Matthew Grossman, a 38-year-old schoolteacher in Toronto with a bulging collection of about 700 DVDs, enjoys movies of all kinds. But, when it comes to buying discs, he -- like many DVD owners -- gravitates to action-packed adventure films with plenty of special effects like Die Hard and Terminator 2.
"You can really enjoy the impact of an action film on DVD, especially with a large screen and a powerful set of speakers," Grossman said. "And, you might want to watch it more than once. With a romantic comedy or something, you watch it and laugh and never look at it again."
Men like Grossman -- and it is men who are buying the most DVDs, studio executives say -- are an increasingly powerful influence on Hollywood. Home video sales accounted for more than 58 percent of Hollywood's income last year, more than twice as much as box-office revenues. Sales of DVDs to consumers are the biggest, most profitable and fastest-growing component of that revenue.
For studio executives, that means the home video market is no longer the afterthought it was when renting videotapes dominated the business. "It is becoming, in a lot of ways, the primary market in determining whether to green light a movie or not," said Chris McGuirk, vice chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
What the studios are finding so far is that DVDs are a man's world, where the films that get the biggest bounce from the box-office sales are movies like Rush Hour 2, The Bourne Identity and XXX. "The male-oriented action movies are the ones that have worked well on DVD," said Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of the Miramax Films division of the Walt Disney Co. "It is almost like buying records when you were a kid and running out to get the new Led Zeppelin. Men tend to be a little more compulsive."
At MGM, Universal Pictures, New Line Cinema and other studios, executives in charge of home video sales now have formal roles in decisions about approving new projects. Some studio executives say the new math is already evident on the big screen, most notably in this summer's rush of sequels that help promote the DVDs of their predecessors (like Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle and 2 Fast 2 Furious) and the skyrocketing budgets for action films that bristle with stunts and special effects (SWAT).
The payoff of DVD sales benefits action-adventure blockbusters and sophomoric comedies far more than serious dramas or films aimed at adults. Some critics worry that DVD sales may in effect redouble Hollywood's longstanding incentive to cater to the broadest and most puerile audience. "I think there is a danger that studios could use DVDs to marginalize serious films for adults as this kind of boutique area, like a prestige line for a publisher," said Owen Gleiberman, a film critic at Entertainment Weekly.
But, the DVD boom has increased the gap between the most financially successful movie and the least. In the video rental business, stores typically buy at least one copy of almost every major theatrical release -- and sometimes up to five or more copies of hits, said Thomas J. Adams of Adams Media Research, which studies the home video market. But, since DVD players went on the market in the US in 1997, their better picture quality, retail prices of US$20 -- and often less -- and an assortment of extra features like alternate endings and extra footage have helped spur buying instead of renting. That, in turn, has ended that relatively equal spreading of the wealth from video rentals.
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