Music Two soundtracks, The X-Files: Original Motion Picture Score and The X-Files: The Album were both released to home markets in 1998. The X-Files: The Album included a take on the original theme song by the American duo The Dust Brothers, and included a hidden track on which Chris Carter details a summary of The X-Files mythology. Mark Snow, who had worked on the television series as a composer, was hired to score the film. Chris Carter wanted a "very minimal approach" to the music. He did not want much "melody" and wanted to replace it with plain "ambient atmosphere" and "sound design". Snow mixed electronic music with an 85-member orchestra to give the film a "great sense of scope and grandeur." When creating the music for the film, Snow had a couple of months to write and produce the music, composing the television series simultaneously. The film marked the first time in the history of the franchise that music was composed and recorded with the help of an orchestra, although, according to Snow, there was no significant change in the recording and writing process during the production of the film. The most substantial difference was that Snow used MIDI files to save his musical scores and pieces, which would afterward be sent to a copyist who would take it through one of their programs and eventually give it to the orchestrators. Release Theatrical run The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox and premiered theatrically in the United States (as well as Canada) on June 19, 1998, along with Disney's Mulan. It closed after 14 weeks, with its widest release having been 2,650 theaters. Home media The same year as the international theatrical release, The X Files was released on VHS on October 13, 1998 with an Extended Cut that is 41 seconds longer than the theatrical release. The VHS comes in either pan and scan fullscreen or widescreen releases and both versions are THX certified. The film later appeared on DVD in Region 1 on May 4, 1999 and in Region 2 on January 24, 2000. On January 23, 2001, the DVD was released once again, this time featuring a DTS enhanced widescreen version and THX Optimode. In 2008, producer Frank Spotnitz announced plans to release a new special edition DVD and Blu-ray edition of the film. "We are working on packing the [re-issued] DVD and Blu-ray releases