Studios Turn Up the Heat for DVD Sales

The crowd of photographers trained cameras on the billboard for the Hollywood spectacle of the evening: a movie scene reenactment complete with an ear-splitting explosion of flames, an elevated stage crowded with beefy men in warrior costumes dueling it out with make-believe swords and a flock of young women dressed as belly dancers writhing nearby.

Suddenly, the flames grew taller, the music grew louder and the star warrior rappelled down a wire over the audience, landing near a trio of camels for the grand finale. Moments later, the entire caravan, writhing women, camels and all, crossed Sunset Boulevard to the Virgin Megastore across the street, where confused shoppers were rapidly overrun by belly dancers, snake handlers and jugglers.

“Can you believe this is all for a DVD release?” one woman asked as she waded through the crowd. “Unbelievable.”

But for Universal Studios’ home video marketing team, which planned the Monday night extravaganza to publicize the rollout of the DVD release of “The Scorpion King,” the promotional event was worth every dime. “We’re going to have people rushing to retailers,” said Craig Kornblau, vice president of home video for the studio, as he rattled off the chains that will carry the new release, which arrived in stores on Tuesday.The mammoth traffic-stopping affair underscores the importance Hollywood attaches to the sale of DVDs, a 5-year-old technology that has become a major moneymaker for the studios--often exceeding the profits studios earn from feature releases. The feature release of a “franchise” film like “Scorpion King” (which was a spinoff from Universal’s popular “The Mummy” series) serves as a platform for the lucrative DVD and video release, which can in turn heighten interest in doing a sequel.

In the case of the home video release of “The Scorpion King,” Universal hopes to earn more than $36 million in the first week of sales, more than the first week of box office for the film’s theatrical release. (The film’s total domestic gross was $90.3 million.)

“One of the profound things that have happened in the DVD market is the raw amount of consumer consumption,” said Robert Chapek, president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment. “Back in VHS days, consumers only bought about five (videos) a year.... Now, in the DVD world, it’s like a brush fire. People are buying on average 15 titles a year.”

On Monday night, after the big explosions and parade of stars (“Scorpion King” co-star Kelly Hu flew in from the Canadian set of “X-Men” for the event), the real challenge appeared to be rounding up the cast to cross Sunset Boulevard. “Could I please have all the harem girls and all the warriors join the camels,” an announcer shouted. Few people responded. The camels bared their teeth and circled the parking lot. The harem girls mugged for a slew of photographers. Hu furrowed her brow as the costumed warriors surrounded her.

Inside the shopping center, the group moved toward the entrance of the Virgin Megastore, which was, according to event publicists, supposed to receive the first DVD of “The Scorpion King” via camel. Instead, the camels were parked near the street as the caravan moved into the shopping center.

All this excitement is taking place just as studios prepare for a record-setting fall for DVD releases. “We should see how high is up this quarter,” noted Chapek.

More films are being released this season on DVD than ever before, because the public has such a voracious appetite for the technology, studio executives say. DVD “has reinvigorated the home entertainment business,” said Mike Dunn, executive vice president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Twentieth Century Fox expects its animated feature “Ice Age,” due out two days before Thanksgiving, to earn $300 million in home video sales, or twice its $175-million box office draw.

In the past, home video was primarily targeted to cinefiles and parents who bought animated features for their children. Now, however, DVDs contain features like games and outtakes that appeal to a broader demographic group. “It’s bringing new people into the marketplace,” said Dunn.

Naturally, every studio is scrambling to land release dates early and get their DVDs out first. Although the season to market home video traditionally begins Nov. 1, in time for holiday shoppers, studios are launching family-friendly titles by late September. Released in mid-September, Disney/Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.” sold 11 million DVDs and videocassettes in the U.S. and Canada, beating first-week sales for DreamWorks SKG’s animated feature “Shrek” and falling second only to Disney’s videocassette release in the early 1990s of “The Lion King.”

But DVD sales records are broken almost as quickly as they are set. Home video releases for big movies, like “Panic Room” or “Spider-Man” are scheduled almost every week. “They’re lined up like airplanes over O’Hare,” said Universal’s Kornblau.

For the studios, the first week of a DVD release is crucial; that’s when 40% of the sales take place, according to home video marketers.

“We have to build on the audience awareness that was there initially,” said Universal’s Kornblau. “We have to bring it all back so people are willing to spend more money to own this movie ... to create that urgency to buy.”

Hence Universal’s big show in Hollywood for “Scorpion King.” It seemed to be making an impression. Outside the Virgin Megastore, a few clerks gawked at the harem girls who teased shoppers with an impromptu performance. “It’s awesome!” said one male clerk to a co-worker. “Did you see the guy eating fire outside?”