Studios slash prices for holiday promos

Wal-Mart expected to price discs at $1.88

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 11/10/2006

NOV. 10 | With help from the studios, retailers are mounting deep discounts on catalog DVDs designed to kick-off holiday shopping before Black Friday and keep it going past Boxing Day.

“There are multiple deals—Black Friday, there’ll be some for Boxing Day [the day after Christmas] and then some for the whole quarter,” said Mason Goodfellow, Hastings Entertainment director of marketing.

Sources expect Wal-Mart to hit a new low with $1.88 pricing on major studio titles for a limited time, starting the day after Thanksgiving, also known as “Black Friday.” It’s unclear if the product is from one or more suppliers. Last year, Wal-Mart made waves with $3.44-priced Minority Report, among other studio titles.

Sources said that Best Buy, meanwhile, will be offering Sony Pictures Home Entertainment titles for $2.99. The chain had no comment. Sony didn’t respond by deadline.

Circuit City this month started offering $9.99 sale-priced Buena Vista Home Entertainment holiday titles tied to the theatrical bow of The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. With each purchase, shoppers scored a $7 free movie cash download card.

“It does seem to be moving earlier this year,” said Jeff Baker, Warner Home Video’s senior VP and general manager of theatrical catalog and domestic sales. “A number of retailers were putting out Christmas titles in October, prior to Halloween. I think there is a core group of consumers who buy early, and I think there is a desire to capture those sales.”

Baker added that Warner will repeat a strategy started last year of flowing title repricings to retailers for the day after Christmas. Retailers are expected to discount box sets by as much as 40%, to prices as low as $19.99 each, thanks to Warner repricings. Titles include The Essential Steve McQueen Collection, Lord of the Rings (from New Line Home Entertainment) and The Complete James Dean Collection.

One retailer is particularly fond of a flexible Buena Vista repricing program, valid through the end of the year, that gives retailers rebates on catalog titles, making it possible for retailers to discount more deeply and still make a profit. The retailer is taking in such titles as Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown under the program.

Smaller retailers are appreciative of extended catalog promotions because it helps them stay competitive against dominant mass merchants.

“There will be huge Black Friday sales and [stores using DVD] as loss leaders,” Newbury Comics buyer Ian Leshin said. “But what we’re going to be able to do is offer great pricing through the whole fourth quarter. People can come to us and see that we’re not just doing it one time.”