USA TODAY artice on DVD re-edits.
10-12-05, 03:43 AM
#1
USA TODAY artice on DVD re-edits.
FROM USA TODAY:
DVD do-over can boost a flop's sales
By Thomas K. Arnold, Special for USA TODAY
DVD has become so lucrative that Hollywood studios are seeing gold in box-office flops.
Making the cut: The Honeymooners DVD, with John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer, is now rated PG.
Paramount Pictures
They're repositioning and sometimes re-editing theatrical failures in an attempt not only to recoup their losses, but also turn a profit.
"Hollywood's video marketers excel at making lemonade out of lemons," says industry analyst Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research. (Related story: An avalanche of titles expected this fall)
For DVDs, studios "get the opportunity to capitalize on everything that's been learned from the theatrical run — reviews, exit polling, blogging."
An extreme case is The Honeymooners, an urban-comedy remake of the classic TV sitcom that cost $27 million and took in just $13 million when it came out in June.
For the DVD, which comes out Nov. 22, the film — originally rated PG-13 for "some innuendo and rude humor" — was trimmed to make it a family-friendlier PG.
Studio research showed the film had more appeal to families than to teens, the initial target audience, says Paramount's Meagan Burrows.
Other movies being reconsidered for home viewing:
• Michael Bay's The Island cost $122 million and brought in just $36 million in North America, one of summer's biggest flops. For the Dec. 13 DVD release, DreamWorks will play up the action rather than the story and characters, and will offer a $3-off DVD coupon in People.
•Kingdom of Heaven, out today (Fox, $30), cost $130 million and took in $47.4 million in North America. A new DVD feature lets viewers use an interactive production grid to watch any of 16 custom documentaries on making the film.
It's not the first time a movie has been redone for DVD. Oliver Stone's $150 million Alexander was panned for being dull and, at 175 minutes, too long. The film took in $34.3 million during its 2004 North American theatrical run.
When the epic came out on DVD in August, it was released in two versions: a shorter director's cut and the theatrical cut.
Consumers bought twice as many copies of the shorter version, according to Nielsen VideoScan. Alexander's DVD haul: $19.3 million.
DVD do-over can boost a flop's sales
By Thomas K. Arnold, Special for USA TODAY
DVD has become so lucrative that Hollywood studios are seeing gold in box-office flops.
Making the cut: The Honeymooners DVD, with John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer, is now rated PG.
Paramount Pictures
They're repositioning and sometimes re-editing theatrical failures in an attempt not only to recoup their losses, but also turn a profit.
"Hollywood's video marketers excel at making lemonade out of lemons," says industry analyst Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research. (Related story: An avalanche of titles expected this fall)
For DVDs, studios "get the opportunity to capitalize on everything that's been learned from the theatrical run — reviews, exit polling, blogging."
An extreme case is The Honeymooners, an urban-comedy remake of the classic TV sitcom that cost $27 million and took in just $13 million when it came out in June.
For the DVD, which comes out Nov. 22, the film — originally rated PG-13 for "some innuendo and rude humor" — was trimmed to make it a family-friendlier PG.
Studio research showed the film had more appeal to families than to teens, the initial target audience, says Paramount's Meagan Burrows.
Other movies being reconsidered for home viewing:
• Michael Bay's The Island cost $122 million and brought in just $36 million in North America, one of summer's biggest flops. For the Dec. 13 DVD release, DreamWorks will play up the action rather than the story and characters, and will offer a $3-off DVD coupon in People.
•Kingdom of Heaven, out today (Fox, $30), cost $130 million and took in $47.4 million in North America. A new DVD feature lets viewers use an interactive production grid to watch any of 16 custom documentaries on making the film.
It's not the first time a movie has been redone for DVD. Oliver Stone's $150 million Alexander was panned for being dull and, at 175 minutes, too long. The film took in $34.3 million during its 2004 North American theatrical run.
When the epic came out on DVD in August, it was released in two versions: a shorter director's cut and the theatrical cut.
Consumers bought twice as many copies of the shorter version, according to Nielsen VideoScan. Alexander's DVD haul: $19.3 million.
