First Look promos high-profile slate

Sweepstakes, gifts part of new year promotion

By Marcy Magiera -- Video Business, 9/21/2007

SEPT. 21 | First Look Studios is heading into the new year with what it believes is its most high-profile title slate to date, and the studio is backing the releases with a unique promotion designed to get more than a second look from retail buyers.

The strategy: gifts, and lots of them.

During the promotion, dubbed “Everyone Wins With First Look Studios,” the company will send out four mailers promoting its eight January and February titles to about 1,800 retailers. In each mailing, buyers will get screeners, film information and a token gift, such as a Starbucks gift card or movie tickets. In addition, they will get a special Web site address and code to enter a sweepstakes for MasterCard gift cards in varying amounts. Four MasterCard gift cards will be given out for each of the four mailings.

“We wanted to commemorate the biggest two-month period ever for us,” said Brooke Ford, First Look executive VP of marketing. Admitting that “we usually have a varying slate,” she said “they are all titles that we feel will overperform” on DVD.

The lineup is a star-studded one, led by theatrical release King of California, starring Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood, on Jan. 29 (prebook Dec. 18). The title, from First Look owner Nu Image, showed at the Sundance Film Festival.

The rest of the releases are high-profile DVD premieres, including comedy Smiley Face, with Anna Faris (Jan. 8; Dec. 4); Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee Strays (Jan. 15; Dec. 11), the directorial debut of Vin Diesel, who also wrote and stars; romantic comedy Sex and Breakfast, starring Macaulay Culkin and Eliza Dushku (Jan. 22; Dec.18); comedies Blonde and Blonder (Feb. 5; Jan. 1) with Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards; The Amateurs (Feb.12; Jan. 8), starring Jeff Bridges; thriller The Perfect Witness (Feb. 19; Jan. 15); and drama Day Zero, with Elijah Wood (Feb. 26; Jan. 22).

King of California and The Amateurs also will be available on HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

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