VHS tapes were the dominant form of home media entertainment during the 1980s and 1990s. Nearly every home had a VHS player, and hundreds upon thousands of movies, TV shows and home videos lined living room shelves (designed for the purpose of housing VHS collections). In the 2000s, the rise of DVD and disc media began to overtake VHS, and by 2006, DVDs had completely eclipsed VHS as most film production companies’ preferred method of home video distribution.
However, that doesn’t mean that home video tapes have completely faded into obscurity. Many homeowners still own VHS tapes, either as collectibles or for recording home movies. Home video enthusiasts collect VHS tapes to preserve media or as a nostalgic reminder of the past. Home video collecting has become popular in recent years — enough for film producers to notice and begin producing their own collectible VHS tapes of modern films.
CGC has certified several VHS tapes that were released after the market takeover by DVD and digital home media. Here are some of our favorites:
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Though the popularity of videocassettes dramatically declined by 2006, some major film studios still elected to release limited editions of films on VHS. Disney-Pixar’s Cars was one of those movies. After the film’s critically successful launch in 2006, Disney decided to release the film on VHS in 2007 and make it exclusively available to Disney Home Video Club members. Members of the club had to mail-order their copy, and the quantity of videocassettes available for purchase was extremely limited, making it one of the most obscure Disney VHS tapes on the secondary market.
In 2009, MPI Media Group released The House of the Devil, a slasher-horror film that took inspiration from horror classics of the 1970s and 1980s. Capitalizing on the nostalgia factor that The House of the Devil would have on collectors and horror enthusiasts, MPI Media Group’s subsidiary — Gorgon Video — released a limited-edition VHS of the film in 2010. Videocassette collectors and horror film enjoyers alike flocked to the internet to order their copies, where they quickly sold out.
V/H/S is an interesting film because of its production. Instead of being one concise film with a centered plot, V/H/S is instead made up of six found footage horror anthology films (each directed by different filmmakers) with unique plotlines, but with the implied villain connecting them to the same universe. In the found footage films, each group of protagonists either watch or interact with a videocassette, leading to often disastrous consequences.
Magnolia Pictures purchased the North American rights to V/H/S in 2012. True to the film’s titular format, the company re-released the film in 2013 on VHS for collectors and home media enthusiasts. Magnolia Pictures continues to produce home video media for the V/H/S series even today, oftentimes still releasing limited-edition VHS copies for the franchise.
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In 2016, 20th Century Fox released their film iteration of Deadpool, based on the witty anti-hero from Marvel. The film was a rousing success; it became the ninth highest-grossing film of 2016 and broke several records, including the highest-grossing R-rated film at the time. To celebrate the film’s success, Fox Home Video produced a very limited quantity of Deadpool on VHS to give away to fans at San Diego Comic-Con in 2016 and even had them signed by Ryan Reynolds. Only 100 VHS copies were produced and given away, so they are very rare on the secondary market. CGC graded one of these Deadpool VHS’s a CGC 9.6 A+.
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In 2023, VHS and other once-obsolete forms of home video collectibles began to see a sudden resurgence in popularity, with many collectors citing the importance of preserving home video in the wake of streaming digital media. As a result, several major film production companies — including Disney and Hollywood — have begun to release their movies on videocassettes again.
Alien: Romulus is the latest film in the Alien franchise. Although it was released in 2024, it became the first major Hollywood film to receive a release on VHS since 2006. Since then, other major film studios have followed the VHS revival by offering limited-edition releases of their films on VHS, with examples including Kyle Mooney’s Y2K (2024) and Michael Leavy’s Stream (2024).
With home video preservation becoming popular among collectors and enthusiasts, there’s no better time to get your home video collectibles graded with CGC! Our experts help enhance your collection’s value, liquidity and security with professional and impartial grading services. Start today by creating a membership account. All you need is a free CGC account to submit collectibles for grading, but paid members receive discounts and other benefits. Learn more and select your membership level here.
Since revolutionizing comic book grading in 2000, CGC has grown to include certification services for a vast variety of pop culture collectibles. These divisions include CGC Cards, CGC Video Games and CGC Home Video. CGC Cards provides expert card grading for sports cards, TCGs and non-sports cards. CGC Video Games is dedicated to video game grading for the most popular consoles, including Nintendo, Sega, Atari, PlayStation and more. CGC Home Video provides expert VHS grading in addition to other types of videocassettes, DVD, Blu-ray and more. CGC also offers seamless solutions for autograph collectors with CGC Signature Series and JSA Authentic Autograph services.