3 Billion Dollars...

That's the estimate provided by Variety on the size of the straight-to-DVD market and the target for MGM's home entertainment group with their decision to begin producing sequels to library titles (See article).

Costing between $2 million and $8 million, by harvesting titles with existing brand equity MGM can hope to collect serious coin with less uncertainty about performance and less need for high advertising spend by piggybacking market awareness for the foundation title. Universal has employed this strategy with titles like "Bring It On Again" (2004), which seek to capitalize on the popularity of the first title ["Bring It On" (2000)] without the cost of a full-blown theatrical sequel release and marketing campaign -- especially when runaway box office (relative to budget) may not be in the cards again.