‘Indiana Jones’ Will Hit the Market Oct. 29; Closed Captioning: Now Appearing on Cassette

The rumors that have been circulating in home-video circles about the holiday-season release of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” turned out to be true. Paramount announced Thursday that the 1984 adventure film would be available Oct. 29.

It was also rumored that Paramount, the pioneer of reduced-price cassettes, would offer “Indiana Jones” at $24.95--a record for a major movie. The company, however, decided on $29.95--still considerably less than the standard price for new movies, $79.95.

“Indiana Jones” is the showpiece of a promotion--also beginning Oct. 29--offering a reduced price of $19.95 for 20 of Paramount’s top titles including “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Witness,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “White Christmas,” “Trading Places” and “48 HRS.” On Jan. 31, “Indiana Jones” will be pulled from circulation and the other titles will revert to their previous prices.

“In the past we’ve put out some older library titles at $19.95 but no real major movies,” noted Bob Klingensmith, the new president of Paramount Video Division. “What we’ll be putting out this Christmas are the family jewels.”

“Indiana Jones,” starring Harrison Ford and Kate Capshaw, is the sequel to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” So far “Indiana Jones”--No. 8 on the list of top money-makers--has grossed $325 million worldwide.

The question now is whether it will top “Beverly Hills Cop” as the best-selling $29.95 cassette. Paramount released “Cop” last Christmas, eventually selling 1.4 million copies to retailers and distributors.

“We don’t really like getting into these guessing games,” Klingensmith said, “but I would think ‘Indiana Jones’ would be able to match ‘Cop’ or sell 1.5 million.”

“Indiana Jones” won’t be the only major new release selling for $29.95 this holiday season. Last week, Disney announced that “Sleeping Beauty” would be available at $29.95. Klingensmith doesn’t regard it as competition for “Indiana Jones.”

“ ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is a family film, a children’s film,” he said. “ ‘Indiana Jones’ is an adventure. It will appeal to a different audience.”

There has been speculation that other major movies would debut on cassette at $29.95 this Christmas. Klingensmith, however, disagreed: “I think these two will be the only big new theatrical releases at that price.”

Nor is he expecting competition this Christmas from the only other blockbuster movie still not on cassette--”E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial.” Like “Indiana Jones,” it was directed by Steven Spielberg.

“I can only make an assumption about ‘E.T,’ ” he said. “Spielberg has to give the OK for it to come out this fall. I don’t think he wouldn’t release ‘E.T.’ at the same time as ‘Indiana Jones.’ He’s too smart to compete with himself.”

CLOSED CAPTIONING: According to Jane Edmondson, an executive at the National Captioning Institute, most people are ignorant about closed captioning. Apparently the common notion is that it consists of someone superimposed on the bottom of a TV screen interpreting the action in sign language for the hearing impaired.

Actually, Edmondson explained, closed captioning is the special subtitles added to a print. For videocassettes, to have these titles appear on the screen, a decoder--costing $200--has to hooked up to the VCR.

“Basically it’s subtitles, like you’d see in a foreign film, except these are in English,” she pointed out. “These are more sophisticated than foreign film subtitles. We place our captions underneath the person speaking. There are white caption letters in a black box. Also, there’s a black background so you don’t get that white on white you often get in subtitled movies.

“We do sound effects too. You might see a sign saying ‘telephone ringing’ or ‘dog barking.’ You have to remember a deaf person watching a movie can’t hear such sounds, which can be vital information.”

The close-captioned titles, Edmondson insisted, are superior to foreign film subtitles: “Foreign subtitles are heavily edited. A person can speak 30 words and you’ll only see a few on the screen. Our subtitles are close to verbatim.”

Home-video companies, which close caption many of their main titles, pay all the expenses for the process. All the major companies are involved in the closed-captioning program. There is no extra charge for closed-captioned cassettes, which are marked with a special symbol.

The National Captioning Institute in Falls Church, Va., which originated in 1979, started in home video in the early ‘80s with nine titles. “We really started to explore the home video market in earnest in late 1983,” Edmondson said. “1984 was our big growth year. Now there more than 500 titles. Last year we added about 250. Every month we put out about 20-25 titles.”

Announcements of new closed-captioned releases will be regularly mentioned in this column.

CHARTS

(Compiled by Billboard magazine)

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, RENTALS

1--”The Jewel of the Nile” (CBS-Fox).

2--”Back to the Future” (MCA).

3--”Spies Like Us” (Warner).

4--”White Nights” (RCA/Columbia).

5--”Murphy’s Romance” (RCA/Columbia).

6--”Jagged Edge” (RCA/Columbia).

7--”A Nightmare on Elm Street 2” (Media).

8--”Delta Force” (Media).

9--”Cocoon” (CBS-Fox).

10--”Iron Eagle” (CBS-Fox).

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, SALES

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

2--”The Sound of Music” (CBS-Fox).

3--”Alice in Wonderland” (Disney).

4--”Back to the Future” (MCA).

5--”Alien” (CBS-Fox).

6--”White Nights” (RCA/Columbia).

7--”Casablanca” (CBS-Fox).

8--”Pinocchio” (Disney).

9--”Kathy Smith’s Body Basics” (JCI).

10--”Whitney Houston: The No. 1 Video Hits” (MusicVision)