Home Media Magazine - March 30 - April 5, 2008 - (Page 10)

NEWS PEOPLE I SONY PICTURES UPS SHOOMAN Scott Shooman has been promoted to VP of acquisitions and productions, for Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group. He will report to Steven Bersch, president of the group, and Lara Thompson, SVP of acquisitions for the division. Shooman In his new role, Shooman will continue to acquire ﬁlms and oversee productions. He has helped acquire distribution rights for such ﬁlms as We Own the Night and The Spirit, and supervised the production of such ﬁlms as The Dark Country and Screamers 2. – Billy Gil www.homemediamagazine.com Hastings Ups Income By Erik Gruenwedel tringent margin management and reduced costs offset flat revenue at Hastings Entertainment Inc. in the quarter that ended Jan. 31. The Amarillo, Texas-based chain of 153 stores posted fourth-quarter income of $5.8 million, compared to income of $5.1 million during the same period the previous year. Same-store sales (open at least 12 months) of video games skyrocketed nearly 25% to lead all categories in the quarter. DVD movie sales fell 2.9% in the quarter, due to lower sales of new and boxed-set releases S and partially offset by sales of used product and Blu-ray Discs. The company said despite a greater number of fourth-quarter new DVD releases than in the previous year, the majority were sequels that did not perform as well as expected. “The retail industry faced its weakest holiday sales period since 2002, followed by a sluggish January,” said CEO John Marmaduke. “Retailing will be difficult in 2008 due to the state of the economy.” The lack of rental titles in the box office range of $20 million to $80 million hurt DVD rental, which fell 4.5% for the quarter to $24.1 million, compared to $25.4 million last year, Hastings reported. The retailer suffered another steep decline in same-store music sales (down 18.7% for the quarter) and is eliminating 15% to 20% of shelf space devoted to packaged music in 35 stores and replacing it with children’s and trend product. For the fiscal year, income topped $10.2 million on revenue of $547.7 million, compared to income of $5 million and revenue of $548.3 million the year before. PEERFLIX DVD TRADING SITE SHUTS DOWN By Chris Tribbey A I LIGHTYEAR ADVANCES CANTER Lightyear Entertainment has promoted Allan Canter to SVP of sales and marketing. The former VP of sales and marketing has been with the company since September 2007. Canter served more than 23 years at Warner Home Video in positions ranging from sales representative to director of sales, Eastern region. He most recently held the position of VP of sales at Hip Kiddy Inc. – Ruby Cardenas Image Expands Into Global TV Distribution By Erik Gruenwedel SUPPLIER Seeking to generate a wider audience for its upcoming slate of higher-profile films, Image Entertainment Inc. has formed an international TV sales division. Chatsworth, Calif.-based Image, which has distributed select product domestically for TV (about 1% of total revenue), promoted Steve Saltman to the new position of SVP of worldwide television. Saltman, who was SVP of domestic television, will oversee all forms of television distribution, including global sales of Image licensed and distributed content across broadcast TV, cable/satellite, pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VOD) channels. Since acquiring DVD, digital and TV distribution rights to a slate of significant ThinkFilm releases, Image has pulled out the stops (including slating Blu-ray releases) in an effort to showcase itself as a mini-major in home entertainment. David Borshell, COO of Image, said the TV team will attempt to leverage Image’s catalog of more than 3,000 titles for television buyers. “The expansion of our television department increases our sales reach, provides new revenue streams and brings us one step closer to becoming a full service, worldwide entertainment sales and distribution organization,” Borshell said. bout four years after launching, Peerflix.com will no longer serve as a DVD trading site, effective April 23. “You will no longer be able to buy, sell, send or receive DVDs on Peerflix as of that date,” site owners wrote in an e-mail to members. “While we have made considerable investments in our marketplace platform over the past four years, unfortunately the escalating costs of operating the marketplace do not make that business viable at this juncture. As we move out of the DVD marketplace business, we are focusing our energy and resources on building the Peerflix Media Network, which is now the Web’s fastest growing vertical movie network.” Peerflix Media Network aspires to be a top Internet movie property, running Web sites such as DVDVerdict.com, FirstShowing.Net and TheMovieBlog. com, according to CEO and co-founder Billy McNair. Launched March 1, 2004, Peerflix is one of only a handful of successful peerto-peer used-DVD trading Web sites. The service allows users to list titles they have for trade and titles they want. Users print out prepaid envelopes to mail DVDs, and receive credit toward items on the site for their transactions. MERCHANDISING New Titles Overwhelmed Best Buy The Mist Genius/Weinstein SRP $29.95, $32.95 Target $16.99 $24.99 two-disc Wal-Mart $15.97 $19.96 w/The Gathering $22.96 two-disc Circuit City $15.99 $24.99 two-disc Amazon.com $22.99 $25.99 two-disc $16.99 $22.99 two-disc w/copy of novella The Kite Runner Paramount SRP $29.99 $16.99 $14.99 $29.99 deluxe edition $29.99 Blu-ray $16.99 $19.96 $14.96 $15.99 $14.99 $34.99 deluxe edition* $34.99 Blu-ray* $16.99 $15.69 $29.99 deluxe edition $23.95 Blu-ray Bonnie and Clyde Warner; SRP $20.97, $39.92, $34.99 BD $14.99 $33.93 deluxe edition* $23.87 Blu-ray* Painkiller Jane Anchor Bay SRP $49.98 $24.99 $27.99 $44.97* $34.99 $24.99 * Online Only By John Latchem he release week of March 25 was notable for not only its lack of major releases, but also for the continued dominant retail presence of several March 18 titles, most notably I Am Legend, Hitman and Enchanted. Except for Best Buy, not all had each new release, and most neglected the new Bonnie and Clyde gift set and Blu-ray Disc editions, pushing those versions on their Web sites. Wal-Mart offered a huge display of WWE DVDs, including new releases No Way Out 2008, Triple H: The King of Kings and the exclusive two-disc The Greatest Superstars of Wrestlemania DVD at $18.98. Best Buy followed its March 18 exclusive of giving away Atonement novels with the movie by doing the same for the Stephen King thriller The Mist. The chain also had bonus episodes with Tripping the Rift: The Movie. The Circuit City in Seal Beach, Calif., offered an “Ultimate Guy Movies” display that for some reason included Feel the Noise, The Nanny Diaries and Return to Neverland. T 10 Home Media Magazine March 30–April 5, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://Peerflix.com http://dvdverdict.com http://FirstShowing.Net http://Amazon.com

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Home Media Magazine - March 30-April 5, 2008 Contents News Commentary TV DVD Reviews Pipeline Top 20 DVD Sellers Research Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - March 30 - April 5, 2008

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