Comcast & Time Warner, Amazon & Zappos, Cats & Dogs... all living together.

I'm not sure if you follow what the cable companies and major distributors get up to, business-wise, but there were a couple of big announcements over the last week or so. One was that Comcast is teaming up with Time Warner to beef up its "TV Anywhere Model" and the other was that Amazon bought up Zappos. I just wanted to take a quick look at both deals and give some thoughts on what they may, or may not, mean to indie film.

I know that a lot of people hate Comcast, but I really like what they're doing here. Here's a link to the press release on the Comcast / Time Warner deal, by the way. The cool thing is it means that Comcast is admitting that there's this thing called the Internet, that a lot of people are using this Internet thing to watch content and that Comcast now wants to be in that space. The other thing that's cool about it is the fact that it's really a new take on the whole online TV viewing experience. I mean, up until now, the most popular online sites for viewing content were free (Hulu, Fancast, YouTube...) Now, they're adding it as part of their package and I'm assuming that they'd offer it up as it's own thing down the road. In any case, I think it's good for makers of indie content, as we all know there's more room for success in online distribution. Further, if this model works, maybe they'll have exclusive online channels that distribute indie and alternative content... who knows? What I do know is that we should like experiments like this... especially if they work.

Here's a link to the open letter that the CEO of Zappos put out, where he announces the sale of Zappos to Amazon. I know what you're thinking, why the F do I care about Zappos, an online clothing retailer? Well, quite frankly, I don't. I've never bought anything off Zappos. However, I've bought lots of shit off Amazon. It's interesting because Amazon has a wicked long-term view of who they are and who they're going to become and they're a key player in the indie-film world, as they sell a LOT of indie film. In fact, they may sell more indie DVD's than anyone and that's not to mention that they own a LOT of the sites that you use, such as imdb, withoutabox and createspace... so, I found the Zappos deal interesting because of what it means for Amazon... and that's a bigger footprint. I know it sounds counter intuitive and strange to root for a big corporate company like Amazon to take over a big online clothing retailer, when we're little indie filmmakers, but sometimes what's good for the goose is good for the gander and I think this is one of those cases. What if you're a Zappos shopper that's never used Amazon? What if you're a Zappos shopper that's never used Amazon and likes indie film? Amazon is widening their reach with this, which means that, technically, there's more potential buyers for the indie film that you're selling on Amazon, right? That's what we all want, isn't it? More reach, more potential buyers and a bigger audience. Am I wrong?

A look at: Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon and Regal Cinemas. Why? Why not...

Well, I don't really know what I uncovered here. Certainly nothing earth shattering. However, as promised, I looked into the DVD rental and sales figures and compared them to theatrical release numbers. If you remember, this came up because I was commenting on how the summer is a great time for theatrical released films, but I think it's a bad time for you to release your indie horror on DVD... and, because the distributors know that, that's why we see some shitty weeks for DVD horror releases in the summer. Well, there's nothing scientific about this and I'm not sure what I revealed, but... let's look at some figures.

I'm sure there's reports and reports on reports looking into similar things, but I don't want to pay for that, nor do I have the time or effort to look into it all. So, I went the easier route. I looked into public companies. You see, public companies have to file with the SEC and all their financials are out there for everyone to see. So, I sorted through the financials on Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon and, to compare, Regal Cinemas.

Here's what I found...

First off, Blockbuster. I figured Blockbuster would be a good, obvious starting place for rentals and their financials allowed me to look at the straight revenues that they generated from them. Know that video games would also be included here, but... like I said. Nothing scientific. So, below, are Blockbuster's revenue from base rentals, which means it doesn't include sales of previously owned DVD's, merchandise and other stuff.

