As we near the end of July and move into the second half of the year, studios begin thinking more and more about their plans for DVD releases that work well for the holidays. Among these are the low-end "stocking stuffer" titles: those under-$10 budget releases which can be used as a list-minute gift. Or, in the case of television show titles, ones that may be a better choice for more casual fans of a program than the sometimes-pricey multi-disc sets normally can be.
In previous years, both Shout! Factory and Mill Creek Entertainment have put out budget-priced titles that fill this niche, and 2010 will be no different. For retailers who want a quick impulse-buy option for their customers, and of course for the customers who want them, Shout! has announced that they will release four different 1-disc titles on
September 28th. The selection will be
Designing Women - Volume 1,
Rhoda - Volume 1,
Swamp Thing - The Legend Continues and
Son of the Beach - Back to the Beach. None of these will have any new-to-DVD episodes: they are a collection of approximately 8 episodes each (give or take a couple), running between 150 and 165 minutes per title, at a cost of $7.93 SRP each. Package art can be seen at the bottom for these four.
Shout! Factory is also renewing a relationship with Mill Creek Entertainment to put out similar low-end DVD releases of TV shows that Shout! has previously released season sets for. We've seen this in the past, where Mill Creek released single-disc collections of episodes for programs such as
Ironside, McHale's Navy, Punky Brewster and earlier episodes of
Swamp Thing (the new Shout! impulse release mentioned above will be from later in that show's run). Mill Creek is apparently is signing on for some more, according to
a recent interview at USTownhall.com, with Mill Creek's Vice President of Acquisitions Jeff Hayne.
In the interview with USTownhall's Scott Katz, Hayne spoke of various of these "best-of" releases that Mill Creek has in the works, in the way of titles licensed from Shout! Factory. We heard that there will be another
Punky Brewster volume in there, plus shows such as
Simon & Simon, thirtysomething, My Two Dads, Blossom, California Dreams and even the classic animated
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Additionally, we've heard from separate industry sources that there may also be budget releases from Mill Creek of two other shows regularly at Shout!:
Marcus Welby, M.D. and the classic late-'60s
The Bill Cosby Show.
None of these are officially announced//confirmed by either Mill Creek or Shout!, though, so please remember that early plans are possibly subject to change. However, our industry sources tell us that these new Mill Creek releases will almost certainly be consistent with the way they released the previous titles licensed from Shout! Factory: no more than $9.98 SRP each for titles with either 8 or 10 episodes, coming on a single disc if its a half-hour program and on 2 DVDs if it was broadcast as an hour-long show. That makes sense. Release dates and cover art haven't been finalized yet (which is why Mill Creek hasn't formally announced them so far). However, from what we hear, some of these will make it out in time for the holiday gift-giving season, while others won't appear until the first half of 2011. Stay tuned!
Pin It
