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Monday, December 23, 2013

Teaser Art - "MOTHER GOOSE: JOURNEY TO UTOPIA"

SUPER EXCITED to be moving ahead on a major and transformative production for Hannover House.  Here's some teaser information on the first of five major titles that are poised to transform HHSE over the next two years:

Mother Goose -  Journey To Utopia

Family-Appeal "Fantasy" Adventures films rank among the highest grossing movies of all time.  Bridging the commercial markets for both kids and adults, fantasy adventures have an evergreen value and a worldwide appeal, "Mother Goose: Journey To Utopia" builds on the awareness and characters from the infamous "Mother Goose" fables, and combines it with the audience-friendly element of "transportation to a magical world."  The result is a pleasing and commercial adventure that is ideally positioned to become an entertaining and popular movie experience.  With major star casting - including Academy Award Winner SHIRLEY MACLAINE as "Mother Goose" and SAMUEL  JACKSON as "Valkerna" - this film could achieve the stature of other, comparably themed films, including "Chronicles of Narnia", "Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland" and the recently released "Oz: The Great and Powerful."

 SYNOPSIS:   "Mother Goose: Journey To Utopia" tells the story of young Jack and Gillian, two pre-teen kids from modern-day America.  In researching a homework assignment, they stumble upon a mysterious and dusty old book of Mother Goose rhymes.  Upon opening the book, they are pulled from their world and thrust in to the magical - and fantastical - land of Utopia and Mother Goose.  Here they are faced with the challenge of saving Mother Goose from an evil villain, Valkerna, who believes that children no longer have any imagination.  As Jack and Gillian proceed on their journey, they run into a variety of amusing and enchanted characters who provide various forms of advice and assistance to help them save Mother Goose.  In the end, though, it is the imaginations of Jack and Gillian to save the day, and return them to their own world.

 Comparable / Similarly Themed Films:USAUSAWorldwide
ReleaseBox OfficeBox Office
TitleStudioYearGross ($M)Gross ($M)
 Chronicles of NarniaDisney2005 $              292  $              739
Chronicles of Narnia (2)Disney2008 $              142  $              419
Alice In WonderlandDisney2010 $          1,020  $              334
Chronicles of Narnia (3)Fox-Walden2010 $              104  $              416
 Oz: The Great and PowerfulDisney2013 $              235  $              492
Mother Goose: Journey To UtopiaFox-HH2015  

                  

Officer Share Update - pending Form 8 Filing

Dear HHSE Friends & Shareholders - In response to some shareholder inquiries, both Eric Parkinson and Fred Shefte wanted to provide advance notification that officer-owned shares - previously removed from Rule 144 Share Restriction and registered earlier this year with the S.E.C. - have expired and will be returned to restricted status for both Parkinson and Shefte.  Each officer had previously filed a 10(b)5-1 Trading Plan, (which had been registered with the S.E.C.) to allow for the sale of 5-million shares each.  These shares are now being returned, fully intact and unsold, for the holding accounts of Parkinson and Shefte. 

Under Rule 144, officers and directors of publicly-traded companies may apply for a 10(b)5-1 Trading Plan to remove the sale restriction on up to 1% of the stock each quarter.  Over the past four years, Parkinson and Shefte have sold less than 5-million shares each (from an initial issuance of approximately 160-million shares), reflecting their confidence in the long-term value of the HHSE equity.

The return of shares to restricted sale status will be reflected in a Form 8 filing for the Company, planned release next week.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Home Video (Packaged Goods Sales) on KID-VIDS is RECORD SETTING!

Today's news that Universal's "DESPICABLE ME 2" home video release is setting sales records - exceeding $80-MILLION in the first few days - is a great indicator that the DVD / Blu-Ray (packaged goods) side of the business continues strong.  In fact, DVD and Blu-Ray unit sales are actually GROWING for certain genres. Of course, Video-On-Demand is growing as well, but faster for some types of films than the Kid-Vids category, which still seems to favor packaged goods (perhaps it because kids tend to watch videos over-and-over-and-over again, which is not conducive to VOD Streaming?).  Overall, the combined revenues per title from VOD and Packaged Goods is up in 2013, industry-wide across most major studios and independents such as Hannover House.

That said, Hannover's February BUDGET Release of the JULES VERNE ANIMATED CLASSICS seems well timed for the current retail home video marketplace. 

Watch for these commercial new releases, February 4, 2014 (and already being built-up for early January shipments at our replication facility)!

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA - Animated Feature, 78-Mins., TV-G, $7.99 MSRP;

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS - Animated Feature, 78 Mins., TV-G, $7.99 MSRP;

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH - Animated Feature, 78 Mins., TV-G, $7.99 MSRP'

COLLECTOR'S PACK (all three titles) - Animated Features, 234-Mins., TV-G, $9.95 MSRP;

(FYI, the $9.95 3-title Collector's Pack has been designed for placement into the Walmart Budget Bin, where it would carry a $5.00 "everyday low price" for their shoppers).

GO HHSE! 

