Anchor Bay Mad for star vehicle
Title will be company's largest release ever
By Danny King -- Video Business, 2/29/2008
FEB. 29 | Anchor Bay Entertainment will begin its exclusive U.S. DVD agreement with sister company Overture Films by releasing the Diane Keaton-starring Mad Money on May 13.
The comedy, which also stars Katie Holmes and Queen Latifah, is Anchor Bay’s largest release ever, from both a box-office and marketing standpoint. The studio, known more for its TV DVD and smaller horror film releases, will embark on a “multimillion dollar” marketing campaign for the film’s DVD release, including print, TV and Internet advertising, Anchor Bay president Bill Clark said. Mad Money grossed more than $20 million in theaters.
“You’re going to see a marketing campaign that’s equivalent to what the major studios do,” said Clark, who declined to give a more specific spending figure for Mad Money.
Mad Money will be the first of as many as 12 Overture films Anchor Bay will be releasing annually on DVD, Clark said. Future Overture titles include Last Chance Harvey, starring Dustin Hoffman, and Henry Poole is Here, with Luke Wilson and George Lopez.
Overture is headed by ex-MGM vice chairman Chris McGurk and former United Artists president Danny Rosett. Both Overture and Anchor Bay are units of Starz, which is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp. Starz’s third-quarter 2007 sales, at $282 million, accounted for 13% of Liberty Media’s revenue and 20% of its operating cash flow, according to SEC filings.
