It seems to me that companies in the entertainment industries have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Most of them throw barriers in the way of progress, practically ensuring that the customer experience will at the very least be exasperating, if not outright infuriating. But Reuters reports Warner Bros.  is bucking the trend. The company announced yesterday that it would open up its film vault and offer “made-to-order” DVDs to consumers. They’re calling the service the Warner Archive.

Warner Bros. has thousands of films sitting in its vault. While some film fans and collectors are undoubtedly itching to get their hands on a copy of “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” or (and this is my personal favorite) “Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze,” the company has kept these films under lock and key for decades. Why? Because there’s not enough demand to produce a full run of these DVDs.

Every time a studio makes a film available on DVD, someone has to decide how many copies should hit the market. Some films are no-brainers — “The Dark Knight” was going to sell like hotcakes. But others, like the aforementioned “Doc Savage,” only appeal to a subsection of film collectors (we call them geeks). How do you make sure you only produce enough DVDs to meet demand, particularly during an economic recession when people are being more careful about how they spend money?

Warner Bros. will now allow film collectors to pick from a selection of films in the vault. Warner Bros. will produce the discs on an on-demand basis rather than as a full run of DVDs. This will help the company keep supply from exceeding demand while at the same time making available films that otherwise would languish in the vaults. It’s a win-win situation!

The current plan is to release around 300 titles using this on-demand model. Should the model prove successful, it’s a safe bet that other titles (and hopefully movie studios) will follow. I’d love to see more movies become available. I’m crossing my fingers for a copy of “Blood Salvage,” which had the immortal tag line “If Jake can’t fix it, it’s been dead too long.”

Find out more about the entertainment industry in these articles from HowStuffWorks.com:

How DVDs Work
How Digital Cinema Works
How Home Theater Works