Home Media Magazine - October 14-20, 2007 - (Page 9) www.homemediamagazine.com MENU FROM THE EDITOR BY THOMAS K. ARNOLD, PUBLISHER www.homemediamagazine.com The Hits Need Some Help espite optimism that a parade of hot theatricals will lift out to buy Spider-Man and wind up buying four or five other consumer spending in the fourth quarter, there’s an un- DVDs, just to build up a collection. Today, that collection has dercurrent of foreboding. It’s not just how well the hits been pretty much built out. While this same mom might buy sell; it’s also about how many other DVDs consumers buy when Spider-Man 3 because her son has been asking for it, she will be they walk into Target or Best Buy to get Shrek the Third or mindful of the stacks of DVDs cluttering the family room when Spider-Man 3. deciding what else, if anything, to buy. A few years ago, consumers with armloads To their credit, studios and independent supof DVDs in checkout lines was a regular sight, THE HITS DROVE CONSUMERS pliers are releasing a goldmine of attractive particularly during Q4. The guy who bought non-hit product this Q4, from bundled collecINTO THE STORES, AND Pirates of the Caribbean for himself also ONCE THERE, THEY SPENT tions of catalog movies to pricey boxed sets of bought some catalog titles for his parents. The LIBERALLY ON ALL SORTS OF complete TV series such as “Full House,” mom who rushed to buy Shrek also picked up “The X-Files” and “The Gilmore Girls.” OTHER DVDS AS WELL. a workout video for herself. How will Q4 ultimately shake out? Will a That’s really the story behind those years of double-digit steady influx of hits drive consumers into stores and keep them growth. The hits drove consumers into the stores, and once there long enough to pick up other titles and products? there they spent liberally on all sorts of other DVDs as well. If it does, DVD distributors will breathe a collective sigh of reWhat’s going to happen this year? Buy rates are down signif- lief. But if only the hits sell well, there could be big trouble up icantly from the days when the average DVD household could ahead. This business was built on incremental business, first be counted on to buy 15 to 17 discs a year. As recently as 2002, rentals and now purchases. It never could survive, much less 2003 and even 2004, DVD players were streaming into U.S. thrive, on hits alone. homes at a breakneck clip, and those new DVD owners couldn’t get enough of those shiny little discs. A mom might venture Thomas K. Arnold’s e-mail address is aflores@questex.com PUBLISHER & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Thomas K. Arnold EDITOR IN CHIEF Stephanie Prange EDITORIAL Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Angelique Flores Senior Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Erik Gruenwedel Senior Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Tribbey Assistant Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Latchem Associate Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Billy Gil, Kyra Kudick Contributors . . . . . . . .John Gaudiosi, Anne Sherber, Fred Topel, Ralph Tribbey, Holly J. Wagner ART Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Melbert Sebayan Graphic Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Park RESEARCH Market Research Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Judith McCourt Market Research Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Burner ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Judith McCourt ADVERTISING 800/338-6700, FAX 714/338-6712 Sales Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Judith McCourt 714/338-6741 Advertising Sales Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . John Boezinger 714/338-6704 Advertising Sales Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julie Savant 714/368-1020 Advertising Sales Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kurt Wohlman 714/338-6749 Group Administrative Coordinator . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Guerena Business Analyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joni Wu For reprints, call 800-290-5460, ext. 100 or HomeMediaMagazine@reprintbuyer.com For direct-mail lists, call Ilene Schwartz, Kroll Direct, 216/371-1667 FAX 216/371-1669 ilene@krolldirect.com IN THIS ISSUE OCT. 14-20, 2007 / VOL. 29 / NO. 41 News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Genius Products is aiming for a Nasdaq listing, signs a deal with Quincy Jones III; Sony Pictures creates Stage 6 Films; analyst expects Netflix subs growth. C ALE N DAR I FORBES MEET II FORUM The second annual Forbes MEET conference, Turmoil and Transitions: Building the Next Digital Revolution, addresses how the tech and entertainment industries will go digital. Oct. 24-25 The Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hill, Calif. info: www.forbesconferences.com MARKETING Marketing Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kristina Kronenberg 714/338-6743 