Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008 - (Page 6)

NEWS BRIEFS I IDEA ANNOUNCES BOARD NOMINEES The Independent Dealers of Entertainment Association (iDEA) announced four candidates for the 2008 election of its board of trustees. The candidates are: Nolan Anaya, Captain Video, Amherst, Mass.; Alan Goldstein, First Run Video, Brattleboro, Vt.; Christine Johansen, Crown Video and Tanning, Minneapolis; and Ken McAleer, Video Headquarters, Keene, N.H. Three seats are up for election. New board members will be appointed for three-year terms. Online voting will be available by May 9, and both mailed and electronically cast votes are due to iDEA – Billy Gil by 11:59 p.m. EDT June 15. www.homemediamagazine.com ‘Shrek’ a Green Machine For DreamWorks Katzenberg confirms ‘Bee Movie’ will be released on Blu-ray By Chris Tribbey SUPPLIER DreamWorks Animation SKG rode Shrek the Third on DVD to a solid first quarter, and company CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg confirmed during a financial call with investors that Bee Movie will see a Blu-ray Disc release this summer. The company reported a profit of $26.1 million during the quarter, which ended March 31, on revenue of $156.6 million. That’s compared to a profit of $15.4 million on revenue of $93.7 million during the same period in 2007. In announcing Bee Movie’s impending Blu-ray release, Katzenberg would not say when or if catalog or future theatrical titles would hit Blu-ray as well. Bee Movie contributed nearly $49 million in revenue for the quarter, shipping nearly 5 million net units, Katzenberg said. CBS’s Moonves Upbeat on the Net’s Fortunes By Chris Tribbey SUPPLIER CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves stressed the key to CBS’s future is content in a call with investors last week. “The engine that drives so much of our success, from the station to syndication to DVD sales to online, is the CBS Television Network,” Moonves said. “The key question during the strike was how will CBS rebound when original programming returns to the air? Would the viewers come back, and the answer for us is clearly yes.” He said that most shows returned to their pre-strike levels after the strike ended Feb. 12. CBS posted earnings of $244 million for the first quarter (which ended March 31), up 14% from the same period in 2007, on revenue of $3.7 billion. CBS-owned Showtime Networks added 1.3 million subscribers in the past 12 months, Moonves said, and Showtime’s programming “provided added revenue streams in the DVD market.” He said the new venture announced by Viacom April 21 “will make available to us $300 million to invest in programming going forward.” Showtime’s current distribution deal with the studios ends Jan. 1, 2009. For CBS’s online avenues, the NCAA Tournament garnered the company $23 million from online streaming, with Nielsen research showing 93% of the online streaming was done at work, “demonstrating that we are adding a whole new audience to our existing content and making bosses throughout America very angry with us.” I EMA TO AWARD RISING MALE STAR TO CAM GIGANDET The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) will name Cam Gigandet, star of Summit Entertainment’s Never Back Down, the Rising Male Star of the Year at EMA’s Home Entertainment Awards ceremony. The ceremony will be held June 24, during EMA’s Home Media Expo, June 24-26 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. – Billy Gil “We haven’t made a decision yet beyond Bee Movie [for Blu-ray], but stay tuned,” he said. Shrek the Third remained a strong source of revenue for the company, contributing just more than $48 million for the quarter, and through the end of March, nearly 20 million net units had been shipped. “We now expect Shrek the Third to move into a catalog-like performance pattern,” Katzenberg said. “However, as we saw with the first two chapters of ‘Shrek,’ we believe it will have several opportunities to sell additional home video units through events specific to the ‘Shrek’ Shrek the Third, franchise (Shrek the Musical, Bee Movie Shrek the Halls on DVD, and the fourth ‘Shrek’ film in 2010).” I TWO MONTEREY FILMS GARNER AWARDS Monterey Media’s ﬁlm The Cry, a chilling retelling of the La Llorona tale due on DVD June 6, has won the Silver Remi at the 41st Annual WorldFest Houston Film Festival. 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama, out now on DVD, also was awarded the Special Jury Award at the – Billy Gil festival. Gallery Seeks Control of Leases, Signaling Possible Ch. 11 Exit By Erik Gruenwedel RETAIL Bankrupt Movie Gallery Inc. last week filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va., seeking authorization to assume control of all unexpired store leases by May 12. The motion would suggest the Dothan, Ala.-based No. 2 DVD rental chain plans to exit bankruptcy protection possibly as early as that date. The I SPITZER ESCORT SUES ‘GIRLS GONE WILD’ FOUNDER The call girl reportedly hired by former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has ﬁled a $10 million lawsuit against “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis, his production company and others, claiming she was underage when appearing in a series of DVDs. Ashley Alexandra Dupre ﬁled the suit April 28 in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida. The suit claims Dupre’s images were used in Girls Gone Wild Spring Break 2003, Girls Gone Wild: Spring Break 2005 Anything Goes and Hookers Gone Wild, among other DVDs. Francis reportedly said he has video proof Dupre was 18 at the time of ﬁlm– Erik Gruenwedel ing. court approved Gallery’s fiscal reorganization plan earlier this month. The company entered Chapter 11 protection last October, listing debts in excess of $1.4 billion. The reorganization plan, structured last year with Sopris Capital Advisors LLC, includes conversion of $325 million 11% senior notes and $72 million of Gallery’s $175 million second lien (held by Sopris) into equity in the new company. Gallery’s first-lien indebtedness remains in place on the restructured terms. Sopris will invest up to an additional $50 million to purchase new equity of the reorganized company. Existing shares of the Gallery’s common stock will be canceled. Gallery operates about 3,000 Gallery, Hollywood Video and Game Crazy locations in 50 states. MUSIC DVD RELEASE TRENDS FOUR-MONTH COMPARISONS (JAN.-APR.): 2005-2008 At last year’s music DVD conference, one executive put it this way: “The low-hanging fruit has been plucked.” Once fans have Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits, Garbage: Absolute Garbage and Elton John: One Night Only, is there anywhere else to go? In the case of some artists, it takes years to build a repertoire of songs and music videos to fill a “best of” DVD. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the year-over-year music DVD title count for the first four months of this year is down 22.4% from the same period in 2007 and 40% from the same period during the peak year of 2006. For the music DVD segment it sure looks like the “low-hanging fruit” has been plucked — Ralph Tribbey indeed. I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR BLU-RAY As of Week Ended April 25 . . . . .Released 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 541 527 409 682 MACROVISION’S BUY OF GEMSTAR APPROVED By Chris Tribbey I LIBERATION GETS MARVEL Liberation Entertainment has signed a DVD distribution deal with Jetix Europe, giving Liberation rights to Marvel Entertainment animated DVDs in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Benelux, Germany, German-speaking Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. – Chris Tribbey I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR DVD Titles in Release Through Week Ended April 25, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total Net DVD Titles Announced and/or In Release Through Sept. 30, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR HD DVD 85,689+167 86,342+166 Scheduled As of Week Ended April 25 . . . . .Released 422 Scheduled 8 tockholders from both companies have approved Macrovision Corp.’s acquisition of Gemstar-TV Guide International. Macrovision also said that it had arranged for $650 million in debt financing to complete the deal. “We are gratified that the stockholders voiced their support for this transaction and for our vision for the combined companies,” said Macrovision president and CEO Fred Amoroso. “We are eager to continue our path to closing the transaction and moving forward as a combined company.” The acquisition of Gemstar-TV Guide is expected to be final May 2. S Home Media Magazine May 4–10, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008

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