The DVD Format Topped 25,000 New Releases In 2024 • Legacy Studios Led The DVD Revival With A Stellar 1.28 Percent Market Share

The preliminary DVD title count for 2024 is 25,015 new releases for the year.   This number will expand during the weeks and months ahead as stragglers are unearth and added to the various databases.

2024 turned out to be the second busiest release year for DVD in the 28-year history of the format (launched in March of 1997).   Only 2023, with 27,289 new arrivals stands ahead of 2024 … let that sink in, over 52,000 titles have been released in the last 24 months.

The DVD marketplace is on fire, but by some accounts, DVD is dead, long live digital.   From a traditional studio POV that certainly rings true.   The seven legacy studios (and their affiliate labels) released just 321 new DVDs during 2024, or 1.28 percent of the release pie.    

Much of their commitment to DVD cuts along the lines of New Theatrical product offerings (122) and Television Series (96), with much of these new movie releases destined for Redbox slots.

For the entire year only 39 Theatrical Catalog (pre-1997, the launch year of DVD) titles were delivered to consumers, and many of these were DVD-R replacements for previously released replicated versions.   

The studios — Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal, Walt Disney and Warner Bros. — own vast film libraries, but seem content to license distribution rights to others or simply ignore the value of these assets all together.

In fairness, part of this complacency lies with the nature of DVD format itself.   Within ten years of the launch of DVD, these rights owners began reissuing already replicated titles, but soon found that they were in direct competition with themselves.   During the Golden Era of the VHS format, no consumer in their right mind would buy a used VHS tape, but these same consumers soon discovered that a used DVD was just as good as a new copy.   

Over time, vast numbers of replicated DVD inventories began to pile up in warehouses … it became an expensive proposition to compete with the ever-expanding used marketplace and so they liquidated these inventories at bargain prices and moved on.

That aside, it’s clear that the legacy Hollywood Studios now have their collective focus elsewhere and not so much on the DVD format that they launched back in 1997.

The next source of new title release activity would be the Boutique and Independent labels.  We monitored 248 distinct sources among this — very diverse — group during 2024.   
They chimed in with 4,396 new DVDs during the year, or 17.57 percent of the overall release pie.  

If the studios and the indies combine for 18.85 percent of the overall release count, then what makes up the other 81.15 percent?    More on that in a moment, but it is worth noting that what “we” see in reporting on the home entertainment industry is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg.   

Just like an iceberg floating in the open ocean, twenty-percent above water and eighty-percent below the waterline and out of view (in a traditional sense).

These 248 non-studio sources (indies) provide DVD releases in all of the 25 categories that we monitor, however their largest focus is on Direct-to-Video movie releases.   1,308 of 4,396 of total — 29.75 percent — are films that skipped playing at the local multiplex and went straight to DVD.   

The next in line (in terms of title count) is Religion (a very active niche market) with 537 new releases during 2024.   That may come as a surprise to many, but that’s what is going on “out there” on a weekly basis … roughly ten new religious-themed DVDs each and every week head home to consumers.

Well down the list are New Theatrical (266) and Theatrical Catalog (195) … indeed, there were 509 “Special Interest” DVDs released in 2024 from this group of 248 non-studio sources, which is more than the two aforementioned major focus categories combined.

The Boutique and Independent Labels are a very diverse group — eclectic might be a more useful term in describing this source of DVD activity.   There are lots of small operators who cater to specific audiences/consumer bases.

The next big group — we monitor 104 distinct sources in this category — are what we have come to call “Microbroadcasters.”   They churned out 9,145 DVD releases in 2024, representing 36.56 percent of the overall count.

The Alliance for Community Media (allcommunitymedia.org, the group that monitors access television) refers to these as “Pubic, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access organizations.”   They currently have 1,684 such PEGs in their database.  The sub-group that we have identified – so far — sell DVD copies of their programming to their local customers (some also offer Blu-ray as a purchasing option).

For the most part, these Microbroadcasters (PEG) focus on Sports (2,383) and Special Interest (6,226) as the core of their DVD product offerings.

Included in the Special Interest catch-all category are local government meetings, graduation ceremonies, local parades and other community programming (gardening, cooking, pet care, etc.).   These local “events” are broadcast on public access channels, so the sunk-costs of the programming are already cooked in … some have discovered that there is also a market for copies of these broadcasts.

Think about it, the Friday night football game is going to be played no matter what … and the local telecast crew (often volunteers) will be on hand to call the action.   So why not offer copies for sale?   Every nickel counts when you are talking about public access television … indeed, some of the local production companies (videographers) offer their services on a for-hire basis to help cover costs (weddings, events, etc.).   Every nickel counts!!

Just look at the numbers.   104 of the 1,684 PEGs are selling DVDs and they are churning out hours and hours of locally-produced programming.   The sales may not be studio-level, but it adds up, especially when it comes to sports and graduations (perhaps not so much with the local Zoning Board of Appeals meeting).

