20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment Says No To Marketing Efforts For Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes On DVD And Blu-ray

Caesar might well be the star of one of the biggest summer films of 2014, but when it comes to getting just a little help from the marketing, advertising and publicity departments over at 20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment these days he’s just another chimp.  Sorry, no bananas for you.

Despite pulling in $207.6 million in domestic ticket sales this past summer, the three-SKU launch of director Matt Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on Dec. 2 is being abandon to fend for itself in terms of DVD and Blu-ray sales to the consumer.   The attitude is: “no need to support our product … it just sells itself.”   Really?

This lack of effort is shameful on so many levels.   First, this is a blockbuster theatrical hit that is now making its way to the home entertainment market place — all of that hype and PR invested in the theatrical launch is being allowed to dissipate.  That is, quite frankly, not how assets are managed — Marketing 101: Product, Place, Price and PROMOTION!!!

Second, this is a venerable studio franchise that dates all the way back to 1968.   To not even go through the motions of promoting it in the dingy “after market” of home entertainment smacks of both contempt for the product (after all, they are just monkeys … oops, excuse me, apes) and out-and-out negligence.  Not using the momentum of this installment in the series to drive catalog sales leaves revenue on the table.   It bears repeating — Marketing 101: Product, Place, Price and PROMOTION!!!

Lastly, what do you say to Mark Bomback, Tom Hammel and Matt Reeves … “Sorry guys, but promoting the DVD and Blu-ray launch of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is simply not a priority.”   It would be a delight to be a fly on the wall if those words were spoken.

As for the Dec. 2 (that date yields an ARR of 144 days) home entertainment availability, there will be a stand-alone DVD SKU and two Blu-ray/DVD Combo Packs — one with, and one without a 3D viewing option.

As to bonus features, the DVD edition is limited to a featurette titled “Andy Serkis: Rediscovering Caesar.”   Exclusive to the Blu-ray editions are commentary from director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In, The Pallbearer, etc.), deleted scenes (with optional commentary from Reeves) and additional production featurettes.