10-12-05, 04:51 AM
#2
Senior Member
I just love it how The Island's overseas numbers are always ignored when it better serves a writer's needs to talk about what a "flop" it was. True, in most cases the N.A. box office is a clear indication of a movie's profitability ... but The Island made $124 million outside of North America. Combine that with the (admittedly rather poor) $36m it made here, and the flick did pretty fine, all things considered.
And I believe we may be misreading this article. All I got from this piece re: The Island is that the marketing for the DVD will focus more on the action and less on the characters & plot.
But as a guy who really liked the flick, I say this: Edit the thing and I won't buy it. Release the theatrical cut and I will.
And I believe we may be misreading this article. All I got from this piece re: The Island is that the marketing for the DVD will focus more on the action and less on the characters & plot.
But as a guy who really liked the flick, I say this: Edit the thing and I won't buy it. Release the theatrical cut and I will.
10-12-05, 05:01 AM
#3
DVD Talk Legend
The Island made $124 million outside of North America. Combine that with the (admittedly rather poor) $36m it made here, and the flick did pretty fine, all things considered.
10-12-05, 05:07 AM
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Originally Posted by Scott Weinberg
And I believe we may be misreading this article. All I got from this piece re: The Island is that the marketing for the DVD will focus more on the action and less on the characters & plot.
But the focus probably should have been on Honeymooners' DVD edits. The Video Business story this week by Jennifer Netherby goes over those meticulously:
Par snips Honeymooners for DVD
Cuts sexually suggestive dialog to secure PG rating
By Jennifer Netherby 10/7/2005
OCT. 7 | Paramount Home Entertainment is introducing a new twist to re-editing films for DVD release.
Typically films have been re-cut from R-rated theatrical versions into unrated DVD editions. But for its Nov. 22 release of The Honeymooners remake, the studio is putting out a PG version, rather than the more risqué PG-13 version that was released theatrically.
Paramount is hoping to expand beyond the film’s theatrical audience by playing up its family appeal with the new version. Starring Cedric the Entertainer in the role made famous by Jackie Gleason, the remake turned in a disappointing $13 million at the box office.
Click here!
Paramount research found that nearly half of the audience who watched the film considered it something that the whole family could enjoy.
“We saw an opportunity to build on this family-friendly perception by editing the film to garner a PG rating,” said Meagan Burrows, domestic president of Paramount Home Entertainment. “We worked very closely with the filmmakers in order to create the new cut while maintaining the integrity of the film and its sense of humor.”
Sexually suggestive language was cut from six key scenes to make the new PG version. Changes included:
• Revising Ed’s response to an introduction: “No, we haven’t had the pleasure because if we had been pleasured, I think we’d a knowed about it” to “…if we had the pleasure, I think we’d a knowed about it.”
• Revising Cedric’s line in outtakes during end credits: “I look like somebody’s cracked teeth” to “I look like somebody’s rubber duckie.”
• Deleting Trixie’s line following Ed’s comment while working on the Kramden’s kitchen sink that he does his best work “down below”: “That’s right, baby.”
• Deleting Ed’s line after a coin toss: “I have a big appetite for tails.”
• Deleting line by Alice’s mother to Ralph: “Are you on the pipe, boy?”
• Deleting Ed’s line to Ralph in reference to thinking about seeing Ralph’s wife, Alice, naked: “I ain’t lying, and sometimes I think about it.”
The studio redesigned the key art for the DVD packaging and included quotes from the movie that made it more suitable for the whole family, Burrows said.
Paramount will launch a broad family-targeted marketing campaign in support of the re-edited release with advertising during TV shows The Amazing Race and Everybody Hates Chris. The studio also will market the film on the BET cable channel and other ethnically targeted outlets.
The studio will only release the PG version of the film, skipping the PG-13 version seen in theaters.
Cuts sexually suggestive dialog to secure PG rating
By Jennifer Netherby 10/7/2005
OCT. 7 | Paramount Home Entertainment is introducing a new twist to re-editing films for DVD release.
Typically films have been re-cut from R-rated theatrical versions into unrated DVD editions. But for its Nov. 22 release of The Honeymooners remake, the studio is putting out a PG version, rather than the more risqué PG-13 version that was released theatrically.
Paramount is hoping to expand beyond the film’s theatrical audience by playing up its family appeal with the new version. Starring Cedric the Entertainer in the role made famous by Jackie Gleason, the remake turned in a disappointing $13 million at the box office.
