Home Video Gold

VHS in the 1980s created a second revenue stream. Films that flopped in theaters could still succeed on home video. DVD in the late 1990s was even more profitable — studios earned huge margins on discs that cost cents to produce, and home video briefly out-earned theatrical revenue.

This changed what got made. With home video as a safety net, studios could greenlight riskier films. The mid-budget adult drama thrived partly because rental stores needed a steady flow of new titles to stock their shelves.