BURBANK, Calif. — Ryan J. Kugler is known as the video industry's scrap collector, but he doesn't mind.

He sees himself as doing studios a favor by buying up the surplus DVDs they otherwise would be stuck with, then reselling them to retailers. Chances are that when you rummage through old movies in discount bins at Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy or a local car wash, Kugler's fingerprints are on them.

"It's like guys who buy foreclosures — they get the house they want for a lower price," said Kugler, who runs Distribution Video & Audio Inc. with his brother, Brad.

With the DVD sales growth leveling, and stores such as Sam Goody and Tower Records closing, Kugler's DVD liquidation business is booming. Right now, the odds are good of finding "American Idol: the Search for a Superstar" or "Shrek" in the bins.

Last year, the company grew by 40 percent, generating about $24 million in revenue on the sale of more than 17 million DVDs, CDs, video games and books. The only area Kugler steers clear of is pornography. About 10 percent to 20 percent of his revenue is profit, he said.

"A lot of these companies that go out of business need some place to dispose of the excess merchandize," said Thomas K. Arnold, publisher of trade magazine Home Media Magazine. "It's better than putting the stuff in a landfill."

While Kugler cures one of Hollywood's major headaches by liquidating its extra DVDS, don't expect the companies to acknowledge it.

That's because overestimating demand for DVDs sales can be a waste of money, not to mention an embarrassment. For example, despite being DVD hits, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s "Shrek 2" and Pixar Animation Studios' "The Incredibles" didn't sell up to expectations.

"He's the guy who nobody wants to talk about," one studio executive said of Kugler, proving his point by not wanting to be quoted by name.

Kugler estimates that there are about 10 companies nationwide that specialize in entertainment overstock business. There are at least 70,000 DVD titles out there, according to DVD Release Report, a tracking service.

Tom Adams of Adams Media Research said liquidators contributed to the overall health of the home video industry.

"A piece of (the studios') profit would go away without being able to offload extra copies at a cheap price once demand is satisfied," Adams said.

Kugler's father, Ben, moved his family from Chicago to Los Angeles and bought Distribution Video Inc. in 1989. Kugler and his brother bought the company from their father in 2005.

The company stores its DVDs in three Florida warehouses, and Kugler says they are planning to buy one more. In stores, the videos are usually placed in bins near the cash register to take advantage of customers' impulse to buy.

Right now, the demand is for A-list movies and popular television shows. Two years ago, everybody wanted kids' movies. Five years ago, there was a demand for B-list movies starring the likes of Dolph Lundgren and Lorenzo Lamas, he said.