The New York Times delves into the release of the direct-to-DVD Tales of the Black Freighter, which drops the week after the Watchmen movie comes out next spring. With DVD sales growing softer, Warner’s hoping that by releasing a tie-in with a theatrical event, they can help jumpstart the market and retailer interest:
The second film, tentatively called “Tales of the Black Freighter,” follows a side “Watchmen” storyline about a shipwreck and will arrive in stores five days after the main movie rolls out in theaters. The DVD will also include a documentary-style film called “Under the Hood” that will delve into the characters’ backstories.
Warner, the No. 1 distributor of DVDs, bills the effort as a way to renew retail excitement for little silver discs now that the once-booming market has matured.
After years of blistering growth, domestic DVD sales fell 3.2 percent last year to $15.9 billion, according to Adams Media Research, the first annual drop in the medium’s history. While it is still a blockbuster business, any decline is cause for concern because DVD sales can account for as much as 70 percent of revenue for a new film. Results for the first quarter this year were mixed, with overall sales flat but notable softness for some new releases like Warner’s box office hit “I Am Legend.”
Freighter will be animated, but according to a Warner rep has a budget that’s 30 percent to 50 percent higher than a typical direct-to-DVD project. Watchmen direct Zack Snyder says he was happy to do the DVD, because it meant he could use more material from the graphic novel.
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May 26th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I’d imagine that it’ll only be a some of the people familiar with Watchmen that will be picking this up.
May 26th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
at first it was obvious to me that the black freighter would be presented in the “watchman” film, now i just cant see this direct to dvd making it by himself, in my opinion the story isn’t made to stand in feature length movie.
but the “under the hood” documentary sounds good.
That said,Ill give it a try anyway
May 26th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
It might not be feature length. It might be 20 or 30 minutes with special features adding some extra bulk. The article mentions the possibility that after tha Watchmen DVD comes out, they might release another version that combines the Watchmen movie with the Black Freighter stuff.
May 26th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
WB animated dtv’s are usually 75 minutes long, so I can imagine this one being a good bit shorter with the increased budget and the original story’s short length, though it might get padded with extra dialogue or something. I’m really curious what style the feature will be in.
I’m pretty much definitely getting this
May 27th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Funny they mentioned weak sales for the I AM LEGEND DVD release, as an example of declining sales even for box office hits… which it is NOT at all. The DVD sold poorly simply because it was one of the most annoying and frustrating releases of late, with a 2-disc edition where the 2nd disc was devoted to an “alternate” presentation of the feature that only offered a different ending, instead of opting for seamless branching for both versions in the 1st disc. And then, to add insult to injury, the 2nd disc offered NO extra features AT ALL, and you had to download them from the net, through a convoluted system that left all Mac users out. Way to go, Warner.
If they had not tried to con customers and force them into web-stream content and offered a decent, honest special edition instead, I am pretty sure many fans of the movie would have not passed on the DVD release, and there would be no need for any gimmicks to boost sales for future releases.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Like Jason said, they’ll likely release this on the eventual Watchmen DVD as well, but I still think I’ll likely rent this when it comes out (unless On Demand has it) to see it in the same timeframe as the movie.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Roy, did you know about that stuff before you bought the DVD? I’ve never had a sense for how many people read DVD reviews. Not that there aren’t other ways to find out, bad word-of-mouth can hurt anything.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:15 am
This is a rather interesting sales idea, but I can’t say it’s a good one. By putting the disc out AFTER the release of the film, it seems to be intended more as additional information for people who have already seen the film. But it seems to me it would be better served as a teaser for the film, and shown on Cartoon Network, or even on a more adult channel if they could arrange it. Sold as a faux documentary on sci-fi, or NBC, it would serve do drive people TO the theaters, not as a thing to buy after the leave.
It seems to suggest a change in mindset. The film’ take was the primary revenue source the studios worried about. This seems to suggest that the film is becomeing more of a commercial for the DVDs.
