Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008 - (Page 24)

ADVERTISEMENT PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT RED RIBBONS MSRP: $29.95 Quentin Crisp, the quintessential gay icon, in his final, full length screen appearance! A must have for all gay film sections and fans of classic gay cinema. Street Date: 5/26/08 NEWS Continued from page 1 www.homemediamagazine.com iTunes Sells Movies Day-and-Date changer as we successfully usher in a new era in digital home entertainment,” said Universal Studios Home Entertainment president Craig Kornblau. “This service not only presents a vital opportunity to make our digital content widely available to consumers in a highly appealing and accessible way, but it paves the way for electronic sellthrough to gain significant traction in the marketplace, as we work to develop it into our next marquee business.” New releases available for purchase on the iTunes Store last week, concurrent with their DVD release, include The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Other popular titles now available for purchase include Juno, Cloverfield, I Am Legend, There Will Be Blood, Alvin and the Chipmunks, American Gangster and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Movies can be previewed, purchased and watched on iPod classic, iPod nano with video, iPod touch, iPhone and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV. Apple has been mum on exact data with regard to movie downloads. The Convergence Consulting Group, however, recently reported that iTunes on a per-movie basis sold an average of 10,000 downloads in 2007 versus 13,000 in 2006. Overall, Apple’s iTunes sold 5.7 million movie downloads in 2007, compared to 1.3 million in 2006, Convergence said. The deal comes on the heels of Apple’s announcement in January that it had signed the major studios to movie rentals, with each title costing $3 to $4 to allow customers access for a 30-day period. Last month, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger estimated that the conglomerate had sold 4 million movies via iTunes since it became the first studio to try day-and-date electronic sellthrough. Last week Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said Warner Bros. will roll out cable VOD releases day and date with DVD. Warner had been testing the strategy for some time. Apple’s move would put pressure on iTunes competitors ranging from Amazon’s Unbox to Microsoft XBox Live Marketplace. GALLERY LOOKS TO SELL MOVIEBEAM By Erik Gruenwedel CLASSIFIED SHOWCASE BUSINESS FOR SALE CO M P U T E R S O F T WA R E Bankrupt Movie Gallery Inc. May 1 filed a motion with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va., seeking expedited approval for the proposed sale of its MovieBeam download service to third-party Dar Capital for $2.2 million. Dothan, Ala.-based Gallery shuttered MovieBeam last December nine months after acquiring it for $10 million. Originally founded by The Walt Disney Co. and cofunded by Cisco Systems and Intel Corp. for about $150 million, MovieBeam used over-the-air data casting to automatically load content on proprietary $200 set-top boxes, which allowed users to watch movies on-demand with no downloading or hard disc storage required. The service was available in 31 major cities nationally and featured a cycling stock of 100 movies (10 new titles per week). Rentals (for 24 hours) ranged in price from $1.99 to $4.99. Gallery envisioned MovieBeam as a catalyst to jumpstart its digital distribution. RETAIL BUSINESS SERVICES PEOPLE I WARNER NAMES HOLLINGSWORTH MANAGING DIRECTOR IN MEXICO Warner Home Video has upped Schuyler Hollingsworth III to managing director of Warner Home Video Mexico. Hollingsworth will manage Mexican operations with regard to DVD, video games and digital. He will work closely with senior management in the United States and Canada. “I greatly appreciate the enormous contributions Schuyler has Hollingsworth made, and I am confident that he will continue to do great things as he takes on his new responsibilities,” said Mark Horak, president, North America, Warner Home Video, to whom Hollingsworth will directly report. Hollingsworth previously served as VP, sales, theatrical new release. He joined Warner Home Video in 2000, and before that served in sales and marketing positions at Nestle USA. I TREMBLAY NAMED HEAD OF WARNER INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT Furthering its expansion into video games, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has named Martin Tremblay president of the division. He will report directly to Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. Tremblay will be in charge of directing the studio’s worldwide interactive entertainment strategy, including overseeing publishing, marketing, sales and distribution, licensing and business. He will begin his tenure in July. “Martin is a talented, highly respected executive and has solid relationships across the industry,” Tsujihara said. “In the past year, our interactive strategy has really come together, and we’re extremely fortunate to have found someone with Martin’s impressive track record to now lead [Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment].” Tremblay formerly served as president of worldwide studios for Vivendi Games, guiding the releases of such games as Scarface: The World Is Yours. Prior to that, he was president and COO for Ubisoft Montreal. Warner Bros. April 28 announced it had invested $30 million in SCi Entertainment, the British video game publisher responsible for the “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” franchise. Slated projects from the group include LEGO Batman: The Videogame, Speed Racer: The Videogame and Project Origin. — Billy Gil USED TAPES & DVDS CO M P U T E R S O F T WA R E REDUCING YOUR INVENTORY? We Buy VHS, and also DVD & Video Games xtreme deo E 733-7370 (203) Vi FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION CONTACT: Kurt Wohlman (714) 338-6749 kwohlman@questex.com www.homemediamagazine.com I SHOUT HIRES TWO Shout! Factory has hired Kristie Vogel as director of promotion and Paul Rocha as product manager. They will report directly to Melissa Boag, VP of marketing. Vogel will direct promotions through radio as well as entertainment and consumer events. 24 Home Media Magazine May 4–10, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.rapidrental.com http://www.corporate.com http://www.homemediamagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008

Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008 Contents News TV DVD Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008

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.