The top news and charts for week ending February 18, 2008.
Wal-Mart embraces Blu, wallops HD Easter period gets crowded with titles High-def discs lag standard, but gaining momentum |
Celebrating Jane Austen Attending a Barnes & Noble in-store signing for Sony’s The Jane Austen Book Club DVD were Sony’s Gloria Witham (l.) and Allene Kim (r.) with (from l. to r.) director Robin Swicord, Kathy Baker, Maggie Grace and Amy Brenneman. The event was held at The Grove in Los Angeles on Feb. 5. Click for more industry photos. |
"THE BRAVE ONE" leads Top DVD Renters Chart "SNOW BUDDIES" leads Top DVD Sellers Chart "ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE" leads Top HD DVD Sellers Chart "ACROSS THE UNIVERSE" leads Top Blu-ray Sellers Chart |
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SWEETING: Political plans |
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BETWEEN THE LINES: Direct-to-DVD titles don’t all fit in one box |
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RED STATE, BLUE STATE: Michael Bay: High-def god |
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DISC DISH: National Treasure: Book of Secrets Gold Collection DVD, Blu-ray |
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DVDIALOG: Robin Swicord: From screenwriter to director |
Wal-Mart embraces Blu, wallops HD
FEB. 15 | Wal-Mart Stores dealt what may well prove to be the fatal blow to HD DVD, saying its 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores by June will merchandise Blu-ray Disc as their only high-def format.
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Easter period gets crowded with titles
FEB. 15 | March is becoming the practical beginning of the new release New Year, according to studios and retailers, who in some cases are drawing comparisons between the crowded pre-Easter period and the fourth quarter.
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Ed Begley Jr. to host green DVD club
FEB. 14 | Ed Begley Jr. will host a collection of ecologically-based short films that will be part of a subscription service launched today by a Santa Fe, N.M.-based film-distribution company.
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Borders concept store integrates DVD into themed areas
FEB. 14 | Borders is unveiling its first of several planned concept stores, which especially emphasize popular products by creating ‘destinations’ out of related items.
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MovieFlix offers unlimited downloads for monthly fee
FEB. 12 | Internet movie download site MovieFlix.com has added a download-to-own option that offers customers an unlimited number of downloads for a $9.95 a month subscription fee.
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Movie Gallery reports monthly profit
FEB. 12 | Movie Gallery filed a required monthly financial report with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court showing the company earned $12.7 million in net income for the month ended Jan. 6.
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Best Buy to endorse Blu-ray over HD DVD
FEB. 11 | Leading high-def software retailer Best Buy starting in March will endorse Blu-ray Disc as the preferred high-def format. The retailer will give Blu-ray titles and hardware more prominence in stores and online through merchandising and signage. It also will shift most of its marketing support, including newspaper circulars, to Blu-ray said spokesman Brian Lucas.
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Amazon to buy back 3.2% of shares
FEB. 11 | Amazon.com said last week it will buy back as much as $1 billion in stock by the end of next year. The world’s largest online retailer also will repurchase about $1.06 billion in debt.
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Landmark gets jump on Last Emperor
FEB. 11 | Landmark Theatres visitors will be able to exclusively purchase Criterion Collection’s The Last Emperor for one week prior to its wide retail bow on Feb. 26. Streeting at the exhibitor’s 58 locations on Feb. 19, Landmark is pricing the title for $49.99. Criterion’s The Last Emperor spans four-discs and includes commentary by director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Mark Peploe and composer-actor Ryuichi Sakamoto.
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Netflix to back Blu-ray exclusively
FEB. 11 | Netflix will phase out Toshiba’s HD DVD by the end of the year in favor of Sony’s competing Blu-ray format, the company said today.
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Sony develops DVD premieres with notable names
FEB. 15 | Sony has quietly developed a notable business bringing out DVD premiere action titles featuring stars that graced theatrical marquees in the late ’80s and ’90s, including Dolph Lundgren, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
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EAA looks to broaden reach
FEB. 15 | Home entertainment industry charity Entertainment AIDS Alliance is exploring ways to attract new members from the broader entertainment community—and new sources of funds.
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Echo Bridge sets new management
FEB. 14 | Echo Bridge Home Entertainment has installed a new executive team. Nathan Hart, formerly chief financial officer, and Mike Newcomb, formerly head of operations, have been promoted to co-presidents of the home entertainment division.
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Image narrows loss in Q3; plans for future
FEB. 14 | Image Entertainment reported red ink for its third-quarter fiscal 2008, but the DVD supplier believes it will soon return to growth as it puts its failed merger with BTP Acquisition Co. behind it.
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It's official: WGA strike is over
FEB. 13 | FROM VARIETY: "The strike is over," Patric Verrone said, dispassionately but with the hint of a smile. "Our membership has voted. Writers can go back to work."
