Private Lives : Video : Will ‘Jurassic’ Rule the Earth? : Spielberg’s ravenous dinosaurs aren’t done yet: There’ll be no escaping the video’s $65-million push. But can it top ‘Aladdin’?

‘Jurassic Park’s” dinosaurs are hardly sated. After earning close to $1 billion in theaters worldwide, they stampede into video stores Oct. 4 with the heady goal of making director Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” not only the highest grossing movie in history but also the all-time best-selling videocassette.

To that end, an ambitious campaign costing $65 million--roughly the same amount that it cost to make the film--and involving numerous cross-promotions erupts full-tilt this week onto the American consciousness and will not relent until mid-January. By the end of the marketing campaign, more than 8 billion “consumer impressions” will have been disseminated, and the average person will have heard of the “Jurassic Park” video more than 25 times during the promotion.

The goal is to top the previous best-selling title, Disney’s animated “Aladdin,” which has sold an estimated 24 million copies and previously held the record for most expensive marketing campaign. (Spielberg’s own “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” is the best-selling live-action video, with 14 million.)

“ ‘Jurassic Park’ is more than a movie being released on videocassette,” says Louis Feola, president of MCA Home Video Inc., in explaining why so much effort is being expended on a title that would seem to be able to sell itself.

“It’s a franchise opportunity for the company, and we are extending that franchise with this video release,” he says. “That, combined with the desire to make this the biggest film of all time on video, drives us to create this mega-promotion.”

In other words, don’t think of this advertising onslaught as just the hawking of one videocassette. Think of it as ingraining you to see any potential sequels and ride the probable ride at Universal Studios.

In case you’ve just been thawed out from a block of ice dating to the Paleolithic Era, “Jurassic Park” is Spielberg’s blockbuster adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel about an eccentric developer (Sir Richard Attenborough) who creates an island theme park stocked with dinosaurs borne from fossilized DNA. When the park is visited by scientists Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Malcolm’s chaos theory is brought to vibrant life as the dinosaurs begin a savage search for their next meals.

“Jurassic Park” grossed more than $900 million worldwide ($350 million in the United States alone), spawned a record 1,100 pieces of ancillary marketing and won three Oscars for its technical brilliance.

It will sell for $24.98 (less rebates) on videocassette (either pan-and-scan or letterboxed; also with Spanish subtitles). Letterboxed laser discs, available Oct. 12, will go for either $44.98 or $74.98 (the more expensive will allow for freeze-framing and other special effects).

The seeds of this video campaign were actually planted before the film’s June, 1993, release.

“We were working with the marketing department at Universal Pictures, the staff at Amblin Entertainment and the MCA/Universal merchandising department,” Feola says.

After the movie grossed a record $50 million its opening weekend, he says, “we accelerated those conversations.”

The Oct. 4 release date was selected because traditionally the fourth quarter of the year is the biggest for sell-through video product (those not priced for the rental market).

What if “Jurassic Park” hadn’t become the monster that devoured movie business during the summer of ‘93? Would the promotion of the video have been as strenuous if it had done, say, “Last Action Hero” business?

“Without sounding overconfident, the level of performance that was anticipated on this title was never doubted,” Feola says. “(MCA President and CEO Sid) Sheinberg summoned us all to a meeting months before the film was released, and basically he presented the product and asked all the companies’ representatives to work toward the common goal of making ‘Jurassic Park’ the biggest film of all time.

“The machine,” he says, “was completely motivated.”

Since July, radio and cable-TV ads have been running, and video stores have been taking advance orders for the cassette, with customers who secure pre-sale copies receiving a free poster of special-effects whiz Stan Winston’s original designs for the dinosaurs. A contest sending 15 grand-prize winners to Kauai and rewarding hundreds more with $300 “ ‘Jurassic Park’ Survival Kits” also began in video outlets.