Base rental revenues, First Quarter (13 weeks, ending April 6th) $901.7Million
Base rental revenues, Second Quarter (13 weeks, ending July 6th) $812Million
Base rental revenues, Third Quarter (13 weeks, ending October 5th) $751.4Million
Base rental revenues, Fourth Quarter (13 weeks, ending January 4th) $773.4Million

If you're interested, they had revenues of $627.3Million from sales of their previously rented products, $1.4BILLION from merchandise sales and $32.7Million from other shit. There's a couple of other interesting things you should know about Blockbuster. First up, James Keyes is the CEO of Blockbuster and they hired him away from 7-11... which makes sense, since they're trying to turn the actual Blockbuster stores into more of a retail focused experience. They're also trying to take an 'anywhere and anytime' approach to rentals now. Not only will they be enhancing the in-store experience, you'll be able to get DVD's and get movies digitally, plus you'll get them from stores, in the mail, from kiosks and through your computer. Anyhow, if you look at the rental revenues there, the biggest quarter is the first, which is Jan/Feb/Mar. That makes sense. The lowest quarter is the third, which is Jul/Aug/Sep. That makes sense. I think that supports my theory that rentals are down in the summer months versus the winter months. The fact that the other two quarters are sort of in between also supports it, I think. So, there you go... but, as I bothered to look into other companies, let's look at them, too.

Okay, now on to Netflix. At first, I thought... I'll look into Blockbuster and Netflix, they both rent movies. However, Netflix works on a completely different system. They work on the subscription based method, which means that you pay a flat monthly fee and get as many movies as you want. (I think that's how it works, I'm not a subscriber) So, let's look at their straight revenues, quarter by quarter.

Revenues, First Quarter (Three Months Ending March 31) $326.2Million
Revenues, Second Quarter (Three Months Ending June 30) $337.6Million
Revenues, Third Quarter (Three Months Ending September 30) $341.3Million
Revenues, Fourth Quarter (Three Months Ending December 31) $359.6Million

What's interesting here is, their revenue goes up quarter to quarter. In fact, looking back, it just keeps going up every quarter, with a few exceptions. Why? Well, it's the subscription model, just like a gym membership. If I get 100 people at X dollars per month in the first quarter, then add 20 more people at X dollars the next quarter, I've now got 120 people paying X per month, therefore more revenues. Problem with this is, what happens when you stop getting new subscribers? You stop growing. How do you keep growing? There's various ways, but... usually, lower your prices. Now, revenue drops. Anyhow, what's interesting is how steady their revenue is. That subscription model sure has something going for it.

After looking into DVD rentals, I thought... I better look into DVD sales, as well. So, who better to look into than Amazon? So, here's their quarterly sales from media in North America only. Media would be DVD's, but would also include CD's and things like that. Here's their quarterly sales from media in North America

Media Sales NA, First Quarter (Three Months Ending March 31) $1.2BILLION
Media Sales NA, Second Quarter (Three Months Ending June 30) $1.15BILLION
Media Sales NA, Third Quarter (Three Months Ending September 30) $1.25BILLION
Media Sales NA, Fourth Quarter (Three Months Ending December 31) $1.75BILLION

First off, holy shit. Amazon dwarfs Blockbuster and Netflix. This is JUST North America and JUST media. Insane. Also, note their biggest quarter - the fourth. That's Oct/Nov/Dec. Guess why that's so big? Christmas. No question. It could also be due to the fact that more people are staying in and watching movies due to the bad weather, but I think it's more about Christmas. Proof may be in the fact that all the other quarters are relatively similar. Also, CD sales have something to do with it... I'm not sure how DVD's do next to CD's.

Just to compare, I decided to look into Regal Theaters, which is the biggest chain of movie theaters in North America. Here's their quarterly revenue from admissions alone. Remember, their cash cow is concessions and I'm leaving that out.

Admissions revenue, First Quarter (Quarter ending March 27) $432Million
Admissions revenue, Second Quarter (Quarter ending June 26) $455.7Million
Admissions revenue, Third Quarter (Quarter ending September 25) $516.8Million
Admissions revenue, Fourth Quarter (Quarter ending January 1) $478.6Million

Third quarter IS their biggest, which is Jul/Aug/Sep, and that makes sense. However, quarter over quarter, they're a lot steadier than I thought. I'm not sure what that says, to be honest. This actually poses more questions than it solves answers, really. Maybe it's an 80/20 deal? Meaning that fewer movies are taking more money in the summer and more movies are splitting money over the other quarters. Therefore, individual movies make more money in the summer and everyone gets smaller pieces of cake in the other months? Who knows... I'll have to dig deeper on that, I guess.

