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The Heat Is On

19 Aug, 2013 By: Stephanie Prange

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August is a most anxious month for home entertainment suppliers. They gear up for the all-important fourth-quarter gift-giving season when sellthrough discs are expected to shine and the summer slate of big-budget theatrical films hits the home entertainment market.

The heat is on — and I’m not just talking about the weather.

Early in the summer, the fathers of blockbuster film, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, speaking at the opening of a new media center at the University of Southern California, predicted a Hollywood “implosion” of blockbuster flops that would change the industry.

“There’s going to be an implosion or big meltdown where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen megabudget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm,” Spielberg said.

Various pundits have weighed in on just how many big-budget films (some terming the number unprecedented) will turn out to be flops at the end of the summer.

Regardless of the final number, the home entertainment market will have to struggle with marketing them, flops or no. Some films will make up revenue in the international theatrical market, where lots of action and very little dialogue always plays well. But other big-budget behemoths will look to home entertainment to make up for lost revenue.

And, thus, the heat is on.

Home entertainment divisions will be expected to be cleanup hitters for titles that underperformed theatrically. Conversely, they’ll be expected to realize in the home entertainment market the promise of films that hit a home run in the summer theatrical contest.

But home entertainment divisions have another element to deal with: increased competition for consumers’ limited leisure hours from subscription video-on-demand services.

A colleague told me recently that the entertainment business is all about creating desire. That job falls squarely on the shoulders of the home entertainment marketing team this fourth quarter. How can we create desire for the summer blockbusters and for classic collections?

The heat is on.

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