I just had to say a few short words about the video release of Titanic. Exactly when does hype turn into too much hype? That's a question that seemingly hasn't crossed the mind of the people responsible for the blitz surrounding the arrival of the highest grossing movie of the moment to home video. Months before the street date for the video I was being constantly asked if I would like to pre-order a copy, as if there would somehow be a shortage and I didn't want to be left out. I can even remember the sales pitch: "Would you like to pre order a copy of James Cameron's blockbuster hit, Titanic? I remembered that spiel simply because James "I'm king of the freakin' world" Cameron managed to get his name into the sales pitch. Wow.
When September 1st rolled around, the release date for the video, I expected it would obviously hyped up, but I didn't realize to just what a degree. The midnight sales of the movie were a bit silly -somewhat like an album release party for fidgety fans- but I still didn't realize the magnitude of the video's splash into the market until I went to Hollywood Video. The branch of the video rental stores had copies of Titanic for rent. A LOT of copies. A sign proudly proclaimed that each Hollywood Video had 300 copies of Titanic for rent. Now I was curious.
I made a few phone calls around to the video stores within my immediate area. Saner heads prevailed at a Blockbuster Video I called; only 176 copies of the movie were avaliable for rent. Out of that, 26 were currently checked out. Doing the math, I realized there were roughly 2700 copies of Titanic avaliable for rent within driving distance of me! Good grief! This isn't even taking into account independant video stores; I only harassed the big two [Blockbuster, Hollywood] that are in my area.
If I somehow couldn't manage to find a copy for rent [I don't know how!] I could of just bought myself a copy. It seemed every store in the area is heavily stocked with this title. Example: at a local Target store, there were three displays in the store stocked full of Titanic videos. Plus, at each checkout stand, there were copies of the video laying about. I asked one of the cashiers if the store managers thought that people were going to make a $19.99 impulse buy of Titanic when they were checking out. She didn't know, but wished she didn't have to display them and could have her counter space back.
Okay, I know I've gone on a lot about the sales angle of the movie, but haven't said how it did in it's transfer to video. Truth be told, I haven't watched it again. Hey, I figure with 1,000,000+ copies of the video sold so far, someone I know has to own a copy of the damn thing. I'll just borrow their copy later.
If you're one of those who lives such a sheltered life that you haven't seen Titanic yet, drop me a line at gleep9@hotmail.com. I'd love to know how you've successfully managed to avoid the movie so far. Full steam ahead to either the movie page or the main page.
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