Anyhow, let's try to wrap this up a bit. What did we learn from this? Fuck if I know. What I do know is that I'm surprised at how much money Amazon brings in. That goes to show you that the real money is in DVD releases. Adding up Netflix, Amazon and Blockbuster, you can see that it's a huge market. Way more potential money there than in theatrical releases. However, I would like to say that, although it's a little less pronounced than I thought, it IS safe to say that theatrical releases get a bump in the summer and DVD's get a bump in the winter. Point made, proven and put to bed.

Further, as an indie filmmaker, I think you can take this away... going straight to DVD is just fine. It's definitely a big enough market to get your piece of the pie.

New Horror out on DVD this week: A Handful Of Guts and a beef with Amazon

I don't know what the hell is going on, but it looks like Amazon.com has made some minor changes. I don't know what they are, but they're fucking me up. Everything looks the same, tabs are similar. However, when I click on movies, then go to the 'new releases' tab, I only get the new releases from March 3rd and 10th. You used to be able to see EVERY week; past, present and future. I was on there for around half an hour, trying to find out about the upcoming releases on March 24th, but... nope. Nothing doing. Now, maybe I'm stupid or something, but how could you purposefully exclude that feature? Isn't that fairly important? Don't people want to know what's coming out 'next week'? If not, maybe someone could've let me in on it because I talk about what's coming up next week, EVERY MONDAY. Anyhow, I had to root around on the web, going site to site and find a handful of releases that are coming out... or, I should say, that I THINK are coming out. I mean, I know there's nothing big coming out this week, but all I could find were these four films. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find trailers and I'm not sure if they're available on Amazon, so... here's a link to our youtube page where you MIGHT be able to find the trailers and if the titles look clickable, you can go to their Amazon.com page.

"Art of the Devil 3" appears to be the 3rd installment into the extremely gory "Art of the Devil" series, which started in 2004 with the Thai film "Khon len khong", which was directed by Tanit Jitnukul and was released with the English title, "Art of the Devil". "Long khong", directed by Pasith Buranajan and Kongkiat Khomsirir and released in 2005, which came out as "Art of the Devil 2" and that one won a couple of awards. The first "Art of the Devil" was about a girl who goes to a witch doctor to exact revenge against her ex-love and his family, but after they all die, the ex-love's secret mistress and her family starts to die, too... "Art of the Devil 2" is about the 'black arts' killing off a group of teenagers in revenge for something they did back in high school. This third installment is about a black magician who attempts to offset the toll that dark power has taken on his body by forcibly removing the power of dark deity from the bodies of other humans who have absorbed it... looks f'ing gory. Check out the trailer, found that one.

"Czech Chillers: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders/Witches' Hammer" is a couple of old horror films out of Czechoslovakia. "Valeria and Her Week of Wonders", originally released in 1970, is from Jaromil Jires and it's inspired by fairy-tales, such as "Alice in Wonderland" and "Little Red-Riding Hood". It's a surreal tale in which love, fear, sex and religion merge into one fantastic world... it looks like one for the stoners, to be honest. I found the trailer for that one, too. "Witches' Hammer", from Otakar Vavra, is also from 1970. It's an award winning film about the medieval persecution of witches. It's actually gained a bit of cult notoriety in the whole witch genre, as there isn't many witch movies out there. So, if you're into the persecution of witches, here ya go.

Now, I'm left to guess on a DVD coming out called "Cycle". Is it the 2006 film out of the UK about a guy on a mountain bike who stalks five students, murders them and eats their brains? I'm assuming so... either way, couldn't find it on Amazon. God, I hope they put that tab back.

Lastly, it's not really horror, but "Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood" comes out this week. "Tales of the Black Freighter" is the comic within the comic that's featured in the original "Watchmen" series. They've turned it into an animated feature that's available on this disc. "Under the Hood" looks closer at the character arc of Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, I believe. Also, in this set, you get a Watchmen Motion Comic Book in HD, a first look at DC University's Animated Green Lantern DVD and some additional features available in BD-Live.

