Amazon Bows ‘Never Before on DVD’ Store

23 May, 2012 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Amazon is making it easier for consumers to select classic movies and TV shows for on-demand DVD replication.

The Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth launched the “Never Before on DVD” store (), where more than 2,000 titles from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment — the latter of which will offer MGM content as well as titles from its own library — are available for one-off replication through its CreateSpace (www.createspace.com) DVD on Demand service.

On-demand DVDs are not available in Blu-ray and cannot be traded in or sold as previously viewed content.

The Never Before on DVD store also features more current content from other studios and networks, including CBS Networks, MTV Networks and Nickelodeon. Many titles also are available on transactional video-on-demand service Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video, including MTV’s Mob Wives: Season 1, MTV’s Teen Mom: Season 1, Nickelodeon’s Rugrats: Season 1 and Universal Studios thriller The Island, starring Michael Caine.

Disney now is offering more classic family titles with the Disney Generations Collection. Titles include Child of Glass (1978), a haunting mystery complete with witchcraft, ghosts and an antebellum mansion, starring Barbara Barrie; The Leftovers (1986), the story of the Middleburg Orphanage’s struggle to stay together as a family, starring John Denver and Cindy Williams; The Waltz King (1963), a dramatic biography of Johann Strauss Jr.’s rise to fame; and the television pilot Beyond Witch Mountain (1982), a continuation of the Witch Mountain stories starring Eddie Albert, Tracey Gold, Efrem Zimablist Jr. and Kirk Cameron in one of his first roles. 

MGM’s Limited Edition Collection, distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, will feature titles such as Cool Blue, starring Woody Harrelson and Hank Azaria; The Wonderful Country, showcasing Robert Mitchum and directed by Academy Award-winner Robert Parrish; Summer Heat, a dramatic film that takes place on a tobacco farm in the 1930s with Kathy Bates, Anthony Edwards and Lori Singer; The Big Night, a classic 1950s drama starring John Barrymore Jr.; and Wanda Nevada, an adventurous Western that brings heralded actor Peter Fonda together onscreen with Brooke Shields.

Sony Pictures Choice Collection extends its new-to-DVD offerings with the fifth season of "Rules of Engagement," a CBS comedy series starring David Spade, Patrick Warburton and Megyn Price; Bless the Beasts and the Children, the 1971 Stanley Kramer movie about a group of social misfits who band together and run away from summer camp; Grace Kelly (1983), a TV movie starring Cheryl Ladd, Lloyd Bridges and Diane Ladd; Who’s Minding the Mint? (1967), a comedy with Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Bob Denver and Jamie Farr heading the cast; Combat Hospital: Season One (2011), an ABC series that portrays doctors and nurses saving lives in a warzone military hospital; The Three Stooges (2000), an ABC Movie with Michael Chiklis; Reunion at Fairborough, starring Robert Mitchum as a World War II vet who rekindles a romance with an old flame (Deborah Kerr); and Interlude, a 1968 movie with Oskar Werner, Barbara Ferris and Donald Sutherland.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will offer a wide variety of new content from its archives, including Tyrone Power in the spy mystery Diplomatic Courier; Anne Bancroft in The Raid, an American Civil War film based on true events; the screwball comedy Rings on Her Fingers, starring Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney; and Sweet Rosie O'Grady, a 1943 musical starring Betty Grable.

Among the highlights of the upcoming releases from Warner Archive Collection are the complete first season of the classic "Tarzan" television series, starring Ron Ely, which originally premiered on NBC in 1966; The Sky’s the Limit, the last Fred Astaire film from the Warner Library to come to DVD; the classic Rage In Heaven, starring Ingrid Bergman and Robert Montgomery; and Panama Hattie, featuring Ann Sothern and Red Skelton. Also making their DVD debut are a collection of action films starring football legend Jim Brown, including The Split and Tick...Tick...Tick, as well as Hanna-Barbera television animation with the release of Season One, Part Two of "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest."

“The Never Before on DVD store is a great place for fans to discover thousands of films and television series they’ve been waiting for on DVD,” said Brad Beale, director of digital video content acquisition for Amazon. “In addition to being available on DVD, many titles are available digitally to enjoy right away through Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video. We will continue working to bring our customers even more great video content on DVD as well as digitally.”

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