Click here!
Paramount research found that nearly half of the audience who watched the film considered it something that the whole family could enjoy.
“We saw an opportunity to build on this family-friendly perception by editing the film to garner a PG rating,” said Meagan Burrows, domestic president of Paramount Home Entertainment. “We worked very closely with the filmmakers in order to create the new cut while maintaining the integrity of the film and its sense of humor.”
Sexually suggestive language was cut from six key scenes to make the new PG version. Changes included:
• Revising Ed’s response to an introduction: “No, we haven’t had the pleasure because if we had been pleasured, I think we’d a knowed about it” to “…if we had the pleasure, I think we’d a knowed about it.”
• Revising Cedric’s line in outtakes during end credits: “I look like somebody’s cracked teeth” to “I look like somebody’s rubber duckie.”
• Deleting Trixie’s line following Ed’s comment while working on the Kramden’s kitchen sink that he does his best work “down below”: “That’s right, baby.”
• Deleting Ed’s line after a coin toss: “I have a big appetite for tails.”
• Deleting line by Alice’s mother to Ralph: “Are you on the pipe, boy?”
• Deleting Ed’s line to Ralph in reference to thinking about seeing Ralph’s wife, Alice, naked: “I ain’t lying, and sometimes I think about it.”
The studio redesigned the key art for the DVD packaging and included quotes from the movie that made it more suitable for the whole family, Burrows said.
Paramount will launch a broad family-targeted marketing campaign in support of the re-edited release with advertising during TV shows The Amazing Race and Everybody Hates Chris. The studio also will market the film on the BET cable channel and other ethnically targeted outlets.
The studio will only release the PG version of the film, skipping the PG-13 version seen in theaters.
10-12-05, 08:02 AM
#5
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Not sure if I'm too happy with this, but really, as long as I can get what I saw and what was meant to be seen, I couldn't care less what they do in addition to that.
10-12-05, 08:14 AM
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Combine that with the (admittedly rather poor) $36m it made here, and the flick did pretty fine, all things considered.
10-12-05, 08:42 AM
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Also you have some major opportunity costs problems when you spend 100 million on a film and it barely pulls a profit, if any. That 100 million could have been spent on some other flick with much better results.
I actually liked The Island though
I actually liked The Island though
10-12-05, 10:01 AM
#10
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
There was a Honeymooners movie?
anyway, I don't think I like this much. If you're going to edit/change it, at least offer the original version on the same disk. This is sort of the reverse of a 'director's cut'. It's one thing to get more content in a DC, but to get less/different is a little wrong.
Or, yes, try not to release crap in the first place.
anyway, I don't think I like this much. If you're going to edit/change it, at least offer the original version on the same disk. This is sort of the reverse of a 'director's cut'. It's one thing to get more content in a DC, but to get less/different is a little wrong.
Or, yes, try not to release crap in the first place.
10-12-05, 10:11 AM
#11
DVD Talk Legend
Damn, those cut lines sound HEE-Larry-us! I can't believe they are gutting this comic masterpiece. That stuff must have taken hours to write. Hours!
“I have a big appetite for tails.”
Paramount raped my last June.
“I have a big appetite for tails.”
Paramount raped my last June.
10-12-05, 10:14 AM
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Originally Posted by rfduncan
Here's an idea. How about studios stop greenlighting total crap projects like The Honeymooners or Dukes of Hazzard and save everyone the grief?
That makes too much sense. You want original films, instead of films that are remakes, sequels, or otherwise have supposedly "built-in audiences" because they are properties from videogames or whatever.
You don't want films catered to built-in audiences? You are insolent. You must be punished. Just for that, next year (2006) you will get movies like:
I'm 100% serious about all of these, and you can check IMDB.com to verify. Plus they want to make a Get Smart film with the guy from 40 Year Old Virgin, and this hasn't even mentioned direct-to-video nonsense especially from Disney: Fox and the Hound 2, Bambi 2, Brother Bear 2, Cinderella 3 (the last is particularly gruesome-sounding: the evil stepmother discovers how to undo the magic of the fairy godmother, and we have to see if Cinderella would still get the Prince if the magic wasn't there!
).
