Mill Creek Entertainment Has The Perfect Response For Future Blu-ray SteelBook (As Well As 4K) Product Offerings In A Rapidly Changing Retail Environment

Mill Creek Entertainment is doing something that is very savvy and others, if not already doing so, should take note.

On Feb. 06, the company is doing an exclusive 30-day release window with Walmart for four new Blu-ray SteelBook releases.   On the surface that’s not new.  Companies have been doing “special editions” with major retailers for years.

But what struck us this time around is that Mill Creek is doing the smart thing in light of Best Buy’s recent exit from the physical media retail environment.   What drove Best Buy out — along with Ingram Distribution — was the rapid market shift from replicated product to manufacturing on demand for both DVD and Blu-ray. 

The “traditional” retail community (and for that matter, traditional distribution) cannot deal with a MOD environment — setting up computerized kiosks to manufacture thousands of movies and television series is simply not in the cards.

What’s cool about these Mill Creek Entertainment exclusive Blu-ray SteelBook releases — Anaconda, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Hollow Man: Director’s Cut and I Know What You Did Last Summer — is that it dramatically lowers the risk of replicating these special editions.   The last thing that any home entertainment label wants are returns (of replicated product) piling up in a warehouse after a promotion is done.

By doing a 30-day exclusive with Walmart the company can see what is popular (what is selling) and make adjustments (lower risk) for a national rollout sometime in March.   Anything that Walmart returns can be recycled into the mix.

The alternative approach is to simply strike “limited” SKU counts (1,500 for example), which by its very nature limits sales.   It also sets up black market operations where enterprising eBay and Etsy store fronts will snap up ten or more copies and then wait until the “limited” run is gone and then cash in (at a premium).

For 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray SteelBook releases this two-step process is the perfect response to a changing retail environment.   Bravo Mill Creek Entertainment!