DreamWorks Ponies Up for ‘Spirit’ Video Release
With opening-weekend sales becoming as critical to the success of a video release as they are to theatrical releases, DreamWorks is mounting a disproportionately large marketing campaign for the Nov. 19 video release of its animated “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.”
Kelley Avery, head of worldwide video for DreamWorks, said the studio has put together more partners for “Spirit,” which generated $73 million at the box office this summer, than it did for the video release of the $268 million “Shrek” last year. The movie is being released just one week before Fox debuts the video version of its computer-animated hit “Ice Age.”
Although DreamWorks will not spend as many “hard dollars” on the “Spirit” campaign as on “Shrek,” Avery said there will be more exposure of the title through promotions such as a specially designed stamp for the U.S. Postal Service’s “The Spirit That Moved America” campaign during the holidays and a four-month art contest and promotional partnership with kids soccer group AYSO.
Whereas the DVD of “Shrek” included a first-ever feature allowing users to record their own voice in place of the dialogue in the film, among the many extras on the DVD of “Spirit” is a new technology that allows users to create their own movie incorporating pictures of themselves.
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