Cary Grant Goes Digital: Warner Brothers To Reformat Old Movies
This story was written by Rory Maher.
It's not going to save the DVD market, but Warner Brothers started selling classic movies from its library todayeverything from silent movies to '80s classicsin DVD format and as internet downloads. DVDs cost $19.95 and internet downloads $14.95, and they can be ordered at Warner's archive site.
Warner didn't say how many movies it would make available today, but did say that it plans to continue going through its entire 6,800-movie catalog for movies it feels are good candidates to be converted to digital (i.e. films that may still have an audience). The studio plans to add about 20 films per month. Among the titles already converted are: The Mating Game (1959), starring Debbie Reynolds, a string of Cary Grant flicks from Mr. Lucky (1943) to Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), and Wisdom, a modern-day Robin Hood tale from 1986 starring Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore. DVD sales have been dropping across the industry for a couple years now, and Warner's move won't change that. But converting the films to digital requires almost no investment, so it's a no-brainer for the studio.
By Rory Maher