Are Hollywood Honchos Hiding Home Video Profits?
– Hollywood’s got a secret, and if the truth comes out it may have a hefty price tag for the home video industry, in which Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Steve Guttenberg can still reign supreme. According to Variety, many studio executives have for years zealously guarded the exact profit figures from both VHS and DVD sales, afraid that Hollywood talent will see these numbers–often twice as big as box-office grosses–and demand a bigger piece of the pie. It helps that there are no official, comprehensive weekly tracking reports for home video sales. Although rental figures are reported regularly, Warner Bros., for example, is mum on sales for its video-premiere movie franchises such as its annual animated Scooby-Doo or live-action Olsen twins movie series, reportedly direct-to-video assembly lines for big bucks. HBO caught on to the home video cash cow as well, successfully releasing entire seasons of The Sopranos and Sex and the City on DVD. At Fox, executives swore not to tell anyo