Disney Speeds up DVD Release for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland
Disney will be releasing the DVD for Alice in Wonderland faster than most DVDs are released. CNBC's Media Money blog reports that studios usually wait at least four months after a film is released in theatres before releasing the DVD. Disney is going to cut that buy a month and release the Alice in Wonderland DVD 13 weeks after the film appears in theatres. Disney's plans for a faster DVD release didn't come without problems. Two European theatres chains threatened a boycott and some U.S. industry insiders were concerned. Media Money says the theaters are all onboard with Disney for this film. However, theater chains will likely be unhappy if this becomes a trend and eats into box office revenues.
The position of theater chains makes sense. They are probably right that people might wait to watch a movie at home if they know the DVD will be out in two or three months. What really should be sped up is the release of television shows on DVD. There is no reason for the long delays. It takes far too long for most studios to get the latest season of a TV shows out on DVD. A lot of times the new season has started before people get a chance to watch the last season on DVD. For example, Season 2 of True Blood ended on September 13, 2009, but the Season 2 DVD will not available until May 25, 2010. That is an absurdly long delay and it really won't give people much time to watch the shows before Season 3 of True Blood airs in June.
Disney will be releasing the DVD for Alice in Wonderland faster than most DVDs are released. CNBC's Media Money blog 
