Home Media Magazine - February 17-23, 2008 - (Page 26)

NEWS JUST ANNOUNCED A Weekly Product Update* TITLE STREET DATE PREBOOK BOX OFFICE (MILLIONS) GENRE PRICE www.homemediamagazine.com Indies Notice Blu-ray Surge Continued from page 1 National Treasure: Book of Secrets 5/20 3/25 $213 Action DVD $29.99, BD $34.99 Disney. 2007. Nicholas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight, Ed Harris, Harvey Keitel. A fortune hunter searches for clues to clear his family name when the discovery of a missing page from John Wilkes Booth’s diary implicates his great-grandfather in the murder of President Lincoln. The Kite Runner 3/25 Now $14.9 Drama DVD $29.99, HD DVD $39.99 Paramount. 2007. Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub, Homayoun Ershadi. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini, a man living in America is forced to face his past in Afghanistan when he is asked to come to the aid of a childhood friend. In the Name of the King 4/15 3/12 $4.8 Fantasy DVD $27.98 Fox. 2007. Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Leelee Sobieski, Claire Forlani, John Rhys-Davies, Matthew Lillard. Based on the “Dungeon Siege” video game series, a man sets off on a journey to rescue his wife after his medieval village is invaded by animal-like warriors called Krugs. P2 4/8 2/19 $4 Horror DVD $26.99 Summit. 2007. Rachel Nichols, Wes Bentley. A young woman is stalked by a psychopathic security guard in a deserted parking garage on Christmas Eve. Includes a making-of featurette, audio commentary and more. I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With 4/15 3/4 $0.2 Comedy DVD $19.95 Genius. 2007. Jeff Garlin, Sarah Silverman, Amy Sedaris, Gina Gershon, Bonnie Hunt, Dan Castellaneta, Richard Kind. A frustrated Chicago actor who lives with his mother is searching for three things in life: someone to love, a great part and weight loss. * In order of box office, then prebook date Image Narrows Its Q3 Loss Continued from page 1 of a distribution facility in Las Vegas. “It sounds big, but a $499,000 adjusted loss is better than $2 million,” Framer said. Despite the positive spin, one analyst called out Image president and CEO Martin Greenwald for overseeing a $50 million loss in shareholder value during the past two years, which included scuttling a $4-per-share acquisition offer from Lionsgate, a failed output deal with Relativity Media and the failed BTP purchase. “You need to look in the mirror and shoulder a bit of the responsibility,” the analyst said. Greenwald said Lionsgate was looking to acquire Image’s catalog and shutter the company. He said management felt the offer undervalued the company. “We felt our business was growing,” Greenwald said. “It wasn’t. It was contracting. We are all disappointed in the stock [decline].” Image executives said they were upbeat about the future, which includes renewed focus on acquiring feature films for DVD and electronic distribution. Digital distribution revenue from Egami Media in the quarter increased 54%, to $519,000, from $337,000 the previous year. Image believes a key to its turnaround is a feature film and catalog distribution agreement with CT1 Holdings. CT1 is parent of ThinkFilm, Capitol Films and BTP. Image said it reached a deal with CT1 to continue distributing previ- ously agreed-upon titles — despite the failed merger with BTP and demand for a $4.2 million business interruption fee. The first ThinkFilm movie in the agreement, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, streets April 15 on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD. “We are excited and giddy about it,” said COO David Borshell. He said the feature-film initiative includes as many as 50 releases on DVD, both theatrical and direct-tovideo titles. This includes a three-film DVD distribution agreement with Paris-based Celluloid Dreams. Titles include biopic The Color of Freedom, with Joseph Fiennes; Far North, with Michelle Yeoh and Sean Bean; and Emotional Arithmetic, starring Susan Sarandon, Gabriel Byrne, Max Von Sydow and Christopher Plummer. Additional reporting by Thomas K. Arnold. this, and it has definitely impacted MPI’s stance on the future highdefinition format.” Anime distributor ADV Films announced this month that it will do Blu-ray this spring. “It’s not so much that we made a decision, but that the decision was made for us,” said ADV Films’ Chris Oarr. Topics Entertainment has announced two of its titles for Bluray only, after originally backing off because of Paramount’s HD DVDexclusive move. Echo Bridge Home Entertainment this month announced six titles for Blu-ray, each for a format-low $14.95. National Geographic’s going Blu, at least with titles not co-produced with other companies. And Surround Records, which originally was releasing its multichannel audio releases only on HD DVD, will give Blu-ray owners the same offerings this spring. “Our company will stick to the original idea [of being format agnostic], but we will be accommodating all market changes,” said Alexander Golberg Jero, a producer with Surround Records. Also Opus Arte, which had been releasing only HD DVD, announced it would release on both formats in the future. Koch Entertainment Distribution has released several titles on both formats, but is rethinking its strategy. “It is becoming quite clear that the war is being won by Blu-ray, and with that we’re now fully exploring a plan of action,” said Dan Gurlitz, VP and GM of Koch Entertainment Distribution. “Koch and its family of labels are watching this very closely.” Warner’s decision to side with Bluray isn’t the only move to sway certain indies, said Frank Djeng, product marketing manager for Tai Seng Entertainment. The market’s reaction to Warner’s decision was just as significant, he said. “With the current one-two punch of Best Buy preferring Blu-ray and Netflix eventually ceasing rentals of HD DVDs, we feel that our future tests on high-def should solely be on Blu-ray,” Djeng said. Tai Seng Entertainment previously supported both HD DVD and Bluray. “All these developments certainly play a role in the direction and future of the industry. Warner’s decision, among many other factors, has definitely made our decision easier,” MPI’s Ali said. “More than anything, consumers I Indies in HD HD DVD City Lights, EuroArts, Genius Products, HD Entertainment, Phoenix Entertainment, Rhino Home Entertainment, SPV, The Picture Company, Vanguard Cinema BLU-RAY ADV Films, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Echo Bridge Entertainment, FUNimation Entertainment, Questar, LRS Media, MTI Video, National Geographic, Nothing Records, Razor Digital Entertainment, Tartan Video, Topics, Tai Seng Entertainment BOTH Bandai Entertainment, BCI/Eclipse, BBC/Discovery Channel, Digital Leisure, DVD International, Eagle Rock Entertainment, First Look Studios, HDenvironments, HDNet, Image Entertainment, Imax, Koch, Magnolia Home Entertainment, Mantra Films, Opus Arte, Surround Records drive demand, and they have illustrated to the industry that they want Blu-ray.” “We are a Blu-ray company and will author and distribute titles in that format,” said Donald Liebenson, director of communications for Questar Inc. “The obstacles thus far have been authoring and replication costs and consumer demand, which hasn’t been that strong yet. Warner’s decision did not make a possible decision easier or more difficult. It was more reassuring.” Questar’s first Blu-rays will be for the PBS “Nature” series. There are still some independents in HD DVD’s corner, including Vanguard Cinema and EuroArts. Others are doing both, including Digital Leisure and First Look. And there are still many sitting on the sidelines or releasing only a handful of high-def titles. “We’re still maintaining an overall wait-and-see mentality with respect to moving forward on multiple titles,” said MTI Home Video president and CEO Larry Brahms. MTI’s Pirates and Pirates II are headed to Blu-ray, but that’s it for now. “My hope is that by the later part of the year mastering and replication pricing will drop to a point where we will be able to better test the waters.” “The format war has really made it difficult for us to dive into any specific format, especially considering the high costs of indulging in either,” MPI’s Ali said. Home Media Magazine February 17–23, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://indicanpictures.com http://undoingmovie.com

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Contents News Health/Fitness Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - February 17-23, 2008

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