Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - (Page 8) NEWS www.homemediamagazine.com Warner’s Bewkes: Xmas Is Crucial By Erik Gruenwedel if consumers purchase fewer players SUPPLIER Time Warner CEO Jeff and catalog titles, which the CEO said Bewkes said he is aware of “reduced could cause some reduction. “There is one offsetting point,” footprint traffic” at DVD retail, and is “watching closely” to see what kind of Bewkes added. “It may that Blu-ray impact the current economic climate players are coming out under $200, which could hold up [home may have on video sales. video] sales a little bit.” “Essentially, the industry John Martin, EVP and CFO, is down a little bit, but we said he anticipates strong [Warner Home Video] are sellthrough of Warner’s maup so far,” Bewkes said. “We jor titles, including The Dark have been outperforming Knight, which bows on DVD the home video industry.” and Blu-ray Dec. 9. Martin He said U.S. consumer Bewkes said the studio continues to spending on home video in the first nine months of this year ramp up electronic sellthrough of movwas $13.5 billion, which the executive ies, which he said had generated nearly said was down about 2.5% year-to-date $300 million year-to-date, double from from the prior-year period. (Home Me- last year. “That is helping to buoy any potendia Magazine pegs consumer spending through Sept. 30 at $14.7 billion.) tial downdraft in DVD,” he said. Despite home video success, the Bewkes said consumer spending for Warner DVDs topped $2.7 billion, an filmed-entertainment division of Time increase of 7%. He said the studio Warner posted third-quarter (ended remained No. 1 with 20.5% market Sept. 30) revenue of $2.9 billion, down share in the United States year to date, $297 million (9%) from $3.1 billion last year. which is up from 20% last year. “Generally, and this goes beyond DVD sales and includes movie tickets, those kinds of home entertainment options seem to be fairly resistant to economic downturns,” Bewkes said. By Erik Gruenwedel “What we don’t know yet in the fourth RETAIL Circuit City Stores last week quarter is what, if any, impact there said it will shutter 155 stores in the United may be on DVD catalog in particular. States, scale back future store expansion We think there will be some, but we and aggressively renegotiate select leases. are not sure how much, and we think The closures will result in the termination we will do better than other studios.” of 17% of its 46,000-person workforce. He said Christmas will be key to see The bulk of unprofitable closures will take place in California (25 stores), Georgia (19), Illinois (13) and Arizona (13), among other BRIEFS states. The company said the 155 stores Rentrak Shrugs Off Paramount Financials Profit Drop Lifted by ‘Iron Man’ By Erik Gruenwedel SUPPLIER Despite being released the last day of the third quarter (ended Sept. 30), pre-sales of the Iron Man DVD and Blu-ray Disc helped buoy Paramount Home Entertainment revenue 30%, or $136 million, to $593 million, according to studio executives. The popular title sold about 7.2 million DVD and Blu-ray units during its first week of release — more than any packaged media release in 2008. The studio said Iron Man to date had sold 850,000 Blu-ray units. “Iron Man is the No. 1 DVD of the year and the best-selling Blu-ray disc of all time,” said Philippe Dauman, president and CEO of studio parent Viacom, in a call with investors. Tom Dooley, CFO of parent Viacom, said despite home entertainment’s profitable quarter, the theat- Iron Man CIRCUIT CITY TO CUT 155 STORES I IMAGE ACQUIRES JONES STARRER ‘ELECTRIC MIST’ Image Entertainment has acquired all North American rights to the film In the Electric Mist, starring Tommy Lee Jones. The movie is based on the best-selling novel by James Lee Burke. Jones plays Det. Dave Robicheaux, who investigates a series of murders and hunts down a serial killer in Louisiana. The film also stars John Goodman, Mary Steenburgen, Ned Beatty and Peter Sarsgaard. I FREMANTLE SIGNS WITH ACORN FremantleMedia Enterprises has signed a seven-year deal to have more than 30 of its classic British mystery and drama titles distributed throughout the United States and Canada by Acorn Me– John Latchem dia Group. “Even though the sellthrough and rental DVD businesses are down, we are holding out very well,” said Paul Rosenbaum, chairman and CEO of Rentrak. “Looking at our numbers, I’m going to assume people are going to their local video stores and renting DVDs.” Revenue in Rentrak’s data tracking businesses (Advanced Media InforIn addition, global disruptions to the mation) division grew 23%, to $3.1 financial markets have made it difficult for million from $2.5 million last year. vendors to insure Circuit City’s purchases. The AMI segment — which includes generated about $1.4 billion in net sales. Circuit City reported a loss of more than separate tracking services for cable The Richmond, Va.-based No. 2 consumer electronics chain said waning consumer $239 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, video-on-demand, retail sales, theatconfidence, reduced third-quarter sales, compared to a loss of $62 million during rical revenue and, soon, linear TV tracking — is set to launch in the gross margins, and restrictive actions taken the prior-year period. Edward Woo, analyst with Wedbush Mor- first quarter of fiscal 2010. The comby select vendors (tougher payment and credit terms) had resulted in an unmanage- gan Securities in Los Angeles, said the clo- mercial launch of a digital downsures signaled the first stage of a probable load tracking service currently being able situation for the company. A third-party appraisal reported Circuit Chapter 11 filing. “It may actually be in their tested with select studios is slated City’s estimated net orderly liquidation best interest [to file bankruptcy] so they can for later in the fiscal quarter, Rosenquickly renegotiate their leases,” Woo said. baum said. value to be lower than expected. Rentrak said the AMI segment tracks user data for more than 54 million set-top boxes in the UnitDVD TITLE MARKET SHARE FOR TOP 25 SUPPLIERS ed States, which it said represents SELECTED CATEGORIES — OVERALL: 1997-2008* 100% market penetration. DVD Product Category Top 25 The company announced that When you look at the DVD market in terms Anime 98.8% TV-on-DVD, Multiple-Disc 85.0% U.K.