The top news and charts for week ending April 28,
2008.
Studios vary pricing for Blu-ray releases DVD releases draft on summer box-office Netflix to hike Blu-ray rental price |
A home-run premiere Arts Alliance America’s Joe Amodei (l.) and Robert Messa celebrated the April 14 premiere of Richie Ashburn: A Baseball Life at the 17th annual Philadelphia Film Festival with TLA co-owner and Philadelphia Film Festival board president Claire Kohler. Click for more industry photos. |
"JUNO" leads Top DVD Renters Chart "JUNO" leads Top DVD Sellers Chart "I AM LEGEND" leads Top HD DVD Sellers Chart "AVP: REQUIEM" leads Top Blu-ray Sellers Chart |
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SWEETING: Digital delay |
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BETWEEN THE LINES: Dark clouds over Blu |
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RED STATE, BLUE STATE: Sub-$200 BD players … or bust!
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DISC DISH: Penelope, It’s a Boy Girl
Thing DVDs |
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DVDIALOG: Hollywood Dreams with Jaglom and
Frederick, Part II |
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THE DOWN LOW: Internet TV |
DVD releases draft on summer box-office
APRIL 24 | The first wave of big summer films
will wash over theaters in May, and video retailers have ample opportunity to
ride it with DVD releases tied to the potential blockbusters.
Click
for Full Story
Key indies enjoy perks of big chain stores
APRIL 24 | Many independent video stores are no
longer even blips on studio radar, but there still are certain indies that,
because of their loyal customer bases and local reputations as tastemakers,
enjoy the influence of much larger retailers.
Click
for Full Story
CDSA joins EMA's Digital Delivery Council
APRIL 24 | The Content Delivery & Storage
Assn. (formerly the International Recording Media Assn.) has joined the
Entertainment Merchants Assn. in its effort to establish a uniform set of
standards for digital delivery of entertainment content over the Internet.
Click
for Full Story
EMA to honor indie filmmaker Jaglom at Expo
APRIL 24 | Independent filmmaker Henry Jaglom
will be honored with the Entertainment Merchants Assn.’s Independent Career
Achievement award at this year’s Home Entertainment Awards ceremony, part of the
annual Home Media Expo.
Click
for Full Story
Amazon earnings up, no details on digital sales
APRIL 23 | Strong U.S. and international sales
pushed Amazon.com earnings up 29% to $143 million during the first quarter, the
retailer said Wednesday.
Click
for Full Story
Circuit City continues concerns over Blockbuster bid
APRIL 23 | Circuit City reiterated concerns
Wednesday over whether Blockbuster will be able to finance a $1 billion bid to
buy the nation’s second-biggest electronics retailer in the current financial
environment. The announcement was in response to an open letter sent to the
Circuit City board by an activist shareholder pressing the chain to open its
books for due diligence and begin good faith negotiations with
Blockbuster.
Click
for Full Story
CEA: Average U.S. household spent $120 more on consumer
electronics
APRIL 23 | FROM TWICE: The
average U.S. household spent $1,405 on consumer electronics products in the past
12 months, $120 more than the year before, according to new research released by
the Consumer Electronics Association.
Click
for Full Story
NPD: Entertainment spending to drop in 2008
APRIL 22 | The economic downtown will slow
consumer entertainment spending, according to the NPD Group. In its
"Entertainment Trends in America" survey, NPD reports that 83% of respondents
predict they will spend the same or less on media products this year versus
2007.
Click
for Full Story
Blockbuster shifts executives
APRIL 22 | Blockbuster has made a number of
structural changes among several areas of the company, from IT operations to
finance.
Click
for Full Story
Blockbuster/Circuit gets mixed reviews
APRIL 22 | FROM TWICE: Industry reaction is
decidedly mixed to Blockbuster’s $1 billion-plus cash bid for Circuit
City.
Click
for Full Story
Best Buy names Muehlbauer chief financial officer
APRIL 22 | FROM TWICE: Best Buy has named
interim chief financial officer James Muehlbauer as finance executive VP/chief
financial officer, effective last Friday.
