Speaker: Old Movies Are Still Renting
wisdom, old movies still represent a significant amount of rental revenues nationally, said Tom Adams, president, Adams Media Research, Carmel Valley, Calif., who spoke at a panel during the Video Software Dealers Association convention earlier this month.
As a percent of total rental revenues last year, titles released during 1997 were only 45% of the market, and 42% of the market was more than a year old, he said. Adams was citing numbers culled from the VSDA's VidTrac service.
With the move to copy-depth and revenue-sharing programs geared to increase the number of new-release tapes in stores, "breadth of catalog is probably the forgotten item in terms of what presents a good chunk of the business and an even bigger chunk of the profits," said Adams.
"I don't mean to discount the new hits, because they are clearly what drives the business, but it's essential that you also have a breadth of catalog titles," he said.
Family Videos Now Being Sold on Web
LAS VEGAS -- The Dove Foundation, Grand Rapids, Mich., has launched an on-line video store for family-friendly titles and has plans to put kiosks linked to the web site in supermarkets, said Dick Rolfe, chief executive officer, during the Video Software Dealers Association convention here earlier this month.
Located at http:// store.dove.org, the Dove Store Online will be run by Dove Services, L.L.C., an E-commerce marketing company formed by the foundation. The web site will offer the more than 2,000 movies and videos that have been approved by the Dove Foundation's Review Board and awarded the Dove Family-Approved Seal.
Also at the show, another family-oriented product was announced: The TVGuardian Foul Language Filter, made by Principle Solutions Co., Rogers, Ark. This will be available through the Dove web site, retailing for $149.95. The filter blocks profanity from television programming by reading the closed caption signal muting the audio and replacing questionable words with a brief onscreen script.
Top 10 Supermarket Video Rental Titles
Title (Weeks Out) Studio Retail Last Week
1 Good Will Hunting (1) Buena Vista $107.37 New
2 As Good As It Gets (8) Columbia $23.96 1
3 Scream 2 (5) Buena Vista $107.37 2
4 Home Alone 3 (6) Fox $22.95 4
5 Wag the Dog (2) Warner $105.77 7
6 Amistad (2) Universal $105.37 8
7 The Replacement Killers (2) Columbia $105.77 9
8 The Rainmaker (6) Paramount $105.77 5
9 Spice World (4) Columbia $22.95 3
10 Starship Troopers (8) Columbia $107.37 6
The chart on this page, tailored for the supermarket video market, is based on information taken from more than 1,000 supermarket rental locations serviced by Ingram Entertainment, La Vergne, Tenn.
