IFC's Che gets close theater, VOD, DVD release

Blockbuster has exclusive 60-day window for biopic

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 12/19/2008

DEC. 19 | IFC Entertainment will seek the widest possible audience for Steven Soderbergh’s four-hour, Spanish-language Che Guevara biopic, Che, with a nearly simultaneous theatrical and video-on-demand run in January, prior to a DVD exclusive at Blockbuster.

Blockbuster also supported the film by underwriting the manufacture of screener DVDs sent to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members.

The film had a one-week awards-qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles this month. It will reopen and expand its run in early January, then debut on VOD a few days later.

IFC has launched many of its projects in theaters day and date with VOD, including January 2008 release 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, May’s Savage Grace and November’s A Christmas Tale. Next year, Gomorra and Everlasting Moments will roll out in the same fashion.

But the indie supplier believes Che, starring Benicio Del Toro, represents its highest-profile day-and-date release yet. IFC wanted to comprehensively push the film to audiences because of this pedigree as well as because of its unique story structure. Many theaters will be running Che in two different parts to account for its four-hour-plus length. For its Dec. 11 bow, New York and Los Angeles theaters ran Che in its entirety with an intermission break.

“This is definitely our biggest one, with the biggest cast and director. This is a $65 million production,” said Ryan Werner, VP of marketing at IFC. “And because of the fact that the movie is so long, we wanted to give people a variety of ways to see it.”

Werner is thankful for Blockbuster’s sponsorship of the Academy screeners, explaining, “They made it possible for us to do it.” Screeners were sent to voters right before Thanksgiving.

Blockbuster spokesman Randy Hargrove indicated the screener costs involved were moderate. The chain hopes Oscar recognition will help spur Che in stores during its exclusive 60-day Blockbuster window.

“As part of our ongoing alliance with IFC, we provided a small amount of promotional support for Che,” said Hargrove. “By working with IFC to promote Che, we look forward to increasing its visibility for Oscar consideration and with the public before it is offered exclusively for rental at Blockbuster in-store, by mail and for digital download.”

The chain is expanding upon a partnership struck earlier in the year with IFC, in which the rentailer is the exclusive sales and rental outlet for the supplier’s titles for the first 60 days of their release.

IFC expects to release Che on DVD in the middle of 2009. To date, IFC has not released its titles on Blu-ray, but Che could mark one of the first, Werner added.