Home Media Magazine - December 2-8, 2007 - (Page 14) NEWS ‘A Very Special Christmas’ Hails 20 Years With DVD By Billy Gil PRODUCT “A Very Special Christmas,” the holiday-themed music series of CDs to benefit the Special Olympics, is celebrating 20 years with its first-ever DVD, A Very Special Christmas: 20th Anniversary Music Video Collection. The DVD, released through Hipp-O/Universal Music Nov. 20, includes videos from No Doubt, U2, Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp, Sting, Vanessa Williams and Run DMC, as well as live performances by Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, Wyclef Jean and Tracy Chapman from the 1998 and 2000 “Christmas At The White House” concerts. “A Very Special Christmas is a fitting way to spread holiday cheer, but, more importantly, this gift will help bring the joy of the Special Olympics to many more children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing them the chance of a new life — a life of participation, pride, friendship and joy,” said Timothy Shriver, Special Olympics chairman. Sales of the music series have raised more than $100 million, which goes toward grants to Special Olympics Programs worldwide. “A Very Special Christmas” was launched in 1987 by record executive/producer Jimmy Iovine. Continued from page 1 www.homemediamagazine.com DVD Sales Increase Due to Post-Thanksgiving Promos Industry sources say DVD sales at two key discount chains were up 16% and 18%, respectively, over last year. Sales were lifted not just by the usual Black Friday deep-discounting — recent hits like 300 were readily available for less than $6 — but also surprisingly strong initial sales for new releases. Live Free or Die Hard, released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, generated first-week sales that were 20% ahead of projections, in addition to nearly 100,000 Blu-ray Disc copies, noted Steve Feldstein, the division’s SVP of corporate and marketing communications. “The entire category was up significantly over last year, with growth of 15% and more, in many cases, on Black Friday alone,” Feldstein said. Two other marquee new theatrical releases, New Line’s Hairspray and Walt Disney’s The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, also sold well, while two big animated theatrical releases, Paramount/DreamWorks’ Shrek the Third and Disney’s Ratatouille, remained in high demand their respective second and third week in stores. Studios without new theatrical hits in stores also saw a lift across all category lines. Warner Home Video “had a great weekend with a very healthy market share,” said president Ron Sanders. He said Warner did particularly well with new TV DVD releases, such as the “Full House” and “Gilmore Girls” complete-series sets, as well as theatrical and TV DVD catalog items. Children’s movies like Happy Feet and Hairspray the holiday-themed The Polar Express experienced a surge in sales, as did Training Day, 300 and the “Lethal Weapon” films. Planet Earth, the BBC Video documentary distributed by Warner, also saw an uptick in sales, seven months after its initial release. Despite the sales frenzy, the rental business managed to hold its own Thanksgiving Week, with Home Media Magazine market research estimating consumers spent $176 million on renting DVDs, a 7.6% gain from the previous week. The home video sales lift was part of a national upswing for retail in general. The National Federation of Retailers reported Black Friday weekend sales were up a healthy 4.8% from last year, with more than 147 million shoppers hitting stores. Smaller-ticket items were most in demand, with average expenditures of $347.44, down 3.5% from last year. “While last year showed a greater emphasis on high-definition televisions, this year consumers were focused on lower-priced doorbusters like digital photo frames, laptops and cashmere sweaters,” said Tracy Mullin, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation. Mullin noted that while the Black Friday weekend “was a complete success for many retailers, the results of the holiday season [as a whole] won’t be determined until the last two weeks of December.” MERCHANDISING Resetting for the Holidays Best Buy Hot Rod Paramount SRP $29.99, $39.99 HD Target $19.99 Wal-Mart $19.96 $29.96 HD DVD Circuit City $16.99 $39.99 HD DVD Amazon.com $16.99 $27.95 HD DVD $16.99 $29.99 HD DVD Futurama: Bender’s Big Score Fox SRP $29.99 $17.99 w/bonus footage Seasons 1-4 $19.99 $19.99 $19.87 $19.99 Seasons 1-4 $19.99 each $17.99 Bratz Lionsgate SRP $28.98 $19.99 $17.99 w/bonus disc $16.97 $19.96 w/8-song CD $16.99 Soundtrack $6.99 $21.69 Mr. Bean’s Holiday Universal SRP $29.98, $39.98 HD $19.99 $29.99 HD DVD $19.96 $19.99 w/bobblehead $29.96 HD DVD $19.99 $39.98 HD DVD $17.99 $27.95 HD DVD By John Latchem Wal-Mart in Long Beach, Calif., apparently still recovering from the postThanksgiving blitz, didn’t even have new product on shelves Tuesday morning during the week of Nov. 27, and seemed in no rush to stock the new releases. New items were put out later in the day. A Circuit City in Seal Beach, Calif., also wasn’t fully stocked on new titles, with clerks pointing customers to the chain’s Web site (and a free-shipping deal). Best Buy had an endcap devoted to complete TV series and other big boxed sets, but its biggest boxed set was its exclusive Alien vs. Predator Ultimate Showdown Set, a 15-disc collection of every “Alien” and “Predator” movie, plus a statuette of the two creatures fighting, a comic book and two tickets for the upcoming theatrical Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. The set was listed at $169.99, but discounted to $129.99 with a limit of one per customer. Target recently unveiled its new Blu-ray endcap, promoting a $399 Sony BDP-S300 player and a selection of titles priced between $25 and $30. A 14 Home Media Magazine December 2–8, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://Amazon.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.