You May Have to Hunt for ‘Red October’

If you have trouble finding a cassette of “The Hunt for Red October” after its home-video release Thursday, it may be due to a retailer protest over the high price set by Paramount. Some store owners are buying fewer copies than they normally do of a new hit movie.

Peter Margo, executive vice president of the eastern Palmer Video chain, said that Paramount fell 50,000 to 75,000 copies short of its initial sales goal--said to be at least 400,000. That would amount to a loss for Paramount of at least $2.5 million.

But Eric Doctorow, Paramount’s senior vice president, denied Thursday that the protest was having a significant effect. “We are pleased with what we’ve sold to retailers and distributors,” he said.

Doctorow wouldn’t reveal Paramount’s sales goal but did say that the company would announce how many copies of “Hunt” it sold in the near future.

Paramount’s wholesale price rise, amounting to at least $5 per cassette, was necessitated by the company’s rising expenses, Doctorow said.

The increase pushes “Hunt” to a $99.95 retail price--$10 above the industry standard.

What retailers fear is that other video manufacturers will follow Paramount’s lead in boosting wholesale prices.

“The retailers have made it known to Paramount and the rest of the industry that a price rise that would push all hit movies to a $100 retail price is simply unacceptable,” said Frank Lucca, president of the 622-store chain Flagship Entertainment Centers.

“If all prices were that high,” Margo said, “some retailers would be forced out of business.”

Margo said that his company cut its order of “Hunt for Red October” in half. Brad Burnside, who heads the Video Adventure chain in Evanston, Ill., said that his order was reduced by one-third. Industry trade magazines have been full of complaints by other irate retailers who claimed that they intended to do the same.

Burnside said that not all retailers were acting simply to teach Paramount a lesson. “Many retailers simply can’t afford to buy more,” he said. “It means stretching budgets that have already been stretched the limit.”

In another form of protest, Margo said that he and other retailers also would be buying fewer of Paramount’s B titles.

“It’s a silent form of protest that is very effective,” said Lucca, whose chain has been protesting by excluding Paramount product from its advertising and promotion campaigns.

Paramount’s Doctorow said that his company hasn’t felt the effect of any B-title boycott. He did acknowledge that, since the sale of B titles has been down during the last year, it’s difficult to gauge the effect of a boycott.

Passing on the price increase to consumers in the form of a rental price rise is a possibility too--but one all retailers would like to avoid. “Some people have raised prices,” Margo said. “They’ve had no choice. But all you do is alienate customers.”