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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:14 pm
by Starion
Maybe more people are buying Sleeping Beauty instead? It could be that Sleeping Beauty is more popular than The Lion King.

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:21 pm
by Luke
No, The Lion King will certainly sell better than Sleeping Beauty, regardless of which set is better designed and more satisfying.
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:23 pm
by Prince Phillip
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:24 pm
by Luke
Sleeping Beauty has about as much chance as becoming the #1 all-time selling video/DVD as Tangela does of not posting about The Rescuers this week.
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:25 pm
by Prince Phillip

Sorry, I have anger problems, but I've done my goosfraba chant and I'm feeling much better now.

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:27 pm
by RoyalNatalie
I just saw an advertisement on the television that referred to it as the number one DVD in the country.
Is it strange that I found myself wondering if that was true since their recent misleading ads?
I just happened to visit the FYE, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart in my area today and all store's displays are still packed with TLK DVDs. It hardly looks like anyone did more than pick up a package and carelessly put it back. I'm a bit surprised since Sleeping Beauty seemed to go much quicker.
Oh, and I also noticed the amount of merchandise they have released in joint with this DVD release. Just goes to prove the amazing best-seller and craze re-birth they were expecting.
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:29 pm
by Luke
Keep in mind that they shipped a lot more copies out than Sleeping Beauty, though. And I love the whole "King of all DVDs" thing they've used to promote this. Joel Siegel says something stupid, presumably without even seeing the DVD, and they stick to it like it's some sort of official ranking.

Anyway, I mention the false advertising in my 4-page Lion King DVD review, which should be going up tomorrow.

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:42 pm
by Prince Phillip
Luke wrote:Sleeping Beauty has about as much chance as becoming the #1 all-time selling video/DVD as Tangela does of not posting about The Rescuers this week.
uh! Luke I am affronted!

Well I will cut you some slack, as TLK is abviously your favorite movie, and you are still recovering from the terrible DVD release, although the movie seems better than ever...
This will be the last I say on the subject....
Well hopefully the TLK DVD will do well enough, we really don't want any disney flops where 2d animation is concerned.
I think it would be nice though if Sleeping Beauty had killer sales on the DVD that noone would have ever expected... Well I guess it really doesn't mattrer what the whole rest of the world thinks, it was good enough to get a 2 disc set, and it is definately something I will continue to enjoy for years to come and I guess that's all that matters, and when it came down to it, TLK's mass popularity didn't help the DVD release be all that phenonimnal...
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:49 pm
by Tangela
Luke wrote:Sleeping Beauty has about as much chance as becoming the #1 all-time selling video/DVD as Tangela does of not posting about The Rescuers this week.
Can't I never have my name anywhere without "The Rescuers" following it? Shiisss!

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 2:06 am
by 2099net
Luke wrote:Keep in mind that they shipped a lot more copies out than Sleeping Beauty, though. And I love the whole "King of all DVDs" thing they've used to promote this. Joel Siegel says something stupid, presumably without even seeing the DVD, and they stick to it like it's some sort of official ranking.

Anyway, I mention the false advertising in my 4-page Lion King DVD review, which should be going up tomorrow.

