Los Angeles, CA, Sept. 10, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hannover House executives are celebrating the successful launch of "Toys in the Attic" to theatres this past weekend as being the catalyst to trigger record sales for the film's upcoming video-on-demand and home video release. The acclaimed animated film, which opened on 25 screens in 7-markets, has met the performance thresholds needed for the company to close video-on-demand and home video placement agreements that collectively exceed the $1.6-million achieved with the January, 2011 release of Joel Schumacher's teen-thriller, "Twelve" (the company's previous VOD / home video sales record holder). Hannover House is an independent film distribution company, whose stock is traded on the OTC Markets under symbol HHSE.
"We told our shareholders that we were going to be smart about our theatrical releases," said Hannover House CEO, Eric Parkinson. "For 'Toys in the Attic' we spent wisely and conservatively with the target of meeting the requirements for our ancillary sales opportunities, while still positioning the film for legitimate, theatrical exposure. Our release plan achieved both goals, and the wisdom of our cross-media strategy will significantly bolster the company's bottom line this year," he concluded.
Theatrical marketing for "Toys in the Attic" was weighted towards internet promotions and ads (including an aggressive social media campaign), with less than 10% of expenditures going to traditional newspaper ads. This enabled Hannover House to generate better per-screen results than with the newspaper-heavy campaign expenditures for "Twelve," at a marketing cost of less than 15% of the $1-million+ dollars spent on releasing "Twelve" to theatres.
"Our data was showing how increasingly irrelevant print-edition newspaper ads were becoming to a movie marketing strategy," said Parkinson. "A vast majority of movie goers now obtain their show-time information from internet sources, major ticket sellers and exhibitor websites. There's no payback in buying newspaper print ads anymore. This changing market condition enabled us to pursue internet opportunities to reach movie-goers at a dramatically lower cost."
"Toys in the Attic" opened on single-theatre exclusive engagements in New York and Chicago, with multiple screen runs in Los Angeles, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Washington, D.C. The film also opened in Memphis, Roanoake and N.W. Arkansas in order to provide Hannover House with a broad spectrum of market sizes and screen breadth data for better planning of the film's expansion and roll-out. The film will add three markets this weekend (Sept. 14), and ten additional markets the following weekend (Sept. 21).
"Although our initial box office results were sluggish this weekend," said Parkinson, " we were pleased to see a 72% increase in Saturday business over Friday, and another 70% increase in Sunday business over Saturday's results. We think that this reflects the positive word-of-mouth the film is generating, as well as the critical praise from major reviewers who collectively made 'Toys in the Attic' the best-reviewed new release film of the week. While we would welcome more box office sales over the next few weeks, our goal with the release has already been achieved: we have positioned the film for significant VOD and home video success in the coming months. With this release, our overall strategy for marketing the film and generating revenues was perfectly executed, intelligently crafted and successfully achieved. With the enhanced revenues available from the home video and video-on-demand ancillary markets for theatrical titles, there is clearly a profit-opportunity for cost-efficiently released theatricals," he concluded.
With respect to the ancillary markets, "Toys in the Attic" is scheduled for release to the home video market (including video-on-demand platforms) on Tuesday, January 15, 2013. To meet this early, January street date, Hannover House will be manufacturing and shipping all home video consumer products in December for revenue realization during Q4 of 2012. Television and cable broadcast windows for the film will open in July, 2013, contemporaneous with the film's first home video price reduction plans.
"Toys in the Attic" was directed by legendary Czech animator Jiri Barta, and produced by Milos Smidmajer and Jiri Holan for Bio Illusion Films. Executive Producers for the English Adaptation were Daniel Leseour, Fred Shefte and Eric Parkinson. The English Adaptation was written, produced and directed by Vivian Schilling. Voice talent includes Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, along with Joan Cusack, Cary Elwes, Vivian Schilling, Emily Hahn and Marcello Tubert. The film is 80-minutes long, is rated PG, and is being released to theatres in the DCP format, 1:1.85 aspect ratio with Dolby 5.1 sound.
During the current year, Hannover House has embarked on a successful releasing strategy to put out one or two new releases each month. The company currently has six new release DVD items placed nationally into Wal-Mart Stores, with two additional new release DVDs in process for October placement. "Toys in the Attic" is expected to be a double-or-triple sku placement for January, not only at Wal-Mart, but with a broad range of major retailers, mass merchants and video-specialty outlets. Other important customers for Hannover House videos include Blockbuster, Inc., Family Video, Netflix, Redbox, and thousands of schools, libraries and independent retailers that are serviced through a network of wholesale distributors.
To learn more about Hannover House, visit the company's website at: www.HannoverHouse.com, or review the company's financials and filings at: www.OTCMarkets.com.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Sections 27A & 21E of the amended Securities and Exchange Acts of 1933-34, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Although the company believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these statements included in this press release will prove accurate.
A photo accompanying this release is available at:
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