Click
for Full Story
Netflix to hike Blu-ray rental price
APRIL 21 | Netflix will begin charging a premium
to subscribers who rent Blu-ray Discs sometime this year, CEO Reed Hastings said
during the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call today.
Click
for Full Story
Studios vary pricing for Blu-ray releases
APRIL 25 | Blu-ray Disc won the format war. Now
one of the next challenges for studios, wholesalers and retailers is how to best
price the product to quicken consumer adoption and preserve profits. Retailers
report some shoppers balk at paying $5 to $10 more for Blu-ray than DVD.
Click
for Full Story
Fewer episodes, more extras for Disney TV sets
APRIL 25 | Walt Disney Studios Home
Entertainment is releasing its newest DVDs for Grey’s Anatomy,
Private Practice and Lost with exclusive extended episodes and
bonus features in an effort to offset the fact that the full season sets have
fewer episodes than usual.
Click
for Full Story
Lombard leaves Starbucks
APRIL
24 | Starbucks Entertainment president Ken Lombard, who oversaw the
launch of DVD sales at the coffee chain, has exited the post as part of a
company-wide restructuring to focus on digital music and books.
Click
for Full Story
Koch to distribute Cloud Ten films after church
premieres
APRIL 24 | As it steps up
production, Christian-oriented film producer Cloud Ten Pictures has signed a
distribution deal with Koch Entertainment, the independent music and DVD
distributor that also has become more involved in faith-based music and
DVDs.
Click
for Full Story
Arts Alliance goes green with Big Ideas and
Jesus
APRIL 24 | GREEN
REPORT: Arts Alliance America is using green packaging on two
environmentally conscious new releases, Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Season
One and Morgan Spurlock Presents: What Would Jesus Buy?
Click
for Full Story
Porchlight sparks new faith-based label
APRIL 24 | Porchlight Home Entertainment is
launching a new label for faith-based titles, Porchlight Inspire. The first
release will be Adventures From the Book of Virtues: Adventures in
Faith, from the award-winning animated TV series that aired on PBS and was
produced by Porchlight’s parent company, Porchlight Entertainment.
Click
for Full Story
Studios keep faith in digital biz
APRIL 24 | FROM VARIETY: Studios desperately
want the download biz to take off, and Netcos are eager for movie sales and
rentals to migrate online, but it hasn't really happened yet. Studios admit the
digital biz is very small but believe it could grow to a significant level by
next year.
Click
for Full Story
Disney sweetens Narnia videogame
APRIL 23 | FROM VARIETY: Prince Caspian
fans won't have to wait for the DVD to get bonus footage. Disney Interactive
Studios' videogame adaptation of the upcoming tentpole from its sibling studio,
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, will feature two exclusive
live-action scenes shot by the film's cast and crew.
Click
for Full Story
China takes piracy steps
APRIL
22 | FROM VARIETY: Chinese copyright officials in 31 provinces this
week destroyed more than 47 million pornographic and illegal publications,
including pirated DVDs.
Click
for Full Story
Jackie Chan billboard to fight piracy
APRIL 22 | FROM VARIETY: Hollywood studios are
taking their fight against piracy in China into the belly of the beast by
erecting a huge billboard with an antipiracy message from Jackie Chan in
Beijing's Silk Market.
Click
for Full Story
Living Seas offered as free download for Earth
Day
APRIL 21 | GREEN REPORT: As an
Earth Day gift, Image Entertainment is offering free downloads and/or streams of
IMAX documentary The Living Sea this week.
Click
for Full Story
Grushow, Nayar launch Filmaka.com
APRIL 21 | FROM VARIETY: Former Fox TV exec
Sandy Grushow has joined with Bend It Like Beckham producer Deepak
Nayar to create Filmaka.com, a Web-based movie studio that is attracting
aspiring filmmakers with promises of big coin for their feature films or series
pilots.
