Who Would Have Thought?

Back in September chicken little was concerned about Wal-Mart throwing its weight around.

several weeks ago, in the midst of rumors that Apple was close to announcing a deal with Disney, Wal-Mart's David Porter - the executive responsible for stocking the retailer's shelves with DVDs and CDs and whose influence is so immense in Tinseltown that he's been named to Premiere magazine's annual power list - made the rounds of Hollywood studios.

I claimed that the concern was just so much hooey. Wal-Mart only has as power over suppliers as they have ability to make said suppliers money. Let's fast forward and see who was right.

Disney continues to have success in selling movies through the iTunes Music Store, saying Thursday it had now sold about 500,000 films in just the first two months of operation. Consumers are downloading movies at rate of about 9,000 per day, generating about $4 million in revenue.

Expect stories, any day now, about how Wal-Mart is 'putting it to' Disney by shipping unsold merchandise back.

Tags: Wal-Mart, technology, Disney

The Good News Is That You Can Still Get Movie Popcorn At Home

I predicted that all of the major movie studios would sign up for downloadable movies and that it would take long.

Turns out that it took less than 5 months from the moment of my prediction.

This morning, [name withheld] is rolling out what it calls a "beta" of its pay-per-download video service
...
it features new and recent releases from every major Hollywood studio, including Sony (Columbia, Screen Gems, MGM), Warner Bros., 20th Century-Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Lionsgate.

Now why on earth would I withhold the name? So that I can say "I told you so" yet again.

But several weeks ago, in the midst of rumors that Apple was close to announcing a deal with Disney, Wal-Mart's David Porter - the executive responsible for stocking the retailer's shelves with DVDs and CDs and whose influence is so immense in Tinseltown that he's been named to Premiere magazine's annual power list - made the rounds of Hollywood studios.

Not only did Disney not worry too much about cutting a deal with Apple, Wal-Mart is jumping into the game with both feet forward.

The movie industry has been a lot smarter and much quicker to embrace the digital age than the music industry. [side note: what I can't figure out is that many of these companies are the same. Do the different divisions just not talk to each other?]

So with Wal-Mart bringing movie downloads into the mainstream I expect a couple things to happen. First, prices will start dropping, though I'm not sure by how much. Second, one of my first predictions in this area will start coming true: near simultaneous theatrical release and home video release.

It won't be quite there this year, but the time will start shrining. When the media finally reports on it, expect another "I told you so" post from me.

Tags: wal-mart, technology, movies

Anti-Walmart Rhetoric

When I read stories like this I just have to shake my head.

The last thing studios want to do before the holiday shopping season is to offend their biggest sales outlet; the studios, collectively, rely on Wal-Mart for some $5 billion of DVD sales in the fourth quarter.

But several weeks ago, in the midst of rumors that Apple was close to announcing a deal with Disney, Wal-Mart's David Porter - the executive responsible for stocking the retailer's shelves with DVDs and CDs and whose influence is so immense in Tinseltown that he's been named to Premiere magazine's annual power list - made the rounds of Hollywood studios.

His message, according to a studio exec involved in the discussions: that there would be "serious ramifications" if the studios hopped in bed with Apple.

"They threatened to hurt us in terms of buying less products," said this person.

Um, duh? If Walmart feels that selling movies on iTunes is going to hurt their DVD sales of course they are going to buy less product. Isn't that what hurting sales means?

This crap about Walmart being a behemoth and demanding other businesses do things they don't want to do is a bunch of hooey.

Wal-Mart, worried that offering the shows for viewing on iPods would cut into DVD sales at its stores, sent "cases and cases" of DVDs back to Disney, according to a source familiar with the matter.

If Wal-Mart can't sell the product why wouldn't they return the unused merchandise? Its part of the contract? Trying to spin this business-as-usual conduct into some massive conspiracy is bad reporting at its best.

A Night At the Movies

I’ve been saying for awhile that the best way to prevent people from downloading movies off of the internet is to release movies simultaneously in theatres and on DVD.  People want to watch movies for $3.5 and eat popcorn in their own living room, they don’t want to pay $20 for tickets another $8 for popcorn and get to listen to someone else’s brats bicker through an entire movie.

It turns out that Bob Iger, the incoming Disney Chief, has considered the idea himself.  The next question is going to be if they can overcome Walmart’s threat to not carry DVD if the lag between purchase and rental availability is eliminated.  Well that and what are teenagers going to do on Friday night now?