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The top news and charts for week ending September 3, 2007.
Retailers prepare for shelf space crunch in Q4 HD DVD player price to drop further in Q4 Retailers pin Q3 hopes on Blades of Glory |
Singing about Glory American Idol finalist Bo Bice performs the musical anthem from Blades of Glory at DreamWorks/Paramount’s DVD launch event in Venice Beach, Calif. See more industry photos. |
"WILD HOGS" leads Top DVD Renters Chart "WILD HOGS" leads Top DVD Sellers Chart "300" leads Top HD DVD Sellers Chart "300" leads Top Blu-ray Sellers Chart |
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SWEETING: High-def lite |
Marcy Magiera is away on vacation. Her column will return next week.
Retailers prepare for shelf space crunch in Q4
AUG. 31 | To brace for the tidal wave of fourth-quarter titles, retailers are bolstering shelves through efficient stocking schemes and aggressive consumer exclusives. Spider-Man 3 alone will swing into stores in six different SKUs, including two Blu-ray Disc options.
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Retailers pin Q3 hopes on Blades of Glory
AUG. 31 | Humping along through 2007, retailers are looking for strong returns from last week’s release of Blades of Glory, the latest Will Ferrell comedy, to lift the third quarter.
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Amazon adds to free high-def title offers
AUG. 30 | Online exclusive: It pays to play with Amazon.com, as the site is now offering up to eight free high-definition titles with the purchase of either an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive, 60GB PlayStation 3 or 80GB PS3.
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Blockbuster scores exclusive NBC fall preview DVD
AUG. 29 | Blockbuster is offering an exclusive sneak peek at new NBC shows with the NBC New Fall Preview DVD. Last year, NBC ran a similar promotion with Netflix.
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Movie Gallery gets longer loan extension
AUG. 28 | Movie Gallery has received another extension by lenders on its first lien credit facility. The company now has until Sept. 30 before the lenders can act on Movie Gallery’s existing defaults, provided no further defaults occur.
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Universal pacts with Studio Canal
AUG. 30 | FROM VARIETY: PARIS—Universal Pictures International Entertainment and Studio Canal are teaming to create what will be France’s leading home entertainment distributor, they jointly announced this week.
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RIAA faces serious piracy lawsuit
AUG. 30 | FROM VARIETY: A lawsuit recently filed against the Recording Industry Assn. of America could ultimately force the org to drop or dramatically change the way it uses its principal weapon in the fight against online piracy, according to experts and observers.
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Sony Music to release Dylan DVD
AUG. 30 | FROM VARIETY: Sony will release a Bob Dylan concert film this year filled with footage from his legendary Newport Folk Festival performances from 1963 through 1965.
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Being Born sets theatrical release
AUG. 30 | FROM VARIETY: The Business of Being Born, a documentary about childbirth produced by and featuring Ricki Lake, has been acquired for theatrical release by Netflix’s Red Envelope and for DVD by New Line.
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Fox plans superpower Fantastic Four campaign
AUG. 30 | Fueled by a hefty marketing campaign, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer will jumpstart the all-important fourth quarter on Oct. 2 on standard-definition and Blu-ray Disc.
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Image markets Caligula with podcasts
AUG. 30 | Online exclusive: Image Entertainment will offer its first podcast series tied to a DVD, Caligula: Three Disc Imperial Edition, on iTunes starting in September. The series entitled “Caligula: The Naked Truth” will be free and include clips of the featured DVD audio commentaries of Caligula stars Helen Mirren and Malcolm McDowell.
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DEG forms European, North American alliance
AUG. 30 | Online exclusive: The Digital Entertainment Group’s European and North American outposts are forming an alliance to share information globally.
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Arts Alliance America goes to Web for Plasterhead promotion
AUG. 29 | Online exclusive: Arts Alliance America is planning an Internet marketing campaign designed to generate more than half a million impressions among horror fans for upcoming release Plasterhead.
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ADV distributes Geneon anime product
AUG. 29 | ADV Films has signed on to exclusively distribute product from Geneon Entertainment (USA). Effective Oct. 1, ADV will oversee all distribution and sales activities for Geneon’s titles, primarily consisting of such anime franchises as Hellsing, Ergo Proxy and Black Lagoon.
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Blockbuster scores exclusive NBC fall preview DVD
AUG. 29 | Blockbuster is offering an exclusive sneak peek at new NBC shows with the NBC New Fall Preview DVD. Last year, NBC ran a similar promotion with Netflix.
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Arts Alliance America to release Reeve documentary
AUG. 28 | Arts Alliance America in November will release Hope in Motion, a two-part documentary on Christopher Reeve and his struggle with paralysis. A portion of the revenue from the DVD will be donated to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.
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MGM DVD premiere casts High School Musical star
AUG. 27 | MGM has tuned in Ashley Tisdale for the made-for-DVD project Picture This. A star of hot Disney franchise High School Musical, Tisdale will play a high school girl who is surprised when she becomes the crush of the most popular boy in school. Her character must balance her family’s wishes with her new romantic life.
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Vongo in back-to-school promotion with AMD
AUG. 27 | Online exclusive: Starz Entertainment has partnered with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices to give customers upgrading their computers with AMD chips, motherboards or graphics cards a free month of Vongo online movie subscription service. Starz said the promotion is designed for students heading back to school and other multi-media enthusiasts and gamers.
