Home Media Magazine - June 8-14, 2008 - (Page 6)

NEWS BRIEFS I REPORT: CASH-STRAPPED CONSUMERS TURN TO RENTAL Facing gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, 87% of consumers in a new survey said they would turn to renting DVD movies and video games for their home entertainment needs. The survey, conducted in April by eRewards.com for Blockbuster Inc., found 79% of respondents felt renting a movie was a good economic value, and 76% said watching movies was a good diversion from the realities of life. “Renting a movie is a low-cost, highentertainment-value option that many families turn to as a fun activity to do together,” Woodward said. Separately, Blockbuster has initiated an aggressive online marketing campaign (“Why Try Blockbuster by Mail?”) for its by-mail service, which includes a comparison chart with rival Netﬂix. – Erik Gruenwedel www.homemediamagazine.com Study: DVD Whipped Up Indy Theatrical Take By Erik Gruenwedel (through digital signatures) all audio media (TV, radio RESEARCH Nearly 30% of moviegoers who attended the and movies) to which they are exposed. May 22 opening weekend release of Indiana Jones Tamara Gaffney, account director of IMMI, said the and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull data suggested a significant amount watched at least one of the original of “refreshment viewing” among “Inthree installments on DVD in the diana Jones” fans, which she said was preceding two weeks, according to a not unusual considering the time gap new report. from the last release and the film’s The fourth installment from direcIndiana Jones and genre. tor Steven Spielberg, nearly 20 years She said there was an unusually the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull large amount of media consumption after the release of the third film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Last among consumers leading up to the Crusade, generated more than $150 million at the U.S. movie’s release. The analyst said the titles’ availability box office in its first four days of release. on DVD offered consumers flexibility to catch up and The study, conducted by Integrated Media Measure- introduce new family members to the franchise. ment Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based data tracking Gaffney said marathon airings of the “Indiana Jones” company, found that among moviegoers, 5.3% watched movies in select markets contributed to the anticipation all three previous titles, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana for the new film. Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade, while “We were surprised to see how high [percentage of 12% watched at least two of the movies. refreshment viewing] was,” Gaffney said. “We don’t The data was obtained via research panels where- normally see those types of numbers. Expectations were by participants were given mobile phones that track around 10% to 15%. That represents a lot of people.” DVD BOOSTS LIONSGATE By Erik Gruenwedel I TRANS WORLD CUTS BOARD Trans World Entertainment will reduce from nine to ﬁve the number of members on its board of directors, according to a regulatory ﬁling. The parent to f.y.e., Suncoast and Wherehouse retail brands said the smaller board will reduce corporate overhead costs by an undisclosed amount. Trans World lost $11.9 million in the most recent ﬁnancial period. Board members who voluntarily opted to leave (and are not employed by Trans World) include Mark Cohen (whose term expires in 2010), Lori Schafer (2009), Edmond Thomas (2009) and Brett Brewer (2009). Remaining board members include founder, chairman and CEO Robert Higgins, Martin Hanaka and Isaac Kaufman (both of whom are up for re-election), Joseph Marone and Michael Solow. – Erik Gruenwedel Study: PS3 to Finish Second Only to Wii By John Gaudiosi GAMES When the dust finally settles on the latest game console format war, research firm DFC Intelligence forecasts that Sony’s PlayStation 3 will come in second behind Nintendo’s Wii, with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in third place. David Cole, president of FDC Intelligence, said Sony will overtake Microsoft for second place next year and have a strong finish behind Nintendo by 2011, when new consoles are expected to arrive. Cole said the price of the PS3 has come down to a reasonable level and that the software lineup is finally starting to look fairly strong. Most importantly, he said, Sony was able to keep the PlayStation 2 installed base active. DFC Intelligence forecasts that sales for the current generation of systems will pass the 180 million mark in 2011, a year ahead of original projections. Many of the biggest games of 2008, aside from Grand Theft Auto IV, have yet to launch, including the PS3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 and the Xbox 360 exclusives Fable 2 and Gears of War 2. TRENDS IN DVD PRICING: UNWEIGHTED SRP AVERAGES FIVE-MONTH COMPARISONS: 