The world of Watchmen needs explaining to the world who hasn’t read the comic. The Under the Hood documentary could be a good thing to use. Here’s hoping they follow the practice they have with a lot of their animated releases, and show them on television a week or so before, then release it on DVD.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Hmmm…
I know my DVD purchases are down (way down) because no matter what I buy today there’ll be the Special Edition tomorrow, and the Extra Special Edition the day after that and the Director’s Cut Special Extra Edition the day after that.
As a consumer – I fell ripped off each time a ‘better’ version comes out.
BUT – I love alot of the extras. I rent a flick, I watch it and if I liked it I watch the extras. NOW – I can see a movie in the theatre and not have to wait 6-9 months for (some) extras.
Of course Watchmen will eventually have a Special Directors Unedited Bonus Extra Critterian Edition someday – so what’s the point?
May 27th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Sure there’ll be plenty of extra special Watchmen DVD editions, but I doubt there’ll ever be an Alan Moore Endorsed Special Edition…sorry it was there…had to say it.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:59 am
it’s a good idea but a bad release date choice
the dvd should be released the same day as the film. this way big multiplex cinemas with on-site dvd stores can sell it on the day and people can pick it up coming out of the premiere when the movie buzz is at a max
May 27th, 2008 at 8:36 am
I agree with Jerry. All the extra editions that keep coming out make me want to wait until I forget to go buy any edition at all. I am a big DVD purchaser, and I think the main reason I did not buy a lot last year was just because there weren’t a lot of good films released.
But I can guarantee that I will own Iron Man, Hulk, Dark Knight, Prince Caspian, Watchmen, and many other fine films released in 2008 and beyond.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:52 am
No. 5 above, comments by Roy, says it all: “If they had not tried to con customers and force them into web-stream content and offered a decent, honest special edition instead, I am pretty sure many fans of the movie would have not passed on the DVD release, and there would be no need for any gimmicks to boost sales for future releases.”
I don’t want to have to work to get my extras off the internet and also risk them infecting my computer with a virus or worse. I want to buy my dvd and have everything I could ever want already there. The internet stuff is a trendy move that limits some users and discourages others.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Didn’t the Riddick movie try this type of thing with The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury?
I’ll be checking this out.
My opinion for DVD sales being down is because people feel they have to get Blu-Ray, so lots of them feel why bother buying DVD’s since they are just going to have to re-buy them on Blu-Ray. When Blu-Ray players get down to being priced $100-200 per player sales will go back up regardless of a movie being good or not.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I think the issue is more so that more and more people are abandoning a lot of the ways they used to procure and view things. Just like how the box office saw a dip because, in part, of the quick conversion to DVD, likewise a lot of people (this is relative to my friends) are resorting to Netflix more and more instead of purchasing/owning these films.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Yes, Netflix and Blockbuster mail services are quite convenient and probably have taken a bite out of DVD sales (although, of course, the money goes ultimately to the studios).
But as people are resorting to online-mail rental services out of their own volition, because, again, those are pretty convenient, it’s the studios who are trying to force customers into web-stream content because they see it as their next revenue source. They have deemed that physical media is becoming obsolete very soon –and maybe rightly so, much to my chagrin– and they have focused their investments into streaming content. Not because streaming is really convenient, but because they think it will make it much easier for them to fight piracy (well, we all know that they have been trying to go beyond that for a long time now, and sell us copy-limited, time-expiring digital files). Not to mention the leap back in quality they are more than willing to take, just so they can fit not-so-hi-res video through most people’s not-so-broad-band.
Just like mp3 came to erase audio quality improvement efforts from the last 3 decades, digital cable and streaming video are heralding the resurgence of poor picture quality.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I really don’t see how that annoying pirate story is worth its own DVD release. At least they aren’t totally ruining the flow of the movie by constantly cutting to the pirate story like Moore did with the comic.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:40 am
“At least they aren’t totally ruining the flow of the movie by constantly cutting to the pirate story like Moore did with the comic.”