10-14-05, 12:13 AM
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I will really wonder how TK's story looked before it was edited, because much can be lost in USA Today's quest for brevity. The examples of The Island and Kingdom of Heaven are weak, especially the latter. The supplements on the Kingdom of Heaven DVD have nothing to do with repositioning or re-editing the film. And The Island was being pitched as an action-oriented film in some of its trailers well before it hit theaters. Neither helps make the point of the story.
10-14-05, 12:53 AM
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More remakes
You forgot at least two remakes...
1. John Carpenter's "The Fog"
2. The Warriors
The second of which has already been the subject of a Tony Scott interview about what he'll do with the project. Reading between the lines, the answer was "Take out everything that made the original movie so memorable and turn it into another shitty generic action movie."
Scott specifically mentioned changing the gangs involved from the cartoonishly-outfitted gangs like the Baseball Furies and the Gramercy Riffs to more realistic black, Latino, Vietnamese, etc. gangs.
That's just freakin' stupid considering that Paramount's new Director's Cut of the original Warriors has interviews with the screenwriter and directorl, who both said that the weird, cartoony uniforms of the gangs is a big part of why the movie is still remembered 25 years after its release.
Tie that in with Rockstar Games' new "The Warriors" game being based directly on the original movie and NOT on the new direction that Tony Scott is going in and you have the recipe for an underwhelming Honeymooners-like bomb.
1. John Carpenter's "The Fog"
2. The Warriors
The second of which has already been the subject of a Tony Scott interview about what he'll do with the project. Reading between the lines, the answer was "Take out everything that made the original movie so memorable and turn it into another shitty generic action movie."
Scott specifically mentioned changing the gangs involved from the cartoonishly-outfitted gangs like the Baseball Furies and the Gramercy Riffs to more realistic black, Latino, Vietnamese, etc. gangs.
That's just freakin' stupid considering that Paramount's new Director's Cut of the original Warriors has interviews with the screenwriter and directorl, who both said that the weird, cartoony uniforms of the gangs is a big part of why the movie is still remembered 25 years after its release.
Tie that in with Rockstar Games' new "The Warriors" game being based directly on the original movie and NOT on the new direction that Tony Scott is going in and you have the recipe for an underwhelming Honeymooners-like bomb.
Originally Posted by David Lambert
That makes too much sense. You want original films, instead of films that are remakes, sequels, or otherwise have supposedly "built-in audiences" because they are properties from videogames or whatever.
You don't want films catered to built-in audiences? You are insolent. You must be punished. Just for that, next year (2006) you will get movies like:
Big Momma's House 2
The Pink Panther remake
Flicka remake
The Shaggy Dog remake
The Hills Have Eyes remake
Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction
Carmen SanDiego
Scary Movie 4
Mission Impossible 3 (may actually be good, with JJ Abrams directing)
X-Men 3 (I hope this is better than it seems it will be)
The Omen 666
Garfield 2
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Charlotte's Web (might be decent)
Superman Returns (BETTER be good!)
Evan Almighty (Bruce Almighty sequel)
The Incredible Shrinking Man remake
Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
Miami Vice
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Origin
Casino Royale (also better be good, if they can get the right 007!)
The Grudge 2
The Santa Clause 3
Sunset Boulevard remake (the final insult!)
I'm 100% serious about all of these, and you can check IMDB.com to verify. Plus they want to make a Get Smart film with the guy from 40 Year Old Virgin, and this hasn't even mentioned direct-to-video nonsense especially from Disney: Fox and the Hound 2, Bambi 2, Brother Bear 2, Cinderella 3 (the last is particularly gruesome-sounding: the evil stepmother discovers how to undo the magic of the fairy godmother, and we have to see if Cinderella would still get the Prince if the magic wasn't there! ).
You don't want films catered to built-in audiences? You are insolent. You must be punished. Just for that, next year (2006) you will get movies like:
I'm 100% serious about all of these, and you can check IMDB.com to verify. Plus they want to make a Get Smart film with the guy from 40 Year Old Virgin, and this hasn't even mentioned direct-to-video nonsense especially from Disney: Fox and the Hound 2, Bambi 2, Brother Bear 2, Cinderella 3 (the last is particularly gruesome-sounding: the evil stepmother discovers how to undo the magic of the fairy godmother, and we have to see if Cinderella would still get the Prince if the magic wasn't there!
).
