Home Media Magazine - July 6-12, 2008 - (Page 1)

JULY 6–12, 2008 Home A R C H Media RESE MAR KET S HAR E as of 6/29/08 I Blu-ray I DVD Consumers spent $129.76 million on DVDs for the week Blu-ray vs. DVD Sales* 7% Consumers spent $8.88 million on Blu-ray Discs for the week 93% Up 5.11% from the previous week. * Top 20 unit volume Up 4.71% from the previous week. Source: Home Media Research BRINGING DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT TO YOU Gallery’s Mityas: ‘Moving Forward’ By Erik Gruenwedel Bo Loyd, and founder, chairman and CEO Joe RETAIL Much has happened in the DVD rental Malugen, who retained his board position. market as Movie Gallery Inc. sat sequestered Drawing customers and revenue to Gallery’s in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, attempt- 3,300 retail stores, including Hollywood Video ing to surface from under a mountain of debt and Game Crazy, falls on the shoulders of via a $1.1 billion acquisition of Hollywood Mityas, a former aeronautical engineer, who Entertainment Corp. in 2005. brings 20 years of retail consulting experiRival Blockbuster Inc. aggressively ence, most recently with A.T. Kere-branded itself an entertainment arney Inc. retail buffet, and online DVD rental Mityas, in a phone interview with pioneer Netflix Inc. continued to Home Media Magazine, explained expand by-mail dominance and just how he envisions Gallery’s future. co-branded (with Roku Inc.) a miniset-top box that streams movies diI HM: Blockbuster has made it a priorrectly from the Internet to the TV. ity to expand beyond traditional rental Dothan, Ala.-based Gallery — at to include sellthrough of movies, games one time a profitable company with (new and used), food, hardware and other Mityas $30-plus share price catering to a related consumer electronics products. Is largely rural demographic — has a new lease Gallery following a similar path? on life (thanks to private equity capital) under- Mityas: We need to focus on what our customers scored by a mandate to return to profitability want. What our customers need is a full breadth as quickly as possible. of movie and game product. And they need that To achieve that end, Sopris Capital Advisors movie theater experience. So we are going to LLC brought in new CEO C.J. Gabriel Jr., provide products and services that meet both who, in turn, hired Sherif Mityas as COO and their in-home rental as well as library needs president of retail operations. both from a new release and previously viewed Departed are former retail president Jeffrey perspective. Stubbs, EVP and chief merchandising officer See GALLERY, Page 20 Blockbuster Drops Its Bid for Circuit City, Cites Conditions By Erik Gruenwedel RETAIL Citing adverse market conditions, Blockbuster Inc. July 1 formally rescinded its 2-month-old $1.32 billion offer to acquire consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. Blockbuster chairman and CEO Jim Keyes said completion of the initial due diligence process determined that it was not in the best interest of Blockbuster’s shareholders to proceed with an acquisition of Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City. “We continue to believe in the strategic merits of a consumer retail proposition that would bring media content and electronic devices together under one brand,” Keyes said in a statement. “We will pursue this strategy through our Blockbuster stores as a way to diversify the business and better serve the entertainment retail segment.” Many analysts had criticized Blockbuster for the proposed acquisition, with some calling it one of the most ill-conceived potential mergers in corporate history. See BLOCKBUSTER, Page 19 AMPTP GIVES FINAL CONTRACT OFFER TO SAG By Erik Gruenwedel Characterizing the parties as in a “de-facto” strike, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) June 30 issued their final (43page) contract offer to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), a proposal they say includes $250 million in additional compensation benefits over three years. The current contract expired at midnight June 30. The proposal is consistent with labor agreements See AMPTP, Page 20 SUPPLIER >> ELECTRO N IC DELIVERY MovieBeam Sale Questioned By Erik Gruenwedel VOD The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va., July 1 received a written objection to Movie Gallery Inc.’s May 17 asset sale of its over-the-air MovieBeam streaming service for $250,000. Dothan, Ala.-based Gallery, which was under bankruptcy protection at the time, in May received approval for the intellectual property rights >> HIGH-DEF ‘Godfather’ in Blu INSIDE Paramount is debuting the “Godfather” trilogy on Blu-ray Disc. No Blu for Toshiba, Yet The company instead seeks to upscale DVD. sale of its MovieBeam download service to third-party Dar Capital for $2.2 million. Separately, it sold select physical assets related to MovieBeam for $250,000. The anonymous letter decried the secretive nature of the sale of “satellites, routing computers … and tons See MOVIEBEAM, Page 19 INSIDE >> MacFarlane, Google Team Web series due. >> Indies on Unbox IODA inks with Amazon’s service. PAGE 8 PAGE 6 NEWS Lionsgate is in a deal with Comcast to put reality TV fare on DVD, including shows from E!, Style Network and G4. PRODUCT Cam Gigandet, EMA’s 2008 Rising Male Star, discusses playing the bad boy in Summit’s Never Back Down. RESEARCH Warner fought tooth and nail to the top of the charts with 10,000 B.C., which took the top spot in DVD sales, rentals and BD sales. Page 4 Page 16 Page 17

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - July 6-12, 2008

Home Media Magazine - July 6-12, 2008 Contents News TV DVD Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - July 6-12, 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.