Best Buy Offers 'Hunger Games' Keychain

'The Hunger Games' with Best Buy keychain

With July 3 new releases on the light side due to the July 4 holiday, retailers focused mostly on sales to clear inventory.

Best Buy, though, is offering a District 12 key chain with in-store preorders of The Hunger Games, on DVD and Blu-ray Aug. 18 from Lionsgate.
 

Whistle While You Watch

Best Buy's '21 Jump Street' with whistle

Best Buy offers a slew of exclusives with the June 26 new releases, starting with Sony Pictures’ 21 Jump Street, which comes with a free party whistle and bottle opener.

Additional items of note include an exclusive steelbook case with copies of the 3D Blu-ray version of Warner’s Wrath of the Titans.

Best Buy also offers steelbook versions of the Blu-ray Discs for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, offered at $9.99 each. They include $5 movie cash coupons that can be applied toward a theatrical ticket for The Dark Knight Rises, which opens July 20.

Staying with the superhero theme, Best Buy also used its weekly ad circular to tout the re-releases of the “Spider-Man” films on Blu-ray (also at $9.99 each) and the $10 in movie cash they contain for The Amazing Spider-Man, in theaters July 3.

Walmart offered DVDs of 21 Jump Street packed with another film starring Jonah Hill, Superbad. Walmart also offered a $19.96 DVD of Wrath of the Titans that included a Vudu digital copy of Clash of the Titans.

Ready for Summer Fun

Best Buy's Disney Beach Ball

Best Buy is getting consumers ready for summer with a special Disney DVD deal. Select Disney kidvid animation DVDs offered at $14.99 each come with a free 13.5-inch Mickey & Friends beach ball.

For the adult mindset, Best Buy offers an exclusive DVD two-pack of the first two seasons of Fox’s “Louie,” starring comedian Louis C.K.

Other new releases at Best Buy include Sony Pictures’ Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season at $29.99, the first season of “Wilfred” on DVD for $24.99 and Blu-ray for $29.99, Universal’s Wanderlust at $15.99 on DVD and $19.99 on Blu-ray, Fox’s Thin Ice for $12.99 on DVD and $16.99 on Blu-ray, and Universal’s Cat Run for $11.99 on DVD and $15.99 on Blu-ray.

Best Buy also put several USA Network and sci-fi TV DVDs on sale for as low as $12.99 each, including select seasons of “Eureka,” “In Plain Sight,” “Psych,” “Stargate Atlantis” and “Warehouse 13.”

Target downplayed the presence of DVD in its weekly ad circular, listing only Project X, Big Miracle and Seeking Justice as its key titles for the week.

Exclusive Content Reigns

Among the several new releases June 12, quite a few retailers enhanced copies sold in their stores with a slew of exclusive bonus content.

Target offered exclusive bonus discs with the DVD of Lionsgate’s latest Tyler Perry flick, Good Deeds, which included a "Creating Good Chemistry" featurette, and HBO’s DVD and Blu-ray sets of the final season of “Entourage,” which came with a 65-minute Q&A.

Over at Best Buy, Ghost Rider fans could get Sony Pictures’ new Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 3D Blu-ray with 20 minutes of additional footage and an exclusive bonus disc with a “Vehicles of Vengeance” featurette.

For Warner’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Best Buy offered the Blu-ray combo pack in steelbook packaging, as well as a Blu-ray of the first film in steelbook packaging separately for $9.99.

Best Buy also offered an exclusive figurine with the purchase of Warner’s Superman vs. the Elite direct-to-video animated movie on Blu-ray. Walmart offered a two-DVD special edition of Superman vs. the Elite, a configuration not offered elsewhere until July 24.

Best Buy Brings Bonuses

A slew of major new releases hit shelves June 5, and Best Buy offered exclusives with almost all of them.

For Universal’s Safe House, Best Buy offered an exclusive Blu-ray/DVD combo pack in steelbook packaging.

For Fox’s Act of Valor, it offered the Blu-ray combo pack with exclusive box art and additional Navy SEAL footage. For Warner’s Journey 2, it offered the first Journey at $4.99 for DVD, $7.99 for Blu-ray and $19.99 for 3D BD. Consumers who purchased Fox’s White Collar: The Complete Third Season and Burn Notice: Season Five together could save $10. And for Disney’s John Carter, Best Buy touted a coupon at JohnCarterCoupon.com/BestBuy good for $5 off the 3D Blu-ray combo pack, which it sold with an exclusive bonus disc.

Target also offered a John Carter promotion, offering an $8 savings with the purchase of Carter with another selected Disney Blu-ray movie, such as Tron: Legacy or Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

In addition, Target’s copy of the Breaking Bad: The Complete Fourth Season DVD came with an exclusive cast Q&A.

Retailers Drink 'True Blood'

As is tradition for the HBO vampire series, retailers offered plenty of deals for True Blood: The Complete Fourth Season.

Target offered the Blu-ray of the season with an exclusive 65-minute cast Q&A.

