Attack of the $1 DVDs

The New York Times writes about $1 DVDs, which are not bootlegs but simply films which have lapsed into the public domain for one reason or another.

Digiview actually paid for the rights to ‘American Vampire,’ a kind of ‘Beach Blanket Beowulf’ starring Carmen Electra of ‘Baywatch.’ Whether anyone will pay for the DVD is unclear. ‘Just because it’s a dollar doesn’t mean people want it,’ said Mr. Rosenberg, of Home Media Retailing. Indeed, a nickel might be too much for a DVD of Raymond Burr in ‘Bride of the Gorilla.’

Mr. Rosenberg said the novelty of dollar DVD’s would soon fade. ‘There’s a great danger of overdistribution,’ he said. ‘This is a business without much room for profit – either in the making or the selling. A year from now, most cheap DVD’s will be gone from stores.’ One ‘Killer Shrew’ alumnus hopes to cash in while the cheapness lasts. ‘This craze could build an audience for the sequel I’m writing,’ said Mr. Best, who played the stuttering Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on ‘The Dukes of Hazzard.’

He has nearly finished a first draft of ‘Killer Shrews II.’ The plot is fiendishly simple. ‘I return to Shrew Island to rescue a bunch of teenagers,’ he reported. ‘A new mad scientist has turned herself into a human shrew that not only chews, but swims.'”

Series

About Steve