Retailers ready for late dates

Cars parks in November as studios plan Q4 release timing

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 7/31/2006

Cars is expected to bow on Nov. 7.
JULY 31 | Two-thirds of the way through summer, studios are biding their time in setting and announcing DVD dates for May, June and July’s theatrical blockbusters. For retailers, that can mean sketching out fourth-quarter budgets and marketing plans with little information about when the biggest titles will street (see table below for dates).

“I would say by the first couple of weeks of August last year, I knew 80% of product street dates. And now I know maybe 50%, but that is not even guaranteed,” said Ted Engen, president of Video Buyers Group.

For the last several years, many retailers have circled tentative street dates on the majority of titles by mid-summer. But by last week, many store executives said they had only projected the month of release for big titles.

Retailers point to heightened competition between studios jockeying for key dates and increased pressure from theatrical divisions to delay DVD date announcements as reasons for the slow flow of new-release information.

“It’s a juggling act for the fourth quarter,” said Terrel Porter-Smith, national video advertising manager at Tower. “Studios are gun shy about picking a firm street date.”

One of the reasons Tower and other retailers seek early information is to make print advertising deadlines.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is one of the few studios to officially announce dates on its high-profile titles. The studio’s X-Men: The Last Stand hits Oct. 3 (prebook Sept. 6) in three versions, including a standard edition ($29.98) and the X-Men Trilogy Pack ($44.98).

X-Men: The Last Stand Collector’s Edition, priced at $39.98, features an exclusive 100-page book written by Stan Lee, the first the Marvel Comics creator has penned in five years.

Fox will follow X-Men with Ice Age: The Meltdown on Nov. 21 (prebook Oct. 11; $29.98).

Paramount Home Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation also have announced Over the Hedge, which will invade stores on Oct. 17 (prebook Sept. 5; $19.95 MAP). The disc will feature the exclusive animated short “Hammy’s Boomerang Adventure,” which has optional commentary.

“You’re dealing with a mature marketplace,” Fox senior VP of marketing communications Steve Feldstein said in addressing the industry’s move to later title announcements. “It’s the movies that move [business]. Certainly timing and all other information is becoming more competitive than ever.” (For more on the fourth-quarter forecast, click here.)

Wholesalers often try to unofficially feed dates to retail clients, or at least give them a deadline by which title orders have to be completed.

“For Cars, we have to be ready Sept. 1,” said Engen. “By that time, we need orders in mind and marketing campaigns set.”

Most retailers can make good decisions based on the performances of similar titles in past years.

“As long as vendors let us know in due time the month in which the DVD will be released, we can at least prepare our budgets for the orders,” Virgin buyer Chris Anstey said. “There are instances when a street date will be announced so quickly that there’s a mad scramble to get the title prepped for prebook date orders.”

Dates retailers are circling

Title (Label/Distributor)	Release Date	B.O. Gross
October
X-Men: The Last Stand (Fox)	Oct. 3	$233 million
Over the Hedge (DW/Par)	Oct. 17	$152 million
The Break-Up (Uni)	Oct. 17*	$117 million
Mission: Impossible III (Par)	TBD	$134 million
November
Cars (BV)	Nov. 7*	$229 million
Ice Age: The Meltdown (Fox)	Nov. 21	$195 million
Superman Returns (WB)	TBD	$178 million
The Da Vinci Code (Sony)	TBD	$216 million
December
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (BV)	TBD	$322 million
* Not yet announced

« Back | Print