In its first full week of availability, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was the top-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Dec. 7 showed Thurs. Rentrak said the DVD earned $9.39 million in the week and $9.49 million to date, while combined DVD and VHS rental earnings for the movie were $12.92 million and $13.07 million. It was the only new movie in the top 10. Last week’s #1-rented DVD -- Universal’s Bruce Almighty -- slipped to #2, earning $6.86 million in the week for total rental earnings of $16.41 million. Rentrak said combined DVD and VHS rental earnings for Bruce Almighty were $10.86 million in the week and $26.92 million to date.
Electronic Arts (EA) again had the top-rented videogame in the U.S., Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Dec. 7 showed Thurs. This time it was EA’s Need for Speed: Underground for PS2 in the top spot, earning $459,621 in the week for a total of $1.21 million to date, Rentrak said. EA’s Medal of Honor: Rising Sun for PS2 dropped to #2, earning $457,549 for a total $2.46 million to date. EA had 2 other games in the top 10: The Xbox version of Rising Sun at #8 (down 2, $203,814 and $1.06 million) and Madden NFL 2004 for PS2 at #10 (up 3,$195,056 and $4.598 million). The only other publisher with more than one game in the top 10 again was Activision, with True Crime: Streets of L.A. for PS2 at #3 (up one, $332,150 and $1.75 million) and Tony Hawk’s Underground for PS2 at #4 (down 2, $310,809 and $2.29 million). The rest of the top 10 all were PS2 games. Take-Two Interactive’s Manhunt moved up 4 to #5 ($214,912 and $677,810), Sony’s SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs up 5 to #6 ($213,000 and $1.38 million), THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain moved up 7 to #7 ($208,329 and $1.51 million), Square Enix’s Final Fantasy X-2 up one to #9 ($201,071 and $605,227).
Boise Cascade said it was withdrawing a statement released early Mon. detailing the preliminary vote for its proposed $1.38 billion acquisition of OfficeMax because of a clerical error. Boise didn’t elaborate on the error made by the exchange agent, Wells Fargo Shareholder Services. A Boise spokesman said a recount was under way and the new figures might be released by late Mon. Earlier, Boise Cascade said 63% of OfficeMax shares had been voted by the 5 p.m. deadline Dec. 5 to state shareholders’ preference for stock or cash in the deal, based on preliminary totals. Of that total, 97% had asked to receive Boise Cascade shares. OfficeMax reached an agreement to sell the chain to Boise in July after warding off Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, whose Orient Star Holding subsidiary had purchased a 14.9-million-share (12%) stake in the company in 2000. OfficeMax later adopted a poison pill strategy that would have been triggered had an investor acquired 15% or more of the outstanding common stock. Orient -- as well as Gateway, which once owned 6.4 million shares (5.2%) as part of failed proposal to develop a store-within-a-store format at OfficeMax -- since has sold its stake. Wellington Management and Dimensional Fund Advisors are currently OfficeMax’s largest shareholders with 6.42 million (5.2%) and 6.37 million (5.1%) common shares, respectively. OfficeMax CEO Michael Feuer, who founded the chain in 1988, owns 6 million shares (4.7%). Another one-time OfficeMax investor was Kmart, which had an equity stake from 1990-1995. OfficeMax operates about 970 stores in 46 states, 30 outlets in Mexico and 17 PowerMax inventory/delivery centers. Its stores carry 8,000 SKUs, about 800 of which are private label or direct import products. The chain went through a major restructuring in fiscal 2002, when it closed 46 stores and since has reduced the size of its store format 15% to 20,000 sq. ft.
Several states encountered unusual issues as they wound up the procedural preliminaries in their reviews of the network unbundling issues delegated to them by the FCC in its Triennial Review Order (TRO), sources said. Meanwhile, more states split their TRO cases into multiple phases with separate procedural schedules.
