by kpa » Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:27 am
GHIDORAH and MZ have not been scheduled. RODAN and WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS will definitely come out on DVD.... Classic Media recently renewed their rights to both films for several years, so I don't know why anyone would think a release would be "questionable". MFW, didn't you recently make the same kind of assumptions about Discotek Media?
Here's what I posted in another thread:
Classic Media has signed a long-term deal with Toho so they have these films for many years. Their goal is to release every single film they have rights to at retail and eventually back on TV. Sales for GOJIRA were very strong, and retail orders were fine for GRA and MvsG. The problem right now is that DVD sales in general are down and there's also a glut of product competing for space on store shelves right now. CM was concerned that the two new Godzilla DVDs would get lost in the shuffle since they aren't big new studio films and weren't heavily advertised to the general public. CM discussed this with the big retailers and they agreed that would probably be the case... and if retailers couldn't move their stock of GRA and MvsG DVDs their orders for GHIDORAH and MONSTER ZERO would be much lower.
Based on the information they received from retailers CM thought it was best to hold off the retail release of GRA and MvsG. Obviously, they weren't thrilled by this news since they had already manufactured the DVDs. They also couldn't pull the release from stores such as Best Buy but not from online sellers like Amazon because that would cause major problems with the retail store chains. The one thing they could do was sell the DVDs on their website because those sales will be a drop in the bucket compared to retailer orders. That way Godzilla fans who want them now can get them and won't significantly impact the 2007 retail release.
One potentially significant thing is that Classic Media and other Godzilla licensees in the US are now working together on Godzilla plans for 2007. That should mean more Godzilla products-- and more advertising of Godzilla products-- next year, and the increased visibility would definitely help sales of Godzilla DVDs, toys, video games, etc. in this country.
Keith