NY Times: For Obscure DVDs, a Precarious Future

New York Times article talks about the overabundance of DVDs that come out each week. Even if my time (and expendable income) weren't consumed by work and family these days, I think it would be impossible to keep up.

In effect the video market is glutted. For big studios that means more jousting over future formats that may restart sales. But for specialty companies that have traded otherwise unavailable horror, action, art-house and exploitation titles, the glut has meant a struggle to survive.

“I started in this business in 1992, and this is the worst I’ve ever seen the market,” said Don May Jr., president of Synapse Films, which has released “Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural” and the controversial Leni Riefenstahl documentary “Triumph of the Will.” “We’re all drowning in a sea of DVDs. Five or six years ago maybe a hundred titles a week would come out. Now we’re fighting 200 or 300 titles every Tuesday.”

Read the full NY Times article here (requires free registration).

Digital downloads aren't mentioned here but there's no question that the oversupply of DVDs is bad news for independent filmmakers and distribution houses for films both new and old. Fortunately the economics of DVD are such that it's entirely possible for a title to find success on the internet alone. Digital downloads make selling a movie even easier and will further shift the market away from brick-and-mortar stores, but with only 45% (approximately) of Americans using broadband internet at home, don't expect this problem to go away soon.