The final word on the Kennedy Assassination is presented in THE VERDICT...

At long last, Barr McClellan's follow-up to his # 1 National Bestseller, "BLOOD, MONEY AND POWER: HOW LBJ KILLED JFK" has been released to E-Books!

THE VERDICT:  JUSTICE FOR JOHN F. KENNEDY, JUSTICE FOR AMERICA, has been uploaded for placement today onto KINDLE, NOOK and IBOOK, and is expected to "go live" for consumer downloads shortly.

In September, Hannover House was contacted by McClellan with the request to delay the release of this book, as he felt that some updates were merited based on competitive book and documentary releases.  A discussion was held and a decision made that McClellan's book should be as thorough as possible, in order to stand the test of time and become the definitive final word on the controversy. 

While the media frenzy following the 50th anniversary of the JFK Assassination has passed, the consumer demand for the truth has not subsided.  Substantial preorders for the print edition have been received by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Hudson, WH Smith and literally thousands of schools and libraries.   The E-Book will be Hannover's first "promoted" E-Book format title (but our fourth release this year onto digital book formats).  Targeted consumer ads and publicity will launch this weekend, designed to drive traffic to the three primary E-Book sites, and to build awareness and demand.

Here's to a great holiday season for HHSE, and all our shareholders, as we are poised for the largest single quarter of sales activity in the 20-year history of the company! 

Friday, December 13, 2013

Amityville Asylum shipment to Walmart is Hannover's Top Item for 2013!

Who knows what really happened in the DeFeo's, Amityville, New York house back in 1974?  Whether it was a family member who snapped, or a case of demonic possession, the legend has grown into a hugely successful series of films over the years.

Hannover House is pleased to announce that it is now shipping (and invoicing) it's largest Walmart order of the year>>> the January 7th new release title, "THE AMITYVILLE ASYLUM."  Fingers crossed, as the last Amityville DVD release sold over $2.5-MILLION worth of videos at Walmart...!  Will consumers react with the same enthusiasm?  Only time will tell.  Meanwhile, "it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas" as they say, here at Hannover House, as a lot of hard work is finally paying off!  Check it out, and see the nice essay below on the Amityville Legend.

 
 
 





The Amityville Legend:

When Walls Can Talk

By Cambron Clark

In the early morning of November 14, 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were brutally murdered -- inciting a terror that cloaks the Long Island town of Amityville to this day.  Though the basic facts surrounding the suburban slaughter are well-established, the most disturbing details have yet to be proven.

Around 3:00 A.M., 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his sleeping father, mother, two younger brothers and two younger sisters in their home. After admitting to slaying his family with eight separate blasts from a .35-caliber rifle, DeFeo testified that voices from the house called him to commit the crime.

Nearly one year after the massacre, DeFeo was found guilty and sentenced to six consecutive life sentences in Green Haven Correctional Facility. However, the closing of DeFeo’s case was only the beginning of the legend that would ultimately surround the shore-side home in Suffolk County.
 
One month following DeFeo’s conviction, two newlyweds, George and Kathy Lutz, purchased the three-story Dutch Colonial-style home at 112 Ocean Avenue. Within moments of moving in, the couple and their three children encountered paranormal incidents occurring around the property.

According to the Lutz family, swarms of flies blotted the bedroom windows, sounds of shuffling and screams echoed from the home’s foundation, and doors and windows creaked open and closed near the times of the DeFeo family murders.  Like Ronald DeFeo, the Lutz children testified to speaking to a grotesque spirit who claimed she would live in the house forever. After 28 days, the Lutz family fled their Amityville home in the early morning – never to return.

Historians, psychics and scientists have all traveled to the ominous Amityville residence in recent years. Some claim the house resides on a massive Native American burial ground. Some believe an escapee from the Salem witch-hunts had once practiced demonic rituals on the land.  Others would like to believe that the alleged paranormal happenings are best suited for campfire stories. 

Whether fact or fiction, the Amityville legend lives on. Decades after the murders, the house itself still stands - serving as a mysterious reminder of eight gunshots, six murders and one chilly November night in the quiet village of Amityville.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Hannover House Pacts with Canada's Top Indie Film Distributor

Hannover House is pleased to announce a new distribution / output arrangement with ALLEGRO MEDIA GROUP for Canada, effective Jan. 1, 2014 - and covering all new release titles through 2017.  Allegro is the most dominant of indie film distributors in Canada, with placements of up to twenty titles per month into Walmart Stores and servicing DVD / Blu-Ray sales to all other major accounts in that market.  The venture with Hannover House is intended to cover all new release titles, plus a look-back period for items released during the past three years that were not otherwise released into Canada (about 10 additional items). 

In the past, Hannover House has utilized third-party sales agencies for the sale of DVDs and Blu-Ray units into Canada.  This has  proven to be inefficient (and at times, problematic for collections).  This direct relationship with the strongest indie wholesaler is an important move that will significantly increase sales of HHSE products, speed up collections, and generate more revenues "per unit" than was received under middle-man structures.  A more specific listing of titles and dates will be released next week.