Click
for Full Story
Studios team on VOD venture
APRIL 21 | FROM VARIETY: Capping a tense period
when CBS and Viacom have acted more like rivals than corporate cousins with a
common chairman in Sumner Redstone, Viacom announced Sunday a pay-TV joint
venture with Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount Pictures.
Click
for Full Story
Kingdom fights to top of box office
APRIL 21 | FROM VARIETY: Lionsgate and the
Weinstein Co.’s Jet Li-Jackie Chan starrer Forbidden Kingdom was the
surprise black-belt master of the weekend box office, beating out Universal’s
Judd Apatow romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
Click
for Full Story
Studios vary pricing for Blu-ray releases
APRIL 25 | Blu-ray Disc won the format war. Now
one of the next challenges for studios, wholesalers and retailers is how to best
price the product to quicken consumer adoption and preserve profits. Retailers
report some shoppers balk at paying $5 to $10 more for Blu-ray than DVD.
Click
for Full Story
Netflix to hike Blu-ray rental price
APRIL 21 | Netflix will begin charging a premium
to subscribers who rent Blu-ray Discs sometime this year, CEO Reed Hastings said
during the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call today.
Click
for Full Story
Nintendo profits jump 48%
APRIL 24 | FROM VARIETY: Nintendo recorded a 48%
jump in net profit for the fiscal year ending in March 2008, despite big
exchange rates losses, the company announced Thursday.
Click
for Full Story
EC calls for videogame regulations
APRIL 23 | FROM VARIETY: Europe's videogame
industry must do more to protect minors from harmful content, European
Commission regulators said Tuesday.
Click
for Full Story
Disney sweetens Narnia videogame
APRIL 23 | FROM VARIETY: Prince Caspian
fans won't have to wait for the DVD to get bonus footage. Disney Interactive
Studios' videogame adaptation of the upcoming tentpole from its sibling studio,
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, will feature two exclusive
live-action scenes shot by the film's cast and crew.
Click
for Full Story
EA's take two on Take-Two
APRIL 21 | FROM VARIETY: It's not game over yet
for Electronic Arts' $2 billion bid to acquire Take-Two Interactive. On Friday,
EA extended until May 16 the deadline for shareholders to accept its offer. It
had been set to expire that day.
Click
for Full Story
CDSA joins EMA's Digital Delivery Council
APRIL 24 | The Content Delivery & Storage
Assn. (formerly the International Recording Media Assn.) has joined the
Entertainment Merchants Assn. in its effort to establish a uniform set of
standards for digital delivery of entertainment content over the Internet.
Click
for Full Story
Studios keep faith in digital biz
APRIL 24 | FROM VARIETY: Studios desperately
want the download biz to take off, and Netcos are eager for movie sales and
rentals to migrate online, but it hasn't really happened yet. Studios admit the
digital biz is very small but believe it could grow to a significant level by
next year.
Click
for Full Story
Apple Q2 revenue up 36%; 1.7 million iPhones sold
APRIL 23 | Strong sales of iPods and Mac
computers drove Apple net income up 36% to $1 billion during its most recent
quarter, the company reported Wednesday.
Click
for Full Story
Amazon earnings up, no details on digital sales
APRIL 23 | Strong U.S. and international sales
pushed Amazon.com earnings up 29% to $143 million during the first quarter, the
retailer said Wednesday.
Click
for Full Story
Living Seas offered as free download for Earth
Day
APRIL 21 | GREEN REPORT: As an
Earth Day gift, Image Entertainment is offering free downloads and/or streams of
IMAX documentary The Living Sea this week.
Click
for Full Story
Studios team on VOD venture
APRIL 21 | FROM VARIETY: Capping a tense period
when CBS and Viacom have acted more like rivals than corporate cousins with a
common chairman in Sumner Redstone, Viacom announced Sunday a pay-TV joint
venture with Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount Pictures.
Click
for Full Story
Apple Q2 revenue up 36%; 1.7 million iPhones sold
APRIL 23 | Strong sales of iPods and Mac
computers drove Apple net income up 36% to $1 billion during its most recent
quarter, the company reported Wednesday.
Click
for Full Story
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