Sunday, October 23, 2016

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment's The BFG Runs For Cover — Nov. 29 Is The New Street Date


DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
It is nice to see advice taken, even if the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report was likely not the cause-and-effect agent.

In last week’s edition of the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report the subject of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment’s smart move in not doing a lemmings-off-the-cliff follow-on announcement for Pete’s Dragon on the same street date as Spielberg’s The BFG was examined.

The backstory of that goes something like this, Disney made a long-lead announcement for The BFG on Dec. 6, which was all well and good.  Then about two weeks ago Universal Pictures Home Entertainment literally crushed that with a Dec. 6 announcement of their own for both Jason Bourne and The Secret Life of Pets

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph TribbeyWe gave Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment kudos for not placing Pete’s Dragon in that mix, but targeting Nov. 29 as a better release option.  Picking Dec. 6 would have been a pretty typical release pattern — long lead for one theatrical title and then a follow-on announcement for a second theatrical product offering on the same date.    

The idea is that you build a street-date Tuesday “island” and then expand upon that real estate, but when a rival studio comes along with even bigger titles, that strategy goes right out the window.

On Tuesday morning of this past week the payoff came when an email arrived from Disney … The BFG has been moved to Nov. 29.   How sweet it is!

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