Warner Home Video announced this week that “The Wizard of Oz” is going on a video moratorium in North America on May 1, except for the “70th Anniversary 2-disc DVD,” which will remain on the market until October.
New shipments in all formats will then case until the fourth quarter of 2013, when a new digital restoration of the 1939 classic will receive “a multi-platform, unprecedented rollout…with major sponsorships and branding, as well as massive media support.”
Studios rarely release video sales figures, but WHV says the 70th anniversary editions in 2004 sold more than two million units, with sales of all iterations going back to MGM’s initial release as part of its old “Kid-eo” VHS line toping 10 million units.
Interestingly, the new releases will come months before the actual 75th anniversary of the film’s premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on August 15, 1939.
Next month’s release of the 70th anniversary editions of “Casablanca” is also coming a bit early — the film had a “pre-release” premiere on Nov. 26, 1942 at the Hollywood Warner Theater in Manhattan (now the Times Square Church).
For years, Warner Bros. (and the film’s previous owners, including MGM and Turner Entertainment) calculated the film’s anniversary (and its video releases) based on its Los Angeles premiere in January, 1943 — it won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1943 at the ceremonies held in 1944.
The release of the new “Wizard of Oz” restoration will follow the theatrical release of the first new Oz feature in decades, Disney’s “The Great and Powerful Oz” a prequel starring James Franco as a younger version of the wizard, scheduled for March 2013. (Disney, which acquired rights to L. Frank Baum’s other Oz books in the 1950’s released the unsuccessful sequel “Return to Oz” in 1985).
Warner’s New Line division has had its own Oz movie in development for years, and Universal holds the movie rights to the Broadway musical prequel “Wicked.”
As I’ve been reporting for years, Warners has long been looking at tests for a 3-D conversion of the 1939 version. The last time I asked, at the premiere of the 70th anniversary restoration at the 2004 New York Film Festival, I was told by executives that the results were disappointingly headache-inducing.
But after seeing the new 3-D version of “Titanic” this week, it’s clear that technology has finally advanced to permit quality conversion of classic films. Few would justify the immense cost of such an undertaking..
As I wrote the other day, I’d love to see “The Wizard of Oz” converted this well.
