Studios committed to DVD premieres

Production of original movies ramping up as profits increase

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 2/16/2007

FEB. 16 | Studios are reaping the benefits of investment in their DVD premiere units.

Last year, direct-to-disc titles generated $1.3 billion in revenue in the U.S., and that is expected to jump 5% to 7% in 2007, say studio sources. This includes feature-length titles produced in-house and acquired.

After testing the waters over the past couple of years with disc extensions of theatricals, DVD divisions are now releasing third and fourth straight-to-disc incarnations of such theatrical brands as Bring It On, American Pie, Cinderella and The Sandlot.

“I think that everybody is looking at the DVD category as a whole, and you quickly see that direct-to-video is a genre that is growing within that category,” said Lori MacPherson, general manager of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, North America. “People had good experiences with these movies and want more.”

In some instances, sales strength of made-for-disc titles has even rivaled the performance of the original film on DVD, some retailers note.

“Bambi II equaled our lifetime sales of the platinum version DVD of Bambi,” said Mason Goodfellow, Hastings video category manager. “We are expecting big things from [Feb. 6 release] Cinderella III. We bought it like it was a $60 million theatrical.”

DVD premieres based on already-established brands require less promotional costs and have smaller budgets than most theatrical movies, but their sales rival bigger DVD releases. To further boost revenue, retailers and studios are building campaigns that can drive both current and older installments of the franchises.

With Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, Warner Home Video has built retailer standees that will hold that title as well as seasons one through six of the Dukes TV series and the original Dukes feature film.

“I think all the studios are doing this, taking the original film and related content and have them draft off themselves,” said Jeff Baker, Warner senior VP-general manager of theatrical catalog. “The retailers are really encouraging this. They work on small margins with the new product and make the bigger margins on the catalog.”

Yet marketing for disc premieres can be as splashy as any theatrical publicity blitz. Fox will take over a Los Angeles Dodgers game in May to promote May 1 release The Sandlot: Heading Home, the third in the series. The original Sandlot sold 6 million units, while DVD premiere Sandlot 2 has sold 1.5 million units.

“Every one is approached as a theatrical-styled launch,” said Steve Feldstein, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment senior VP of marketing communications. “We’re just driving it to 70,000 retailers, rather than 3,000 screens.”

Enjoying high sales numbers for its animated DVD premieres based on classic franchises, Buena Vista plans to produce more live-action DVD premieres after the recent release of Air Buddies.

Warner will release Return to House on Haunted Hill, a second installment of the studio’s 1999 theatrical, later this year. The cast hasn’t been solidified, but Hill theatrical producer Joel Silver is expected to contribute to the DVD movie’s production.

The studio’s Warner Premiere division, supervised by VP Diane Nelson, is handling production on Dukes and Haunted Hill and eventually hopes to release 10 to 15 animated and live-action made-for-DVD titles a year.

Warner also is extending its Raw Feed DVD premiere horror brand, which launched out of Baker’s catalog unit last year.

In the works now for Raw Feed is The Believers, written and directed by The Blair Witch Project co-creator Dan Myrick. Daniel Benzali, star of TV’s Murder at 1600, is set to play the leader of a dangerous cult chronicled in the film.

That follows March 13 release Sublime, directed by 24 executive producer Tony Krantz, and Rest Stop, directed by X-Files executive producer John Shiban. Released last October, Rest Stop was the debut title for the brand.

Fox is broadening several theatrical franchises with DVD premieres: Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, starring rocker Henry Rollins and former American Idol contestant Kimberly Caldwell, and Lake Placid 2, distributed by Fox in the U.S. and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment internationally, stars Cloris Leachman at the head of a cast of characters frightened of a crocodile. Both street later this year.

Plans also are underway for a fourth installment of Dr. Doolittle and a third edition of Behind Enemy Lines.

Although it has no made-for-DVD productions slated yet this year, Universal Studios Home Entertainment enjoyed a bang-up 2006 in the arena. In their first weeks on shelves, American Pie Presents Band Camp sold more than 1 million units, Bring It On: All or Nothing sold more than 750,000 units and American Pie Presents The Naked Mile sold 850,000 units.

Lionsgate is continuing with its co-productions with Marvel Entertainment and has sold more than 2 million units collectively of Ultimate Avengers One and Two and The Invincible Iron Man. The studio’s fourth co-production, Dr. Strange, hits this August.

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