September 5, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Amid post-Labor Day reports about the summer box-office’s sunny performance, The New York Times last week ran a story about a glut of films hitting Hollywood and making it difficult for even star vehicles to secure adequate theatrical distribution.

The two stories are separate, but taken together, illustrate the complexity of the movie business and, consequently, home entertainment retailing.

Theaters tallied $4.12 billion in summer movie ticket sales, according to VB sister publicationVariety, due largely to the $500 million-plus performance of Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight. While grosses were more or less on pace with 2007—off just 1% or so—that’s a function of hig...Read More

September 4, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

WaxWorks’ Team Marketing on Oct. 28 will release NASCAR documentary Dale Jr.—Shifting Gears, which originally aired as five episodes on ESPN.

The two-disc package, priced at $19.95 (prebook now), chronicles the recent move by NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., from the racing team founded by his late father to the Hendrick Motorsports team.

The title carries extras including footage of photo and commercial shoots, video outtakes and bloopers and music videos.

Industries: Fan File, Studios/Suppliers

August 29, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Labor Day. The kids go back to school and, any minute, the Halloween costumes will replace the backpacks and lunch boxes in Target—if they haven’t already. September is really just a transition month between summer and the fall holidays, or, as the time period is less poetically known in business, “the fourth quarter.”

Everyone recognizes the signs of the season. For consumers, it may be apparent in the seasonal displays at retail. For retailers, it’s the nailing down of DVD release dates for summer blockbusters.

The past week has brought
confirmation on two of the six $200 million-plus titles due in the quarter, Disney’s WALL-E and Sony’s Hancock.

The ...Read More

Industries: Retail

August 27, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Rajan Zed, this one's for you.

For months, I've been getting emails from "rajanz", as I presume every journalist identifiable on the Internet also has, about boycotting Mike Myers comedy The Love Guru because it lampoons Hinduism. Rajan Zed is the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, according to the email, and a Hindu chaplain in Reno, Nev., which explains his concern and his zeal to have this issue covered in the press. 

I, and everyone else on staff, have ignored these missives because they concerned the theatrical release, and, frankly, the stinky reviews for Guru seemed ample reason for people to stay away from the theater. (Though he did get some exposure on newsweek.washingtonpost.com's ...Read More
Industries: Retail, Studios/Suppliers

August 18, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The growth in e-commerce has dramatically outpaced traditional retail sales since early in the decade, but in the current economy, it’s even starting to get harder to make a buck online.

E-commerce growth rates remain significantly stronger than bricks-and-mortar retail, where growth has been negative throughout 2008 when adjusted for inflation, according to ComScore and the U.S. Dept. of Commerce.

Nevertheless, growth in consumers’ online spending has slowed dramatically in 2008 as a result of price increases and the soft economy, says ComScore. E-commerce sales for the first half of the year were
$106 billion, including travel, according to ComScore, representing a growth rate of 12%—off from growth of 17% for the full year in 2007 and 20% in 2006.

In fact, a sharper first-quarter drop in e-commerce growth than ...Read More

Industries: Retail