Not in CS because I’m looking for a factual answer, rather than an answer about the movie itself.
I’ve been searching on the web for the date when Lilo & Stitch will be released on DVD. I’ve seen dates ranging from late November 2002 to late January 2003. I realize that Disney has not set a date yet, so all this is speculation. Neither has a release date been set on Amazon, IMDB, or any other source that I would consider reliable.
However, assuming the release date will be somewhere in the range mentioned above, is there any reason why Disney would hold it until January, after the holidays. The movie is no longer in theathers and, I would think, would make a great Christmas seller. Therefore, I’m puzzled as to why anyone would think it would be released in January, timed just to miss the holiday market.
So, what reasons would Disney have for missing the Christmas rush with this DVD? What are the marketing, logistical, or other reasons?
My WAG: It most likely will be released for the consumer spending season. The reason is simple enough, Disney hasn’t been meeting earnings expectations and Eisner is under closer scurtiny than he has ever been.
Since we live in world that looks to the short term rather than the long term, the video will be released before the holidays to improve Disneys bottom line.
Disney put 25 copies of Kingdom Hearts PS2 on ebay.com a week ago & it doesn’t come out until next month. You might check ebay.com y now & then & see if they are doing this for L&S.
Maybe Disney has other releases planned in December.
Maybe the factory can only deliver after the holidays.
I’m not sure but I think major Disney toon releases do pretty well no matter what time of year they are released so maybe they don’t feel the need to slug it out in sales and advertising during the Xmas rush and will wait to after the new year.
It does take some coordination to have all your promotional outlets firing at the same time so maybe The Disney Channel, MacDonalds, Good Morning America (sorry Diane but you are a schill for the boss) can’t work out the timing for the promotional push.
Maybe they can’t decide exactly what date to release on or are waiting for a competitor to name a release date so they can pick a better one.
I’m inclined to believe Zebra is correct in the belief that Disney can pretty well release their movies any damn time they feel like with no fear of not selling the hell out of them.
That said, Disney’s also not in any hurry to pimp out their movies with any sense of regularity, either. They plan the releases for their large “prestige” films on DVD several years in advance, and rarely release more than one per year of their huge films. Case in point: Beauty & The Beast is scheduled for release on DVD later this year, IIRC, and will likely be pulled from shelves come Jan/Feb for another decade or so. Again, IIRC, The Lion King is on the slate for late next year, and Aladdin for 2004. So this is clearly not a company that’s unwilling to let fans sit on a medium for awhile until they’ve created a demand.
While I wouldn’t lump L&S into the same category, it’s fair to say that if they made us wait awhile for it, it wouldn’t be the first time. But you’re right in that there’s been no “official” announcement (or rumors, for that matter) regarding L&S.
My WAG is you’ll see it closer to that rumored December 10th than later. But again, don’t quote me on that.