In an effort to boost slumping home video sales, Hollywood studios are turning to the classics. Films such as “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), “Cleopatra” (1963) and “Funny Girl” (1968) are scheduled for rerelease on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Amid a nearly decade-long drop in home video sales of new movies, largely due to rental options such as Netflix and VOD, demand for catalog titles has held up better.

“In the past year, DVDs and Blu-ray discs of ‘Jaws,’ ‘Peter Pan’ and a 22-film boxed set celebrating the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise have broken into Rentrak Corp.’s top-10 charts for sales, a feat usually reserved for recent hits at the box office,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

“Revenue from new-release DVDs fell 50 percent last year from 2004, the year the home-entertainment market peaked, according to IHS Screen Digest. But catalog sales fell only 23 percent. As a result, catalog sales accounted for 44 percent of all film DVD and Blu-ray revenue last year, 10 percentage points higher than in 2004,” notes the article.

Industry insiders suggest demographics play a role, since older movie fans with a stronger appreciation for the classics may lean toward purchasing discs, while younger movie fans continue to go digital.

“Rereleases of old movies generate high profit margins — particularly for Blu-ray — even after accounting for the costs of digital remastering,” explains WSJ. “The high-definition discs typically cost more than $20 apiece, though older DVDs can sell for far less. A successful Blu-ray rerelease can sell between 100,000 and 200,000 copies, executives say.”