January 1, 2003

Final DVD sales numbers for 2002 won't be announced until January 9, when the DVD Entertainment Group holds its annual soiree at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. Preliminary reports suggest that, going into 2003, the juggernaut is more powerful than ever.

In October and November, 10 million new players were sold in the United States, 5 million during Thanksgiving week alone. That represents twice as many transactions as during the same periods in 2001.

The benefits of digital playback for rabid movie fans has, of course, been widely reported in the media and accepted without argument by consumers. In the last few months, however, fence-straddlers have seen hardware prices plummet to the point where perfectly acceptable appliances now are available for around $75. At that price, DVD is too attractive to pass up.

"You can spend any amount of money and still get a great player," says Amy Jo Donner, executive director of the DEG. "The only difference comes in the array of options available to those buyers who are willing to spend more money. The more expensive units offer multiple changers, DVD audio, recordable DVD, or come as combos with VCR and TVs."

Donner said that the DEG would announce a new benchmark statistic at next week's reception. The organization will be able to report that it no longer should be considered unusual for sales of popular titles to hit 5 million units during their first week in release.

This, of course, explains why studios have begun to spend tens of millions of dollars to market DVDs, often as much as it costs to launch a film in theaters. And, of course, it comes at a time when theatrical box-office numbers for 2002 will top $9 billion, with or without an increase in total single-ticket purchases.

What follows is a list of some of the DVD releases I considered to be among the most significant in 2002. I haven't picked out a specific TV-to-DVD title, but packaging a season of sitcoms and hour-long dramas into a boxed set is something studios are doing in astonishing numbers. The syndication wings of production studios may not like it, but, for everyone else, it's like minting money.

* The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Platinum Series Extended Edition): No DVD release in memory presented more clues to the future of the medium than did "LOTR:FOTR." New Line profited mightily by releasing the basic package in August, then coming right back with this special bells-and-whistles edition. Not only was a half-hour of new footage added to what already was a great epic, but Peter Jackson also requested and got 30 minutes of new music from composer Howard Shore, who already was quite busy, thank you, writing tunes for "The Two Towers." Top this one, please, George Lucas.

* Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs/Jackie Brown: Few movies have had more immediate of an impact on aspiring filmmakers than these hyper-violent and super-hip treatises in California noir. Quentin Tarantino made viewers laugh, cringe and sing along to the soundtrack, all at the same time. And, with his clever use of time-shifting, the onetime video-store geek kept us guessing at how the pieces of this elaborate jigsaw puzzle finally would fall together. From a pure marketing point of view, the decision to offer Reservoir Dogs in sets in colors that matched the aliases of the characters was a stroke of genius, if only because it forced collectors to buy more than one package.

* Singin' in the Rain (50th Anniversary Special Edition): A reminder of Hollywood's ability to make movie musicals that defined the word, "entertainment." Singin' in the Rain is as fresh a visual experience today, as it was in 1952. The performances by Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds are splendid, of course, but what really stands out in the anniversary edition is the restoration. It sparkles.

* A Hard Day's Night: Another musical reminder of a period in time when innocence reigned and pop stars weren't bought and sold like commodities at the Chicago Board of Trade. Director Richard Lester was able to tap into the mother lode of charisma exuded by each and every one of the Fab Four, and apply it to his fictional documentation of Beatlemania. The producers of this splendid two-disc DVD made sure every dollar spent on scholarship and preservation was fully evident on the small screen.

* Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: DreamWorks not only wanted youngsters to enjoy the story of a wild horse that roams the frontiers of the Old West in search of friendship and love, it also encouraged them to participate in the creative process. Any kid who masters the special editing features added to the package will know as much about the animation process as most sophomores in film school.

* Monsters, Inc., The Vault Disney Collection and Ice Age: Even more reason to believe we've entered the Golden Age of Animation. These long and short films are fun to watch and even more fascinating to study.

* Solaris: Steven Soderbergh's re-interpretation of the Stanislaw Lev novel practically played day-and-date with the Criterion Collection release of Andrei Tarkovsky's classic version of Solaris. Let's hope any DVD of Soderbergh's under-appreciated sci-fi psychodrama is half as ambitious and thoughtfully conceived as the Criterion package. The interviews, commentaries and documentary pieces are revelations in themselves.

* To Catch a Thief: Arriving fast on the heels of Jonathan Demme's ill-fated theatrical remake of Stanley Donen's Charade, this DVD demonstrated once again how silly it is for Hollywood to update movies uniquely suited for the time, people and places they originally were intended to portray. To Catch a Thief isn't rated among Alfred Hitchcock's best works, but it provides a wonderful reminder of how the chemistry between two beloved actors - Cary Grant and Grace Kelly -- can triumph over a less than challenging script.

* Project Greenlight: (Complete Series, Plus 'Stolen Summer'): A four-disc primer on the agony and ecstasy of making a movie. It should be required viewing for all first-year film students.

* Amelie: As if this French confection wasn't tasty enough all by itself, the extras included in the DVD package are as entertaining as they are informative. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's offbeat comedy may have been hugely popular in its theatrical release, here and in Europe, but it still qualifies as a "discovery" for many American video junkies. As a setting for mischief and romance, Paris couldn't have been lovelier.

* The Producers: Mel Brooks' decision to cast Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, as an unlikely pair of Broadway conmen, was both inspired and essential to the success of a movie no one in Hollywood wanted to touch. That's because the rise of the Third Reich was used as a backdrop for humor, and Hitler (Dick Shawn) was played by an aging flower child. In "Springtime for Hitler," Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom thought they had a musical so bad it would close at intermission of opening night and creative bookkeeping would make the rich. Thirty years after it was first released, The Producers returned to the scene of the crime in the form of a real Broadway musical.

* Grease, Saturday Night Fever: Paramount pulled out all the stops when it re-released several of its classic pop musicals from the '70s and '80s under the overlapping banners, "The Travolta Collection" and "DVD Dance Pack" (with Flashdance and Footloose). These hardly were unknown quantities, but the bells and whistles gave fans - and teens - new reason to buy.

 

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