""Titanic"" Officially Released As Video CD BoxedLimited Edition

Filmmaker James Cameronís Academy AwardÆ Best Picture Titanic has been officially released by Twentieth Century Fox as a four-disc Video Compact Disc (VCD). The release occurred last week in Shanghai, China at a party hosted by Fox and featuring a menu from the Titanicís last supper and producer Jon Landau reminiscing about the making of the hit movie. The setís soundtrack is dubbed in Chinese and includes a bonus disc of Celine Dionís music video and a documentary, ""The Making Of Titanic."" A limited edition is packaged in a box made of wood from a shipwreck.Fox to date has reportedly lost millions of dollars as a result of an estimated 3.5 million plus pirated copies of Video Compact Discs of Titanic which are selling for $2.00. Fox and other Hollywood studios have long ignored the VCD format, which is inferior in presentation quality to both DVD and LaserDisc. The VCD format is regarded as the poor cousin of digital video discs. The format, which preceded DVD, never took off in the U.S.Now, spurred by the growing threat of bootleg VCDs, Hollywood studios can no longer afford to ignore the format. Warner Bros. was the first to commit to the format, releasing more than 60 titles in China. Walt Disneyís Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Seagramís PolyGram are right behind Warner, and Paramount, which supported the MPEG-1 video compact disc format in the U.S., is slated to release titles on VCD in China in the near future. Fox plans to release 30 more movies on VCD in China during 1999. Pirated VCDs are the principal means for the Chinese people to see American movies. China allows just 10 U.S.-made movies into its theatres a year. But China does not impose any limits on VCD or DVD imports. Further, movies shown in Chinese theatres are subject to censorship for political or sexual content, but not so on VCD or DVD. Reportedly, by the end of 1999, there will be 200 legitimate movies competing with the pirated versions, which vary in quality from very poor to acceptable dubs. But the legitimate discs will have to compete on price, with pirated copies ranging from $1 to $3 compared to $6 to $8 for an authorized version. Then too, there is the matter of timing with the legitimate version not released until 10 months or so after the theatre debut. To combat pirating, Fox is offering a discount on the authorized Titanic to those who trade in their pirated copies. The studioís real interest is in building a market for DVDs. In 1998, almost half the 700,000 DVDs sold internationally were purchased in China. To suceed DVD players will have to drop in price substantially to compete with VCD players that now sell for $75. Estimates are that 30 to 40 million VCD players are already in Chinese households and pirated Hollywood movies account for at least 80 percent of the programming on those VCDs.