SO FAR, ONLY 'GHOSTBUSTERS' FOR CHRISTMAS

By DENNIS HUNT

Aug. 30, 1985 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON —

VCR owners will find their Christmas shopping lists are shorter than expected this year--”Ghostbusters” is the only blockbuster movie now scheduled for holiday release.

That announcement dominated conversation at the fourth annual Video Software Dealers Assn. convention here earlier this week, causing many retailers to complain about what wasn’t going to be available and to grumble about the consequences.

“I was counting on ‘E.T.’ this Christmas. That would bring so many people into my store. When they came for ‘E.T.’ they would buy other titles. I’m really disappointed,” said a store owner from the San Francisco area.

“Ghostbusters,” the Bill Murray-Dan Aykroyd comedy, will make its cassette debut Oct. 31 on RCA/Columbia. It has been common knowledge in video circles for the last month that this release would be announced at the convention. A video executive who requested anonymity said: “Nobody wanted to compete with the ‘Ghostbusters’ announcement at the convention. That might have scared other companies away from announcing their big movies. Only an ‘E.T.’ announcement could have topped ‘Ghostbusters.’ ”

However, this executive and several other informed insiders predicted that in the next few weeks, one or two companies will announce the fall release of a blockbuster movie. At that time, the announcement won’t have to share the spotlight.

Another key development at the convention had nothing to do with movies. Jane Fonda, the fitness queen of video, announced the Oct. 16 release of a new exercise cassette, “Jane Fonda’s New Workout” (Karl, $39.95). The new one is the expanded version of her first one, “Jane Fonda’s Workout,” which has sold a staggering 890,000 copies since its release in 1982.

Which films aren’t going to be available on cassette this holiday season was a frequent topic of conversation at the convention. First and foremost, this apparently won’t be an “E.T.” Christmas. Also, it’s highly unlikely that there will be fall debuts of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “Gremlins,” “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Return of the Jedi,” “Witness” or any of the feature-length cartoons in the Disney vault.

Instead, retailers will have to settle for films like the most recent James Bond thriller, CBS/Fox’s “A View to a Kill,” due out in November. Two other movies will be released in November--MCA’s “Brewster’s Millions,” with Richard Pryor and John Candy, and Embassy’s “The Emerald Forest.”

“Rambo: First Blood Part II,” which has grossed $142 million in the United States, won’t be part of the Christmas package either. Thorn/EMI/HBO has chosen to wait until January to release this summer’s most popular movie. “Rambo” will surely be the big rental hit of early ’86. Also in January, Vestron is putting out “Prizzi’s Honor,” the acclaimed Jack Nicholson-Kathleen Turner black comedy.

Disney Home Video isn’t plunging into the cartoon-feature films vault for a Christmas release like “Snow White” or “Peter Pan.” But it is planning to drop the price of 21 titles to $29.95 from the end of October to the end of January. The most prominent films in this discounted bunch are “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo” and “Robin Hood.” Selling for $79.95, “Pinocchio” is currently a big hit. Sales will probably drop off in the next month because “Pinocchio” fans will wait until the discount begins to buy it.

CONVENTION NOTES: As the home video market grows, so does the VSDA convention, which opened Sunday and ended Thursday. Last year in Las Vegas, there were 2,000 people and 131 exhibitors. This year, both attendance (6,000) and exhibitors (300) nearly tripled.

Keynote speaker Saul Zaentz, producer of “Amadeus,” blamed the three major TV networks and cable TV for a home video boom. “Their ineptness has driven viewers away,” he insisted. Disgruntled TV fans, Zaentz said, have been using their VCRs more and more.

Sell, sell, sell! That was the theme for the convention. All the speakers were prodding the retailers to increase profits by convincing customers to buy rather than rent cassettes. According to various surveys, this is primarily (85-90%) a rental business. The point of this year’s convention is that it selling lots of cassettes is possible, too.

A carnival atmosphere prevailed at the exhibitors’ booths, where sales personnel tried to entice retailers to place orders for their products. The exhibitors, occupying 200,000 square feet in the exhibition ballrooms, used assorted stunts--from T-shirt giveaways to guest appearances by celebrities--to lure customers.

One of the most popular celebrity attractions was Mary Lou Retton, who was promoting her exercise cassette, “ABC Fun Fit” (Karl, $29.95), which is aimed at pre-adolescents. It’s due out next month. At about the same time, in another part of the exhibition hall, singer Lena Horne was dazzling those who visited the RKO booth. She was pushing her cassette, “Lena Horne: the Lady and Her Music on Broadway.”

The X-rated exhibits were in a separate hotel, the Shoreham--down the hill from the Sheraton Washington, which was convention headquarters. Many conventioneers trekked over there to catch the exhibits and chat with such porn superstars as Marilyn Chambers, Ginger Lynn and Vanessa del Rio.

Reportedly the liveliest, most enjoyable event at the convention was the MCA-sponsored dinner at the Sheraton Washington ballroom, which featured a guest appearance by Jack Lemmon.

STATS: A major part of any convention is the barrage of assorted statistics that make the conventioneers proud to be part of that business. Since home video is in the midst of a boom, the impressive results of surveys and studies were frequently quoted at the various convention lunches, dinners and seminars.

A significant aspect of the video surge is the whopping increase in sales of VCRs. Figures released by the Electronic Industries Assn.’s Consumer Electronics Group were that 4.7 million VCRs were sold in the first half of 1985, a 62% increase over the first six months of last year. The sale of 980,000 VCRs last June was the third best sales month ever and a 58% increase over June, 1984. Last year 7.6 million VCRs were sold. This year sales are projected to reach 11.5 million.

The oft-quoted statistics of a survey by the Fairfield Group for National Video Inc. delighted retailers. VCR penetration--the number of homes with VCRs--will balloon from 30% this year to 65% in 1988. Also in that year, VCR owners will rent an average of 33 times.

NEW AND COMING MOVIES: This is the week that renters have been waiting for. Four noted movies make their cassette debuts this week: “The Killing Fields” (Warner Video, $79.95), Woody Allen’s “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (Vestron, $79.95), “The Sure Thing” (Embassy, $79.95) and “Paris, Texas” (CBS-Fox, $79.95), featuring Natassja Kinski. Look for “The Killing Fields” to do good business. “The Sure Thing,” which co-stars Daphne Zuniga and is aimed at the teen audience, could be a big rental hit.

Next week’s major release will be “A Passage to India,” which features the performance that won Peggy Ashcroft the best supporting actress Oscar at the ceremonies this year.

The Oscar-winning “Amadeus” and “Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment” will be out at the end of September.

According to early reports, “Desperately Seeking Susan,” co-starring Madonna, which debuted last week, is doing good business.

CHARTS: The following charts were complied by Billboard magazine.