The New ‘B’ Movies Direct-To-Video Filmmakers Are Now Facing Competition From Major Hollywood Studios

There is more fabric in a linen dinner napkin than in all of the costumes for the five former centerfolds starring in the exploitation movie “Return to Savage Beach.”

“In this movie, we’ve got more nudity than we’ve ever had,” says the film’s writer-director, Andy Sidaris, a former ABC Sports executive. “But it’s not gratuitous nudity - well, OK, it is gratuitous. I mean it’s not lascivious nudity.”

Subatomic thong bikinis, a statutory minimum of three sex scenes and dime-store production budgets are the hallmarks of direct-to-video films - the “B” movies of the 1990s.

But now the B market is in the middle of a quiet revolution. The scantily clad “Savage Beach” bombshells and their peers are about to face unusual rivals on the video store shelves. Some of Hollywood’s biggest studios are making wagonloads of straight-to-video movies featuring not female anatomy but cuddly animated creatures, some resuscitated from decades-old feature films.

The contemporary B movie, usually produced for less than $1 million, is a victim of its own limited success. Encouraged by low costs and potentially healthy returns, anyone with a 16mm camera and several willing performers started churning out direct-to-video works, and customers were burned.

“Not too long ago, we were one of the only ones out there,” says Randall Schmidt, national sales administrator for industry leader New Horizons Home Video (“Body Chemistry III,” “Carnosaur,” “Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out”).

“But now,” he says, “there are 68 other guys - the consumer doesn’t know what’s what.”

This flood of particularly lame erotic thrillers and action stories, where the video box art was better than anything on the tape inside, sparked an extensive consolidation in the industry. The only films succeeding nowadays are those with known B-movie stars - such as Joan Severance or C. Thomas Howell - and recognizable directors like Sidaris.

“When (actress) Shannon Tweed was the queen of the B’s, she could sell 50,000 videotapes,” says reigning queen Julie Strain, a co-star of “Savage Beach” and veteran of more than 90 direct-to-video movies.

“If we sell 10,000 or 25,000 units these days, we’re doing really well,” says Strain, who also models for Penthouse Magazine.

For both the video store customer and its owner, B movies are a good deal. The off-brand titles often rent for less than the A titles, and an especially popular bargain-bin film can generate far more revenues than a blockbuster. A recent survey of the most profitable rental videos of the last five years was dominated by the direct-to-video movies “To Protect and Serve,” “Head of the Family” and “Beyond Desire.”

“It’s really hard to convince retailers, but these kind of titles last a long time in stores,” says Len Levy, whose PM Entertainment Group is set to release “Bikini Summer 3: South Beach Heat.” “This movie has it all. There’s action. There’s dancing. It’s not just bikinis.”

The major studios are all set to invade the direct-to-video market, incited not by the works by Levy and Sidaris but by those from the Walt Disney Co., especially its 1994 direct-to-video hit “The Return of Jafar,” a sequel to “Aladdin.”

In the next several months, more than a dozen direct-to-video animated movies will land in video racks.

The new animated titles include Disney’s “Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin,” “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas” and “Toy Story 2”; 20th Century Fox’s “Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue” and “A Christmas Carol”; Warner Bros.’ “The Swan Princess II”; Universal Studio’s “The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island”; and MGM’s “Babes in Toyland.”

Among the live-action direct-to-video premieres are Disney’s “The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story” and Fox’s “Casper: A Spirited Beginning.”

Unlike the exploitation films, which are designed to be rented, the animated movies are intended for sale, priced around $20.

“Our products are built on the heritage of the animated classics,” says Michael Johnson, head of Disney’s home video operation. “The stories lend themselves to sequels.”

The direct-to-video movies cost about a seventh of an animated feature film’s $70 million budget. Unlike the theatrical marketplace, where it can cost another $40 million to advertise and distribute a film, it’s far easier to bring a movie into video stores: A theater can play only one movie, but the local video store may stock 5,000 tapes.

“The theatrical marketplace is so tough right now,” Johnson says. “Look at what’s happening this summer … movies of budgets of $150 million aren’t doing well.”

For the near future, most of the studio’s direct-to-video movies will be sequels to movies that played in theaters. A brand-new work debuting in video stores is still considered second-rank, much like the exploitation films.

“The theaters have always added an air of legitimacy. So we make movies that are based on known theatrical movies, and play off that legitimacy,” says Fox video chief Jeff Yapp. “The challenge for the companies is to keep the quality up and make sure you don’t make too many movies. You don’t want direct-to-video to stand for bad product.”

Back on the seaside set of “Return to Savage Beach,” the cast is adjusting the threads of its tiny costumes as the cinematographer adjusts the single light and the sound recordist waits for a plane to fly past.

“I started as an extra and I imagined myself making A movies,” Strain says between takes. “But I’ve stepped on every rung of the Hollywood ladder and it’s clear I’m going to stop three steps short. And you know what? I don’t mind.”