-based Virgin Media selected of supplier activity by product category you Theatrical Feature Films, Catalog (pre-1997) 78.4% Rentrak to track ad revenue for its get some interesting results. If you take the TV-on-DVD, Single Disc 78.0% VOD service. The 90-day trial tracks top 25 suppliers for selected product groups Music, Opera and Stage Musicals 71.9% Special Interest - Fitness 64.5% ads to program genres and tests the you can find product source concentraSpecial Interest - Instructional 64.5% range of ad responses on a weekly tion levels as high as 98.8% in the anime Children, Non-Feature 61.5% basis. category. Special Interest - Sports 59.4% Foreign Language, Feature Films 57.0% Consolidated revenue grew 7% to On the low side, 40.7% is the number in Direct-to-Video, Feature Films 55.2% $24.3 million in the quarter, from the catch-all area of special interest – all Special Interest - All Other Groups 40.7% $22.8 million last year. other groups (after taking out fitness, sports * 2008 results through Oct. 31. Excludes discontinued titles. Net income fell 23% to $842,000, and how-to). Here you have a total of 1,016 from $1.1 million last year, which unique product suppliers, which means that I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR DVD the company attributed to increased 25 of these control 40.7% of the releases and Titles in Release Through costs associated with its AMI divi991 suppliers account for the other 59.3% of Week Ended Oct. 31, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sion, in addition to downturns in the releases. Total Net DVD Titles Announced and/or the economy and expected effective In Release Through March 31, 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . — Ralph Tribbey tax rate. The company said it had about $26 I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR BLU-RAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . As of Week Ended Oct. 31 Released 858 Scheduled 177 million in free cash with no debt. rical unit suffered a 36% decline in revenue to $312 million when its release slate, including Tropic Thunder and American Teen, failed to match the box office success of Transformers during the prior-year period. The decline resulted in an operating loss of $19 million for filmed entertainment on revenue of $1.31 billion, compared to operating income of $72 million and revenue of $1.3 billion last year. Dauman said director Steven Spielberg would continue to produce the “Transformers” franchise (a sequel is now in production). The studio remains ebullient about fourth-quarter filmed entertainment consolidated income projections, which executives said would benefit from the DVD releases of summer hits Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda. By Erik Gruenwedel entrak Corp. reported a 5% increase in second-quarter (ended Sept. 30) fiscal-2009 pay-per-transaction (PPT) DVD rental revenue to $21.2 million, from $20.3 million during the prior-year period. The Portland, Ore.-based datatracking company said the rise was due to higher volumes of title units shipped as consumers sought out rental as a cost-effective alternative to sellthrough in the current economic climate. The increase marked the second-consecutive quarterly gain for the PPT segment. R 92,130+392 92,710+250 Home Media Magazine November 9–15, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 Contents News High-Def News Electronic Delivery News TV DVD Cine Mercado Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 (Page Cover1) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 (Page Cover2) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 (Page 1) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 (Page 2) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 (Page 3) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 (Page 4) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 (Page 5) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 (Page 6) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Contents (Page 7) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - News (Page 8) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - News (Page 9) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - High-Def News (Page 10) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - High-Def News (Page 11) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Electronic Delivery News (Page 12) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Electronic Delivery News (Page 13) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Electronic Delivery News (Page 14) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Electronic Delivery News (Page 15) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 16) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 17) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Cine Mercado (Page 18) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Cine Mercado (Page 19) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Cine Mercado (Page 20) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Cine Mercado (Page 21) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Reviews (Page 22) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Reviews (Page 23) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Reviews (Page 24) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Reviews (Page 25) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 26) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 27) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Top 20 DVD Sellers (Page 28) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 29) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 30) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 31) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 32) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover3) Home Media Magazine - November 9-November 15, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover4)
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