In 2008 however, they went from respected film production company to one big joke, thanks to the fact that starting in late 2007 and continuing through all of 2008, the majority of the films they released either barely broke even or were box office flops outright(Space Chimps, Max Payne, Babylon A.D., Meet Dave, City of Ember among others). While other film studios were turning out blockbusters which reached $100 million domestically like clockwork, Fox fumbled the ball almost regularly by releasing The X-Files: I Want To Believe in the second week of The Dark Knight’s phenomenal success(not to mention about 10 years after anyone—even hard-core Files fans—could bring themselves to care), interfering with the production of Babylon A.D., which admittedly would have probably failed no matter what, and spurring fanboy wrath by suing Warner Bros. for profits from Watchmen, which arguably the studio did not deserve.

    Now Fox has reached a new low by revealing that from now on, all extras(commentaries, background features, deleted scenes, etc.) on DVDs of their films will not be included on any discs which are designed for rental purposes. Meaning that if you rent your films from Blockbuster, or some other service(possibly Netflix…more on that in a second), you won’t have the option to decide if you like the extras enough to buy the DVD…you’ll be forced to buy them from stores, sight unseen, and have to hope that the extras are special enough to warrant the purchase of the disc, regardless of how you feel about the film.

    This misguided attempt by Fox to force customers to buy their DVDs in order to shore up flagging sales within the industry(and more accurately, to force customers to buy DVDs of their crappy recent releases such as The Happening) is currently the subject of hot debate across the internet. The policy goes into effect on March 31st, with the release of Oscar smash Slumdog Millionaire and one of the studio’s only box office hits for 2008, Marley & Me.  Other Fox films such as the much-ballyhooed The Wrestler will also undergo this new “upgrading”. Many film fans are in an uproar over the decision, while some feel that such a choice on the studio’s part won’t really matter to the so-called “layman”, meaning everyday audience members who don’t buy films for the extras, but rather just for the films themselves.

    Here’s the problem with this second line of reasoning, though: until the advent of Star Wars, most fans didn’t really care about how films were made. But when Lucas’ original opus was released and he began letting fans in on the process of how he made his masterpiece, the “layman” began getting into how films were made, and over time became almost as knowledgeable about the process as devoted film students, film critics and other cinema academics. In turn, studios began releasing more extras on DVDs not only to boost sales, but also to satisfy a new generation’s need for info on how their favorite films were put together.

    This decision by Fox is in itself a terrible one. Not only because the studio is being stupid and selfish for doing this, but also because depending on the success of this choice, other film studios could follow suit. This would potentially be damaging to the DVD industry overall, as many smaller films which most folks casually pass by on store shelves might never have the chance to be seen, if viewers can’t preview the behind-the-scenes features when renting said films. A lot of the newer generation of moviegoers aren’t familiar with movies such as the original La Femme Nikita(MGM studios), Ang Lee’s latest and greatest Lust, Caution(Universal), the 70’s tv series The Nightstalker(MGM) or the great British series Ultraviolet(Palm Pictures). All of these films include fantastic and insightful extras on their discs, and if other studios choose to follow Fox’s game plan and film fans rent these movies from Blockbuster or some other source and can’t preview the extras, no matter how much they like the film, they may choose to put off purchasing them…especially in a recession as bad as the one we’re in. And as we all know, most times when someone puts off buying a DVD, they tend to forget about them after a while. It’s the ultimate out-of-sight-out-of-mind: “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to buy that. Well, I’ll get to it…eventually.” And then they don’t, so great films such as Ed Harris’ Appaloosa—which failed at the box office due to New Line’s lack of advertising—which has some very insightful extras, will languish on the shelf.

    It’s uncertain yet whether Fox’s new policy will affect Netflix, which does allow customers to rent discs with special features such as commentaries and making-of documentaries on them. More than likely it will, as Fox isn’t exactly known for playing fair with the talent—directors, writers, actors—with whom they work. There is the legal option for rental retailers that they could purchase special-feature DVDs from Best Buy, Wal-Mart or other outlets and then rent them to customers, but what rental retailer in their right mind would want to go buy a dozen copies of Australia or Meet Dave at standard prices and then hope they recoup their losses on such a purchase?

 

    Thus far, other studios aren’t planning to follow the Fox example. Warner Bros.—free of their Fox partnership to develop the Watchmen DVD on their own—will release an extended version of the film, with a boatload of extras on it. These of course will be available to rental retailers as well as for public purchase. The problem still remains, however: will Fox’s move to force customers to buy DVDs sight unseen if they want extra features, be successful? And if so, will other film studios follow in due course? If The Dark Knight had not been available for rent with extras attached, it would have been a success in direct purchase sales anyway. But what about films such as Marvel’s Incredible Hulk or little gems such as Dark Horse Indie’s My Name is Bruce? My Name is Bruce failed at both the box office and on the DVD purchase level thanks to the studio's unwillingness to pour money into advertising, yet the extras on the DVD for the most part do make the film worth owning. If such a film were more widely known, yet one couldn’t judge by the extras in a rental situation, again it would die a quicker death at the purchase level.