Indie film The Secret top seller on Amazon
Self-help title also available as online stream, book
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 4/13/2007
APRIL 13 | The Secret is out at retail.
Amazon.com is counting the independently distributed self-help DVD its top overall DVD seller to date this year. The title currently sits at No. 1 on the site, trumping such theatrical blockbusters as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Casino Royale and Warner Home Video’s The Departed.
Secret also is ranked No. 1 at Barnes & Noble’s Web site. At Hastings Entertainment’s Web site, Secret was out of stock as of April 10 but is nevertheless among the chain’s Top 10 sellers.
Created by Rhonda Byrne, a principal at Australian company Prime Time Productions, Secret aims to motivate people to solve their problems through positive thinking. Chicken Soup For the Soul author Jack Canfield, among other scientists, psychologists and professionals, appear to support the theories espoused in the documentary-style film.
Some of the success is undoubtedly due to Oprah Winfrey profiling the DVD and its companion book of the same name on her Feb. 8 talk show. The book was published late November. On Feb. 27, publisher Simon & Schuster announced it was running off an additional 2 million copies of the book, representing the largest single order in the company’s history. Through February, the book has sold 3.75 million copies.
The DVD is showing extraordinary sales strength over a short period of time.
“It is a modern success story in large part because of how uncharacteristically, yet consistently it has risen to the top of the charts,” said Doug Thomas, senior DVD editor at Amazon.com. “The title first appeared in our Top 5 at the end of January, and it hasn’t left the Top 10 since.”
“We started stocking The Secret about two months ago, and as is typical with a pop culture phenomenon like this, there is residual interest for many months after the initial spark of popularity upon its initial release,” said Virgin senior product manager Chris Anstey.
Secret bowed as an online stream just over a year ago. Still available at www.thesecret.tv, Secret can be streamed for $4.95 and/or purchased as a DVD for $29.95.The DVDs began popping up via third-party sellers on Amazon last year. On Feb. 1 of this year, distributor TS Productions LLC began delivering the title to wholesalers and retailers, also including Borders, Costco and Wal-Mart.
Without the help of a traditional TV marketing blitz a major studio title would receive, The Secret DVD has sold more than 2 million copies, according to Byrne spokesman John Stellar.
There have been more than 100,000 streams of the film online, adds Drew Heriot, one of The Secret’s directors. The title cost just $3.5 million to produce.
“It’s a very new model for how movies can be released,” said Heriot. “There are usually windows, where you have to wait for [a theatrical] film to come to DVD.”
Virtually everybody who streamed the movie online also bought the DVD at the site, Heriot said. “The Secret has been one of the top selling books on Walmart.com since we began offering it earlier this year,” said Walmart.com spokesman Ravi Jariwala. “We started selling the DVD on our site last week, and it’s still too early to tell whether it will also be one of our top selling movie titles. The Secret was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show earlier this year, and, like many media titles featured on the show, customer demand has been strong since the show was aired.”
