Today I bought a VHS tape of the 1998 Practical Magic at a used video store.

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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Practical Magic

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karjolasmask — 12 years ago(October 23, 2013 05:52 PM)

Today I bought a VHS tape of the 1998 Practical Magic at a used video store.
I Recorded over my girls friends copy of it years ago with TV and forgot that I did it. Recently she wanted to watch it. I found the tape and I discovered that TV was on it. I told her and she was disappointed. I told her that I would find another copy. Yesterday I went to 6 places searching for Practical Magic.
4 pawn shops, a Salvation Army and a Goodwille.
I went to a used video store in Vancouver Washington today and found it on VHS but when I took it put of the cover, it didn't say "Practical Magic" it said,"Screening Copy" "For Trade use Only, Not for Sale, Rental or Public Exhibition"
So, what is a screening copy ? I put it in the VCR when I got home and it was the movie. Is there a difference between this Screening Copy and the one that is on DVD ?
Do any of you know ?

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Linda1973 — 12 years ago(November 16, 2013 01:32 PM)

They also used to go out to video stores for ordering purposes. Years ago I worked part time in a video store and we would get screening copies from the studios so you could see the movie and decide how many copies you wanted to order. Often times, these would have promos on them such as "making of" featurettes, trailer, etc and some information about how much it did at the box office, what to expect on rentals, how well the stars did historically in video rentals, etc.

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spookyrat1 — 11 years ago(December 12, 2014 02:12 PM)

I think they are also the copies that are sometimes made available to critics for early reviews for those unable to make it to cinema screenings.

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luna-guthrie — 9 years ago(September 09, 2016 01:48 AM)

Wow! That's a pretty exciting find! A screening copy, or 'screener' is a pre-release copy of the movie, intended for promotional reasons. Press and such receive them before public release on which to base reviews and the like.
I review new release movies and receive screening copies on a weekly basis. They are heavily restricted, hence it being a cool discovery for you.
Have a look. Your copy may well contain scenes or shots that were eventually cut.

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Lokisgodhi — 9 years ago(September 17, 2016 06:05 PM)

Screening copies are the way that a lot of films get bootlegged on the internet. They frequently have text saying they are screening copies that repeat periodically on screen.