DreamWorks Does DVD

July 23, 1998

The last studio is in...after months of waiting, and almost a year or rumors, Hollywood's youngest studio has finally made it's decision. Dreamworks just announced the release of three movies to DVD: Small Soldiers, Mouse Hunt and The Peacemaker. This announcement may be the beginning of an avalanche of Spielberg titles, which had previously been held back by the director (only 4 Amblin titles have been released, and only one of those was directed by Spielberg).

Below is a copy of the Dreamworks press release:

Universal City, California, September 23, 1998 - DreamWorks SKG is entering the Digital VideoDisk [sic] (DVD) market, it was announced today by Matt Brown, head of Worldwide Home Entertainment.  Just in time for the holiday season, three films are set to debut this December, including SMALL SOLDIERS, MOUSE HUNT and THE PEACEMAKER.

"We are thrilled to now offer DreamWorks pictures on DVD," Brown said.   "The technology has moved beyond a niche audience and is gaining consistent ground with mainstream consumers.  Buoyed by their successful theatrical and video releases, SMALL SOLDIERS, MOUSE HUNT and THE PEACEMAKER will have even more appeal on DVD, which allows us to add new, exciting behind-the-scenes footage.  We believe sales of these movies will be strong throughout the holiday season and into 1999, with those beginning their collections."

Combining live-action with state of the art, computer-generated imagery, SMALL SOLDIERS has earned almost $54 million to date at the U.S. box office.   Starring Kirsten Dunst, Jay Mohr, Phil Hartman, Gregory Smith and Dennis Leary, the film is receiving a multi-million dollar marketing campaign just prior to its DVD release when it premieres on videocassette November 10th.  A major hit with kids, SMALL SOLDIERS characters were the number one boys' action toy of the summer.  MOUSE HUNT, the $121 million worldwide box office smash, was one of the year's top ten videos, selling over 4.7 million videocassettes when it was released last May.  The hit family film stars Nathan Lane, Lee Evans, Christopher Walken and the world's most tenacious mouse.  International celebrities George Clooney and Nicole Kidman star in THE PEACEMAKER, which earned more than $110 million at the worldwide box office.   A suspenseful action-thriller, the movie spent six weeks on top of the rental charts when it was released on video last March, and is selling extremely well since its sell-through release in September.

DreamWorks SKG was formed in October, 1994, by its three principal partners - Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen - as a single company to produce live-action motion pictures; animated feature films and television programs; network, syndicated and cable television programming; records; books; toys; consumer products and interactive entertainment.