Touchstone to Release ‘Pretty Woman’ for $19.99 : Video: Paramount pledges $100,000 to kick off a campaign to boost the industry’s image.

LAS VEGAS — Touchstone Home Video opened the Video Software Dealers Assn. Convention here Sunday with some good news for consumers: It will release a home-video version of the spring theatrical hit “Pretty Woman” on Oct. 19 at a retail price of just $19.99. Touchstone hopes that the price, a record low for the initial video release of a top studio movie, will help push sales of the cassette to more than 5 million units.

Touchstone’s well-received announcement kicked off what had been expected to be a rather gloomy convention of studio executives and video retailers. There has been a wholesale price increase for videocassettes, and a slowdown in the growth of the rental market.

Executives here readily acknowledged the problems they are facing and addressing.

Paramount Home Video, which earlier announced a $100 suggested retail price on its October release of “The Hunt for Red October,” entered the convention as the industry whipping boy. But company president Robert Klingensmith made a pledge during his keynote speech Monday aimed at softening his firm’s bad-guy image.

Klingensmith said that Paramount will donate $100,000 to kick off a public-relations campaign to boost the image of the home-video industry.

Association spokeswoman Dana Kornbluth said that the organization had twice discussed organizing a committee to develop a funding formula to finance such a campaign, but little had been done so far. Until now, the only other pledge has been retailer Ron Berger’s $10,000. With Paramount is on the bandwagon, the association is hoping that other major firms will pony up money as well.

OTHER CONVENTION NEWS: MCA/Universal announced the Nov. 8 release of “Back to the Future Part III,” which has pulled in more than $80 million at the box office. It’s priced for rental, though no official retail price was announced. MCA/Universal also said it will release “Bird on a Wire,” the action/comedy starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, on Nov. 15, and the animated feature-length “The Jetsons: The Movie” will be released Oct. 25 at $22.95. No announcement is expected on the home-video debut of LIVE’s “Total Recall,” the Arnold Schwarzenegger action hit, but insiders are predicting that it will be released just before Christmas.