Studios set street dates for Q4 tentpoles

Hancock leads Nov. 25 but has lots of company

By Susanne Ault and Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 8/29/2008

AUG. 29 | With more than a dozen titles that grossed more than $100 million at the box-office and six that made more than $200 million headed to DVD in the fourth quarter, studios at Labor Day were still jockeying for the best possible street dates for some titles.

Movies including heavyweights Hancock and Kung Fu Panda changed dates at least once in recent weeks, with Hancock settling on Nov. 25 and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment making its official announcement of the title.

Retailers, meanwhile, say they are delighted to finally get some confirmation on street dates they’ve been circling since early summer so they can move ahead with fourth-quarter marketing and merchandising plans.

Other title confirmations in recent days include Paramount Home Entertainment’s The Love Guru for Sept. 16, Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s The Incredible Hulk on Oct. 21 and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment’s WALL-E on Nov. 18. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment confirmed Space Chimps and Meet Dave for Nov. 25 and plans to announce further details about the titles this week.

Up until late August, retailers were expecting both Paramount’s Kung Fu Panda and Disney’s WALL-E on Nov. 18. But stores widely speculated that one studio would change dates, as chances are good that two such similarly skewing titles would cannibalize one another’s sales.

With Disney firming up WALL-E for Nov. 18, Paramount has moved Kung Fu Panda back a week to Nov. 11, retailers said. Paramount had no comment at deadline.

Retailers for some time expected Hancock on Nov. 11, before Sony settled on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

“Studios are so [sensitive to not] upsetting films’ theatrical runs, and when they finally make a date official, it’s hard to give people all the info on it they need,” said a retail source. “We’d love 45 days official notification before street date in order to have all the materials available—box art for ads and trailers to run in stores.”

The source got confirmation on Iron Man’s Sept. 30 street after its prebook date passed but was still able to make the correct orders on the Paramount title.

Considering the number and scale of the films involved, retailers say they are generally pleased with how the release schedule is shaking out through the end of the year.

“There have been several movements in the last month or so that I’ve heard about,” said another retail source. “Most are starting to announce now. It is pretty well spread out, and that’s great for everybody.”

At this point, nearly all of the major $200 million-plus grossing films are formally in fourth-quarter position. Paramount’s $317 million Iron Man and $315 million Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull roll out on Sept. 30 and Oct. 14, respectively. That should be followed by $211 million Kung Fu Panda on Nov. 11; $214 million WALL-E Nov. 18 and $225 million Hancock Nov. 25.

Retailers have long believed Warner Home Video’s $471 million The Dark Knight will hit shelves on Dec. 9 but, considering the past switches, might be moved as well.

One crunched-up date appears to be Nov. 25, with Sony’s Step Brothers and Hancock, Warner’s Fred Claus and Fox’s Space Chimps and Meet Dave expected to roll out on the same day. Of these four titles, only Hancock has been confirmed at deadline.

But store sources say they are happy about that as well, because the Tuesday right before Thanksgiving should bring in plenty of holiday shoppers for the titles.

In the week’s title announcements:

• The Love Guru will mark one of Paramount’s first digital copy enhanced titles and will bow as a single standard DVD ($28.96), two-disc special edition standard DVD ($36.99) and Blu-ray ($39.99). Both the two-disc and BD versions will include a number of featurettes and bloopers.

• The Incredible Hulk will be released as a single standard DVD ($29.98), three-disc standard DVD ($34.98) and BD ($39.98). Five featurettes will be included on both the three-disc and BD editions. BD also includes such exclusive BD Live features as in-movie chatting.

• Hancock will arrive as a single standard DVD ($28.96), two-disc standard DVD and BD ($39.95). Its two-disc and BD versions will carry seven featurettes. The BD edition will include exclusive picture-in-picture interactivity.

• WALL-E will land as a single standard DVD ($29.98), three-disc standard DVD ($39.99), a two-disc BD ($35.99) and a three-disc BD ($40.99). Its three-disc and BD versions will carry six featurettes and a documentary on Pixar. Exclusively, the BD version also will include a pop-up info feature, various arcade games and a picture-in-picture comparison between the finished short Burn-E and its early storyboards.