The following was recently reported in USA Today:
Who knows how many moviegoers played their Lord of the Rings DVDs before heading out to see the Return of the King, director Peter Jackson's triumphant finale? But when you look at the sales figures, it's safe to say that "Frodo lives!" in many homes.
So far, New Line has sold nearly 18 million of the various DVD versions of the Fellowship of the Ring- nearly as many as those for Finding Nemo- and is expected by year's end to sell more than 15.6 million DVDs of The Two Towers.
New Line's strategy to release first a bare-bones, then a meatier, then a collector's edition DVD is sure to be copied.
Columbia TriStar is preparing a Spider-Man deluxe edition for release before Spider-Man 2 lands July 2.
"The New Line strategy shows that consumers really will repeat a home video purchase of essentially the same product in a short time frame, provided there is sufficient differentiation between the releases," says Video Store magazine's Judith McCourt.