Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - (Page 23) www.homemediamagazine.com NEWS Redbox. Almost always the answer is something like, “I love Redbox — what a great service. I am never going back to my old video rental store.” I’ve now heard that hundreds of times, but it never gets old. unsolicited, say something like, “I’ve worked for many companies over a 20-, 30-, 40-year career, and I’ve never worked at a place like Redbox. This is by far the best company I’ve ever worked for.” I can’t think of anything I’m prouder of than helping to create I HM: Can you name your No. 1 a company that employees love. professional accomplishment, or at least the one of which you’re the most proud? I HM: Can you share your plans for the future, if you have anything specific in mind? Redbox CEO Says Company Will Continue Innovating By Chris Tribbey edbox CEO Gregg Kaplan took the time to chat with Home Media Magazine about a “fifth quarter” for Blu-ray Disc, his work at the No. 1 DVD rental kiosk operator and the company’s plans for the future. R I HM: What’s the single most enjoyable part of your job? Kaplan Kaplan: I try to get out to our markets as often as possible and visit many of the Redbox kiosks around the country. Inevitably, when I arrive at a kiosk, there will be a few customers waiting to rent or return a DVD, so I will ask them what they think of Kaplan: About once a year, Redbox gathers the full company for a three-day offsite meeting, and I get to spend time with Redbox employees from all over the country who I don’t get to see that often. Over the course of the three days, dozens of employees will come up to me and, Kaplan: Yes, Redbox will continue to both expand its footprint and bring forth innovations, which enhance our status as the easiest and most convenient DVD rental experience. Today we are by far the most ubiquitous DVD rental company with more than 12,000 locations, but we’re just getting going. We believe over the next few years we can continue expansion so that our consumers will find a Redbox in every high-traffic location near their houses and work. On the innovation side, we were the first ones to bring our rent-andreturn-anywhere network and online reservations to the DVD rental industry, but we feel we’re just getting started here as well. We believe Redbox, with its sophisticated software and highly networked set of kiosks, can bring innovations to customers that will allow them to rent DVDs in ways they never thought possible, in terms of convenience, robustness and getting exactly the title they want. Over the next year, you will see Redbox introduce several of these innovations. I HM: Is Blu-ray going to have a fifth quarter in early 2009, like DVD did during its beginning? In other words, with Blu-ray hardware sales expected to see a nice uptick this holiday season, do you expect first-quarter 2009 Blu-ray sales (or in Redbox’s arena, rentals) to see a nice spike? Kaplan: I don’t know, but if the consumer speaks and says that Bluray is important now, Redbox will be there. Street Dates Stray From Usual Tuesdays Continued from page 1 Lionsgate Ups Market Share Continued from page 1 few dollars before the year ends. And the new street dates get worse every year.” In a statement, Anchor Bay president Bill Clark said his retail partners were aware of the correct street date for Traitor. “We took the precautions as we do with each of our releases, and the boxes are clearly marked with the Friday, Dec. 19 street date,” he said. Kung Fu Panda kicked off the non-Tuesday releases Sunday, Nov. 9, in one day managing to sell 90% of what Get Smart sold during the entire week. In December, with Tuesdays right before both holidays, others have followed suit: Warner Home Video (New Line’s The Women), Universal Studios Home Entertainment (Beethoven’s Big Break, Death Race and Burn After Reading), Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (The House Bunny, Resident Evil: Degeneration and Baghead), Paramount Home Entertainment (The Duchess, Ghost Town and Eagle Eye) and Anchor Bay have all tapped a Friday, Saturday or Sunday for a new release. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said a non-Tuesday street date is likely only meant to give consumers more time to shop before Christmas. “It doesn’t happen that often, but thus far when it has for music and movies, it usually is to the customer’s benefit, such as more time to purchase the item before a holiday,” she said. “It also may be in combination with an event date that makes more sense promotionally, such as a tour.” She pointed to the CD release of the recent AC/DC album on Monday instead of the normal Tuesday, to coincide with the worldwide release. “These occurrences aren’t just related to the Christmas season,” O’Brien said Yet iDEA’s Millican feared the Traitor lapse was a sign of things to come. “Release-date chaos cannot be a good thing for studios, distributors, retailers or our best customers, and is particularly threatening to independent video retailers, who are often the last class of retail to receive product,” he said. “sweet spot,” which involves ‘R’rated and edgier ‘PG-13’-rated films that sustain box office revenue from $30 million to $70 million each. DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Bank Job, The Forbidden Kingdom, Meet the Browns and Rambo, among others, plus video-on-demand (VOD) and digital, helped boost home entertainment revenue in the most recent quarter 32% to $178.3 million, from $135.2 million during the prior-year period. Strong DVD sales of the third season of television series “Weeds” ($6 million) and first season of “Mad Men” ($5 million) also contributed to the results. Beeks, a longtime proponent of Blu-ray Disc, said BD player and L ATE F L ASHES I REPORT: BD PLAYER PRICES UP 10% SINCE BLACK FRIDAY Following widely publicized discounts of Blu-ray players last month on Black Friday, prices have increased 10%, including 2% last week, according to a report by PriceScan. The report said BD player prices dropped 12% in September and 7% in October after topping out at about $400 in 2007. Consumers spent more than $30 million purchasing about 150,000 BD players — many priced below $200 — on Black Friday. Average BD player prices range from $200 to $250, according to PriceScan. — Erik Gruenwedel I REDBOX KEEPS UNI TITLES IN STOCK, DESPITE LAWSUIT Redbox continues to stock Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s new releases, announcing Dec. 23 that more than 100,000 copies of Mamma Mia! The Movie and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor were in place over the weekend of Dec. 20-21. Redbox is using different outlets to acquire Universal titles, instead of its normal distributors Ingram and VPD. The studio’s proposed revenue-sharing terms, which prompted Redbox to file a lawsuit against the studio, threaten to terminate agreements with the distributors if they continue to supply Redbox with Universal DVDs. Redbox contends that the new terms violate antitrust laws and misuse copyrights by prohibiting the kiosk operator from renting Universal DVDs for 45 days after the street date, and limiting the number of Universal DVDs Redbox can carry. — Chris Tribbey I REPORT: ONLINE HOLIDAY SHOPPING DOWN 1% Five fewer shopping days combined with a recession resulted in consum- ers spending $24.02 billion on online holiday shopping from Nov. 1 to Dec. 19, compared to $24.15 billion during the same period last year, according to a new report by ComScore. With shopping online occurring closer to Christmas due to the shorter holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, ComScore said Dec. 9 and Dec. 15 ranked as the heaviest spending days, generating revenues of $887 million and $859 million, respectively. This year’s holiday season saw average online spending per day of $643 million, up 5% from last year. — Erik Gruenwedel software sales since Black Friday in November provided a bellweather for the overall home entertainment business and presented, in his view, an encouraging sign of where home video is going. “All the studios have said that we needed a reasonably priced player, and as you can see from the consumers’ response, not only did they jump on the [lower-priced] hardware, they jumped on BD movies as well,” Beeks said. The executive said the studio noticed a “huge jump” in Blu-ray Discs, with sales up significantly over the last few weeks for both new releases and library titles. “We still think that all [industry] HD packaged-media sales will come in at about $850 million to $900 million,” Beeks said. “As recently as a few weeks ago, some people were writing that off and indicating it might be as low as $750 million.” Top performing Blu-ray movies for Lionsgate over the year include The Forbidden Kingdom, all the “Rambo” titles, 3:10 to Yuma, The Bank Job and several catalog titles that registered four or five times what their DVD sales were, according to Beeks. “Blu-ray is projected to be 10% of home media revenue, and The Dark Knight is projected to be 17% of all packaged-media revenue,” he said. “We are planning on Blu-ray being at least 15% of [our] next month’s revenue.” Key January titles include Bangkok Dangerous, My Best Friend’s Girl, Disaster Movie, Saw V and Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys. HOME MEDIA MAGAZINE (ISSN 1934-9882) is published weekly 52 times per year by Questex Media Group, Inc., 306 West Michigan Street, Suite 200, Duluth, MN 55802. Subscription rates: $49.99 for one year in the United States and Possessions; $79.99 for one year in Canada and Mexico; all other countries $99.99 for one year (by surface mail). Add $75 annually for air-expedited service. Single copies (prepaid only): $6.99 in the United States, $8.99 in Canada and Mexico, $13.99 all other countries. Back issues, if available: $9.99 in the U.S.; $15.99 in Canada and Mexico; $26.99 for all other countries. Include $6.50 per order plus $2 per additional copy for U.S. postage and handling. Periodicals postage paid at Duluth MN 55806 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please send address ch http://www.homemediamagazine.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 Contents News Gay & Lesbian Reviews TV DVD Pipeline Just Announced Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - (Page Cover1) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - (Page Cover2) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Contents (Page 3) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Contents (Page 4) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Contents (Page 5) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - News (Page 6) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - News (Page 7) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - News (Page 8) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - News (Page 9) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - News (Page 10) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - News (Page 11) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - News (Page 12) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - News (Page 13) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Gay & Lesbian (Page 14) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Gay & Lesbian (Page 15) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Reviews (Page 16) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Reviews (Page 17) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 18) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 19) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 20) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 21) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 22) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 23) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover4) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Tab1) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Tab2) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd1) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd2) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd3) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd4) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd5) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd6) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd7) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd8) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd9) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd10) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd11) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd12) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd13) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd14) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd15) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd16) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd17) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd18) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd19) Home Media Magazine - December 28, 2008 - Hollywood Goes High Def Supplement (Page hghd20)
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