So, I've sent emails to Amazon and, at this point, they don't seem to understand what I'm asking for. They've replied twice, sending me links to "Twilight". I'll keep you posted on this...

A little company called Amazon.com...

As you may or may not know, us Dead Harvey guys are working on a pilot for a show called Dead Harvey TV. You can check out our posts on its progress here, here and here. Anyhow, as much as I fantasize about it being the next "Three's Company" or "Alf" and that networks will crawl all over each other to take a look at it, I have to face facts... they've got bigger fish to fry and, well, we're more like a barnacle in the ocean that they play in. So, I've been thinking about alternate forms of distribution, outside of the mainstream, that may be viable options. I was thinking about XBox or PS3 and wondering if they would be interested in something like this for their online networks. Maybe Netflix or some VOD service would have a use for it? We could work with some web-based company and stream it, maybe? I mean, there's lots of options out there. Well, what if no one wanted to pay us for it and we just wanted to find an audience? Well, what about Amazon.com? So, I looked into it...

But first, check out this email that ended up in my inbox...

"Dear Reader,

We are excited to announce that Box Office Mojo has been acquired by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. This is a major landmark in the nine year history of our company.

Box Office Mojo will continue to operate as a standalone business and produce analysis and the most comprehensive box office tracking freely available online. Our headquarters will also remain in the Los Angeles area.

We expect this change to allow us to expand our offering to readers like you by leveraging IMDb's comprehensive database of movies and those who make them. IMDb is committed to further developing the Box Office Mojo brand and building upon the success of the past nine years.

Our readers have been a vital component in our success, and we are grateful for your continuing support. Please feel free to email us with your questions or feedback at mail@boxofficemojo.com.
We realize this is important news for our community, and we are confident that this acquisition will benefit Box Office Mojo readers and provide us with many opportunities for future growth.

Regards..."

Okay, so... interesting, huh? Now, go to Withoutabox.com and tell me what it says at the bottom... you don't really have to go there, I'm going to quote it, but that's right, "A division of IMDB, an Amazon.com company". Alright, so what? So, let's tally this up. Amazon owns: IMDB, box office mojo and Withoutabox. That's a lot of film related stuff. So, where am I going with this? Well, check out what's at the bottom of an email I got from Withoutabox.com...

FILM MARKETING 101
1) Get an IMDb Title Page for your film. Most films now qualify as soon as their first Withoutabox submission is received by a festival.
2) Bring that Title Page alive by uploading video ASAP: Trailers, Clips, or even your Full Movie to build momentum and word-of-mouth.
3) Sell copies of your film on DVD and Video On Demand, on Amazon.com and other channels, all via CreateSpace. Setup is free, risk is none, and it works as well for selling 10 as 10,000.

Filmmakers who take charge EARLY in these ways see the benefits every day. You can, too. Your Withoutabox Account Home Page has complete step-by-step details to help you find your worldwide audience. So log in today, get with the program - and let us know how else we can help!

So, why would Amazon be promoting CreateSpace.com, an on-demand publishing company that allows you to make your own books, music and video's available to millions of customers? Oh, that's right... it's another Amazon.com company.

It looks like Amazon.com doesn't just own a lot of film related companies, they own a lot of INDIE film related companies. Really, if you've just finished a film, you can submit it to all the festivals, easily, through Withoutabox. Then you can get listed on IMDB.com and promote it. Then, you can submit it to CreateSpace.com and have it available on Amazon.com and Amazon VOD... and it can all be tracked and talked about on Box Office Mojo. ALL companies owned by Amazon.com... I don't even need to find a distributor. Amazon does it all and it doesn't even cost me much.

Long and short, who the hell knows what the future holds for media and media consumption? Only time will tell. But until we find out, you and we, both, do have a lot of options when it comes to finding a company or place to distribute our content, and I think more options are coming. But right now it looks like all of us indie filmmakers better get to know Amazon. They're a one-stop shop for indie filmmakers and it looks like they've got some sort of plan to be involved in the scene for a while...