Godzilla attacks DVDs—with an online video-on-demand strategy
In a strategic move that may presage the shape of things to come for post-theatrical run movie sales, manufacturer Classic Media is releasing sci-fi classics “Mothra vs. Godzilla” and “Godzilla Raids Again” exclusively online via video on demand technology. The releases are slated for Nov. 7, months prior to the release of the DVDs in the spring.
Video on demand services may very well be ushering in a new era in how movie buffs rent, purchase and watch films after their initial theatrical run. This year Amazon.com Inc., Apple Computer Inc. and Instant Media, a company launched in May by Buy.com founder Scott Blum, have joined pioneers Guba.com, CinemaNow and MovieLink to leverage technology and market developments that are making a new business case for video on demand.
“We’ve seen more changes in the industry this year than we’ve seen in the past decade,” says Darren Giles, co-founder and chief technologist at CustomFlix Labs Inc., a company acquired by Amazon.com earlier this year that specializes in digitizing limited-run and old movies and manufacturing on-demand discs, which it mails to customers.
The blossoming video on demand market is showing a flexibility for supporting broad ranges of both content and distribution. It’s not just for video viewed on TV screens—the new batch of services cater to the viewing of recorded films and TV programs on desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices as well as television sets.
1955’s “Godzilla Raids Again” is the first of countless sequels to the 1954 sci-fi milestone “Godzilla,” starring Ren Yamamoto as Masaji the fisherman. “Mothra vs. Godzilla” in 1964 pit the king of the lizards against one of his legendary enemies, a giant, flying moth.
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