Pay-per-View, Home Video Battle Escalates; : MCA May Release 200,000 Tapes of ‘Africa’ in Fall

The pay-per-view vs. home video battle is heating up.

Pay-per-view, a service offered by some cable companies, allows the customer to pay about $5 to see a showing of a new movie, available about the same time as the home video cassette debut. About 2.5 million homes now get pay-per-view service, including, locally, Valley Cable, United Cable and Group W Cable in selected areas.

Fearing the competition from pay-per-view, retailers in these areas often order fewer copies of these movies. According to various estimates, the orders average about 15% less than usual. Reportedly “Rocky IV” and “Cocoon” suffered in the home video market due to pay-per view competition. This month, “The Jewel of the Nile,” “White Nights” and “Murphy’s Romance” will be available at the same time on home video and pay-per-view.

Cable executives claim the damage to the home video rental market is minimal but retailers and distributors disagree. Some are quite furious about this cable invasion of the home video sanctity. The protesters are clamoring for video companies to delay pay-per-view showings of movies until at least 30 days after the home video debut.

NEW AND COMING MOVIES: The first big fall movie will most likely be “Out of Africa,” which won seven Oscars for 1985, including best picture. MCA is releasing it Sept. 11. The movie, which stars Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, was a box-office smash, taking in $83 million to date, according to the studio. Long, leisurely paced, romantic dramas aren’t usually smash hits with the home video audience but a prestigious award-winner such as this may be an exception. MCA should be able to ship at least a respectable 200,000 to distributors and retailers.

It looks as though “Sleeping Beauty” is the feature-length cartoon Disney is going to release later this year, probably just in time for Christmas stockings. The recent theatrical re-release of the 1959 classic may have been the tip-off that Disney was gearing it for a cassette debut. Many aficionados regard “Sleeping Beauty” as the best of Disney’s full-length animated features.

“The Clan of the Cave Bear,” a prehistoric drama featuring Daryl Hannah, is due from CBS/Fox on Aug. 28. Neither critics nor movie audiences liked it much. At the same time, the company is debuting “Target,” a spy thriller with Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon. This one, largely because of the appeal of teen idol Dillon, has Top 10 rental potential.

The popular rentals this holiday weekend will be two newcomers, CBS/Fox’s adventure “The Jewel of the Nile” ($79.98), with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, and RCA/Columbia’s “White Nights”($79.95), starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. “The Best of Times” (Embassy, $79.95), the comedy featuring Kurt Russell and Robin Williams, is expected to do well in the rental market too.

MCA’s “Brazil,” due on Thursday, is next week’s major release. It’s the 131-minute version. A longer one--142 minutes--is available only in Europe. But that 11 minutes, insisted MCA’s technical director Mike Fitzgerald, isn’t crucial:

“It’s just been tightened up. No scenes were cut. Terry Gilliam (the director) did the editing himself. He cut out a few frames of film here and there, just odds and ends. I’ve seen both versions and it’s hard to tell the difference between the two.”

“Spies Like Us,” “Shoah” and “Marie: A True Story” are the key cassette debuts for the week of July 13. “La Cage aux Folles 3: The Wedding” is due on July 23. Purists, however, won’t like that fact that the third chapter of this French comedy series, starring Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi, is dubbed.

HORROR FLICKS: “Return of the Living Dead,” on Thorn/EMI/HBO, one of the better B-horror movies, is out this week. The other major horror release this month is “House,” with William Katt and Kay Lenz. This one, an unorthodox blend of scares and laughs, is certainly, for horror fans, is this year’s Terror Top 10. It’s due from New World on July 22 and should prove to be the company’s biggest title to date. According to distributor estimates, the company anticipates orders for at least 110,000 copies.

Media Home Entertainment, which offers many classic movies at $19.95, may set a trend with its price reduction on three prominent horror movies--”A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Halloween” and “C.H.U.D.” On Aug. 6 these three will be available at $19.95. After a year or two, home video companies often drop prices on prime titles as low as $24.95 but seldom below $20. “Elm Street,” a box office and home video hit, will be the big attraction. At the new low price, it should instantly shoot into the Top 10 of Billboard magazine’s sales chart.

CHARTS (Compiled by Billboard magazine) TOP VIDEOCASSETTES,

RENTALS 1--”Back to the Future” (MCA).

2--”Rocky IV” (CBS-Fox).

3--”Cocoon” (CBS-Fox).

4--”Witness” (Paramount).

5--”Jagged Edge” (RCA/Columbia).

6--”To Live and Die in L.A.”(Vestron).

7--”Agnes of God” (RCA/Columbia).

8--”Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins” (Thorn/EMI/HBO).

9--”Death Wish 3” (MGM/UA).

10--”Commando” (CBS-Fox).

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, SALES 1--”Jane Fonda’s New Workout” (Karl-Lorimar).

2--”Back to the Future” (MCA).

3--”The Sound of Music” (CBS-Fox).

4--”Alice in Wonderland” (Disney).

5--”Casablanca” (CBS-Fox).

6--”Rocky IV” (CBS-Fox).

7--”Jane Fonda’s Workout” (Karl-Lorimar).

8--”Pinocchio” (Disney).

9--”Jagged Edge” (RCA/Columbia).

10--”The African Queen” (CBS-Fox).