News
'Toy Story' Re-Release Tests 3-D Investment
By Robert Marich
Oct. 2, 2009 – A theatrical re-release today of the two Toy Story films at 1,745 locations will test the value of investing to convert into 3-D theatricals movies that are sitting in studio vaults, notes a Wall Street Journal article.
“The Toy Story reissue will need to take in north of $25 million over its scheduled two-week run to justify the cost of conversion and marketing,” notes the WSJ article by Sarah McBride. “Converting a movie to 3-D currently costs around $10 million. Marketing costs add at least another $15 million.”
The re-release from Walt Disney unspools Toy Story and Toy Story 2 – which originally achieved blockbuster grosses in their respective 1995 and 1999 premieres. Industry is watching results because not only is there the cost to convert to 3-D release but there’s a shortage of screens. Only 3,000 of North America’s 40,000 screens are equipped for 3-D.
“In part that's why the Toy Story rerelease is coming out in ‘shoulder season’—a time when it won’t have to compete as hard for space on existing 3-D screens compared with the summer or winter holidays,” notes the article.
In the peak movie going season, those screens are filled by current releases, such as Fox’s much anticipated Avatar from Jim Cameron (Titantic) that is scheduled for wide release Dec. 18.
For full text, click link below:
online.wsj.com/article/SB125443630557957567.html
www.marketingmovies.net/news/avatar-looks-to-accelerate-3D-tix-markup/
www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-7-distribution-to-theaters/
A large Lego toy Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story