First the Quality is much different... I was told that even the lowest budget films from the 1970's used or rented the 100,000 film equipment that was used in the big budget films. Then in the middle 1980's (or earlier) the invention video recorders removed the expensive rental charages for film equipment and the waste of film (with was expensive) and the editing of film (another expense cut). I think many porn movies in the 1980's started with the transistion from film to recorded video tape before many low-low budget films.
For those courious to know why Direct-to-Video started so late (here is my theory)
I also know [partly because I was reading this stuff in the early 1980's] that Hollywood was against the the idea of video store rentals and in the late 1970's to the early 1980's protested it in court. Hollywood's (actually its the actors/writers/directors/filmmakers union and maybe serveral other unions too) they fear the decline of theaters and wanted to know who was going to get paid for their services. (I think the unions were more intrested in the "paid" part and they tossed in the decline of theaters as part of "fearmongering" typical unions).
Why was the pay part important?
Incase you didnt know (I'm assmuing most do) the unions setup an agreement with most networks so when they broadcasted a movie the actors/writers/directors/filmmakers would get some "cash." The video store rentals needed to be profitable and needed to charge an affordable rental fee. If they hand to added a cost to the actors/writers/directors/filmmakers we would be looking at a 25 dollar rental charge for a movie. The unions disagree and the court battle started.
So how did they fix it?
The movie producers/unions decided to add the cost to the videotape. In the 1980's most of the video tapes costed between 30 to 100 dollars. I know this because I was stuck paying 95 dollars for Aliens, in 1987.
Eventually the cost when down once more video stores spawned from the woodworks...
Then these video stores started a demaned for quantity, because they need to keep people comming to their video store so a small aisle of movies in a 7-11 wasn't happening... people needed more then just Rambo...
To fill the demands many video cassette dealers started buying older movies mostly foreign films (and sometimes pirated movies) and repackage them. It was great to fill up the store but it didnt get people into renting.
So this is how Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977) was born.
Then came Direct to video... (almost)
Starting around 1985, a Direct to video movie are actually a failed movie at the boxoffice that was in the theater for a few weeks and instead of shelving the movie and forgetting about its existence like old Hollywood had did in the past, they would quickly repackage the failed movie to video stores.
So films like:
Trancers (1985) and Never Too Young to Die (1986) were born.
Also during the mid 1980's video cassette dealers would repackage older films that had a big name star...
So films like Parasite (1982) and BMX Bandits (1983) were born...
Then... Robot Holocaust (1986) (V) was born...
Ok, I'm not actually sure if Robot Holocaust is credited as the first made for video movie. But I do believe that no film studio wanted to buy it and release the movie in a theater, so Wizard Video picked it up as well as several other films and tag them "Too Gory for the Silver Screen."
I dont think Hollywood was planning on making direct to video films yet. But the late 1980's and early 1990's Hollywood has seen a shift (althought as predicted that people would slowly stop going to theaters... ) but they also found out that failed films from the box office were making big dollars [$$] (I think The Thing and Bladerunner both box office bombs in 1982 were grossing millions in the 1990's something that Hollywood has not dreamed)
I would like to give Troma credit in the made for video market when they started pushing their Toxic Avanger series, with success that Hollywood took notice and formed Full Moon (which supose to be better quality made to video)
And started a new trend of film making since made for video put more people to work...
Going direct to video...
In the 1990's several movies had issues...
Theodore Rex (1995) (V) ~ Whoopi Goldberg wanted to leave during pruduction and was forced to finish the film, the movie ended up so bad that the studio decided to make it a direct to video movie.
Disney started to pimp a few of their movies in a form of series of part 2 from a bigger hit, also they thought the movies wouldnt do well in the boxoffice and decided to make them direct to video. Actually, I think the intention was to make more money by selling their videos to the public and not the video stores.
wow... I know I have more to say but I'll take a break on the topic... :)