2005-2008* With a new competing format (Blu-ray), overall title counts down, and evidence of library exhaustion dominating the news, you would think that there would be some pressure on DVD pricing. While aggressive repricing continues to drive catalog lower at retail, the new arrivals in the market place — based on SRP — continued to remain firm. New theatrical releases remain stable, the number of TV multidisc sets are up (possibly due to the writers strike) and the number of multiple-title packages (as opposed to single-film releases) all contribute to higher pricing trends. — Ralph Tribbey $24.00 $22.48 $21.55 $23.62 “The sales performance of the PS3 has been less than stellar, but Sony has survived,” Cole said. “The Xbox 360 was unable to take advantage of Sony’s struggles to build the type of large lead needed to maintain a long-term advantage. The PS3 survived the onslaught of AAA Xbox 360 titles that hit the market from late 2006 through 2007. Halo 3 had great sales, but it did very little to enhance the Xbox 360’s overall position in the marketplace. “The Xbox 360 is the system of choice for fans of high-action firstperson shooter (FPS) games. However, for the 80%-plus of game consumers that do not play FPS games, the Xbox 360 is not the system of choice.” Lionsgate is “hitting on all cylinders,” according to president and COO Steve Beeks. The mini-major posted fourth-quarter (ended March 31) fiscal-2008 income of $29.8 million on revenue of $511.5 million, aided by strong DVD sales across multiple genres. The studio reported income of $25 million and revenue of $331.6 million during the previous-year period. DVD sales — spearheaded by 3:10 to Yuma, War, Saw 4, Good Luck Chuck and Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? — helped Lionsgate generate 9.1% home entertainment market penetration in the quarter, the studio reported. “This is major-studio level market share,” said CEO Jon Feltheimer. “We’ve had a great year.” Lionsgate reported ending the fiscal year with 7% market share in home entertainment. For fiscal 2008, home entertainment revenue grew 18% to $623.5 million for combined new media, DVD and library, and is projected to top $700 million in fiscal 2009. Beeks said library revenue, which included television and international, grew to $264 million and generated cash flow of $100 million. DTV, family, TV DVD and fitness rounded out the DVD drivers. The quarter also saw the first DVD release of Tyler Perry’s TV series, “House of Payne.” Fiscal-2008 revenue topped $1.3 billion, up 39% from $976.7 million in the previous year. Lionsgate reported a fiscal-year net loss of $74 million, compared to a profit of $27.5 million during the previous-year period on a 118% increase in theatrical distribution and marketing expenses. Beeks said Lionsgate’s recently announced DVD distribution deal with HIT Entertainment would catapult it to No. 3 among distributors of non-theatrical children’s entertainment (see story, page 8). See DVD BOOSTS, Page 26 SUPPLIER PEOPLE $23.00 $22.27 $22.00 I SONY PICTURES UPS GARRA Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has promoted Michele Garra to the newly created position of SVP, Asia Paciﬁc. Garra formerly served as managing director, Australia and New Zealand, Garra and was based in Sydney. She will relocate to the company’s home ofﬁce in Culver City, Calif. She will report to Matt Brown, EVP, international – Billy Gil I DVDPLAY NAMES PIPER PRESIDENT AND COO Rental kiosk company DVDPlay has appointed former Safeway VP Charles “Charlie” T. Piper its president and COO, effective immediately. Before joining DVDPlay, Piper was SVP of operations for prepaid gift card company Blackhawk Network, where he coordinated operations between the company and its 80,000-plus retail partners. He was also responsible for Safeway’s front-end gift card revenue programs. Before Blackhawk, Piper was VP of corporate retail operations for Safeway. – Chris Tribbey $21.00 $20.00 * Unweighted SRP averages for new DVD SKUs. Five months ending May 31. I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR DVD Titles in Release Through Week Ended May 30, 2008. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total Net DVD Titles Announced and/or In Release Through Sept. 30, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR HD DVD Scheduled 86,598+201 87,191+189 I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR BLU-RAY As of Week Ended May 30 . . . . . . . Released As of Week Ended May 30 . . . . .Released 428 Scheduled 1 Home Media Magazine June 8–14, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://eRewards.com http://eRewards.com

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Home Media Magazine - June 8, 2008 Contents News News High-Def News Electronic Delivery News TV DVD Extreme Sports KidVid Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - June 8-14, 2008

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