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Lionsgate forecasts 6% DVD revenue rise for fiscal 2008
FEB. 12 | Lionsgate’s home entertainment revenue for fiscal 2008 will rise about 6% based on record current quarter DVD sales from releases, such as of War and 3:10 to Yuma, and an expected boost in high-definition content sales from the emergence of a single format.
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Image to continue releasing ThinkFilm titles
FEB. 12 | Image Entertainment has won the ability to continue distributing ThinkFilm titles through its output agreement with label parent CT1 Holdings, even though the planned merger between Image and CT1 affiliate BTP Acquisition Co. has been dismantled.
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U.K. to get tough on pirates
FEB 12 | FROM VARIETY: U.K.-based consumers who illegally download music and movies could find their Internet connections severed under new legislation that will be presented to the British parliament next week.
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Tolkien estate sues New Line
FEB. 12 | FROM VARIETY: The Tolkien Trust (a British charity that manages the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien) and publisher HarperCollins brought a $150 million lawsuit against New Line Cinema on Monday, claiming the trust has not received any of its gross profit participation payments for the three films based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
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Lionsgate DVD revenue falls 7.5%
FEB. 11 | Lionsgate Entertainment’s fiscal third-quarter home entertainment revenue fell 7.5% as current DVD releases failed to keep pace with year-earlier titles, the indie studio said today.
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Landmark gets jump on Last Emperor
FEB. 11 | Landmark Theatres visitors will be able to exclusively purchase Criterion Collection’s The Last Emperor for one week prior to its wide retail bow on Feb. 26. Streeting at the exhibitor’s 58 locations on Feb. 19, Landmark is pricing the title for $49.99. Criterion’s The Last Emperor spans four-discs and includes commentary by director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Mark Peploe and composer-actor Ryuichi Sakamoto.
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Image to distribute Celluloid Dreams films
FEB. 11 | Image Entertainment has signed a three-film distribution agreement with production company Celluloid Dreams, signaling it intends to conduct business as usual following the collapse of its merger with BTP Acquisition Co.
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Paramount rings up mobile unit
FEB. 11 | FROM VARIETY: Paramount is launching a mobile unit to spearhead its efforts to license, develop and distribute content for cell phones.
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Showrunners back to work Monday
FEB 11 | FROM VARIETY: After 14 weeks of warfare, labor peace has come to Hollywood. TV showrunners head back to the office today, and the scribe tribe officially resumes work Wednesday.
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Wal-Mart embraces Blu, wallops HD
FEB. 15 | Wal-Mart Stores dealt what may well prove to be the fatal blow to HD DVD, saying its 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores by June will merchandise Blu-ray Disc as their only high-def format.
Click for Full Story
High-def discs lag standard, but gaining momentum
FEB. 15 | High-definition software sales are trailing standard-definition by half in the formats’ first two years on the market, according to Adams Media Research.
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Best Buy to endorse Blu-ray over HD DVD
FEB. 11 | Leading high-def software retailer Best Buy starting in March will endorse Blu-ray Disc as the preferred high-def format. The retailer will give Blu-ray titles and hardware more prominence in stores and online through merchandising and signage. It also will shift most of its marketing support, including newspaper circulars, to Blu-ray said spokesman Brian Lucas.
Click for Full Story
Netflix to back Blu-ray exclusively
FEB. 11 | Netflix will phase out Toshiba’s HD DVD by the end of the year in favor of Sony’s competing Blu-ray format, the company said today.
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Blu-ray's player lead narrows
FEB. 11 | FROM TWICE: Despite aggressive price promotions on HD DVD players from Toshiba, sales of Blu-ray Disc players continued to outsell HD DVD units by a wide margin through the week ending Jan. 26, according to leaked NPD Group reports, but the gap has narrowed significantly from reports issued two weeks earlier.
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Videogame sales stall in January
FEB. 15 | Videogame hardware and software sales totaled $1.18 billion in January, which marked a 6% decline from the same month in 2007, according to the NPD Group.
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NPD to track online-gaming
FEB. 13 | Research firm NPD Group will start publishing an online-subscription gaming quarterly report in an effort to track U.S. revenue and participation in the rapidly growing “massively multiplayer online” industry.
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EA develops Hasbro properties
FEB. 11 | FROM VARIETY: Electronic Arts is developing a broad array of games based on Hasbro properties set to come out in the next several years, including one tied to the upcoming G.I. Joe film.
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Online video viewing jumps 34% in December
FEB. 13 | U.S. online video viewing in December jumped 34% from a year earlier as the lack of new TV programming due to the Writers Guild of America strike caused people to spend more time on the Internet for entertainment, ComScore Networks reported.
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MovieFlix offers unlimited downloads for monthly fee
FEB. 12 | Internet movie download site MovieFlix.com has added a download-to-own option that offers customers an unlimited number of downloads for a $9.95 a month subscription fee.
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