M+E Daily

By Cindy Spielvogel

A major studio has found a way to sell films at a breakeven point of 70 units, with virtually no returns.

The Warner Archive manufacture-on-demand website offers titles from the Warner Bros. library that wouldn’t be viable as a normal DVD release. “We’ve yet to have a title that hasn’t paid for itself within six months,” says George Feltenstein, Warner Home Video’s senior VP of theatrical catalog marketing.

Launched two years ago with 150 titles as a means of getting deep catalog to market, Warner Archive has grown into a business that will number 1,000 titles by May. Films include the 1971 western “Wild Rovers” and 1966’s “Any Wednesday” with Jane Fonda.

In April, Warner Archive will launch Roy Orbison’s movie from 1967, “The Fastest Guitar Alive,” in honor of the late recording artist’s 75th birthday. Feltenstein acknowledges the film may not be at the top of the list for the general public because Orbison is “not really an actor. But his diehard fans will want it.”

For about $20 per purchase, Warner Archive allows consumers to special order titles that are burned to discs and delivered in DVD cases with original artwork. Although titles in the initial effort were somewhat stripped-down, the technology for manufacture-on-demand (MOD) has improved to the point where the company can now use DVD-9s. The perfected dual-layer discs will allow Warner to release more classic TV series through manufacture-on-demand as well as provide extra features.

Warner Archive launched in March 2009, when the recession was decimating the home entertainment market, including the DVD catalog business. Many retailers had disappeared, and those still around were cutting back on all but top-line hits. “I believe theatrical catalog was hurt the worst of any market segment,” Feltenstein says.

Now, retailers are taking on deep catalog again – this time with manufacture-on-demand. Amazon, Movies Unlimited and other retailers now offer Warner Archive titles, Feltenstein says. “We never anticipated it would be more than just a direct-to-consumer business.”

In the past some retailers had been wary of supporting studios’ efforts in forming direct links with consumers. But Feltenstein insists that the Warner Archive business is “not cannibalistic; it’s incremental.” The site even has a Facebook page.

Now that Warner Archive can use dual-layer discs, the studio plans to release one or two classic TV series through its site every month. Warner Bros. was one of ABC’s prime suppliers in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, and some of those series should make their way to Warner Archive soon.

Warner has a 6,800-title library, of which fewer than 2,000 have been released on DVD — so there’s no shortage of product available for Warner Archive. “The days of a not-exactly-famous classic movie being released on DVD for the first time are over — unless it’s an event release,” Feltenstein says. “I wish it weren’t true, but retailers just don’t have the shelf space anymore.” So for the vast majority of those titles from the past, manufacture-on-demand is the future.

Doug Olzenak, president of Minneapolis-based media manufacturer Allied Vaughn has been an important partner in creating the MOD market. “It has been exciting and rewarding to collaborate with and support Warner Bros. in the development of manufacturing-on-demand as a new part of their packaged media offering,” says Olzenak.

Now other studios are getting into manufacture-on-demand, and Feltenstein sees unlimited potential in the format. “We’re on the cusp of what’s to come.”