Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 2008 - (Page 6)

NEWS BRIEFS I EMA LAUDS ‘LEGENDARY TELEVISION SON’ The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) will honor Paul Petersen, who starred as teen idol Jeff Stone on TV’s “The Donna Reed Show,” with the Legendary Television Son Award during EMA’s Home Entertainment Awards ceremony. The ceremony will take place June 24 during EMA’s Home Media Expo 2008, June 24-26 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Also for the show, the Independent Dealers of Entertainment Association (iDEA) is seeking nominations for its 2008 Retailer of the Year Awards. Categories are independent video store (single-store operations) and mid-sized video store chain (multistore). For nomination forms, contact Frank Lucca at 866/325-0052 or ﬂucca@idealink.org, or online at www. – Billy Gil idealink.org/awards. www.homemediamagazine.com DEG to Release Supply Chain Company opens books to Blockbuster and investor Carl Icahn Study at ESCA By Erik Gruenwedel RETAIL Circuit City Stores Inc. is on the block. The fiscally beleaguered Richmond, Va.-based electronics retailer apparently relented to dissident shareholders and said it will allow Blockbuster Inc., including board member Carl Icahn, to review its financials regarding a possible acquisition offer. Circuit City agreed to the due diligence agreement after Icahn (Blockbuster’s largest individual shareholder) reportedly said he would be willing to personally finance the Dallas-based rental giant’s $6-per-share cash offer. Circuit City retained Goldman Sachs & Co. to advise it on the possible takeover and other strategic alternatives. “While the Circuit City board has confidence in the company’s ability to successfully implement its turnaround plan and generate shareholder value, we believe that we can best serve the interests of our shareholders by exploring all possible alternatives to enhance shareholder value,” CEO Philip Schoonover said in a statement. Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes said he was pleased by the decision and reiterated that a combination of the two chains would provide significant cost savings and revenue opportunities. Keyes said Blockbuster would only continue with its acquisition bid if the due diligence process reaffirmed the acquisition provided “substantial benefits” to its shareholders. Circuit City Up for Sale I ‘BOURNE FILES’ WINS TWO PACKAGING AWARDS Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s The Bourne Files boxed set has garnered two awards for Shorewood Packaging, one at Graphic Design: USA’s annual American Package Design Awards competition and one at the 2008 National Paperboard Packaging Competition. The set houses the ﬁrst two ﬁlms in the “Bourne” series: The Bourne Identity and – Billy Gil The Bourne Supremacy. Schoonover said the agreement should not be construed as an indication its board had completed a review of the Blockbuster proposal or settled upon a particular strategic course of action. Edward Woo, media analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, said when a company hires strategic advisors it invariably means it is looking for the best possible deal. Woo, like many analysts, maintains that Blockbuster’s zeal for Circuit City doesn’t make economic or strategic sense. Separately, Circuit City said it would include three board of director nominees from dissident shareholder Mark Wattles’ slate at next month’s annual shareholders meeting. Wattles, through his management company, Wattles Capital Management LLC, had submitted a list of board nominees in addition to two business proposals that called for the sale of the company and ouster of Schoonover. Wattles Capital Management owns 11 million shares, or 6.5%, of Circuit City’s common stock. “I am confident that the Circuit City board and Goldman Sachs are committed to a process that will maximize shareholder value,” Wattles said in a statement. “As a result, we were able to resolve our differences and will now work to support that process anyway we can.” Wattles co-founded Hollywood Video and then sold it for $1.2 billion to Movie Gallery Inc. in 2005. He currently owns the 32-store Ultimate Electronics chain in Denver. I FTC: RETAILERS IMPROVE ENFORCING GAME RATINGS The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) latest undercover shopper survey shows video game and DVD retailers are making progress in enforcing the restrictions on ‘Mature’ ratings for video and computer games and ‘R’ ratings for DVDs. The survey employed children to go into stores to try to buy ‘M’-rated computer and video games as well as DVDs. They were turned down 80% of the time for games and 53% of the time for DVDs, an increase of 58% for games and 29% for DVDs from the previous FTC undercover shopper survey, released in April – Billy Gil 