IFC Entertainment has announced that it will be releasing the Che Guevara biopic, Che in theaters beginning early January, then on VOD (video on demand) a few days later, and then on DVD within a short period after that, exclusively at Blockbuster.
The indie supplier notes that Che will be its “highest-profile day-and-date release yet,” and they wanted to seek the widest possible audience.
The movie is four hours long and will play in theaters with an intermission break at 2 hours.
“This is definitely our biggest one, with the biggest cast and director. This is a $65 million production,” added Ryan Werner, VP of marketing at IFC. “And because of the fact that the movie is so long, we wanted to give people a variety of ways to see it.”
Result for: DVD
According to an LA Times piece, Distribution Video Audio, the last known large distributor of VHS tapes, has shipped out its last batch of tapes, marking the end of an era.
VHS, and the players they are played on, VCRs, hit retail shelves in 1965 and allowed users to time-shift shows by recording them to video tape for playback whenever they chose. Earlier this year we reported the final demise of standalone VCRs although many companies still make combo DVD/VHS players or even Blu-ray/VHS players.
Ryan Kugler, the CEO of Distribution Video Audio, said that any leftover tapes would be given away.
“It’s dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt,” he added. “I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I’m done.”
The last Hollywood movie to be released on VHS was A History of Violence which was released in 2006.
Result for: DVD
According to a couple of analysts, sales of Blu-ray discs in Europe are doing “better than expected”, given the worldwide recession.
FutureSource says that in the UK, for the month of November, consumers purchased 462,000 BD movies, a large 165 percent increase from the month before it.
“The Blu-ray disc format offers an unparalleled home entertainment experience, something all those involved with this technology have always known,” notes Futuresource Director Jim Bottom. “Once people see the benefits of Blu-ray for themselves, they soon realize the difference it can make. Seeing is believing after all! We fully expect Blu-ray to keep on bucking the current economic trend and continue its rapid growth over the next few months and beyond, stimulated by falling prices and even more bundling deals with large screen TVs.”
Bottom also adds that Blu-ray players, including the PS3, have “outsold DVD by ‘about five times’ over the first three years of DVD’s release.”
