DIRECT HITS

DAN ALAIMO

Retailers are giving studios rave reviews for the growing number of direct-to-video sell-through titles. While direct-to-video status was once reserved for movies that weren't deemed good enough for a theatrical run, a string of recent releases from major studios is proving stores to be a viable place for high-quality children's product to debut.

For example, Universal Studios Home Video, Universal City, Calif., has enjoyed considerable success with its "The Land Before Time" series, releasing a fourth title from it in mid-December. Retailers polled by SN reported good sales on the video.

Meanwhile, Disney and its video arm, Buena Vista Home Video, Burbank, Calif., have devoted considerable resources to direct-to-video productions. For example, the quality of last summer's "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" was seen by some critics as being as good or better than many theatrical efforts.

This year, Disney has two more direct-to-video titles scheduled, "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves" on March 18 and "Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin" on Aug. 5. Industry sources report a third, "Beauty and the Beast Christmas," may be released by the end of the year.

All this is very good news to retailers. "Disney has gotten direct-to-video down to where it is a major event," said Randy Weddington, video specialist, Harps Food Stores, Springdale, Ark. "Their marketing support is so good that we can always count on them to sell-through for us," he said.

Direct-to-video "really does perform for us," said Jamie Molitor, director, video operations, Dierbergs Markets, Chesterfield, Mo. "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" did very well for Dierbergs, she noted. "That had a strong theatrical base," he said.

"Once the customers get one, they want to collect them all," said Denise Darnell, video supervisor at Southeast Foods, Monroe, La. "That's the best thing about 'The Land Before Time' series," she said.

The national advertising backing these titles helps drive sales, she said. "As long as they support these direct-to-video titles that way, we won't have any problems with them. We were very successful with the two 'Aladdin' sequels [the other was 'Return of Jafar']," said Darnell.

Direct-to-video event titles "are really helping us out," said Rick Ang, buyer, Video Mart, Sacramento, Calif., which racks video departments in 17 Bel Air supermarkets in the Sacramento area. "It's an unexplored avenue for the studios. They tried it here and there in the past, but they weren't putting out the quality stuff. Now the quality is getting a little bit better," said Ang.

"Overall, I can see this just growing in 1997 and 1998. These could be banner years for direct-to-video and family films coming in for sell-through," he said.