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Hollywood Gets a Hand
The beleaguered movie studios find an unlikely ally in the PlayStation Portableand a new format takes off.
Sept. 26, 2005 issue - If Hollywood were a golf course, studio executives would be asking for a mulligan. With the exception of a few surprise hits like "Crash" and "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," 2005 has, thus far at least, been looking ripe for a do-over. Box-office revenues and attendance figures are down significantly from last year. The DVD's once explosive growth is now slowing. The studios are split over a pair of competing high-definition-DVD formats, raising the prospect of an ugly battle that could confuse and alienate movie lovers. But amid the gloom is an unexpected ray of light: Sony's recently released PlayStation Portable. The PSP is first and foremost a mobile game device, but it also plays music and movies stored on the Sony-created Universal Media Disc format, or UMD for short. And thanks to its stunning widescreen 4.3-inch display, movies and TV shows look terrific on it. "When we saw the picture clarity, it blew us away," says Gordon Ho, senior vice president of Disney's home-video division. "It gave us great confidence, and that's why we supported it at launch."
Not everyone was as confident as Disney and Sony. By mid-April, when the two studios rolled out their first 10 UMD movies, only two other companies had expressed support: mini-major Lions Gate and anime distributor Geneon. "Prior to the PSP, there was a lot of skepticism that there was much of a market for portable movie players," says analyst Tom Adams of Adams Media Research, "mainly because it involves manufacturing discs in a whole new format." But Sony cleverly bundled a free "Spider-Man 2" UMD with the first million PSPs sold, establishing it as a superlative movie-watching device right from the start. And once news got out that two Sony releases had sold 100,000 units within two monthsby comparison, it took nine months for Sony's first DVD, "Air Force One," to do the samethe other studio chiefs sat bolt upright. Soon afterward, Fox, Universal and Paramount announced their backing, followed more recently by New Line and HBO, which leaves Warner Bros. and DreamWorks the only significant holdouts. Today there are roughly 150 movies, TV compilations, concert videos and animated films available for the PSP, with more than 250 expected by the year-end, making it the most widely supported new video format since the DVD launched in 1997.
So far, the UMD video business, projected at roughly $250 million in revenues for 2005, has been nothing but positive for Hollywood. The studios are milking their catalogs by re-releasing older hits like "First Blood" and "Kill Bill" for $20, while newer titles sell for the same price as their DVD counterparts; as a result, UMD revenues in no way jeopardize total earnings. The early success of UMD videos is pushing retailers like Wal-Mart and Virgin to move them from behind glass and onto the store floor, which should boost sales even more. Studio heads love the fact that the PSP reaches a younger, mostly male audience that spends more on games than it does on movies; since even specialty retailers like GameStop carry UMD movies, their titles are on an equal footing. "It's important for the packaged-media business to migrate with people's lifestyles," says Sony home-video president Ben Feingold. His division will try to reinvent the box-office flop "Stealth" as a hybrid movie-and-game disc, pairing the full movie with three levels of the hit racing game Wipeout Pure for $40. And next year expect to see what, for better or worse, industry wags called the killer app for VHS and DVD: porn. Vivid cofounder Steven Hirsch, who's just waiting for Sony to make UMD technology available to less mainstream companies like his, says that his team may start shooting content specifically for the new format. Viewer discretion is advised.
If the UMD can take off, I wonder what that means for Blu-Ray and PS3. Some interactive HD porn would be interesting heh.
Hollywood Gets a Hand
The beleaguered movie studios find an unlikely ally in the PlayStation Portableand a new format takes off.
Sept. 26, 2005 issue - If Hollywood were a golf course, studio executives would be asking for a mulligan. With the exception of a few surprise hits like "Crash" and "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," 2005 has, thus far at least, been looking ripe for a do-over. Box-office revenues and attendance figures are down significantly from last year. The DVD's once explosive growth is now slowing. The studios are split over a pair of competing high-definition-DVD formats, raising the prospect of an ugly battle that could confuse and alienate movie lovers. But amid the gloom is an unexpected ray of light: Sony's recently released PlayStation Portable. The PSP is first and foremost a mobile game device, but it also plays music and movies stored on the Sony-created Universal Media Disc format, or UMD for short. And thanks to its stunning widescreen 4.3-inch display, movies and TV shows look terrific on it. "When we saw the picture clarity, it blew us away," says Gordon Ho, senior vice president of Disney's home-video division. "It gave us great confidence, and that's why we supported it at launch."
Not everyone was as confident as Disney and Sony. By mid-April, when the two studios rolled out their first 10 UMD movies, only two other companies had expressed support: mini-major Lions Gate and anime distributor Geneon. "Prior to the PSP, there was a lot of skepticism that there was much of a market for portable movie players," says analyst Tom Adams of Adams Media Research, "mainly because it involves manufacturing discs in a whole new format." But Sony cleverly bundled a free "Spider-Man 2" UMD with the first million PSPs sold, establishing it as a superlative movie-watching device right from the start. And once news got out that two Sony releases had sold 100,000 units within two monthsby comparison, it took nine months for Sony's first DVD, "Air Force One," to do the samethe other studio chiefs sat bolt upright. Soon afterward, Fox, Universal and Paramount announced their backing, followed more recently by New Line and HBO, which leaves Warner Bros. and DreamWorks the only significant holdouts. Today there are roughly 150 movies, TV compilations, concert videos and animated films available for the PSP, with more than 250 expected by the year-end, making it the most widely supported new video format since the DVD launched in 1997.
So far, the UMD video business, projected at roughly $250 million in revenues for 2005, has been nothing but positive for Hollywood. The studios are milking their catalogs by re-releasing older hits like "First Blood" and "Kill Bill" for $20, while newer titles sell for the same price as their DVD counterparts; as a result, UMD revenues in no way jeopardize total earnings. The early success of UMD videos is pushing retailers like Wal-Mart and Virgin to move them from behind glass and onto the store floor, which should boost sales even more. Studio heads love the fact that the PSP reaches a younger, mostly male audience that spends more on games than it does on movies; since even specialty retailers like GameStop carry UMD movies, their titles are on an equal footing. "It's important for the packaged-media business to migrate with people's lifestyles," says Sony home-video president Ben Feingold. His division will try to reinvent the box-office flop "Stealth" as a hybrid movie-and-game disc, pairing the full movie with three levels of the hit racing game Wipeout Pure for $40. And next year expect to see what, for better or worse, industry wags called the killer app for VHS and DVD: porn. Vivid cofounder Steven Hirsch, who's just waiting for Sony to make UMD technology available to less mainstream companies like his, says that his team may start shooting content specifically for the new format. Viewer discretion is advised.
If the UMD can take off, I wonder what that means for Blu-Ray and PS3. Some interactive HD porn would be interesting heh.
