With the total number of DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) movie titles released in the United States declining by 20 percent over the last four years, Hollywood studios are changing strategies and selling more catalog movies in order to compensate for a lack of new releases on the market, according to a new Screen Digest Video Intelligence report from information and analytics provider IHS Inc.
Major Hollywood studios released 405 theatrical titles in 2012, down 12 percent from 461 titles in 2011 and a 20 percent drop from the recent high of 509 in 2008. The year 2012 brought the second-fewest theatrical titles released by the major studios in the past six years, the lowest being 389 titles released onto video in 2010. As a result of continued declines in DVD video releases and what appears now to be a plateau for BD titles, studios have switched tactics and are flooding the market with catalog titles.
The decline in fresh titles is the direct result of new studio movie projects getting shelved or having their budgets slashed in recent years, as well as the overall decline in packaged media sales. Starting in 2009, the global economic slowdown forced Hollywood to economize, which has led to fewer DVD and BD titles entering the market.
The vast majority of the overall titles released onto video-both DVD and BD-are produced by independent distributors. However, Hollywood studios garner the most dollars per video. And although the number of BD releases has enjoyed steady growth since the format's introduction in 2006, its rise has been insufficient to compensate for the decline in DVD titles and overall video titles.
Catalog viewing
Unpredictable economic conditions have altered the way studios manage and distribute theatrical titles. In the past years, DVD releases were predominantly made up of theatrical content rather than direct-to-video content. In 2008, new theatrical content accounted for 26 percent of studio video releases, and catalog titles represented only 17.8 percent.
But as economic problems took their toll on theatrical productions in 2009, studios shifted emphasis from new theatrical content to catalog titles. As a result, catalog titles released onto DVD in 2012 rose to 32.8 percent, with theatrical content making up only 17.5 percent.
In the face of declining numbers of new-release theatrical titles, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. changed its release strategy and turned to the studio's extensive content library, inundating the home entertainment market with catalog product on both DVD and BD. In 2009, Warner released 427 catalog DVD titles and 32 catalog BD titles.
In comparison, Universal Studios, the second-largest producer of catalog content in 2009, released 24 catalog DVD titles and 10 catalog BD titles.
While Warner since has reduced this volume, it continues to release significantly more catalog titles than other major Hollywood studios.
Blu-ray plateau
Where the BD high-definition format once enjoyed substantial and consistent growth, current title release numbers indicate that the rise in sales is faltering, much faster than DVD ever did. This too is the result of a decrease in movie-production spending trickling down to fewer new releases, resulting in the reduced number of new movies being released onto BD. IHS believes BD title releases peaked in 2011, and that the format is now at a plateau stage.
To maintain title release numbers, major U.S. studios now are mining their movie libraries to bolster the number of Blu-ray releases, much in the same way as DVD releases. Disney Studios has greatly increased its BD catalog releases, growing from just five titles in 2010 to 31 by 2012. At the same time, Disney's theatrical titles have shrunk to 29 in 2012, down from 49 in 2011.
Read more >> Video Market Intelligence
