The New York Times' Sharon Waxman takes a look at the boatloads of money movie studios are making on DVDs, which often subsidize a box office failure by recouping losses in the video market. Take Kill Bill, everyone's favorite multipart, splatterfest epic:

"This is the beauty of having two volumes," said Rick Sands, chief operating officer at Miramax. " `Vol. 1' goes out, `Vol. 2' goes out, then `Vol. 1 Special Edition,' `Vol. 2 Special Edition,' the two-pack, then the Tarantino collection as a boxed set out for Christmas. It's called multiple bites at the apple

Yes, we're sure that Kill Bill was bifurcated solely because of long running time and that it serendipitously divided into the "beauty" of two volumes. And not because Harvey Weinstein thought he could take his multiple bites of the apple, swallow the core, throw it up, and have at it again.

The studios should enjoy their VIP access to the buffet while it lasts. The Writers' Guild agreement with the studios is up in less than two weeks, and they're gonna want more than the wilty lettuce underneath the sneeze guard.

Oh, you haven't heard anything about the potential oncoming labor war? Hmm, seems that just a couple of years ago the writers made the mistake of showing their strike hand too early, and studios binge-greenlit every script they could get their hands on.

In the meantime, let's all preorder our DVD copies of Kill Bill Vol. 2: Platinum Collection Director's Signature Edition, so we'll have something to watch during the strike.

Studios Rush to Cash In on DVD Boom [NYT, reg. req'd.]