Retailers Double-Crossed by ‘JFK’

With Oliver Stone’s controversial “JFK” due to come out on home video Wednesday, just before the lucrative Memorial Day weekend, you’d think retailers would be happy, since it’s the kind of movie that would lure renters.

So why are so many of them complaining about the release?

Because “JFK,” which runs three hours, eight minutes, is on two cassettes, which poses problems for retailers, who contend that a popular two-cassette movie actually cuts down on total rentals.

“The renter looks at renting a two-cassette movie as renting two movies--even though it’s just one movie,” explained Peter Margo, executive vice president of Palmer Video, an 83-store chain based in Union, N.J. “So people who might rent two movies just rent that one. During the week people might not rent it at all, thinking they wouldn’t have time for it. So, overall, it doesn’t get rented as much as a single-cassette hit movie.”

Many retailers find that a movie like “JFK” is rented mainly on weekends, a situation that cuts down on total rentals, Margo said.

“A hot two-cassette movie works against what a hot title normally does--which is attract customers who’ll rent other movies,” he said. “They may rent other movies along with ‘JFK,’ just not as many.”

The double-cassette movie is only a problem for retailers if it’s a popular title. MCA/Universal’s “At Play in the Fields of the Lord,” the three-hours-and-six-minutes drama about missionaries and Indians along the Amazon, just came out on video but it wasn’t big box office and only shapes up as a modest rental hit.

Retailers were hoping Warner would put “JFK” on one cassette, as Orion did last year with its three-hours-and-10-minutes hit “Dances With Wolves.” But Warner wanted to avoid the hassles Orion endured after squeezing the film onto a single cassette, according to Margo, who said he discussed the situation with Warner executives.

The extra-thin tape used to pack “Dances” on one spool resulted in a more-than-usual amount of tapes unraveling and jamming VCRs. Normally less than 1% of a total shipment is defective; some retailers reported a 5%-to-8% defective rate with “Dances.”

“About 67% of our copies of ‘Dances’ were no good,” Margo recalled. “Warner wanted to avoid any possible defectives problem so they played it safe and used the double cassette.”

New on Video: Recent releases:

“The Butcher’s Wife” (Paramount, no list price). Strained romantic comedy--about the pairing of a clairvoyant, unhappily married butcher’s wife (Demi Moore) and a psychiatrist (Jeff Daniels)--that critics rapped for everything from weak script to lack of chemistry between the stars.

“Hangin’ With the Homeboys” (Columbia TriStar, no list price). Director Joseph Vasquez’s perceptive look, emphasizing both humor and tension, at four mischievous pals from the Bronx--two blacks and two Puerto Ricans--hanging out in Manhattan on a Friday night.

“Homicide” (Columbia TriStar, no list price). Probably too talky and theatrical to please most hard-core police thriller fans, David Mamet’s complex, cerebral drama focuses on the anxiety of a Jewish detective investigating an anti-Semitic murder, searching for both a killer and his own identity.

“Strictly Business” (Warner, $95). Though it’s just a so-so movie and a version of “Working Girl,” it deserves attention because it’s a rare romantic comedy featuring black characters--an uptight yuppie real-estate broker (Joseph Phillips) chasing a waitress (Halle Berry), with the help of a mailroom clerk (Tommy Davidson).

“Dead Ringer” (Warner, $30). In this absorbing, black-and-white 1964 film, directed by the late Paul Henreid, Bette Davis plays a dual role--identical twins locked in a deadly feud over a man--in the kind of tawdry, overwrought melodrama that was a Davis trademark in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

“The Star” (Warner, $30). Bette Davis fans have been eagerly waiting for this underrated, rarely seen 1952 drama, about a screen star on the skids, to come to video. Co-starring Sterling Hayden, this performance, one of Davis’ finest, resulted in her ninth best actress Oscar nomination.