π THE VERY FIRST DVDS
Contrary to what has somehow become accepted fact, there was no 'first movie' on DVD in the United States. A PACKAGE OF TITLES from Warner/MGM/New Line were put out with an official street date of March 25, 1997 in seven test market cities (Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.). I've always maintained it was a package of 15 titles (pictured), but this may have been a smaller package of titles available for retailers, and evidently was not the full list. Additionally, some list Casablanca, and I know The Wizard of Oz to have been in the original package of titles, but these were not listed in the March 21 issue of Laserviews.share
However, Denver-based Lumivision beat this major package release by nearly a week with four titles: Africa the Serengeti, Antarctica, Tropical Rainforest, and Animation Greats. Some stores only got these a day before the Warner package arrived, while others may have gotten them on the same day; muddying the waters as to when they originally were available.
Many stores broke street date and were selling DVDs on Monday the 24th, as the Sunday ads drove people into stores to buy DVD players, and retailers were hesitant to tell people to 'come back Tuesday' for the movies!
Contrary to popular reports that Mars Attacks was included in the first titles on DVD, this wasn't released until June 17. It wasn't until late August that titles were available nationwide and not just the seven city test markets. The full Warner/MGM original title list: