I'll be dipped

One of the classic bits on the series Seinfeld was when George Constanza dipped his chip into some dip, took a bite, then dipped again. Someone at the party then expressed his disgust at George's "double dipping."

But now "double dipping" has an entirely new meaning to those of us who are big DVD fans. That term now belongs to the act of releasing a DVD, typically one with very few "special features" on it, then later on releasing another edition of the same movie, this time with more features.

For some movies, this act is understandable. After all, when most DVDs began being released in the late 90s, studios didn't think that DVDs would become as big as they are today. So why not release another edition, this time with a cleaned up picture, and some better extras? But sadly, in most cases a double dip is wholly unnecessary. A sequel will come out and the studio will release a new version of the original, add some promotional featurettes for the sequel to it, and slap "Special Edition" on the cover. That, or the single disc, "barebones" edition of a movie will be released, then months later the 2 disc special edition with all the extras will appear.

For what reason do the studios do this? Well, many attribute it to the fact that studios now want to establish a sort of "rental window." You remember this practice back in VHS days. A movie would be released on home video, but it was "rental priced" only.. meaning that you could buy it from your local Blockbuster Video, but it would cost you $75. A few months later, the studios would then release the movie "priced to own." Okay, makes sense somewhat.. for VHS, that is. If studios really want a rental window, then stop releasing these single-disc editions of movies for $12.99 at Best Buy during release week without dropping a hint that a better edition is in the works.

But nope, we won't see that from studios. DVDs are far too profitable. Its no huge secret that films make most of their money not in theaters, but on home video. Alien vs. Predator, considered a flop in theaters, made roughly $75 million on DVD. And that was just the first release. Typically the reason people will buy these new editions is that they are under the impression that this new edition is "better" than the previous one. Studios also like to reel in consumers with the "Unrated/Uncut" editions, with "footage they couldn't show in theaters!" Which, of course, is usually a lie. They'll edit in some deleted scenes from the movie and call it unrated. The idea is to make the consumer think that they are going to be watching raunchy footage with more violence and/or sex. (Which is why a lot of "unrated" editions are of adult-themed movies) Fact is, most directors don't even approve these uncut editions. Columbia/Tristar released a "director's cut" of the Vin Diesel movie XXX to coincide with the release of the sequel. This was no director's cut; in fact, the director actually spoke ill of the deleted scenes that were added to the movie on the first DVD release!

Luckily some filmmakers out there are letting people know ahead of time that a better edition is in the works somewhere down the line. This was most evident with the Lord of the Rings DVD releases. Peter Jackson announced the "extended editions" well before the "theatrical edition" was released. This way people had a choice. Other "double dips" have also been announced before the first DVD release, most recently with the movie Sin City. Robert Rodriguez said a longer version would be available with lots of extras. Sure enough, about a week ago, this new edition was announced for December, mere months after the regular edition was released.

Most editions do not have this luxury of advance warning. Fox is becoming a large offender of this practice. If we're lucky we'll get a free movie ticket with it. Some studios have been experimenting with multiple releases on the same day. You get the "standard edition" with your choice of widescreen and fullscreen, and then you get the 2-disc "deluxe edition." For the most part I like this practice. It gives people choice and lets you know that if you're a collector, you can get the better edition right away. The thing that kinda gets me on this, though, is the pricing. Just as an example, Warner Brothers did this with Constantine and will repeating it with Batman Begins. The deluxe edition with all its special features is usually a couple of dollars more than the standard edition. Problem with that is stores will only put a sale price on the standard edition. Constantine was something like $13.99 first week with the standard, but I had to pay full price for the deluxe, which was $22.99.

So how do you know if the DVD you are buying is just the studio's way of tossing you a few bread crumbs? There are several ways. First, you can keep an eye on the extra features. If the DVD is of a blockbuster movie like say, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which made a lot of money, but the only features listed are a few deleted scenes and an HBO special, more than likely you'll be getting a new edition later. You can also check out DVD-related websites for information. Fellow DVD fans will usually warn people ahead of time if a better edition looms.

It's a fact of life that companies will try to take advantage of customers. Hopefully armed with additional info consumers will be able to send a message back to movie studios to stop overflooding the market. You'd think studios would start to learn a lesson by now. Studios like Dreamworks and Disney are under a minor investigation right now after shipping waaaaaay too many copies of DVDs like Shrek 2 and The Incredibles to stores. Copies that weren't sold. Note to studios: not every single person in the family needs their own copy of a DVD.