Harvey Weinstein has made an exclusive DVD deal with Blockbuster Video — the Orwellian anti-Christ of DVD retail — by which all Weinstein Co. releases will be solely available at Blockbuster beginning in January ’07. The four-year agreement cuts out Netflix, Movie Gallery and I don’t know how many others.
The piece says that the Weinstein Co. has “also been strengthening ties” with Wal-Mart. I guess that means that Wal-Mart will have lots of “for sale” copies, I guess.
The basic offshoot is that if you want to rent Factory Girl, Shut Up & Sing or Bobby next spring, you’ll have to hold your nose and visit a Blockbuster store, which I refuse to do on general principle. The deal must have been really sweet for Harvey to have done such a thing. It must be a cash-flow issue that needed fixing. Variety‘s Steven Zeitchik provided the scoop.