‘Nightmares’ 1 and 2 Are Dream Profit Makers; : Supply Catching Up With ‘Back to the Future’

Actor Robert Englund was alternately proud and embarrassed. He kept saying, “It’s very weird.” It certainly was.

He was referring to the emergence of his character in the two “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies as, of all things, a cult hero. In case you didn’t know, this character, Freddy Krueger, is a horribly disfigured, homicidal child molester who has knife blades for fingernails.

Largely because of Freddy, both movies have been big box office hits. “Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge” makes its home video debut today (Media, $79.95).

Englund goes on promotional tours, often in costume, signing autographs for fans--mostly teenagers. “They love Freddy,” he reported. “Kids have favorite lines from the movies. They ask me to write these lines when I sign autographs. Some girls seem to have this sexual thing for Freddy. They like the lines with the sexual connotations.

“I think these kids like Freddy the way heavy metal fans like heavy metal. Those fans know the sinister parts of that music is just for fun, like these fans know Freddy isn’t real. But there’s something about this grisly, murderous fiend that they find appealing. Freddy must be the ultimate anti-hero.”

These aren’t ordinary slash-and-splatter movies. The first one in particular, directed by Wes Craven, is one of the best in a generally sleazy genre. Without the gore, it would work as a suspense level.

The key element is that Freddy ingeniously emerges from the dreams of an innocent teenager. “These movies tap into some adolescent fear of the Bogey Man who shows up in dreams,” Englund observed.

The new “Nightmare” is shaping up as a monster home video hit. According to various reports, Media has shipped nearly 200,000 copies to distributors and retailers. It’s Media’s biggest seller by far. The company’s previous record-holder was the original “Nightmare,” with 110,000 copies.

Freddy runs into some serious problems at end of the sequel, but you can’t keep a good monster down. According to Englund, Craven is currently working on the script for Part 3.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: MCA Home Entertainment President Gene Giaquinto is having the last laugh but he’s not too happy about it.

“Back to the Future” is doing great business, just as he predicted. But the retailers and distributors at first thought it might be a bust as a blockbuster. They were cautious about ordering because they had been burned by “Rambo: First Blood Part II.” Some 425,000 copies of “Rambo” were shipped--a record for a $79.95 cassette--but the demand wasn’t as big as expected. Shelves were lined with unused copies.

So when “Back to the Future”--a huge box office hit that was expected to do sensational home video business--was released late last month, most retailers, still reeling from “Rambo,” ordered fewer copies than expected. Giaquinto predicted that “Back to the Future” would be the first cassette to ship 500,000 copies. But, according to distributors, the first shipment was closer to 350,000. But it turns out that there was a tremendous demand for “Back to the Future,” because, Giaquinto said, it appears to be a film, unlike “Rambo,” that people want to see more than once. However, he added that many stores have been understocked with “Back to the Future,” resulting in long waiting lists and frustrated consumers.

“It’s maddening to see the results of our research come in with reports of these waiting lists,” he said. “Some people have to wait two or three weeks to get a copy because stores didn’t order enough. With that long waiting list, the consumer may get tired and decide not to wait and just rent something else. Satisfying consumer demand is what it’s all about and stores haven’t been doing it.”

But stores are catching up. With reorders, the estimates are now that MCA has sold 435,000 units of “Back to the Future” to distributors and retailers, beating out “Rambo” as the biggest selling $79.95 cassette.

NEW AND COMING MOVIES: Argentina’s “The Official Story” recently won the Oscar for best foreign film. Some film critics say this family drama with heavy political overtones, directed by Luis Puenzo and starring Norma Aleandro, was the best picture released in America last year. It will be available Aug. 7 on Pacific Arts, in Spanish or with English subtitles.

Teaming veteran macho stars Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin was the primary reason for the success of the action movie, “The Delta Force,” about an elite squadron rescuing a hijacked plane. Due July 22 from Media, this should be one of the summer’s more popular rentals.

Paramount’s “Clue,” based on the popular board game, is a bizarre comedy/mystery with multiple endings. The cassette’s big attraction is that all three endings are included--moviegoers had to see it three separate times to see all three endings. It’s scheduled for release Aug. 13 at $79.95.

Rob Lowe’s fans will undoubtedly cherish “Youngblood.” In this one, he portrays a fiesty (what else?) hockey player who, among other activities, is fooling around with the coach’s daughter. Due Aug. 5 on MGM/UA.

“Salvador,” the grim political drama starring James Bridges and Jim Belushi, will be released in September by Vestron.

Two sophisticated dramas about teen-agers--Vestron’s “Smooth Talk,” with Laura Dern and Treat Williams, and “That Was Then . . . This Is Now,” with Emilio Estevez--are out this week. Next week, two movies destined to be among the summer’s hottest rentals, “The Jewel of the Nile” and “White Nights,” make their cassette debuts. Also scheduled for release: “The Return of the Living Dead” and “The Best of Times.”

POP MUSIC: Next week, fans of the notorious Ozzy Osbourne can see 80 minutes’ worth of his satanic majesty in “The Ultimate Ozzy,” available on Sony at $29.98. It’s concert footage shot early in his current tour. The heavy-metal master’s infamous “Suicide Solution” is one of three Black Sabbath songs included.

New releases: “Kid Creole and the Coconuts Live” (Embassy, $19.95), shot in Paris, featuring oddball songs like “Caroline Was a Dropout” by one of the most imaginative underground groups in the business. And if you’ve never seen Wendy O. Williams, the “X-rated metal mama,” then “Wendy O. Williams Live” (Embassy, $19.95) is a good place to start; nearly an hour of tawdry music like “Bump ‘n’ Grind” and “Jail Bait.”

OLD MOVIES: Next week’s releases include Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger” (1975), with Jack Nicholson, and “The Wild One” (1954), the classic biker movie starring Marlon Brando. Also available next week is “The Awful Truth” (1937), considered by some critics as possibly the best of the ‘30s screwball comedies. Directed by Leo McCarey, it stars Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a couple hilariously locked in a tottering marriage.

To capitalize on the current interest in Cybill Shepherd, Paramount has just released one of her worst movies, “Daisy Miller,” which Peter Bogdanovich directed in 1974, at $59.95. Shepherd at her best is due next week. Warner Video is putting out “Moonlighting,” the TV movie that launched her hit TV series, at $29.98.

CHARTS

(compiled by Billboard magazine)

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, RENTALS

1--”Back to the Future” (MCA).

2--”Rocky IV” (CBS-Fox).

3--”Cocoon” (CBS-Fox).

4--”Witness” (Paramount).

5--”To Live and Die in L.A.” (Vestron).

6--”Agnes of God” (RCA/Columbia).

7--”Commando” (CBS-Fox).

8--”Death Wish 3” (MGM/UA).

9--”Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins” (Thorn/EMI/HBO).

10--”Invasion U.S.A.” (MGM/UA).

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, SALES

1--”Jane Fonda’s New Workout” (Karl-Lorimar).

2--”Back to the Future” (MCA).

3--”The Sound of Music” (CBS-Fox).

4--”Casablanca” (CBS-Fox).

5--”Rocky IV” (CBS-Fox).

6--”Alice in Wonderland” (Disney).

7--”Playboy Video Centerfold 2” (Karl-Lorimar).

8--”Return of the Jedi” (CBS-Fox).

9--”Jane Fonda’s Workout” (Karl-Lorimar).

10--”The King and I” (CBS-Fox).