Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

Recently I saw a commercial for Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle on dvd, and I noticed something that disturbed me. One of the main selling points of the dvd is that it has extras. Big deal. So do lots of other dvd’s. The key here is the type of extras. Without saying it directly, they strongly implied in this ad that these are extras they couldn’t show in theaters. If you get the extended Lord of the Rings, you’ll see extra footage that was probably only cut to keep the movie closer to three hours than four hours, a concession to how long someone might be able to sit in a theater. The White Castle footage, it is strongly implied, had to be cut to keep the rating low enough for teens or kids to see the movie. These “extras” seem to be of a sexual nature.

Again, big deal. And maybe that’s right, right now. But if a key selling point for a teen comedy movie on dvd is sexual stuff they couldn’t put in theaters, what happens if this thing sells really well, or even modestly well? I can’t point to any specific evidence, but I’ve gotten the impression over the last few years that a movie in a theater is only a small part of the money pie. You have all the merchandise. There’s the money the movie makes when it’s shown overseas. There also used to be video sales. All of these were faithful to the film you see in its original theatrical release.

DVD’s changed everything. Now you’ve got extras. Making of’s. Actor/director/producer commentaries. All as incentives to get people to buy the dvd. I mean really, did they ever do a making of Porky’s? No. They had nowhere to put it. Porky’s had some sexual situations, pretty much played for laughs. And even though I haven’t seen it, the extras in White Castle are likely to be flashes of bosomy regions, or maybe a hiney or two. But they’re championing the dvd based on those extras. And they call it the unrated version, another common trait of dvd’s now.

My question is, are makers of these teen comedy films going to start shooting a lot of extra scenes they know full well in advance aren’t going to be in the theater release, anticipating the chance to put them on the dvd and get extra sales that way?

In the last twenty-five years, our home video games have gone from Pong and Space Invaders to games where skimpy bikini girls play beach volleyball or wrestle in the ring. There may even be rumored cheat codes that render the bikini girls suddenly non-bikini. Will we find ten or fifteen years down the road that our teen comedy directors are slipping soft core extended make out scenes into the unrated versions of the dvd’s?

Take my word for it; if a dunderhead like me can think of it, what do you think a highly paid marketer is whispering into a director’s ear even as you read this?