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AOL streams free segments of Dissent
AUG. 27 | FROM VARIETY: AOL's True Stories Web site will stream 40 minutes of excerpts from the documentary Manufacturing Dissent at no extra cost this week. Sam Mandel, chief operating officer of DVD distributor Liberation Entertainment, said the AOL deal "will help us to maximize the DVD value."
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Record-breaking High School Musical 2 on disc Dec. 11
AUG. 27 | After more than doubling the viewing audience of its 2006 predecessor, High School Musical 2 will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on Dec. 11.
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Upconversion DVD players gain popularity
AUG. 31 | As the studios take sides and the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc camps lobby for consumer support, owners of high-definition TV players are looking more and more to upconversion DVD players, which offer better picture quality for much less money.
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Format war brings production challenges
AUG. 31 | High-definition disc sales are gaining traction slowly, but HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc production has transformed 1K Studios in just a couple of years. As suppliers race to release increasingly advanced product, angling to skew the format war toward either side, studio execs are relying more on digital specialists such as 1K for programming help.
Full Story
HD DVD player price to drop further in Q4
AUG. 31 | The high-definition format war will hit a new low in the fourth quarter—price, that is. Canada’s Venturer Electronics is set to release Chinese-manufactured HD DVD players priced below $200. Venturer's SHD7000 will be priced at $199, according to a company representative, which would make it the cheapest stand-alone HD DVD player available today.
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Blu-ray sales near 1 million in North America
AUG. 30 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment trumpeted hitting 250,000 in Blu-ray Disc sales in Europe, and said the format is nearing the 1 million mark in North America.
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DEG forms European, North American alliance
AUG. 30 | Online exclusive: The Digital Entertainment Group’s European and North American outposts are forming an alliance to share information globally.
Full Story
Amazon adds to free high-def title offers
AUG. 30 | Online exclusive: It pays to play with Amazon.com, as the site is now offering up to eight free high-definition titles with the purchase of either an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive, 60GB PlayStation 3 or 80GB PS3.
Full Story
Notebook computer maker Acer joins Blu-ray Disc Assn.
AUG. 30 | Computer maker Acer Inc. has joined the Blu-ray Disc Assn., which counts more than 170 consumer electronics firms as members. Acer will soon install Blu-ray drives into its products, including notebook computers.
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Price cut makes Toshiba's HD-A2 player top seller on Amazon
AUG. 29 | Online exclusive: A $73 price cut by Amazon catapulted Toshiba's HD-A2 HD DVD player to the top of the online retailer's bestseller list of electronics. The second-generation high-definition player is now selling for $226.88, down from $299.99, on Amazon
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Chinese-manufactured $199 HD DVD players shipping in Q4
AUG. 28 | Sub-$200, Chinese-manufactured HD DVD players are slated to be released by Venturer Electronics by the fourth quarter. Priced at $199, the SHD7000 features 1080i video output, Ethernet connectivity and advanced audio technology Dolby TrueHD. In addition to HD DVD and CD playback, the model also upconverts standard-definition DVDs to near high-def quality through an HDMI connection.
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Record-breaking High School Musical 2 on disc Dec. 11
AUG. 27 | After more than doubling the viewing audience of its 2006 predecessor, High School Musical 2 will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on Dec. 11.
Full Story
Fox joining Xbox family
AUG. 30 | FROM VARIETY: Microsoft has signed up Fox as the newest partner for its Xbox Live Video Marketplace, and the two are launching with Family Guy, a show aimed squarely at the service’s young male gamer demo.
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Image markets Caligula with podcasts
AUG. 30 | Online exclusive: Image Entertainment will offer its first podcast series tied to a DVD, Caligula: Three Disc Imperial Edition, on iTunes starting in September. The series entitled “Caligula: The Naked Truth” will be free and include clips of the featured DVD audio commentaries of Caligula stars Helen Mirren and Malcolm McDowell.
Full Story
EZTakes adds downloads for iPods, other portables
AUG. 29 | Download service EZTakes has added a To-Go option on its site that will allow consumers to download content onto their portable media players, including Apple iPods and Microsoft’s Zune.
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Vongo in back-to-school promotion with AMD
AUG. 27 | Online exclusive: Starz Entertainment has partnered with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices to give customers upgrading their computers with AMD chips, motherboards or graphics cards a free month of Vongo online movie subscription service. Starz said the promotion is designed for students heading back to school and other multi-media enthusiasts and gamers.
Full Story
AOL streams free segments of Dissent
AUG. 27 | FROM VARIETY: AOL's True Stories Web site will stream 40 minutes of excerpts from the documentary Manufacturing Dissent at no extra cost this week. Sam Mandel, chief operating officer of DVD distributor Liberation Entertainment, said the AOL deal "will help us to maximize the DVD value."
Full Story
Upconversion DVD players gain popularity
AUG. 31 | As the studios take sides and the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc camps lobby for consumer support, owners of high-definition TV players are looking more and more to upconversion DVD players, which offer better picture quality for much less money.
Full Story
Format war brings production challenges
AUG. 31 | High-definition disc sales are gaining traction slowly, but HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc production has transformed 1K Studios in just a couple of years. As suppliers race to release increasingly advanced product, angling to skew the format war toward either side, studio execs are relying more on digital specialists such as 1K for programming help.
Full Story
Hewlett-Packard promotes benefits of content digitization
AUG. 27 | Online exclusive: After successfully getting a DVD of Barry Bonds’ record-breaking 756th home run to fans two days after the historic event, Hewlett-Packard and Ascent Media Group are offering their digitization services to the broader Hollywood community.
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