Activision grabbed the top 2 spots in the top 10 videogame rental chart for the week ended Nov. 30, Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data showed. Rentrak said the PS2 version of Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground moved up 3 steps to become the #1-rented title of the week, earning an additional $336,002 for total rental earnings of $1.89 million to date. The publisher’s PS2 version of True Crime: Streets of L.A., again was the #2-rented title, earning an additional $324,059 for total rental earnings of $1.33 million. Electronic Arts (EA) once again had the most titles in the top 10 with 4: Madden NFL 2004 at #3 (up 5 steps in its 16th week, earning $219,046 in the week for $4.36 million to date), Medal of Honor: Rising Sun at #4 (down 3, $217,810 in the week and $1.48 million to date); Need for Speed: Underground at #6 (down 3, $188,365 and $516,714); The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at #8 (up 2, $166,959 and $705,163 to date). All 4 were for PS2, as were all other titles in the top 10 as Sony’s console again dominated rentals. Rounding out the top 10 were Atari’s Enter the Matrix at #5 (up from #23 in its 29th week, $189,802 and $10.26 million), THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain at #7 again ($168,029 and $1.24 million) , Sony’s SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs at #9 (down 3, $157,493 and $1.06 million), and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy X-2 at #10 (up 5, $144,707 and $273,672). In video rentals, Rentrak said the DVD of Universal’s Bruce Almighty, in its first full week of availability, was the #1-rented title, earning $7.59 million in the week for $7.69 million to date.
Critical infrastructure such as telecom networks remain at risk of terrorist attack in large part due to a failure of federal agencies such as the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) to share information, a new report said Tues. While there’s plenty of information both in the federal govt. and the private sector to make critical infrastructure more secure, legacy models of information sharing are insufficient, and President Bush should intervene, said The Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, formed shortly after Sept. 11 by the Markle Foundation. John Gannon, a former deputy CIA dir. and now staff dir. of the House Select Homeland Security Committee, said the report’s goals echoed those of Chmn. Cox (R-Cal.) and the select committee.
Electronic Arts (EA) again dominated the top 10 videogame rental chart in the U.S., Rentrak’s Home Video Essentials preliminary data for the week ended Nov. 23 showed. Five EA games were in the top 10, led by Medal of Honor: Rising Sun for PS2, which again was the #1-rented title. Rentrak said the game earned $615,804 in the week, increasing its total rental earnings to $1.27 million. The other 4 EA games in the top 10 were Need for Speed Underground for PS2 at #3 in its first week ($330,349), the Xbox version of Rising Sun at #5 (up 3, earning $247,276 in the week and $523,801 to date), Madden NFL 2004 for PS2 at #8 (up 2, $224,470 and $4.15 million), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for PS2 at #10 (down 3, $202,003 and $538,205). PS2 again was the dominant hardware player in the top 10. The only other game in the top 10 not for Sony’s console was Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto double pack at #9 (down 5, $205,471 and $777,889). The only other publisher with more than one game in the top 10 was Activision, whose True Crime: Streets of L.A. was #2 (up one, $346,358 and $1.01 million) and Tony Hawk’s Underground was #4 (down 2, $319,317 and $1.55 million). Rounding out the top 10 were Sony’s SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs at #6 (down one, $245,891 and $898,363) and THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain at #7 (down one, $227,972 $1.07 million). On the movie rental chart for the same week, Rentrak said Paramount’s Lara Croft: Cradle of Life, in its first full week of availability, was the #1-rented DVD, earning $5.13 million in rentals in the week on DVD and $5.21 million to date.
Commerce Dept. investigators reported evidence of “massive imports” of color TVs from China in the run-up to the dept.’s preliminary decision this week that recommended antidumping duties of up to 45.8% on the sets (CED Nov 25 p1). The investigators’ finding of “critical circumstances” stemmed from a move by Chinese manufacturers to increase exports of 21"-and-up TVs to the U.S. ahead of the release of the preliminary decision that will form the basis for a final ruling in April.
In the first telecom decision of its kind since the Basic Telecom Agreement of 1997, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in favor of U.S. long distance carriers in their dispute with Mexico’s Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) official confirmed Wed. The WTO late last week issued a preliminary decision requiring Telmex to reduce the rates it charges U.S. carriers to connect incoming calls.
Consumer intentions on buying TV sets remained unchanged in Nov. from Oct., according to preliminary data in the Conference Board’s monthly survey. Of 5,000 households polled, 7% said they planned to buy a TV set in the next 6 months, vs. the same percentage in Oct., 6.3% in Sept. and 6.7% in Nov. 2002. The Consumer Confidence Index registered a “solid gain” in Nov., jumping a full 10 points from Oct. and reaching its highest level since the fall of 2002, the Conference Board said: “The rise in expectations is a signal that consumers will end this year much more upbeat than when the year began.”