists, Disney, Columbia Pictures (Sony), Universal and relative newcomer Lionsgate.  Collectively, they own the vast majority of the copyrights for films of the sound era.   The “old” movies.

Sure, there was “Poverty Row” — Monogram, PRC, etc. — and RKO, Republic, and others that have come and gone over the years (Avco/Embassy, Allied Artists, American International, etc.).   Many of their film assets were bought up by the larger studios.   A big chunk certainly has fallen into the public domain (fair game for all).

The other half of this winning combination, theatrical distribution, has been completely dominated by the “Hollywood” studios.

Since 1997, the launch year of DVD (before this, films that were released theatrically are classified as theatrical catalog, you know, “old” movies), there have been 2,336 films released that have had ticket sales of $25 million or more (recorded thru the July 21, 2023 weekend).

The “Hollywood” studios, along with distribution sources that have been acquired or merged, accounted for all but 11 of these hit films.   That’s 99.5 percent of the pie … that is absolute dominance of the theatrical distribution marketplace.

Billions of dollars, along with billions of dollars in stockholder equity have been squandered by the rejection of the successful 100-year-old distribution model.

And here is where it gets really ugly.  

You know those “old” movie assets owned for the most part by the “Hollywood” studios … the ones that made them all that money with VHS, followed by DVD (1997) and Blu-ray (2006).   They are now being released by “helpers” to service the demands of consumers.  

The numbers are stunning.   Jaw-dropping!  

The preliminary count of DVD and Blu-ray releases for theatrical catalog category (sound era though 1996) for the first seven months of 2023 stands at 6,312.

The “Hollywood” studios accounted for 95 SKUs, or 1.5 percent of the release pie. 

These break into two groups, restocking of traditionally replicated titles with new MOD offerings and Blu-ray editions (mainly MOD also) of previously released titles on DVD.    We can’t find a single “new” title among the group.

Legit sources (boutique, independent, etc. … call them what you will) chipped in for 256 DVD and Blu-ray releases during the period.   That’s a 4.1 percent share.

These releases largely come from about ten sources (Kino Lorber, Criterion, Mill Creek, Arrow, Severin, MVD, etc.) and virtually all of the theatrical catalog released from these sources have been licensed from the “Hollywood” studios.

Legit and “Hollywood” studios combined for 5.6 percent of the total.

The balance?   The other 5,961 DVD and Blu-ray product offerings in this category are from “helper” sources (pirates, bootleggers, etc.).   94.4 percent of all theatrical catalog releases on DVD and Blu-ray during the first seven months of 2023 have been pirated.

This is a direct result of a streaming obsession, coupled with a lack of focus and the failure to enforce copyright protections.   There really is nothing more to be said … this is insane!!