Hollywood hopes consumers will give until it hurts this Christmas, buying record numbers of home videos.
Nowhere will the giving - and getting - be greater than in the collector's video market, which essentially means you pay two to three times as much as you would for a sell-through title (a video priced under $25, like "Snow White"), and you get to feel a cut above the couch potato hoi polloi.For in addition to the actual cassette of a given movie, collectors' sets can include everything from soundtrack CDs and autographed scripts to specially produced books jam-packed with background notes or upscale artwork. (Two years ago, the "Star Wars" collection boasted holographic boxes.)
This holiday season will again witness such perennial favorites as Paramount's "Godfather Collection," three Francis Ford Coppola films spliced into a continuous, multiple-cassette storyline; "The NBA Collection" from Fox, featuring four tapes covering the game's history and greatest players; the aforementioned "Star Wars Trilogy" and MGM/UA's "The Ultimate Oz."
There are also some noteworthy newcomers, most swathed in lavish packaging, designed to appeal to the sensibilities - and pocketbooks - of upscale videophiles.
Consider these additions to the gift collection market:
- "My Fair Lady Collector's Edition": This is the "buzz" video of the fall, "Jurassic Park" and "Snow White" notwithstanding. Twentieth Century-Fox recently restored the 70mm print for a brief theatrical run; now it's offering two video options: the restored film, with its original theatrical trailer and a 10-minute '60s promotional film, for $24.98; and a deluxe box set for $79.98. The latter gets you a limited imprint of six original costume sketches by Oscar-winner Cecil Beaton; a 70mm film frame (actually, six consecutive frames) struck from the original camera negative, and a production diary by Beaton about the film's director and stars (Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison). A bargain for fans of 1964's Best Picture (actor, director, music et al.). Available through March 31, 1995. VHS.
- "The Michael Jordan Gift Set": What do you get for your $29.98? CBS/Fox and NBA Entertainment pony up two videos - "Michael Jordan Air Time" and "Michael Jordan: Come Fly With Me" - plus a 44-page "Career Achievement Retrospective" booklet. Jordan fans may well find it a bargain, since the two videos combined sell for more than the gift set, and each spent more than 20 weeks atop Billboard's Recreational Sports chart. "Air Time" traces Jordan from birth in North Carolina to stardom in the NBA; "Come Fly With Me" looks at his life on and off the court. VHS.
- "Breakfast At Tiffany's": The late Audrey Hepburn pulls double duty this fall, with two boxed sets. Paramount calls its "Breakfast At Tiffany's" collector's edition a "seven-course breakfast," no doubt because the contents include a letter-boxed cassette; a written remembrance by the film's director (Blake Edwards); a copy of Hepburn's hand-annotated script; a CD of Henry Mancini's Oscar-winning soundtrack (including "Moon River"); a Mancini remembrance booklet, and three black and white photos from the film's original ad campaign. It's a tidy little retrospective with a tidy price of $59.95. VHS.
- "White Christmas": A letterboxed version of the movie, a copy of Rosemary Clooney's personal script and a CD with digitally remastered tracks from the original album of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" highlight this 40th anniversary collection from Paramount. You also get an eight-page book.
True, nary a holiday season passes without the film popping up on television a trillion times. But this print is mint condition, and Clooney - the only member of the original cast (Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen) still alive - is tossing in a signed photo with 1,000 of the sets. You'll pay $159.95 for the autographed edition; $59.95 for everything but Clooney's John Henry. VHS.