‘XXX’ Marked for Dec. 31 Video Release
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) – Sony’s Vin Diesel action thriller “XXX” will reach video stores on the very last day of the year … but don’t tell anyone yet.
The studio has so many major theatrical hits, led by “Spider-Man,” “Men in Black II” and “Mr. Deeds,” that there’s not enough room or time to get them all out during the lucrative holiday selling season.
So it will release “XXX” the week after Christmas, just as Universal did last year with “The Fast and Furious,” which also starred Diesel. Both were directed by Rob Cohen, and had nearly identical domestic box office receipts ($140 million compared to $145 million for “Fast and Furious”).
Universal found that consumers are anxious to buy DVD movies to play in the videogame systems and DVD players they received as holiday gifts. Sony and “XXX” producer Revolution Studios had this strategy in mind months before “XXX” was released on Aug. 9, but they have yet to officially announce it. And they bristled at previous published trade reports that the DVD would be released later this year.
That’s because studios and producers don’t want to do anything that will potentially jeopardize box office receipts, don’t want to ruffle the feathers of theater owners and don’t want anyone to misread a video announcement as a concession that the movie is not performing as well theatrically as had been hoped. (After 52 days in theaters, the massively hyped “XXX” was still in the top 15 at the box office last weekend with another $1 million.)
“XXX” isn’t coming to video any quicker than the typical five-month window, and consumers and theater owners are savvy enough to realize that a movie playing at theaters will be going to video within that typical time-frame. Is there any evidence that consumers won’t see the movie in theaters if the studio announces a video date while it is still raking in receipts?
“I don’t know that there is a right answer to that,” said Revolution Studios partner Tom Sherak. “The theatrical window needs to be maintained — it’s where the greatest amount of advertising is spent.”
While admitting that movies don’t play as long in theaters anymore before burning out — “sometimes as much as 70% of the business is done in the first couple of weeks, which truncates the business” — Sherak noted that studios still maintain the traditional window before video release.
“That (theatrical release) engine needs to be protected,” Sherak said, while noting that it is increasingly important to loop in video executives from the earliest stages of a project and work with them on release dates.
“You know where the money comes from; you know what DVD means in the marketplace, which in some cases is much more than the domestic theatrical grosses,” he said.
But Sherak concedes that the guarded date for a video release is becoming less important, and that it is still sensitive relative to late summer theatrical releases that studios try to rush out by Thanksgiving, which hasn’t been happening as much as studios find more and more success with video releases in December.
“A lot of times in the past you didn’t want to see it, but we’ve all sort of grown a little bit. I think exhibitors are okay with it.”
Still, the official “XXX” announcement isn’t coming until Monday.
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