Disney Channel Original Films
Many television films have been produced for the U.S. cable network, Disney Channel, since the service's inception in 1983. In its early years, they were referred to as Disney Channel Premiere Films, and later Premears. From late 1997 onwards, such productions have been branded under the Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOM) banner.
Most hit films were subsequently released on VHS, DVD, or, more recently, Blu-ray. However, many more in the DCOM library have never been released in any home video format. Before, DCOMs would be released months on DVD after it premiered on Disney Channel, but after Princess Protection Program aired, the DCOM DVDs are released a week after it premiered on Disney Channel. Also, although DCOMs have been produced in widescreen HD format since mid-2005, the 2009 release of Princess Protection Program became the first DCOM to receive a widescreen DVD transfer.
The highest-rated premiere for the brand came in August 2007, when High School Musical 2 set a record for basic cable with 17.2 million viewers. The second highest-rated premiere is held by Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, which premiered with 11.4 million viewers. Other major DCOM franchises include Camp Rock, The Cheetah Girls, Twitches, Halloweentown, and the Zenon trilogy.
Read more about Disney Channel Original Films: Highest-rated Disney Channel Original Movie Premieres
Famous quotes containing the words channel, original and/or films:
“Eddie did not die. He is no longer on Channel 4, and our sets are tuned to Channel 4; he’s on Channel 7, but he’s still broadcasting. Physical incarnation is highly overrated; it is one corner of universal possibility.”
—Marianne Williamson (b. 1953)
“Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)