MGM hasn’t been doing too well lately. While facing an uncertain future due to financial debts, they finally have something good to announce for film fans.
No, nothing solid on Bond just yet (although that future is looking brighter). Rather, MGM’s extensive library of films will see the light of day thanks to an arrangement struck between 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Allied Vaughn to offer previously unreleased DVDs through an original method of distribution called MOD — manufactured on demand.
It’s a win-win for both parties. MGM provides over 400 titles that are new to the medium and the retailers can offer them on their websites without having to pay up front for a specific number of titles. Considering some of the DVDs – dubbed the Limited Edition Collection – hitting the market will be Still of the Night, Rolling Thunder, and The Hawaiians, this seems like the ideal situation to offer titles that might not have high demand by the masses yet have their own followings for whom this will be great news.
Other titles that will be available off the bat for $19.98 include: Bad Jim, By Love Possessed, Diary of a Madman, Futureworld, The Satan Bug, The Spikes Gang, Still of the Night, Vigilante Force, The Witches (1968), The 7th Dawn, 99 River Street, Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl, Crusoe (1989), Flight From Ashiya, Leo the Last, Callie & Son, The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, and Big House, U.S.A.
If this form of distribution works out well for all involved, it could mean that more unreleased or discontinued titles could once again become available. Not too shabby — even if they’re just bare-bones releases with, at most, an original movie trailer as the only extra feature.