Home Media Magazine - March 23-29, 2008 - (Page 28)

NEWS PEOPLE I PARAMOUNT TAPS REINART Doug Reinart has been appointed EVP of worldwide operations for Paramount Home Entertainment. He will report to Steve Bertram, president of business operations, Paramount Worldwide Home Entertainment. Reinart is charged with overseeing the home entertainment worldwide supply chain and developing supply chain strategies. He also will be responsible for reducing Reinart operating costs, increasing network ﬂexibility and responsiveness, strengthening quality programs and deﬁning objective performance measurements. Reinart has extensive experience across a wide range of industries and has led a number of key initiatives to achieve signiﬁcant improvements in supply chain capabilities. – Thomas K. Arnold www.homemediamagazine.com Borders Gets Financial Help Continued from page 1 trading March 20. Borders said it retained J.P. Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch & Co. to assist with future moves. It also suspended its dividend program. In a call with investors, CEO George Jones said the cash infusion, which included an initial $42.5 million and offer to acquire select foreign operations, will likely fund operations through 2008. He said Borders will not give fiscal-2009 guidance. CFO Edward Wilhelm said Q4 sales looked promising until December, when revenue throughout the retail environment acted like a faucet that sort of cut off. He said the ongoing very difficult consumer environment had presented few options to expand the company’s credit line going forward, thus necessitating the financing deal. “The capital markets are in disarray,” Wilhelm said. The executives said the funding was not I SUMMIT NAMES TWO Summit Home Entertainment has named T.J. Moffett SVP of home entertainment marketing and Jennifer Dunlap VP of home entertainment marketing creative services. Both executives bring more than 10 years of experience in the industry. Moffett will report to Steve Nickerson, president of Summit Home Entertainment. He will lead the development and completion of domestic marketing campaigns for the studio’s home entertainment products. Moffett recently served as VP of marketing, theatrical new releases at Warner Home Video. Dunlap will direct Summit Home Entertainment’s creative side including packaging and DVD extras, as well as TV, online and other media. She also recently served at Warner Home Video as VP of visual merchandising for several years. – Ruby Cardenas needed to continue product shipments from vendors. Despite the turmoil, Borders reported same-store (open at least 12 months) sales growth of 2.1%, fueled largely by a 3.2% comp increase in book sales for the quarter ended Feb. 2. At the same time, margins fell from 32.2% to 31.3%. Music sales continued to decline, with a 14.2% drop in same-store comps. As a result, Borders said it will drastically scale back music CDs on store shelves. Executives said the chain will attempt to curb DVD shrinkage and fiscal waste at its in-store cafés. Jones said DVD sales decreased $20 million in fiscal 2007 and resulted in changes in how Borders secured packaged media. “The magnitude of this DVD shrink, it is not an insignificant issue,” he said. The company posted fourth-quarter profit of $64.7 million on revenue of $1.3 billion, compared to a loss of $73.6 million on nearly identical revenue during the same period last year. For fiscal 2007, Borders lost $157.4 million in the fiscal year on revenue of $3.8 billion, compared to a loss of $151.3 million and revenue of $3.7 billion in 2006. DVD Boosts B&N Q4 Profit Continued from page 1 In an analyst call, COO Mitchell Klipper said Borders’ investment bankers had not been in contact but that management would entertain dialogue on the matter. “We’ll certainly take a good look at the company and put it under review,” Klipper said. Book titles associated with current and pending DVD releases included The Kite Runner, Atonement, I Am Legend, Into the Wild and Charlie Wilson’s War. “Our gift, DVD and children’s businesses all performed well during the quarter,” said CFO Joseph Lombardi. He said DVD sales were hampered when contrasted with comparable-quarter book/ DVD sales of Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret. “It was the best-selling combination nonfiction book and DVD title in our history,” Atonement JUST ANNOUNCED A Weekly Product Update* TITLE STREET DATE PREBOOK BOX OFFICE (MILLIONS) GENRE PRICE Cloverfield 4/22 Now $79.6 Sci-fi DVD $29.99 Paramount. 2008. Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman. A first-person video account of five New Yorkers attempting to escape a monster who has attacked the city. Includes commentary, a making-of featurette, deleted scenes and more. Control 6/3 4/22 $0.9 Drama DVD $28.95 Genius/Weinstein. 2007. Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Sam Riley. A biopic of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the British punk rock band Joy Division, who committed suicide at age 23. Includes commentary, a making-of featurette, music videos and more. Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show 5/20 4/15 $0.6 Documentary DVD $27.95 Lombardi said. For the quarter, consolidated sales topped $1.84 billion ($5.4 billion for the fiscal year), down slightly from $1.87 ($5.2 billion) for the previous year when the period included an additional week. Online sales totaled $177 million ($477 million for the fiscal year), up 13% (13.4% for the fiscal year) from the previous year. Deteriorating music CD sales contributed to a 0.5% decline in same-store (open at least 12 months) sales for the quarter. New Line. 2006. The film follows Vaughn and four comics — Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Brett Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco — on a tour of performances in 30 cities in 30 nights. Includes two commentaries and four featurettes. Darfur Now 5/27 4/22 $0.1 Documentary DVD $4.99 PlayStation 3 Adds BD 2.0 Continued from page 1 Warner. 2007. The story of six people who are trying to end the suffering in war-torn Sudan — an American activist, an international prosecutor, a Sudanese rebel, a sheikh, a leader of the World Food Program and actor Don Cheadle. Ace of Hearts 5/6 4/9 DTV Family DVD $26.98 Fox. 2008. Dean Cain, Britt McKillip. When a police officer’s K-9 partner is wrongly accused of injuring a suspect, the officer and his 13-year-old daughter team up to prove the pup’s innocence. Cleaner 5/27 4/24 DTV Thriller DVD $24.96 Sony Pictures. 2007. Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Eva Mendes. A former cop, who now earns a living as a crime scene cleaner, unknowingly removes evidence at a job, involving him in a criminal cover up. Includes commentary, deleted scenes and a digital copy of the movie. Manning, Brady and Favre 6/3 4/29 DTV Sports DVD $19.98 Warner. Manning, Brady and Favre: The Quarterbacks offers a behind-the-scenes look at the legendary careers of three NFL quarterbacks — Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Brett Favre. Includes exclusive interviews, a Brett Favre retirement featurette and more. Joy Division 6/17 5/6 DTV Documentary DVD $22.95 Genius/Weinstein. 2007. A retrospective documentary about the British punk rock band that reached acclaim in the late 1970s. Includes archival footage, as well as testimonies from band members and other key players in the music industry. The Evil Woods 6/3 5/7 DTV Horror DVD $26.98 Lionsgate. 2007. Tamara Czartoryski, William Van Noland, Brad Smith, Ivory Dortch. Five high-school kids go on a weekend camping trip in the remote woods and one by one they begin to disappear. The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning 8/26 7/15 DTV Animated DVD $29.99 Disney. 2008. A prequel to the original Little Mermaid, King Triton has banned music from the kingdom after the death of his wife, and Ariel discovers an underground music club run by Sebastian the crab. She embarks on an adventure to restore music to the kingdom. * In order of box office, then prebook date SCEA is making the 10-year lifecycle of PS3 possible.” Two April 8 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment titles, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and The 6th Day, will include bonus features that will require BD 2.0 capability — mainly downloadable extras that come with the discs. HD DVD long held an advantage over Blu-ray in the Internet connectivity department, with every HD DVD player automatically featuring what BD 2.0 offers. Now that the PS3 will be up to speed, downloadable bonus scenes, trailers, new subtitle tracks, ringtones, interactive games and more will be readily accessible for Blu-ray fans. Additionally the firmware update (v. 2.20) allows PS3 owners with a PSP to hook the two up via a USB cable, and copy music playlists and photos between the two. The update also allows Blu-ray Discs and DVDs to be restarted at the point they were stopped, even if the disc has been removed; enables the PSP to serve as a music remote control for the PS3; improves the speed at which downloads for the PS3 can be streamed; and allows DivX- and WMV-formatted videos larger than 2GB to be played. GameStop Continued from page 1 out high-definition as a benefactor. “The power of the new consoles, coupled with the ‘wow’ factor of HD game play, has taken gaming to another level,” he said. “And with Blu-ray clearly being the winner in the [next-generation] DVD race, the [PlayStation 3] sales are already accelerating and will be an even better buy in 2008 and into the future.” Fontaine also speculated that digital downloading of games, something the nextgeneration consoles are enabling consumers to explore more easily, will be “additive, not dilutive” to the company’s shares. Fontaine also speculated that both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 could see $50 price cuts this year. Home Media Magazine March 23–29, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - March 23-29, 2008 Contents News TV DVD Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - March 23-29, 2008

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