Marketing Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kaitlyn DeWaard Online Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Renee Rosado >> H I G H-D E F PRODUCTION Production Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bonnie Ling Production Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Justin-Nicholas Toyama 714/338-6765 Assistant Production Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brady Gallardo News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Geneon quits DVD production; a panel of Latino DVD suppliers say content and language matter most for Latino films on DVD. OFFICES 714/338-6700, 800/371-6897, FAX 714/338-6710 homemediamagazine@questex.com 201 East Sandpointe Ave., Suite 500 Santa Ana, CA 92707-8716 News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Two Fox Blu-ray Discs have player issues; New Line and BCI bring titles to both formats; Spielberg films still not coming to HD DVD. Chris Tribbey, Senior Reporter 818-788-8616, FAX 818-530-2486 16130 Ventura Blvd. #570 Encino, CA 91436 TV DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 See what TV DVD titles are coming up, including The Girls Next Door: Season Three. I TV DVD AWARDS Home Media Magazine presents the fourth annual TV DVD Awards Nov. 12 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City, Calif. The best TV DVD releases of the past year, as selected by a national consumer vote, will be honored in 16 categories, including best series by decade, best complete-series set and best children’s series. Nov. 12 Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles info: tvdvd.dvdconferences.com CREDIT Credit/Collections Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ron Wright Sr. >> E LE C T R O N I C D E LI V E RY CIRCULATION For subscriptions, please go online to www.homemediamagazine.com For current single copy, back issues or CD-ROM, call 866/344-1315 or 615/377-3322 for outside the U.S. Audience Development Manager . . . . . . . . . . Sarah Joy Obaña BUSINESS QUESTEX MEDIA GROUP INC. President & CEO: Kerry C. Gumas; Executive Vice President & CFO: Tom Caridi; Executive Vice President: Robert S. Ingraham; Executive Vice President: Tony D’Avino; Executive Vice President, Corporate Development: Claudia Flowers; Vice President & General Manager: Don Rosenberg; Vice President, Digital Media: Seth Nichols; Vice President, Human Resources: Diane Evans © 2007 Questex Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including by photocopy, recording or information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by Questex Media Group, Inc. for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923 phone: 978-750-8400 fax 978-750-4470; call for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. For those not registered with the CCC, send permission request in writing to questexpermissions@reprintbuyer.com or call 800-494-9051 ext. 100. Lionsgate pumps out fitness titles on DVD. Health/Fitness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Lionsgate has strong tie-in promotions for its upcoming fitness titles; Lionsgate teams with ExcerciseTV; Koch and Parents Magazine promote “Fit Moms” DVDs. A Warner exec says copy control licensing could open studio vaults to on-demand; analysts say the RIAA case has little to do with video downloading. I HIGH-DEF 2.0 Home Media Magazine presents High-Def 2.0, a one-day event that will serve as a preview of what’s in store for the high-definition disc market in 2008, the year the studios have targeted as breakout time for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Coming just weeks before the Consumer Electronics Show, the event will provide a sneak peek of studio announcements expected to be made at CES, along with an overview of plans for the coming year, from marquee titles headed to HD disc to advances in interactivity, technology and packaging. Dec. 4 Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles info: www.homemediaconferences.com Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Does Transformers convert well to DVD and HD DVD? Will animation fans want to Meet the Robinsons? Fox coasts to No. 1 on the DVD sales and rental charts with Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Printed in the U.S.A. Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Top 20 DVD Sellers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts . . . . . . . . . . 31 Judd Apatow’s latest hit, Superbad, flies to video; Warner unveils a Harry Potter DVD game; Mal- Just Announced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . colm McDowell classics come to DVD; Braincandy Paramount revs up Hot Rod; New Line pulls out helps kids explore the five senses. Shoot ’Em Up; Sony Pictures dials up http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.forbesconferences.com http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://tvdvd.dvdconferences.com http://www.homemediaconferences.com
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