Any ideas? I am not sure where I can find the info
It really depends on how well the movie did in theaters. If it pretty much flopped in theaters, you can probably expect it on DVD in a couple months. I think the average is around 3-4 months though.
It’s been a while since I worked directly with the Movies team at work (ecommerce), but as of a couple of years ago, the time from theatrical to DVD release was falling pretty steadily. Each of the major studios has its own rhythm that they’ve determined does best for their movies, but the lag time now is a lot less than it was.
I think Electronic Chaos has the timing about right, although it’s less dependent on actual box office and more on anticipated box office – at this point, the DVD release is a significant portion of overall revenue and is included in the initial planning. I’ve sat in discussions with movie studio sales reps talking about promotional events for the release of a movie, and on multiple occasions they knew to the month when a not-yet-in-theaters movie would hit stores.
I’ve noticed most hit movies (Superman Returns, etc.) come to DVD from 5-6 months after they’ve hit theaters. They’ll also hit pay-per-view at about the same time. It can take up to a year for a movie to come to a subscription network like HBO or Starz, however.
From what I’ve been able to gauge just keeping an eye on release dates, about three months for a flop, six months for a hit. One exception seems to be movies that look like they’d do better for the Christmas gift-giving season, so they hold the release a bit longer to hit that time of year.
I noticed *300 *is due out at the end of July. It hit theaters in early March. Five months? Sounds about right.
There may be an average–if you did a spreadsheet, like, of a whole bunch of movies and their release dates, and did the math–but there’s no rule of thumb. I work in a video store, and there’s really no way to accurately predict when a movie will be out on DVD. This is especially true of foreign and indie titles.
Whenever they think it will sell.
I suspect they choose dates almost as carefully as the release dates of the original film, taking into consideration the direct competition around that time, even though I think that’s more relevant to rentals than sales.