'WAG THE DOG' HEATS UP AS LIFE IMITATES ART

DAN ALAIMO

Retailers can thank Bill Clinton for adding a few dollars to their bottom lines in August.

Because of events eerily resembling the plot of New Line's "Wag the Dog," and lots of publicity pointing this out, there was a burst of activity in rentals of the movie during its seventh week in release.

In "Wag the Dog" a president's advisers "produce" a nonexistent war to divert attention from a sexual scandal. On Aug. 20, President Clinton ordered missile attacks on suspected terrorist bases shortly after admitting he had lied about the Monica Lewinsky affair.

"Wag the Dog," starring Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman, had been released on video July 1. Other major releases competing for rental dollars at the time were "Good Will Hunting," "The Wedding Singer," "The Man in the Iron Mask," "U.S. Marshals," "Jackie Brown" and three new titles: "The Newton Boys," "The Big Lebowski" and "The Apostle."

Even so, there was a run on "Wag the Dog" following the missile attacks. It was still on most retailers' new-release racks and had started to show on pay-per-view stations. Nationally, rental revenues for the title increased 40%, from $1.86 million in the week ending Sunday, Aug. 16, to $2.6 million in the week ending Aug. 23, according to the Video Software Dealers Association's VidTrac service.

The title's rental activity in supermarkets also increased during that period; the movie went from No. 8 to No. 5 on the SN Top 10 list, which is prepared by Ingram Entertainment, La Vergne, Tenn. Pay-per-view buy rates doubled and tripled over the title's debut the weekend before the crisis, according to media reports.

As President Clinton's troubles drag on, they may also boost the fourth-quarter sell-through market when "Wag the Dog" is repriced to $19.98 on Nov. 3. Distribution sources said the order date is Oct. 5.

Every rental copy has been out every day at J.M. Bauersfeld's, Topeka, Kan., said Kathy Finley, video buyer. "People can't wait to see it now, and they want to be on the list to pick it up."

Bauersfeld's benefited from buying more used copies of the movie 30 days after the street date, she noted. The retailer had started with 10 copies and brought in four additional used copies. "I can't think of another title where there was that big of a resurgence," said Finley.

Fay Sommerfeld, video auditor at Clay Stores, Hardy, Ark., said the title was out in every store she visited following the missile attack. "It's renting good and people are asking for it," she said.

The title is still a relatively new release, she noted. "But because of the news media talking about it, I'm sure that really drove the curiosity of customers who wouldn't even have considered it. They may have picked it up just to see what it was about," said Sommerfeld.

"It was out all weekend and customers were requesting it," said Gail Norrick, video manager for Scott's Food Stores, Fort Wayne, Ind. Scott's stocked between 10 and 20 copies per store, she noted.

Confirming what other retailers told SN, Norrick said many customers joked about the situation as they rented the movie, saying things like, "I don't really need to see this. I could just watch it on television."

At Clyde Evans Markets, Lima, Ohio, Karen Welch, video buyer, said, "I've had a lot of people come in to get it and more requests for it than normal." The company has five copies in its biggest video department, so people rented other titles, she noted. If a title is out, "usually they will look around and pick up something else," she said.

"Anytime there is publicity like this about a movie, that is going to get people's curiosity up and they will want to see it," said Welch.

But some retailers reported little interest in "Wag the Dog." For example, at the Orem, Utah, store operated by Macey's, based in Sandy, Utah, the eight copies of the title had only turned 46 times in its first eight weeks of release, said Ann Hall, video manager. "It hasn't been outstandingly busy," she said.

The store is near Brigham Young University, a seat of Mormonism, and Orem is a very conservative town, she noted. "It was up against some pretty good competition. A lot of good titles came out at the same time. With all the hoopla about the situation, I think people are pretty disgusted with it," she said.

"It's only doing fair," said Denise Genzler, video supervisor at Johnson Foods, Muskogee, Okla. Genzler is based at an Oklahoma City store. She saw no increase as a result of the missile attacks and subsequent publicity for "Wag the Dog."

"People here thought the movie was kind of dumb, actually," she said.

Across the country, news reports highlighted the shortage of the title. For example, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that a Giant Eagle store and several Blockbusters ran out of "Wag the Dog" during the weekend following the missile attacks. The Blockbusters stocked from 35 to 52 copies, while the Giant Eagle in the Edgewood Town Centre had 20. "On Saturday, someone came in looking for it and they were all gone," said a Giant Eagle employee.

The San Jose Mercury News reported many video stores in the San Francisco Bay Area had increased rentals of the title. "Last week we had a big stock of them, but today they've all been going out," said a clerk at Reel in Berkeley, Calif. But at Blockbuster Video store in San Jose, Calif., a clerk was quoted as saying, "I haven't noticed much of an increase."

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported a spike in "Wag the Dog" rentals over the Aug. 22-23 weekend. "We had somebody come in immediately as soon as President Clinton stopped talking," said Susan Mowery, owner of Gahanna Video in Columbus.

Other retailers said the movie hadn't been renting very well up until that point. The Columbus Dispatch quoted a clerk at a Hollywood Video store saying that the movie had been quickly moved from a one-day rental to a five-day because of lack of interest. "We had so many copies, so it never ran out. That's why it's dropped so fast."