Thursday, June 17, 2010

If a movie skips the theater and goes straight to DVD most people, including myself, would believe the reason is because the movie must be bad or low quality.

That is one reason some movies never see the silver screen. But there are many reasons that movies, including some with big stars, go straight to DVD.

The number one reason is money. Remember a little film called "Slumdog Millionaire"? It won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2008, but because Warner Brothers, who had the distribution rights to "Slumdog," believed the movie wouldn't be a commercial success, it almost went straight to DVD.

Think of all the good movies on DVD you've never heard of, sitting on a shelf because a corporate executive believed it wouldn't make money. It costs a lot of money to promote a film. If a movie company doesn't believe the film will make money, or simply doesn't have the promotional budget, then it's off to the rental store.

Other reasons some films go straight to DVD include content, poor public interest, and some movies are simply made to be released directly on DVD. If you have a good question, send it to Jeff Herndon at news@KAKE.com. He'll do his best to answer your good question, every Thursday on KAKE News at 6.