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EXCLUSIVE: Rival studios tell me that exhibitors are quietly furious that Disney has begun selling the Beauty And The Beast 3D Blu-Ray DVD at Target and Walmart and other retailers without fanfare at the same time the film goes into theaters today. (Walmart lists the release date as October 2011 of this ‘Diamond Edition’ and has already discounted it from $49.99 to $34.96.) As one rival studio exec tells me, “They think what Disney did is very underhanded by sneaking it into stores.” By contrast, last year’s Disney’s The Lion King 3D Blu-ray DVD didn’t go on sale until two weeks after the threatrical release. ”Is Beauty And The Beast 3D Blu-Ray going to be the experiment that closes the windows for sure?” one rival studio exec asks me. “If so the exhibitors have truly lost a major battle.”
Disney in its defense points out that the vast majority of families don’t have 3D televisions yet so the DVD won’t affect theatrical gross. “We’ve talked to all of our partners in exhibition about this and have made no secret about the Beauty And The Beast 3D Blu-Ray DVD being available. In fact there are multiple exhibition partners that are tying promotions into the 3D Blu-ray being available, like AMC and Regal.”
I’m surprised that exhibitors aren’t kicking up a public fuss. But they don’t want to call attention to the Beauty And The Beast 3D Blu-Ray DVD and hurt their own business. Guess they only go public if it’s about the VOD window. Remember all the publicity about Universal’s trial balloon for the Tower Heist same-day VOD premiere for $59.99? (Universal Halts ‘Tower Heist’ VOD Plan As Exhibitors Agree To Further Talks.) Meanwhile, Warner Bros is now trying to put the genie back into the bottle by negotiating longer windows. (Warner Bros Doubles Netflix Wait Period For Discs To 56 Days.)
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Sounds like you are being played by those rivals studios trying to stir up the old windows battle. I work for a major exhibitor and like anyone who is on top of this business, already knew that B&B had a blu-ray release last fall. Hell, I even bought it just to get the 2D version. Disney did NOTHING underhanded.
That’s nonsense. It was released to stores months ago with a big marketing campaign. Rivals are just trying to create a stink, I think.
Yeah. The 3D Blu-ray actually came out October 4th.
Sounds like rival execs trying to stir a fuss, me thinks.
Completely true. They did the Beast conversion two years ago and weren’t happy with it. They preferred Lion King, so they released THAT one in theaters, then both on bluray even though they released Beast the year before on bluray.
Since Lion King made a shit-ton of money in it’s 3-D re-release, they’re putting Beast 3-D in theaters now…
It has nothing to do with closing any release window.
-RnsW
I’m confused. What’s the problem? The 3-D Blu-Ray came out on October 4, 2011, over THREE MONTHS ago. I’ve had it since then.
No one has 3D at home and few are going to get it at current pricing and tech options – especially not before killer apps like Avatar are not tied to hardware exclusives.
Conversely, 3D video games at home are absolutely incredible. If 3D is going to get traction at home that’s how.
Exhibitors fussing over a 20 year old reissue that has had multiple home format releases is revealing though. They keep wanting to focus on the quality of fare, which is a factor, when the experiences they are peddling continue to be abysmal and pricey at the same time.
“Disney in its defense points out that the vast majority of families don’t have 3D televisions yet so the DVD won’t affect theatrical gross.”
I don’t have a 3D TV nor due I have any intentions of seeing it in 3D. I own the regular diamond edition on bluray.
It’s pretty simple what happened; Disney was never planning to release the 3D version of “Beauty” in theatres because no one could foresee the amazing success “Lion King” 3D was going to be.
When “King” opened, it was already too late to recall the “Beauty” Blu 3D 2 weeks later, so they had no choice but to sell it. Remember, this 3D version of “Beauty” was supposed to be released 2 years ago theatrically; Disney didn’t know the movie would do well, so they never released it.
Side note for Deadline people: Blu-ray and DVD are two separate formats – there is no such thing as a “Blu-ray DVD”…..
All big Studios, including the so called “rivals of Disney” do not have to comply with any marketing standards or business practices when releasing DVD and BluRay titles. It is up to the big studios’ marketing departments how handle release strategies, and in this case Disney is just showing a new approach.
I wonder if they would still be furious if the Lion King 3D hadn’t done any business? I doubt it. They are worrying about nothing.
This is an absurd response by the theater owners. No one hid the fact that Beauty and the Beast was available on 3D BD. All they had to do was check a circular ad last fall to see it or check a website today.
What next, are they going to complain that a re-release of Grease is underhanded by Paramount because the film is already out on DVD for 15+ years?
If a movie theater cannot create a better experience to watch a 3D film than is offered at home, shame on the theater, not the content provider.
The 3D is shite anyway, on this 2D film! Cash-grab, baby!
Beauty and the Beast has been widely available on Blu-ray since October 2010, on DVD since November 2010 and the 3D version joined it last year. Before that, the initial now-out-of-print DVD release was October 2002. All of these are semi-recent and all had big marketing campaigns, so the film’s availability is no secret. People who will go in theaters will go because they want to see the movie on a big screen again. Personally, i am more upset that it is not being offered in 2D at all; I don’t care for 3D as it makes my head hurt and doesn’t display correctly for me. But I saw The Lion King in theaters twice last year because it was offered in 2D once a day. The same courtesy would be nice in the case of Beauty and the Beast, but no such luck, which means that both Disney and the exhibitors are losing money that I would have gladly given them if the film was offered in 2D. And I own both the Blu-ray and 2002 DVD, and I would still go. I guess they don’t want my money.
Blowing smoke just to blow smoke.
Even my techie friends with more money than common sense don’t own 3D sets, as they are next to worthless right now thanks to being tied to those stupid glasses, and lack of content. Anyone that has the slightest interest in a 3D set is waiting for the glasses-free tech to become mainstream and affordable enough to justify the upgrade. Everyone else is just going with the regular non-3D LED sets as they are lighter, thinner, and more energy efficient than older cold cathode backlit flatpanels.
I have to agree: what are they bitching about? The 3D blu-ray market is a pretty small one in the grand scheme of home video. I seriously doubt that the people that have purchased the 3D BD are going to kill the box office this weekend. The fact that the reissue has been out on the DVD and 2D blu-ray for well over a year and is still readily available might.
Rather than mine old titles for mind-numbing “reboots” or senseless 3D-ization, maybe Hollywood should concentrate on developing ORIGINAL content? Otherwise, there will be a Deadline article later this year about some sutdio heads boo-hooing about low revenues.
Ya think?
OK, so first, can we try to get the terminology correct in our headline. It’s not a ’3D DVD” it’s a 3D Blu-ray, and yeah, there’s a big flippin’ difference.
Beyond that, I’m not really sure how Disney could have quietly “sneaked” this product into Wal Mart and Target, the two largest retailers in the country so if someone wants to explain that, I’m all ears.
As far as the exhibitors hurt feelings are concerned, this is the only time I’ll ever say, “screw ‘em.” When it comes to repops, all bets are off. The only reason they are being re-released in the theater to begin with is to act as an advertising vehicle for home video sales. If the exhibitors don’t like, don’t show the movie.
I gotta side with Disney on this one… VERY few people have a way of watching 3D content at home… if anything, the marketing push they did for the DVD likely helps the theatrical window in this case.