2007. Genius Q1 Loss Widens on More Revenue By Erik Gruenwedel SUPPLIER Changes in product flow as well as ongoing restructuring resulted in a widened loss for Genius Products in the first quarter ended March 31. The company posted a quarterly loss of $15.4 million, compared to a loss of $2.4 million during the prior year period. As a result of the restructuring, which included a previously disclosed 15% reduction in the Genius workforce, the Santa Monica, Calif.based supplier withdrew previous fiscal-year guidance for revenue, pre-tax earnings and free cash flow until the next financial call in August. The company expects annual savings due to restructuring to total $4.4 million. Genius, which is 70% owned by The Weinstein Co., reported a revenue increase of 18%, to $98.2 million, from $83.1 million the year prior. Principle revenue drivers included Weinstein DVD releases of The Mist, The Hunting Party, 1408 and Rob Zombie’s Halloween. A notable underachiever was Superhero Movie, which CEO Trevor I CITY LIGHTS GETS ‘KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN’ City Lights Home Entertainment has attained DVD, digital and TV distribution rights to Kiss of the Spider Woman, available at a future date for the ﬁrst time in North America on DVD and Bluray Disc. The Academy Award-winning classic stars William Hurt, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga. The disc will feature “Tangled Web: Making Kiss of the Spider Woman,” a never-before-seen documentary. – Ruby Cardenas Drinkwater said did less than “what we thought.” The supplier said it will focus on branded content from The Weinstein Co., RHI Entertainment, WWE, ESPN, Sesame Workshop, Entertainment Rights, Discover and IFC. Executives also said the company is relying on about 10 to 15 Weinstein theatrical titles for DVD release this year. Weinstein released about 18 to 20 titles last year. Genius also plans to expand its video game retail presence with the summer release of a game title based on the popular online “Line Rider” brand, followed by an interactive board game from the Halo franchise. “We believe these actions will improve our margins,” Drinkwater said. Separately, Genius announced the resignation of EVP and CFO John Mueller. Edward Byrnes, a 30-year Warner Bros. veteran, assumed Mueller’s position. The CEO admitted shoring up Genius’ lagging stock price was both a priority and embarrassment. He said initiating an oft-mentioned reverse stock split would not be done to get on NASDAQ but rather to clean up the company’s capital structure and attract investors. “2008 will be a year of rebuilding, realigning and repositioning our company,” Drinkwater said. Shares fell nearly 12% May 13, the day after the first-quarter announcement. By Chris Tribbey RESEARCH DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group will release the findings of its industry-wide home entertainment supply chain study June 17 during the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference. Held in conjunction with the seventh annual Home Entertainment Summit: transFORMATions at the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City, Calif., the ESCA conference will feature several speakers with intimate knowledge of the study and its findings. DEG worked with Capgemini and Teradata to produce the study, which employed the cooperation of the six major studios, as well as Lionsgate and Image Entertainment; retailers Costco, Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Netflix and Circuit City; and three merchandisers. The study aims to uncover inefficiencies in the DVD supply chain. “By assuring that the product arrives on the store shelves when it is supposed to and when the consumer wants it, we not only improve our overall business but build continued DVD satisfaction among buyers,” said DEG executive director Amy Jo Smith. For more information about the study, contact Lyndsey Schaefer at schaefer@degonline.org. For more information about the ESCA conference, visit www.entertainmentsupplychain.com/la. Glover Touts ‘Honeydripper’ (L-R): Billy Northup, VP of sales for Screen Media Films; David Ingram, CEO of Ingram Entertainment; actor Danny Glover; and Suzanne Blech, SVP of sales for Screen Media Films, attended the Ingram National Sales Conference held April 2426 in Atlanta, Ga., to promote the upcoming DVD release of Honeydripper, which hits stores June 24. Home Media Magazine May 18–24, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.idealink.org/awards http://www.idealink.org/awards http://www.entertainmentsupplychain.com/la http://www.entertainmentsupplychain.com/la

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Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 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 18-24, 2008

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