Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … UPDATES Weinstein Co Gets "New Lease On Life"?
EXCLUSIVE: The focus on Harvey Weinstein recently has been his heavy-handed Oscar lobbying for Inglourious Basterds and his uphill battle to reclaim the Miramax name and film library. But the behind-the-scenes restructuring effort continues for The Weinstein Co, and I've learned it has finalized a new DVD distribution deal with Sony’s Worldwide Acquisitions unit. TWC and Dimension releases will release through Sony’s DVD distribution pipeline. The structure is somewhat similar to the Summit DVD distribution deal with Universal, or Lionsgate’s deal with Fox, except those two companies handle their own DVD marketing campaigns. Though TWC has involvement, Sony will spearhead marketing of TWC’s DVD product, as the studio does in its deal with Bob Berney’s Apparition. The Weinsteins will get a modest advance for each film and pay a distribution fee neither side would divulge.
DVD distribution has been a conundrum for the Weinsteins, who once took a majority stake in distributor Genius Products and released through that company until they divested last year. The Sony deal is envisioned as long-term, but it is being meted out in packages of 9 to 10 films. True, the titles in the first group of films didn't burn up the box office. The 1st batch consists of Nine, the underperforming Rob Marshall-directed musical, A Single Man, The Road, Youth in Revolt, Halloween, Piranha 3-D, ... Read More »
One by one, Hollywood studios are reluctantly doing business with Red Box and starting partnerships. (Fox and Universal still have lawsuits pending... Paramount and others have made deals.) The latest is Warner Bros whose Home Entertainment Group and Redbox today announced a new multi-year distribution agreement that will make new release DVD and Blu-ray titles available after a 28-day window. The agreement marks the end of the lawsuit that Redbox filed against Warner Home Video last August.
Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group, said in a statement today that “the 28-day window enables us to get the most from the sales potential of our titles and maximize VOD usage.” The new arrangement provides Redbox with reduced product costs, sufficient quantities of product and optimal stock levels four weeks after street date as well as extends Redbox's access to Blu-ray titles, which Redbox is currently testing in select markets. Warner Home Video and Redbox will be implementing delayed availability during the month of March and will reach a 4-week window by March 23 with the release of The Blind Side. The new agreement will run through January 31, 2012. Redbox has also agreed to destroy Warner Home Video content following its lifespan in kiosks. 
When it comes to Oscar screeners, they’ve saved the biggest for last. Fox has finally mailed out screeners for Avatar, in 2D format. (Not to worry: Cameron told me recently that he shot the film to succeed in 2D, which is how it will be initially released in DVD to consumers.) The James Cameron blockbuster arrives in Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences member mailboxes any moment. Most screeners arrived in December so voters could catch up on films during the holidays, but Fox held back until Avatar crossed the $1 billion mark. 
Also, Fox wanted more time to encourage voters to see the pic on a big screen in 3D, and did its best to ensure that Academy screenings were packed. And then there were the studio's concerns about piracy at a time when the film was building its box office. But holding back the screener wouldn't have impacted piracy anyway, judging by a recent Times of London report that named Avatar the fastest-pirated movie with 980,000 illegal downloads in its opening week. 
I'm told this new deal is supposed to save Paramount “many tens of millions annually” as the studio copes with the sinking DVD market. There had been rumors that Paramount was in home entertainment merger talks with rivals like Sony Pictures and Fox Studios, signalling a new wave of consolidation over the slumping DVD market. Paramount was looking to cut costs by combining DVD production, distribution and back-office functions. One proposal reported by the Financial Times had Paramount switching to Sony’s DADC DVD production system rather than Technicolor’s system, which the studio currently uses. Judging from today's announcement, that may have just been a negotiating ploy:
Fox filed documents today in the ongoing litigation between Redbox and various Hollywood studios. These papers are the studio's opening brief in support of its motion to dismiss RedBox's claim, and outline for the first time to the court Fox’s position on the Redbox dispute:
-- After Redbox refused to accept those terms, Fox had the right to stop selling DVDs to Redbox altogether. It did not. Instead, Fox informed its distributors that they could continue selling Fox DVDs to Redbox 30 days after Fox initially released the DVD, but not before.
But never mind the law or the decision itself. Look at the self indulgent writing. Yes, license like this is taken often. Things must get boring when trying dry corporate cases. So this judge sprinkled his decision with a bunch of bad puns using movie titles. (Makes you wonder how seriously he took this.) For example: "Redbox maintains that Universal has otherwise failed to 'Do the Right Thing' in seeking to prevent Redbox from buying new release Universal DVDs from other wholesalers and retailers, and in some cases succeeding in those attempts. With the 'Mercury Rising' in the relationship between Redbox and Universal, Redbox employees turned to a 'Cloak and Dagger' exercise, visiting Wal-Mart and Best Buy stores in an attempt to purchase multiple copies of Universal DVDs." Other new and old movie titles used are Duplicity, To Kill A Mockingbird, Hamlet, Great Expectations, Counselor At Law, The 'Burbs, The Fast And The Furious, Legal Eagles, Two For The Money, The Real McCoy, Two For The Money, Brüno, Raising Cain. What is it about Hollywood that makes everyone who comes within 5,000 miles of the place lose IQ points? 
