Home Media Magazine - June 22-28, 2008 - (Page 10)

NEWS DVD Awards Continued from page 1 Annual Home Entertainment Summit, held June 16-17 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, and presented by Home Media Magazine. A judges panel of home entertainment critics and journalists sorted through nearly 140 entries released during 2007. Best director’s cut winner Blade Runner: The Final Cut represented Scott’s definitive new version of the film. The Final Cut also was part of best of show winner Blade Runner: Ultimate Collector’s Edition, a five-disc set that collects several different versions of the film, plus a three-hour retrospective documentary and other extras packed in a briefcase replica of a prop used in the film, and stuffed with art cards and other memorabilia. Judges bestowed a special award to Shout! Factory’s re-release of “My So-Called Life,” calling the DVD set an extras-laden fan-friendly edition that corrects the oversight of the earlier set being released with no bonus features. www.homemediamagazine.com New Line, Einhorn Feted at Summit Panasonic’s Eisuke Tsuyuzaki also named ‘Blu-ray Disc Booster of the Year’ for his work By Erik Gruenwedel casualty of corporate restructuring last month by Time Warner Inc., New Line Home Entertainment and president and COO Stephen Einhorn June 16 received honors for 18 years of critical and commercial success. Einhorn and key New Line staffers were recognized as the DVD Visionaries of the Year during a special dinner tribute at transFORMATions: The Seventh Annual Home Entertainment Summit, presented last week in Los Angeles by Home Media Magazine. Introduced by Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video, as a “moral, ethical, pure guy,” Einhorn was lauded for his “complete analysis of everything” that helped New Line Home Entertainment increase revenue from $41 million in 1991 (his first year) to more than $1 billion in 2004 — the latter due in large part to the “Lord of the Rings” franchise. Einhorn gave special thanks to several New Line home entertainment personnel, including executives Rita Chiappetta, EVP of finance and accounting; Pam Kelley, EVP of sales; Ray Landes, EVP of finance and operations; Matt Lasorsa, EVP of Left: Stephen Einhorn, president and COO of New Line Home Entertainment, accepts visionary awards for himself and his staff. Right: Eisuke Tsuyuzaki (center) accepts an award for his work promoting Blu-ray Disc, presented by Amy Jo Smith of DEG: Digital Entertainment Group and HM’s Thomas K. Arnold. Photo by: Heather Kincaid Best of Show Blade Runner: Ultimate Collector’s Edition Warner Home Video Best Theatrical DVD Transformers DreamWorks and Paramount Home Entertainment Best TV DVD Seinfeld: The Complete Series Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Best Classic/Catalog DVD The Sergio Leone Anthology MGM and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Best DVD Collection/Multidisc Set Harry Potter: Years 1-5 Gift Set Warner Home Video Best Nonfiction/Documentary DVD Planet Earth BBC Video and Warner Home Video Best Animation DVD Ratatouille Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Best Kidvid DVD Surf’s Up Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Best Direct-to-Video Movie DVD The Invincible Iron Man Lionsgate Best Non-Theatrical Movie DVD Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth Anchor Bay Entertainment Best Extended Cut/Director’s Cut Blade Runner: The Final Cut Warner Home Video Best DVD Bonus Materials The Bourne Files Universal Studios Home Entertainment Best DVD Packaging The King of Queens: The Complete Series Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Best Blu-ray Catalog Title Close Encounters of the Third Kind Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Best Blu-ray Theatrical Title Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Judges’ Special Citation My So-Called Life: The Complete Series Shout! Factory marketing; Kevin Kasha, SVP of acquisitions and programming; Michael Mulvihill, SVP of content development; and Josh Sabarra, SVP of marketing communications and publicity. Einhorn thanked New Line Pictures cofounders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne for providing him with “latitude and opportunity” to help the studio become a leading independent packaged-media company. Einhorn couldn’t resist a crack at the industry’s expense and remarked that the hallmark of home entertainment has always included unending change (including layoffs). “As I look out over this room and evaluate what has happened over the past few years, it is clear that there is nothing like a great gift bag to pull out a big crowd,” he joked. Separately, Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, VP of corporate development