How to you feel about the companion book in the boxset stating "The result is the geatest filmmaker participation in any Disney DVD yet produced." (page 17). Does any one believe this? They didn't even record an all-new commentary track.
Considering the excellent Atlantis DVD which obviously had full director/producer participation all the way through (each section had an introduction by the team, as well as substantial input in most sections), or Randy Fuller and Mark Dindal's enthusiastic hosting of The Emperor's New Groove disc, or even the Dinosaur disc I have to question this statement.
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 8:10 am
by Luke
I really don't understand how they can even pretend that it's the greatest filmmaker participation. I've read they spent two years putting together this DVD, but I don't buy that for a second.
Seriously, of the new material that's been produced for the DVD, there is:
-the 3 games, Virtual Safari, Morning Report, making of Morning Report, Disney bopper music video, making of the child star music video
(I'd be willing to throw all those out the window, no problem. The games and Virtual Safari were minorly entertaining, and obviously I'm not the target audience, but if I had to keep something, I'd keep those)
-the stage stuff on Disc 2, which while nicely structured had almost nothing to do with the movie
-the 5-minute "Reflections" and "Disney & Animals" featurettes
-the featurette on "Enhanced Home Theater Mix"
-some new multi-language worldwide release things
There may be some more things here and there, but it seems like there's maybe 20-25 minutes of new 'making-of' material on the movie itself.
I just feel like there's gotta be more than this...where is the existing Making of hidden away? With the publicity gallery and trailers...in Antarctica, maybe?
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 10:22 am
by RoyalNatalie
So what percent of the DVD is new and what percent is old?
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 10:49 am
by Luke
RoyalNatalie wrote:So what percent of the DVD is new and what percent is old?
Actually more of Disc 2 is probably new than old, and I left out a lot of things in my last post. I'm nearing completion of my DVD review...and it seems like a lot of it is new stuff, but it's all fluff. The old stuff has weight to it, and of course the commentary is old. The 'old' making-of documentary would have been a perfect inclusion.
I wish I had the laserdisc and a laserdisc player now.
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 6:03 pm
by Joshua Clinard
The audience that this DVD was marketed to is not the type to rush out and buy on release day. Most of them are soccer moms. They do thier buying on the weekends. I was at my Wal*Mart every night this week, and for the first 3 nights, the display was practically full, with only a handfull removed. However, Saturday when I went, the display was almost empty. I am gussing the Saturday sales will match or surpass the Wednesday and maybe even Tuesday sales. Sales after one week will be at least 10 million.
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2003 8:34 pm
by Jake Lipson
via Animated Movies, which will unfortunately be shutting its cyberspace doors on Sunday, comes the following.
Some call it a disappointment, but you just have to find the right angle to look at it! USA Today notes that in its first two days on shelves last week, the special-edition DVD and video [of The Lion King] reached record sales of 3 million units to become <b>the fastest-selling re-release home-entertainment title in history.</b>
Not selling well, eh? Not selling well, mmm, sure. Setting records again and everything, just like last time. It deserves it, too. Wonderful movie with a prestine presentation and a servicable DVD.
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2003 10:43 pm
by MickeyMouseboy
Jake Lipson wrote:via Animated Movies, which will unfortunately be shutting its cyberspace doors on Sunday, comes the following.
Some call it a disappointment, but you just have to find the right angle to look at it! USA Today notes that in its first two days on shelves last week, the special-edition DVD and video [of The Lion King] reached record sales of 3 million units to become <b>the fastest-selling re-release home-entertainment title in history.</b>
Not selling well, eh? Not selling well, mmm, sure. Setting records again and everything, just like last time. It deserves it, too. Wonderful movie with a prestine presentation and a servicable DVD.
mmmmm my first post said the same thing 3 M. I don't know how that is setting records? I wonder how much Disney payed USA Today to write that!
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 3:33 am
by Joshua Clinard
Which other RE-RELEASE has sold 3 million copies in 3 days?
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 4:05 am
by 2099net
I can't find the USA Today article online, but I did find this on Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtm ... ID=3597281
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, under whose umbrella Walt Disney Video falls, reports that the title sold 3 million units in its first days on sale. Buena Vista senior VP of marketing Gordon Ho says, "This will be one of our biggest shipments of all time." Disney is expected to announce first-week sales numbers on "The Lion King" Tuesday (Oct. 14).
Looking at that quote, I would say that Disney shipped 3m units to retail, not retail sold to customers. However it is unclear. So Disney may not even have sold half of that. The word "Shipments" leads me to think this (why not say sales?).
Retailers expect a number of titles to rival "The Lion King" in sales this season. Among their picks are "Scarface" (Sept. 30, Universal Studios Home Video), "The Matrix Reloaded" (Oct. 14, Warner Home Video), the "Indiana Jones" boxed set (Oct. 21, Paramount Home Entertainment), "Finding Nemo" (Nov. 4) and the special edition of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (Nov. 18, New Line Home Entertainment).
Interesting that Scarface is on the list - not only has it been available on VHS before, but it has been available on DVD before! Considering Univeral shipped 2.5 million units (and claim to have sold 2m in the first week) the Lion King achievement doesn't sound that impressive - especially with the huge (and I mean huge) marketing investment made to promote the release.
To put this into perspective, if Disney did/will spend $200m on marketing the three films, and assuming of that $100m went on the Platinum Release (probably covering the Morning Report, Circle of Stars, making the disc etc as well as marketing - they may even count formatting the film for the IMAX release as marketing) and assuming once everyone has been paid off (retailers, duplicators, talent etc) Disney get $5 profit per sale, Disney needs to sell 20m copies just to break even!
Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:40 am
by MickeyMouseboy
Thanks 2099net! I couldn't have said it any better!

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:49 am
by Starion
If my math is correct, Disney sold 2,760,000 Lion King DVDs and 240,000 VHS tapes in two days.
Wow, VHS accounted for 8 percent of sales. I wonder if Sleeping Beauty is still the best selling animated film.

Hmm.
Source:
DVDs accounted for 92 percent of sales, with VHS making up the rest.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... ion_king_1