But this week begins the real barrage of network TV ads, which will trumpet the film’s video release through January. Also beginning: a crossover commercial campaign with Jell-O--which wobbled ominously in the film as dinosaurs approached. Commercials for “Jurassic Park” products from Kenner Toys and Tiger Electronics that mention the video join the mix in October and run into November, when McDonald’s commences its massive tie-in ad campaign--the fast-food chain will sell other MCA/Universal titles in its restaurants; each will have a rebate coupon for purchase of “Jurassic Park” (meaning, save your receipts). In January, Ocean of America will tout its “Jurassic Park” video game and, in the process, of course, the videocassette.

In addition, MTV and the Sci-Fi Channel will promote the video release on cable TV. And, in a unique promotional gambit, the 1.9 million subscribers to the on-line computer network CompuServe will be able to participate in a trivia contest to win a trip to Universal Studios.

MCA/Universal and CompuServe hooked up soon after the film’s release through a “Dinosaur Forum” in CompuServe’s system, in which subscribers discussed all things prehistoric.

CompuServe has helped promote theatrical releases of movies before, notably “The Mask,” “Sneakers,” “North” and the upcoming “Star Gate.”

But, says Alex Nikifortchuk, marketing specialist for the company, this is by far the most high-profile promotional contest for the on-line network: “I knew we were interested in doing something larger with the system, and that was a way of doing it.”

CompuServe, Nikifortchuk says, gave MCA ad space in its glossy print magazine, and “we, in turn, have one page in the coupon insert in the initial shipment of 22 million copies of the video.”

Feola says this synergy between studio and computer networks will be used even more in the future.

“We are technology savvy,” he says. “Our people use on-line services. We believe that we can play well in the future and are committed to pursuing other on-line opportunities.”

“Jurassic Park” is also expected to invade more retail space than any previous videocassette. As opposed to the average rental title, which goes out to between 27,000 and 32,000 locations, or the average sell-through video, which is available in between 50,000 and 60,000 outlets, “Jurassic Park” will be for sale “in not less than 75,000 locations,” Feola says. The addition will come primarily from drug store and supermarket chains that usually do not sell videos, he explained.

For the most part, competing releases have steered a wide and respectful berth of the behemoth’s release date, with a few notable exceptions--Disney’s first animated classic, 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” is due later in October, with a marketing campaign more ambitious than the studio’s one for “Aladdin.” That will be followed by MCA/Universal’s own “The Flintstones” in early November and 20th Century Fox’s “Speed,” which Fox last week elected to rush into the marketplace in mid-November as counterprogramming for “Jurassic Park.”

Team “Jurassic” remains unflappable.

“The awareness and anticipation in purchasing ‘Jurassic Park’ is as high as it has ever been for any title,” says Andrew Kairey, senior vice president of marketing and sales, MCA/Universal. “The market has matured and grown to the extent that there is room out there for more than just two or three titles.”

Sell-through video is the fastest-growing segment of the entertainment industry, projected to expand 30% from last year in the United States alone. In 1993, 4.5% of the 65 million to 70 million homes with VCRs bought prerecorded videocassettes every week. This year, 77 million households have VCRs, with 8% buying prerecorded materials weekly.

A lthough the “Jurassic Park” video will hit stores with plenty of hoopla, it won’t come with the added material that is an increasingly common phenomenon in the video world. Many tapes released today include a brief making-of trailer and even added scenes that were shot but cut from the theatrical version. (For example, one might ask, whatever happened to that ailing triceratops that Laura Dern’s character befriended?)

“There will be plans to continue marketing product in 1995,” Feola says, suggesting that there may be future versions of the movie to come to video. “It may very well entail a making-of program. That marketing is still in development.”

MCA/Universal’s commitment of money and manpower to a movie that would seem to sell itself has astounded some in the video industry.

“That’s huge, that’s extraordinary,” says a representative from a competing studio’s video marketing department who requested anonymity. “That’s a large sum--that’s motion picture money. They’re giving a theatrical-style promotion for the release of a video. . . . They want a release that not only does well but does extraordinary business.”*