MGM CLASSICS TO BE MANUFACTURED ON DEMAND

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, which distributes movies from MGM’s library of classics, has hit on a way to make them available to online retailers who may be reluctant to pile them up as part of their regular inventory, tying up capital in the process. It is teaming up with Allied Vaughn, which produces DVDs one-by-one on demand, to make 50 films available from the MGM library for $19.98 each. That number is expected to expand to 400 within 18 months, the company said. In a statement, Eric Doctorow, general manager of MGM worldwide, said that on-demand manufacturing “provides an ideal solution to retailers who wish to expand the MGM DVD titles they offer to their customers without having to make an inventory investment.”