'MISSION' MAY MAKE RE-RELEASE SALES POSSIBLE

RICHARD TURCSIK

The mission of retailers, should they decide to accept it, will be to merchandise this fall's release of "Mission Impossible" with a collection of three of star Tom Cruise's other hits, which are being re-released at a special price of $5.99 each.

PG-13 rated "Mission Impossible," which stars Tom Cruise and set a new domestic box office record for the biggest Memorial Day weekend opening of all time, is being released on video Nov. 12 in the United States and Canada. The film doesn't carry a suggested retail price, but rather a minimum advertised price of $14.79.

Robin Carey, video merchandiser at Glen's Markets, Gaylord, Mich., said the low MAP might prompt her to order more copies. However, she was unsure how she would merchandise the film, since her advertising has already been planned for the rest of the year.

"I know 'Mission Impossible' will do well, just because of the name," she said.

Hollywood-based Paramount Home Video is backing the release with the biggest advertising campaign in its history. It seeks to reach 95% of the target audience at least 15 times. As part of the promotion, the Tom Cruise hits "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder" and "The Firm" are being re-released on home video for $5.99. The videos are being merchandised on separate displays that can interlock with the "Mission Impossible" display to maximize sales.

"Sell-through has been doing very well for us, so we certainly expect to roll out 'Mission Impossible' everywhere. In our stronger locations I would expect to put the other supplementary Cruise titles with it because it is certainly a good price-point," said Randy Weddington, video specialist at Harps Food Stores, Springdale, Ark.

Weddington said he is taking a chance on the other Cruise titles, even though he hasn't "had a lot of luck with recently repriced titles" because of the attraction of the Cruise name, and the hot $5.99 retail price.

Gary Schloss, vice president of general merchandise at Carr Gottstein Foods, Anchorage, Alaska, said his chain will be promoting "Mission Impossible" with the other Cruise titles.

However, Bill Glaseman, video specialist at Bashas' Markets, Chandler, Ariz., said his chain is not planning to stock the other Cruise titles.

"[The other titles] did all right in rentals, and we still have them out, but we're not going to have sell-through on those titles. I think the whole world is going to have them for $5.99, and we don't think we would do that much with them," he said, adding, "We're going to be putting 'Mission Impossible' out at sell-through, and we are expecting it to do well because the box office did well."

Jack Kanne, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Paramount Home Video, said the "Mission Impossible" promotion is ideally suited for the supermarket trade.

"We will have a lot of focus on Tom in 'Mission,' which we think plays right into the grocery and supermarket business. The appeal is definitely there for women with 'Mission Impossible,' but more specifically Tom Cruise. That really does play into the supermarket with their demographics and their traffic," he said.

"In addition, Tom is opening up a new movie in December for Sony called 'Jerry McGuire.' Tom Cruise will be everywhere promoting it. We really wanted to take advantage of that, and that is really going to help the retailer merchandise 'Mission Impossible,' " Kanne said.

Although Paramount Home Video is backing "Mission Impossible" with a multimillion dollar campaign that is the largest in the company's history, Kanne said he does not expect "Mission Impossible" to be its best-selling videocassette.

"We sold over 16 million of 'Forrest Gump.' I don't think we will surpass that, even though we are spending more dollars. We are spending more dollars because this is a very important title, it is in the fourth quarter, which is more competitive."

Schloss of Carr Gottstein said that historically adult-action films do not have as strong a sell-through as children's titles.

"While 'Mission Impossible' did do well at the box office, we will sell several thousand copies, but it is not going to be one of these multithousand copy titles, like 'Toy Story' is going to be. It will probably do about one-quarter what a strong children's film will do," he said.

Weddington of Harps said while he expects "Mission Impossible" to do well, he looks for family-oriented movies like "Toy Story" and "Independence Day" to do better in his stores when they are released.

"We haven't done a lot of cross-promotion yet, but we're mounting a big campaign, working with Disney and all of the rebate partners on 'Toy Story.' We're waiting to see how that goes before we go further, but if it passes the test and there is time, we may work with cross-promotions on 'Mission Impossible,' " he said.