Pali Research media analyst Rich Greenfield 
Greenfield notes that the movie studios are increasingly concerned that the buy vs. rent pendulum is swinging far too quickly back to rental after over a decade of explosive retail sales growth, with the resurgence of rental led by mail-order subscription (Netflix) and kiosks (Redbox). "Studio profits are heavily weighted toward sales vs. rental, exacerbating the problem with a sales/rental mix shift. What makes the Warner Bros statement so intriguing is that it goes well beyond windowing Redbox. Warner ... 
UPDATE: Summit Entertainment's Twilight DVD went on sale Saturday at 12:01 AM. I hear it's already debuting in at least the Top 5 of all DVD one-day sales openers of the last 2 years. What a franchise! Specific numbers will be released today. (I've already tweeted that Twilight became available to Comcast customers On Demand beginning the same day as the DVD, including 3 featurettes like an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of “Vampire Baseball”.) Here's the Summit Entertainment news release:
Thousands of TWILIGHT fans across the nation participated in the “TWILIGHT at Midnight” event and some were surprised by filmmaker and cast appearances. 2,500 fans attended in Salt Lake City to see Rachelle Lefevre who plays Victoria; 2,000 showed up in Los Angeles to see Ashley Greene who plays Alice Cullen; 
So here's the huge problem for Hollywood: the French-headquartered electronics and media giant, since 2001, has owned Technicolor, which is the giant maker of DVDs for the studios. "I can tell you the rumors have been flying all day as each studio was getting informed from Thomson of the announcement coming tomorrow," one source told me today. 
"The studios' DVD divisions were pretty shook up about the news since there's not really another DVD maker that can handle the volumes Technicolor does." Technicolor has long been a highly successful film processing firm that also became involved in DVD manufacturing. At least now the studios know that Thomson is going to stay in the DVD business because the company emphasized Thursday that it will focus "on providing services to content creators in the movie and media industries". Meanwhile, sources tell me that Thomson expects to receive help from the French government to continue operating. 
I just heard that Warner Bros' Batman Blu-ray discs alone sold 600,000 copies on Tuesday, the first day of release. By contrast, Marvel/Paramount's Iron Man sold 250,000 Blu-ray discs when it premiered on September 30th and ended up selling 400,000 Blu-ray units in its first week. But wait til you see what The Dark Knight sold in both formats, standard def and hi-def: 3 million copies bought by customers in the U.S., Canada and the UK on its first day in stores. That's 3x the norm. This isn't a superhero, it's a cash cow! The Dark Knight was not only 2008's best DVD sales day, but is also likely to be 2008's bestseller of the year by next week with a projected number of 7 million units. This is beyond huge! Christopher Nolan's pic is truly the gift that keeps on giving after already making $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Warner Bros should use this phenomenal performance to help push The Dark Knight and everyone associated with it for Oscar nominations as a box office phenomenon and critical darling. The studio said sales surged at grocery stores, indicating that the format is broadening beyond early adopters to more mainstream buyers, notably women. What makes this all the more remarkable is that I've been told Hollywood's overall DVD sales were 30% down for the month of November. The Industry is admitting they're also off 6% for the year so far and will likely end up 8% to 10% behnd 2007. ... 
Insiders are telling me that end-of-November and even end of-year stats regarding DVD sales of 2008's major movie titles are looking like a disaster areas. The guesstimates are that even blockbuster titles like Iron Man and Hancock will be down 30% this month. The Industry is admitting they're also off 6% for the year so far and will likely end up 8% to 10% behind 2007. Interesting that studios which earlier claimed their film biz was near-recession proof are now blaming the economy rather than new digital media delivery options. 
I give TV and movie fans a lot of credit: when they get mad, they scare the crap out of the moguls. That's happening at Lionsgate where the studio's phones and email accounts are jammed with angry fans for the past week. They're making a stink because new Lionsgate topper Joe Drake appears to be dumping all of ex-prez Peter Block's movies. That includes Midnight Meat Train, the adaptation of the Barker short story that's a fan fave. Supposedly the trailer tested higher than any film in Lionsgate history. But when Drake took over, he promptly bumped Midnight Meat Train from its May 16th release date. The result was that Rogue Pictures' The Strangers (which was skedded two weekends later) had zero competition in the hard-R category. And guess who was exec producer of The Strangers? Joe Drake.
The result is a lot of anti-Lionsgate blogging in Horrorville by fans, by self-appointed horror flick experts, and also by Barker himself. "I would passionately encourage everybody who cares about my work ... 
I'm told CAA partner Kevin Huvane is throwing a belated birthday party on Saturday night for recently released from prison Joe Francis, the scandalous founder of Mantra Films Inc, which produces those disgusting Girls Gone Wild soft-porn video and DVD series 
which have prompted so many complaints that women and even underage girls were filmed without their permission. UPDATE: *In addition I'm told Huvane along with his posse of friends use Francis's Mexico vacation compound in Punta Mita almost every Xmas and New Years as well as Easter. When Huvane's not having his own parties he parks his very special clients there. So some see the birthday party as a payback.*
There also ... 
Loading ...