Yeah, fortunately the fixed that about Moore’s flawed narrative structure. ;-D
May 27th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I wish people would stop referring to Watchmen as a “graphic novel” – it was a comic. A serialized comic. Just because you’re reading something in softcover and it’s good doesn’t make it a graphic novel.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:58 am
So, colonsus, I take it you don’t consider A Tale of Two Cities a novel. It was, after all, published as serialized fiction first.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Watchmen was a comic and is now a graphic novel, it can be both.
And of course what was going on in the pirate story was very important to Watchmen as a whole, actually there’s nothing in Watchmen that didn’t serve the story.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I vote with those who say this should be released before the movie.
I used to agree that there was a difference between ‘graphic novels’ and ‘collections’, but I think it’s just the English language evolving. A tiny way, just a tiny way that affects us nerds more.
Besides, it’s hard for some people to wrap their head around pre- and post-Crisis(es). Why should we makes it more complicated with, “That’s not a graphic novel. That’s a trade.”
May 27th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Could DVD sales be falling because people have finally replaced all their VHS?
Could they be falling because people are still waiting to see if Blu Ray is worth the investment? And why by a movie today if you’re going to replace it tomorrow?
And yeah, I think a lot of people are tired of getting burned by special editions and extra special editions coming out further and further down the line.
Are you kidding? This isn’t going to “save” DVD.. of all the bullshit hyperbole….
May 27th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
“Yeah, fortunately the fixed that about Moore’s flawed narrative structure. ;-D”
I don’t find Moore’s writing flawed but I really really hate that stupid pirate story.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
My DVD purchases are way down not just because of the knowledge that a deluxe edition will be coming out and the initial release is shit for special features, but also there was the whole Blu Ray vs HD DVD technology bullshit.
I lived through the Beta vs VHS crap and I wasnt about to buy a bunch of soon to be useless or at least substandard dvd’s.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
“Graphic Novel”
A term used by elitists who wouldn’t be caught dead reading just a plain, old comic book, and who want to justify their reading of comic books.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I wouldn’t even mind the parade of increasingly loaded “extra special edition” DVDs if only it weren’t for this recent shrinking of the first release version to the “Blatantly Shitty Barebones Edition With Totally Bogus ‘Features’ Nobody Cares About Straight Out of the Dawn of DVD Where They Called Menus ‘Extras’”.
I mean, compare the DVD version of Spider-Man 3 to the DVDs for the first two, or “Ratatouille” to “the Incredibles”. And that special edition for the first FF movie was the one they should have released in the first place, and there are STILL things that should have appeared in the “special” version that haven’t appeared yet. (The crappiness of Spider-Man 3 and FF notwithstanding)
May 27th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Well, The Black Freighter isn’t long enough to be feature length, unless they include the interludes with reader and newsagent leading up to the climax of Watchmen. That’d be cool.
Also, if they managed to make a short film out of all of Alan Moore’s text, perhaps filming Hollis Mason’s “Under The Hood” with the actual Minutemen actors … that would also be blindingly cool.
There is a lot of potential to make this DVD a must-have for fans of the film and comic, and one helluva of an overall movie experience.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
“Graphic Novel”
A term used by elitists who wouldn’t be caught dead reading just a plain, old comic book, and who want to justify their reading of comic books.
Or,it’s just a term people use when talking about one long comic story.”Gasp”
May 29th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
I just want to see the scene with the guy eating the raw meat.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
It was NEVER a graphic novel……… a Graphic Novel is a stand alone story published on its own in a higher quality format.
Watchmen was originally a comic book miniseries, which was later released a a TRADE PAPERBACK.
X-Men: God Loves, Man kills was a graphic Novel, X:Men: The Dark Pheonix Saga was a trade.
Geti right people, damn……..
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Actually there’s an official definition for graphic novel, per the dictionary:
“a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and published as a book”
There’s nothing about how it was originally published, just like there’s nothing in the definition of a novel that says A Tales of Two Cities isn’t one because it was serialized first.