Hollywood had not finished congratulating itself on the record $9.37 billion gross in North American theaters in 2002 when a bigger story made the headlines: the home-video industry had grossed at least $20.3 billion last year from the sale and rental of DVD and videos.
Consumers spent $12.1 billion out of the $20.3 billion to buy movies on DVD and videos; and $8.2 billion more renting them.
According to DVD Entertainment Group, which monitors the home video business, DVD sales zoomed 61 per cent to an all-time high of $8.7 billion. DVD rentals more than doubled from $1.4 billion in 2001 to $2.9 billion last year.
No surprise that some of Hollywood's highest paid stars like Bruce Willis who, while reducing their customary fee for a risky movie and demanding a cut from box-office earnings, have also been asking for a share of DVD and video sales and rentals.
Willis reportedly made about $100 million from backend deals for reducing his fee for M Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense. Similarly, Mel Gibson is expected to a make a killing from the DVD and video sales of Shyamalan's Signs. 
According to the report, many family-oriented movies and sci-fi hits grossed much more from DVD and video sales and rentals than in theaters. Disney's Monsters Inc, which grossed about $250 million in theaters in North America, earned $384.8 million from DVD and video sales and rentals. It was the highest selling movie in DVD and video last year. But its superb sales were not as awesome as the $420 million earned by rival DreamWork's Oscar-winning movie Shrek.
The report and a study by Video Business magazine revealed many interesting facts. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone grossed about $317 million in America while The Lord of the Rings earned $313 million theatrically. But in DVD and video sales, Rings triumphed over Potter. The former grossed $380 million from video stores; Harry Potter had to be satisfied with $343 million.
With its $403 million gross from theaters, Spider-Man is the fifth highest grossing film of all time in America. But when it came to video and DVD sales, it had to climb down quite a bit. It earned $348 million but much more was expected from it. Hollywood commentators say producer Sony was disappointed since it had shipped 27 million Spider-Man DVD and video units, but sold about $18 million copies.
The report also showed that several family movies, which performed disappointingly in theatres, earned well enough to turn in small profits.
DreamWorks' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was an also-ran earning about $73 million domestically. It earned about $100 million recently from DVD and video sales and rentals and is expected to earn another $20 million in coming weeks. The movie, which is still running abroad where it is expected to earn about $75 million, has recovered its investment and publicity cost by its DVD and video performance in North America.
Doing equally good DVD and video business was Atlantis: The Lost Empire which earned a disappointing $84 million in theatres. Its video and DVD sales and rental grossed about $132 million.
"Time and again, it has been proved you cannot call a film a hit or a miss based on its domestic performance," says filmmaker Ashok Amritraj, whose many movies, including Original Sin, have performed modestly in theatres in America.
With decent runs abroad and very good DVD and video sales, many of his seemingly flops have earned a tiny profit. "It takes about a year-and-a-half since a movie's release in America to know how much it has really earned," he adds.
