National Lampoon’s Blackball promises to be a very bad film. It does, however, have one interesting characteristic. The DVD will be available for purchase four days after the film’s theatrical premiere (from Reuters, via the Movie Marketing Blog):
Normally, a Hollywood studio will send a film to theaters and several months later — after the movie has had its run in theaters and collected all the ticket sales it can — the film will be put on video or DVD for rental and retail sales.
But with DVD sales of $15 billion in 2004 far surpassing U.S. box office receipts of $9.4 billion, more movie companies are rushing films through theaters and onto retail shelves to take advantage of the advertising and promotion that typically support a film’s theatrical release.
Given that a film makes 40% of its earnings over the first weekend, and that movies are increasingly just ads for the DVD, this makes all sorts of sense. Also, you’ll get more bang for your marketing dollar if you advertise the film and the DVD simultaneously. I imagine that zillions of advertising dollars are wasted reminding consumers about movies they first hear about six months earlier.
DarrenBarefoot.com 