DISNEY SEES NO RUSH ON 'SNOW WHITE'

DAN ALAIMO

BURBANK, Calif. -- It will be business as usual when "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" streets next week, said Tania Moloney, vice president of publicity and event marketing for Buena Vista Home Video. The company does not expect a repeat of the rampant street date violations that occurred with "Jurassic Park" because of a release timetable that has separate dates for availability and then advertising, she said. Buena Vista is the video distribution and marketing division of the Walt Disney Co. MCA/Universal Home Video, Universal City, Calif., had a single street date, Oct. 4, for "Jurassic Park." This was for both in-store availability and advertising. "Our system is different than MCA's system and we have confidence in it," said Moloney. The official street date -- or National Advertised Availability Date -- of "Snow White" is Friday, Oct. 28, but products will be offered to all retailers on a "will-call date" of Tuesday, Oct. 25, she said. Retailers can't advertise that they have it until Oct. 28. If they do, they sacrifice co-op money. This is the same practice the company followed in the past with titles like "Aladdin" and "Beauty and the Beast." Will-call date is the first time the title can be displayed in stores. "Everyone has the same access to the product on will-call date, if they make the effort to get it. The restriction is, if you are going to advertise it and be reimbursed for co-op, your advertising date has to be Oct. 28," said Moloney. Retailers can run ads prior to Oct. 28 stating only that the title is coming, and still receive the co-op, she noted. "Some will advertise on their own, but most people want their co-op reimbursement," she said. With 20 million-unit-plus titles, the system is not perfect. "But the percentage of broken street dates relative to the number of cassettes for any of our releases is quite, quite small," she said.