And finally, the second-best DVD release year on record is largely driven by piracy.   When the rights’ owners don’t tend to business (not worth the effort it appears), the vacuum (consumer demand) is filled by what we refer to as “Helpers” (bootleggers, pirates, thieves, etc.).

In 2024 they, the “Helpers,” delivered 11,153 new DVD releases, or 44.59 percent of the total count.  

What do these “Helpers” thrive on?   What demand hole(s) are they filling?   Theatrical Catalog is the answer — the traditional studios released 39 pre-1997 theatrical releases on DVD during the year; the independent labels kicked in for another 195, but the “Helpers” made those numbers look puny with a whopping 5,347 DVD releases in 2024!

We monitor 86 active “Helpers” in the DVD market, but the number is actually much larger (especially when it comes to Blu-ray).   Excluded are operators from China/Hong Kong, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other exotic locations.   We even go so far as to identify the physical source of the “Helper” being monitored and when it proves to be a Chinese front, all the data that has been collected is removed from the various databases to keep it clean.

If you go over to eBay, you will find that the piracy of theatrical and television/cable series programming is simply out of control … it actually makes one wonder if eBay is actually a Chinese-owned and controlled business.   

The same holds true for etsy.com, which started out as a marketplace for artisans, but has devolved into a platform for film and series thieves (seemingly unchecked).

It should be noted, nine of the ten most prolific “Helper” sources have their own web pages (http) … which means that the legacy studios could easily go after them — they are right there operating in the open!  

On the eBay side it gets a little trickier as the same “Helper” will operate under various names (surprise, they are all at the same address) … they will shutdown, open up, take a vacation, shutdown and then pop up again.   The trick in finding them is to simply go over to eBay (take the challenge) and type in the newest/hottest Netflix series or the latest theatrical hit that just got a VOD date (often six to eight weeks before the legit physical media rollout).

Here’s an example, go to ebay.com, type in “Mufasa the Lion King, 2024 movie, Blu-ray” and bingo dozens of “China/Hong Kong” sources will immediately pop up … all of them are clearly selling illicit copies of this Disney film and we don’t count them.

25,015 new DVD releases last year … 44.59 percent are pirated.   And that doesn’t include the ones from China. 

There are two major factors driving the crush of new DVD arrivals.

First, consumer demand for films and series that is being largely ignored by the legacy studios and other major production sources (think: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, etc.).  This demand for movies and TV series on DVD is being fulfilled by alternative distribution (“Helpers”), especially when there appears to be little appetite to play “whack-a-mole” by said rights’ owners.    

The indifference is so bad that in 28 years of monitoring the home entertainment marketplace there has never been so many major films unreleased on any of the three physical media formats with box office numbers at these levels — Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (box office: $180.7 million), Killers of the Flower Moon ($68 million), Napoleon ($61.5 million), Argylle ($45.2 million), Barbarian ($40.8 million), Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé ($32.8 million) … and the Best Picture Oscar-winner of 2021, CODA, are all MIA.

Never, repeat, never!   Oh, but they are available from multiple “Helper” sources.   So you can easily see the problem.

That’s the first driving factor — consumer demand coupled with rights’ holder indifference.   The vacuum, because nature abhors it, is filled.   So instead of one DVD version of CODA (as just an example), you get ten, from ten different sources.

You want The Gray Man, starring Ryan Gosling on DVD?   A film with a reported production budget of $200 million from Netflix … not from Netflix (of course), but from “Helpers,” that’s how you get it on DVD (or Blu-ray).

It’s a long, long list of major film and series productions … that grows longer each week!
Going hand in hand with this “unfilled” consumer demand is a dramatic change in technology.   

Indeed, the second driving factor in the rapid “recovery” of the DVD format has been the switch from traditionally replicated DVDs to that of manufacturing on demand (MOD).   DVD SKU counts peaked in 2006 with the arrival of the Blu-ray format and then annual output “crabbed” sideways for the next 14 years … with a steady downward trend.

In 2015, for example, there were 10,291 replicated DVD titles and 2,488 MOD releases on DVD.   In contrast to that, in 2024 there were only 1,749 traditionally replicated DVD releases and the number of MOD releases expanded to 23,266.   Anyone can burn a DVD and call it a release … the same sort of “physical media” (printed that is) revolution that Johannes Gutenberg spawned with the invention of the printing press in the year 1440 is literally taking place right now in the physical media world of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD.  

With MOD there are no inventory risks.   You get an order … you make it and then ship it! 

To that point, not only were there over 25,000 new DVD releases in 2024 — with 93 percent MOD — but both the Blu-ray and the 4K Ultra HD formats both set new records for release totals during the year (with Blu-ray also shifting heavily to MOD).   

These two formats will be the focus of part two of the 2024 summary (next edition of the report).