What DVD titles are available?
DVD started off slowly. Rosy predictions of hundreds of movie titles for Christmas of 1996 failed to materialize. Only a handful of DVD titles, mostly music videos, were available in Japan for the November 1996 launch of DVD. The first actual feature films appeared in Japan in December 20 (The Assassin, Blade Runner, Eraser, and The Fugitive from Warner Home Video). By April there were over 150 titles in Japan. The first titles released in the U.S., on March 19, 1997, by Lumivision, authored by AIX Entertainment, were IMAX adaptations: Africa: The Serengeti, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature, Tropical Rainforest, and Animation Greats. (Other movies such as Batman and Space Jam were demonstrated earlier, but were not full versions available for sale.) The Warner Bros. U.S. launch followed on March 24, but was limited to seven cities. Almost 19,000 discs were purchased in the first two weeks of the US launch — more than expected.
As with hardware, rosy predictions of hundreds of movie titles for Christmas of 1996 failed to materialize. Only a handful of DVD titles, mostly music videos, were available in Japan for the November 1996 launch of DVD. Actual feature films began to appear in December. By April there were over 150 titles in Japan. Movies appeared in the US in March of 1997. Almost 19,000 discs were purchased in the first two weeks of the US launch — more than expected. InfoTech predicted over 600 titles by the end of 1997 and more than 8,000 titles by 2000. By December 1997, over 1 million individual DVD discs were shipped. By June 1999, over 30 million discs had shipped. As of February 2000 there are just over 6,000 titles available in the US and over 9,000 worldwide. Compared to other launches (CD, LD, etc.) this is a huge number in a very short time. See 6.3 for a list of Web sites where you can buy or rent DVDs.
[In the video distribution industry, a title refers to a movie or other production release, like Snow White, or Star Wars, or a boxed edition of a TV series, like Babylon 5 First Season. Titles are collectively referred to as software, not to be confused with computer software.] DVD started off slowly. Rosy predictions of hundreds of movie titles for Christmas of 1996 failed to materialize. Only a handful of DVD titles, mostly music videos, were available in Japan for the November 1996 launch of DVD. The first feature films on DVD appeared in Japan on December 20 (The Assassin, Blade Runner, Eraser, and The Fugitive from Warner Home Video). By April, 1997 there were over 150 titles in Japan. The first titles released in the U.S., on March 19, 1997, by Lumivision, authored by AIX Entertainment, were IMAX adaptations: Africa: The Serengeti, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature, Tropical Rainforest, and Animation Greats. (Other movies such as Batman and Space Jam had been demons
[In the video distribution industry, a title refers to a movie or other production release, like Snow White, or Star Wars, or a boxed edition of one season of a TV series. All of these are collectively referred to as software.] DVD started off slowly. Rosy predictions of hundreds of movie titles for Christmas of 1996 failed to materialize. Only a handful of DVD titles, mostly music videos, were available in Japan for the November 1996 launch of DVD. The first actual feature films appeared in Japan in December 20 (The Assassin, Blade Runner, Eraser, and The Fugitive from Warner Home Video). By April there were over 150 titles in Japan. The first titles released in the U.S., on March 19, 1997, by Lumivision, authored by AIX Entertainment, were IMAX adaptations: Africa: The Serengeti, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature, Tropical Rainforest, and Animation Greats. (Other movies such as Batman and Space Jam had been demonstrated earlier, but were not full versions available for s
As with hardware, rosy predictions of hundreds of movie titles for Christmas of 1996 failed to materialize. Only a handful of DVD titles, mostly music videos, were available in Japan for the November 1996 launch of DVD. Actual feature films began to appear in December. By April there were over 150 titles in Japan. Movies appeared in the US in March of 1997. Currently (Apr 1998) there are about 800 titles available in the US and over 1200 worldwide. Compared to other launches (CD, LD, etc.) this is a huge number. Almost 19,000 discs were purchased in the first two weeks of the US launch — more than expected. InfoTech predicted over 600 titles by the end of 1997 and more than 8,000 titles by 2000. By December 1997, over 1 million individual DVD discs were shipped. A concerted launch of DVD hardware and software in Europe is planned for the second quarter of 1998. Over 100 titles are expected to be available by March, with over 250 available by the end of 1998. Time Warner’s official lau
