SONY OFFERS MINI-FORMAT CASSETTES

Sony is revving up its 8mm machinery. It’s finally introducing some prerecorded cassettes to go with those improved 8mm recorders introduced this year.

The 8mm is the mini-format, featuring roughly quarter-inch tape, rivaling the standard half-inch VHS and Beta formats. The 8mm field is still very small and a target of much skepticism. Sony, the leading 8mm company, is banking on an 8mm explosion in the next few years. So far, 8mm has been used for home taping and making home videos because, until now, there were no prerecorded cassettes available.

Sony has just introduced 15 titles, ranging from $17 to $50. But if 8mm owners want movies, they’re still out of luck. Sony doesn’t have a great film library. Its new titles are in pop music and kid vid, including “David Bowie-Jazzin’ for Blue Jean” ($19.95), “Sheena Easton” ($16.95), “Elton John” ($16.95), “The Hobbit” ($34.95) and “Voltron Battles Planet Doom” ($49.95).

According to Sony marketing director Andy Schofer, the company will release at least two titles a month from now on. “By next summer,” he predicted, “We’ll have 50 to 60 titles on the market.”

The introduction of some prerecorded 8mm cassettes should boost interest in the mini-format but 8mm will be a dormant format until a customer can buy an 8mm VCR for the same price as a VHS or Beta machine, which now sell for as little as $200. Depending on where you buy it, an 8mm VCR will cost several hundred dollars more.

There’s more good news for the 8mm camp. According to Variety, Paramount executive Tim Clott is negotiating with Sony about releasing Paramount movies on 8mm. If Paramount and Sony do make a deal, some Paramount titles may be available on 8mm by the middle of next year.

Sony isn’t the only company putting out prerecorded 8mm cassettes. Five adult movies were just released by a local company called A8mm Video, which sell for $89.95. Five more will be out in January. At the same time A8mm Video company is planning to release 8mm versions of five public domain feature films under a different company name, Video Program 8mm.

SINGLES VIDEO: Next week, the Granite Entertainment Group is releasing an unusual cassette called “Singles,” which is sort of a video classified ad. You buy or rent the cassette, which features single people, each with a code number, rapping about themselves. If one turns you on, you contact the person, using that number, by writing to a certain address. Then it’s up to the person to get in touch with you.

The men and women on this cassette--a mixture of races, personality types and age groups--were chosen from several hundred people who responded to Granite’s newspaper ads.

Granite executive Gary Gray stressed what “Singles” is not : “This is not a swingers tape. If you’re looking for something kinky, don’t get this cassette. We screen the people very carefully. These are sensible single people looking for relationships. There are no nuts or weirdos.”

The cassette, which runs 75 minutes, sells for $49 but is also available for rent. Appearing on the cassette costs nothing. To write to the single of your choice, you have to pay only postage and handling charges.

According to Gray, there will be new cassettes, featuring a different batch of singles each 90 days and different cassettes for different regions of the country.

OLD MOVIES: Since his recent death, there has been great demand for director/actor Orson Welles movies. Many stores, particularly those catering to film buffs, are reporting an increase in sales of his 1941 masterpiece, “Citizen Kane.” It’s available through several companies but RKO, which originally released it, offers the best print, at $29.95.

Surprisingly Welles’ somber “Touch of Evil” (1958), his second-best film, isn’t available on cassette. MCA, which has the rights to this Charlton Heston-Marlene Dietrich movie, is waiting to release it as part of a classics series.

Anyone with an affection for the cowboy stars of the ‘30s and ‘40s will appreciate the collection of movies available on All Occasion Video, which has acquired 40 titles that it will release three or four at a time over the next few months. This week’s releases: “Boot Hill Brigade” (1937), featuring Johnny Mack Brown, the 1938 Roy Rogers movie, “Under Western Stars,” “Gunsmoke Trail” (1938), with Jack Randall and “Wild Horse Rodeo” (1937) starring Bob Livingston and Ray Corrigan. All sell for $19.95.

NEW MOVIES: This is a sparse week for significant recent movies debuting on cassette. “Brewster’s Millions,” with Richard Pryor and John Candy, is in the stores this week (MCA, $79.95). Next week’s schedule is fatter: “The Emerald Forest,” with Powers Boothe, the Albert Brooks comedy, “Lost in America” and the Talking Heads concert movie, “Stop Making Sense.”

December: A month ago this was shaping up as a lean month for new releases. But all of a sudden the December schedule is cluttered. Paramount just announced the Dec. 18 release of two teen-oriented science fiction movies, “D.A.R.Y.L.” and “Explorers,” which was directed by Joe Dante, whose “Gremlins” is due out Nov. 27. Also, Thorn/EMI/HBO is putting out the teen comic fantasy, “The Heavenly Kid,” in December.

“Fletch,” starring Chevy Chase, “A View to a Kill” and “Pale Rider”--the Clint Eastwood Western--are early December releases.

MCA has just announced the Janaury release of “Mask,” the sentimental drama starring Cher, which has grossed $43 million since its release last spring.

WHAT’S HOT: “Beverly Hills Cop,” the smash Eddie Murphy movie, is shaping up to be the biggest videocassette in the brief history of home video. Paramount shipped a record 1.3 million to distributors and retailers last week. At $29.95 a large percentage will be sold rather than rented. “Cop” made its debut at No. 7 on the Billboard sales chart but should take over the top spot next week. It entered the rental chart at No. 31 but will crack the Top Five next week. By then it could even be the No. 1 rental.

“Ghostbusters,” released two weeks ago, started with a bang. It’s doing very well--No. 2 in sales and No. 5 as a rental--but since both were huge comedy/thriller successes, it can’t escape comparisons with “Beverly Hills Cop.” In rentals, “Ghostbusters” is a worthy challenger to “Cop.” But in sales it really isn’t in the same class as “Cop,” mainly because RCA/Columbia set the “Ghostbusters” retail price at $79.95. At $50 less, “Cop” will sell a lot more.

TOP CASSETTES, RENTALS

1--”The Breakfast Club” (MCA).

2--”Amadeus” (Thorn/EMI/HBO).

3--”The Killing Fields” (Warner Video).

4--”Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment” (Warner Video).

5--”Ghostbusters” (RCA/Columbia).

6--”Missing in Action 2: The Beginning” (MGM/UA).

7--”Desperately Seeking Susan” (Thorn/EMI/HBO).

8--”The Sure Thing” (Embassy).

9--”The Karate Kid” (RCA/Columbia).

10--”Gotcha!” (MCA).

TOP CASSETTES, SALES

1--”Jane Fonda’s Workout” (Karl).

2--”Ghostbusters” (RCA/Columbia).

3--”Amadeus” (Thorn/EMI/HBO).

4--”Jane Fonda’s New Workout” (Karl).

5--”Prince and the Revolution Live” (Warner Music).

6--”Prime Time” (Karl).

7--”Beverly Hills Cop” (Paramount).

8--”Pinocchio” (Disney).

9--”We Are the World: The Video Event” (USA For Africa).

10--”Gone With the Wind” (MGM/UA).