for Panasonic Corp. of North America and GM of the Blu-ray Disc Group, was awarded “Blu-ray Disc Booster of the Year 2008.” Presidents Speak Continued from page 1 BD Live Continued from page 1 the figures to be that far-fetched. “It shows consumers are really embracing the format,” Lionsgate president Steve Beeks said of the 7% to 10% market share that Blu-ray’s been racking up versus DVD every week. “The transition to Blu-ray will be much quicker than DVD because people are already familiar with digital,” said Mike Dunn, president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Kelley Avery, president of Paramount Home Entertainment, was a bit more conservative in her 2008 Blu-ray sales estimates, saying she’ll be happy if the industry hits $750 million. But with a giant slate of summer blockbusters looking at fourth-quarter Bluray street date, who knows, she said. “I think this fourth quarter we need to get [players] to an affordable price,” likely under $200, Avery said. “We have our first sub-$300 machine, which will fuel growth,” Beeks said of the Wal-Mart $298 Magnavox Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player being offered. David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, said that when Toshiba Corp. threw in the towel on HD DVD in February, the hardware manufacturers were caught “flat-footed,” making Blu-ray players hard to come by. The competition from cheap upconverting DVD players didn’t help. “Upconverters, we think, are a huge problem,” said Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video. “Those houses [that buy one] are out of the market for several years.” All, including Craig Kornblau, president of former HD DVD backer Universal Studios Home Entertainment, expressed excitement over the possibilities of Blu-ray and BD Live, the Profile 2.0 software that allows for Internet connectivity. “We’ve got the best creative minds in our company HM publisher Thomas K. Arnold moderates a rare panel of seven home entertainment presidents. Photo by: Heather Kincaid right now thinking about what we can do [with BD Live],” Kornblau said, adding that soon all of Universal’s Blu-ray Discs will be BD Live enabled. “Years from now, we’ll laugh at the things we did with HD DVD.” “Three years from now, when they put in Men in Black, it’ll be a different experience than what they have today,” Sony’s Bishop said. But the presidents acknowledged that DVD is still bringing in the most revenue, and protecting that revenue is a high priority, as is looking to digital delivery. “It’s a very different landscape from what we saw 10 years ago,” Paramount’s Avery said. “It’s much more fractured. There are a lot of different ways consumers are accessing entertainment.” Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment president Bob Chapek said that the lines between physical and digital are blurring, and that the studios need to stay ahead of the curve. Part of the reason Blu-ray can succeed is by including digital copies, he said. “Eventually, you may find that the best way to get the digital file to someone is with that Trojan horse digital copy,” he said. It also keeps them from downloading it illegally for free. “Let’s be really clear, that’s the ‘F’ word: ‘free,’” Kornblau said. “We need to stay away from that.” of new business development for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “It’s an evergreen thing, where you can constantly update content.” Both Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and Sony in recent weeks have announced that all of their Blu-ray Discs going forward will include BD Live features, and every studio is experimenting with BD Live capabilities. Panasonic’s Eisuke Tsuyuzaki said, “The Internet has made us a world community, and BD Live … connecting people will be one of those watershed moments. That you can’t do with DVD.” New subtitle downloads, new trailers, and Web features may just be the beginning. “BD Live will allow Blu-ray and digital [delivery] to merge,” said Lori MacPherson, North American GM for Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. “We can connect consumers across the globe.” Russ Crupnick, VP and senior industry analyst for The NPD Group, shared some statistics on what kind of BD Live extras consumers enjoy: 47% enjoy playing around with camera angles, and 41% enjoy the interactivity features. “I am convinced that if I can get consumers into Best Buy or Wal-Mart, and show them what BD Live can do, [they’ll buy Blu-ray],” he said. Home Media Magazine June 22–28, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - June 22-28, 2008 Contents News In Focus TV DVD Cine Mercado Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - June 22-28, 2008

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