Best Buy offered an exclusive T-shirt with the purchase of the fourth-season Blu-ray of “True Blood,” and also offered a sampler of the first two episodes of Cinemax’s “Strike Back” with the purchase of any HBO show on disc.

Walmart began offering a special shelf timed for Father’s Day, labeled “Super Star Dad.” The display included dozens of DVDs for as low as $7.50, such as Major League, The Godfather, The Hangover and Sherlock Holmes, and $9.96 titles such as Source Code.

May 22, 2012 Merch Chart:

A 'Devil' of a Blu-ray Deal

Paramount Home Media Distribution has given Best Buy a number of exclusive Blu-rays of its catalog titles in recent months, such as the May 15 release of Road Trip in HD.

But an exclusive on the Blu-ray for a new theatrical title is much more unusual. Yet that’s the case with The Devil Inside, an early 2012 horror title with a modest box office cume for which the Blu-ray is available only at Best Buy, at $22.99. (Contrast this with Target, which didn't bother advertising the DVD version in its weekly ad circular.)

Best Buy also had a promotion to get $10 Fandango cash to see Battleship or Snow White & the Huntsman with purchase of the Blu-rays for The Kingdom ($7.99), Jarhead, The Mummy or The Scorpion King ($9.99 each). Furthermore, buyers could get a $10 Best Buy gift card with the purchase of any three TV DVD or Blu-ray titles at $14.99 or higher each.

Walmart offered the DVD of The Devil Inside at $14.96 with a bonus digital rental from its Vudu movie-streaming service.

Target offered a promotion touting USA Network shows on DVD, such as “Covert Affairs” and “White Collar.” The chain also had an exclusive DVD of Men in Black: The Animated Series — Season One at $14.99, which includes a $10 coupon for a ticket for the upcoming Men in Black 3.

A 'Vow' For Retail Savings

Movies based on books make for easy retail promotions, since the home video can be paired with the original source material for a nice gift set. For example, May 8 Target offered a $5 savings with the joint purchase of Sony Pictures’ The Vow on disc and the book upon which it’s based, which was priced at $11.99.

Otherwise, Target’s attentions were turned toward clearing inventory as part of a “Mother’s Day Gifts for All Budgets” promotion, touting DVDs at $5, $10, $15 and $25 price points.

In addition, Target is taking advantage of the buzz around The Avengers with a sale of several Avengers tie-in products, such as $12.99 DVDs of earlier films in the series, as well as action figures, T-shirts, branded soda and snacks and more.

Best Buy continued to push its Upgrade & Save program, which lets customers exchange a used DVD for a $5 coupon that can be used on any Blu-ray priced at $9.99 and above. The chain devoted a page of its weekly ad circular promoting catalog titles that, with the coupon, could be had for as low as $4.99, such as Apollo 13 and Casino.

Best Buy also highlighted some TV DVD titles with a section labeled as “Season Finales Are Coming,” encouraging shoppers to check out previous seasons of their favorite shows.

'Avengers' Assemble at Best Buy

With the theatrical debut of the new Avengers movie, Best Buy gave fans a chance to catch up by putting all five of the precursor films on Blu-ray for sale.

The Incredible Hulk was $9.99, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 were $14.99 each, and Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger were $24.99 each for the 3D versions and $19.99 for the combo packs. Shoppers could save an additional $5 with an Upgrade & Save coupon for trading in a used DVD.

In addition, Best Buy offered $8 Movie Cash coupons for the new movie with copies of DVDs of the “Avengers” animated series, sold at $11.99 each.

Target built a sales promotion around Disney titles that are heading back into “The Vault,” with Bambi and Beauty and the Beast offered at $14.99 on DVD and $19.99 on Blu-ray, plus an additional $5 savings when either title was purchased with another selected Disney classic (offered at the same prices) on DVD or Blu-ray, such as Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp, The Lion King or The Muppets.

The Q2 Catalog Crunch

With a dearth of new major theatrical titles heading to shelves, stores are focusing on clearing inventory.

Target went with a huge sale of Disney Princess merchandise, centered on the chain’s exclusive Blu-ray edition of The Princess Diaries at $14.99. The promotion included sales of the DVD and Blu-ray of Tangled and The Princess and the Frog, as well as Disney Princess dolls, books and video games.

Another promotion at Target involved a $15 discount with the purchase of two select TV DVD titles. Also, several recent DVD releases were offered at $14.99 each.

Best Buy revived promotions for its “Upgrade & Save” program, which lets customers trade in their used DVDs to get a $5 coupon that can be applied toward a Blu-ray movie $9.99 and up. As such, its weekly ad circular was filled with pages of Blu-ray sales for which the coupon could be used.

Also, Best Buy offered $10 Fandango cash to see A Five-Year Engagement in theaters with the purchase of select Universal Blu-ray catalog titles offered at $12.99 each ($7.99 with the coupon).

The new DVD of the recent Titanic miniseries caused a bit of confusion among patrons at a Costa Mesa store who thought it was supposed to be a re-release of the James Cameron version. It just goes to show that movies share titles sometimes and it helps to keep an eye out for exactly what you want to buy.