Warner Bros. has launched their "Warner Archive" series of DVD-on-Demand releases that ushers in a new era of DVD distribution for the studios. There are several things that will be of interest and education for those out there looking at this model (whether via Createspace or other):
1) This is a perfect example of the value of a library of content. While these title may not sell all the time in wide release, they are what we call "evergreens." That means there are minimal sales over a longer period of time.
2) This ushers in a possible new era of acquisition by the studios for lower-budgeted product they can sell in the rental arena (BB, Netflix, other) and then through this D-O-D model. You could actually get your movie distributed by Warners, which if they promote properly and effectively (something they are slowly learning) could yield some good profit for you. It also opens up the idea of more in-house D2DVD productions which could be sold via this method. Imagine a line of $1m movies (something Sony is doing with ANGEL OF DEATH) promoted, marketed and sold online and internationally.
[And let's put it out there - if they could ever get their relationship with DC Comics flowing smoothly they could have an interesting line of movies featuring 2nd tier characters in the lineup...but that would take a lot of marketing, coordination and egoless cooperation. It would also mean building that area of the business over time]
3) It allows us to finally get cool movies we haven't seen in years - like this. We could also start to see things like packages of TV pilots put together in TV DVD packages.
4) This could be VERY competitive for the indie distributors out there. Warner Bros. has a lot of leverage with their product.
But as the name says, they are only releasing "Archive" material. I would hope that Paramount, Lionsgate, Universal and others would follow suit so we could start seeing some of the Republic serials available again.
