Video-on-demand hot in November
DIGITAL: Many of the biggest box-office films coming to VOD same day as DVD
By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 11/2/2009
NOV. 3 | DIGITAL: November is likely to end up one for the record books for the video-on-demand business.
Sony will release Angels & Demons day-and-date on DVD and VOD.
Warner Home Video, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Entertainment are all planning day-and-date VOD and DVD/Blu-ray Disc releases for some of the biggest films headed to disc this month.
Sony’s Angels & Demons, the biggest box-office film hitting DVD this month with a $133 million U.S. box-office take, The Ugly Truth ($89 million), Warner’s Four Christmases ($120 million) and My Sister’s Keeper ($49 million), and Universal’s Bruno ($60 million) and Funny People ($52 million) are all set to debut on VOD timed for their disc debut in November, according to In Demand, a VOD service owned by Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Entertainment.
Tomorrow alone, four new day-and-date releases are headed to VOD and DVD/Blu-ray: Sony’s Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 ($65 million box office), Fox’s Aliens in the Attic ($25 million) and I Love You, Beth Cooper ($14.6 million) and Magnolia’s Food, Inc. ($4.3 million).
But Thanksgiving weekend is likely to be the real record-breaker for VOD, with the debut of the month’s biggest films Angels & Demons, Four Christmases and Funny People. Fox’s Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, released last month on disc, also debuts on VOD that weekend.
According to In Demand, more than 110 films have been offered on VOD day-and-date with the disc this year. That compares with 76 films last year and a mere 15 in 2007.
Studios that have debuted films day-and-date have seen a pickup in VOD rentals. Last week, Summit’s Twilight overtook Warner’s Gran Torino, for the title of top-selling VOD film of the year. Warner said Gran Torino, released in June day-and-date, did more than 6 million VOD transactions worldwide.
