“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana, The Life of Reason,
1905.
For fifteen
of the twenty-three years that Hannover House has been operating, the company
has been involved with the acquisition and release of movies and television
programs onto DVD and other home media platforms. Since that time, the company has released or
represented over three-hundred-fifty (350) titles, ranging from significant sell-thru
hits, to specialty home videos for targeted audiences. At last count, the company had sold a total
of over 34-million home video units to retailers in North America (primarily
DVD, but some on the BluRay format and in the early years of Hannover’s home
video distribution, some were sold on the VHS cassette format).
Not every
title acquired and released by Hannover House to the domestic home video market
these past 15-years has been a financial success for the company. The biggest failure of
expenditures-compared-to-revenues was the 2005 release of “Off The Lip” – which, despite a theatrical release expenditure of
more than $350,000, did not manage to inspire a single one of the nation’s top
mass merchants for home video placement.
Fortunately, the loss with “Off
The Lip” occurred at the same time when Hannover House had seven (7) of the
top ten (10) best-selling indie video titles at Walmart – when we were literally selling-thru to consumers over 100,000 units per
week through Walmart nationwide. So
that initial theatrical release endeavor was expensive, but not deadly. And a valuable lesson was learnt: opening movies at theatres only helps the
retail home video response if the movie actually DESERVED (commercially) to have been released to theatres.
As Hannover
released more titles to the home video market, trends began to emerge, even as
the market itself was maturing and evolving.
By 2008, when Walmart, Target and Best Buy started aggressive
merchandising of the (then) new BluRay format, the shelf space was usually
reallocated away from independent DVD titles, and migrated for use in
displaying BluRay units of major studio releases. That was a big loss for all indie
distributors – and making our second-tier titles “available on BluRay” did not pick-up the slack. By 2010, certain genres of home videos for
indies studios were drying up or functionally non-starters: “no-name
comedies”, “dramas” and “special interest subjects” could no
longer be placed at the big-box retailers due to sluggish retail turns. The major studio theatrical releases were
holding their home video sales volume, but at the expense of diminishing shelf space
and placement frequency for the indie distributors.
It was about
that time (late ‘2009 / early ‘2010)
that Hannover House was offered the opportunity to “reverse-merge” with Target
Development Group, Inc. and become a publicly-traded company. This was not a desired goal for either Eric
Parkinson or Fred Shefte. But the TDGI
venture came with an attractive investment-banking arrangement with Bedrock
Ventures: in consideration of the
merger, Bedrock would place $1.5-mm as a direct stock purchase agreement, and
would separately fund loans of $500,000 towards acquisitions and $300,000
towards P&A (theatrical releasing
costs).
Energized
with these funding commitments in hand… and motivated by a positive thumbs-up
from several of the industry’s top consultants… Hannover House took the
leap-of-faith and decided to try for a mid-level, nationwide theatrical release. In January, 2010, Hannover House surprised
the industry by beating out SONY, FOX and LIONSGATE at the Sundance Film
Festival for the acquisition of director Joel Schumacher’s teen-angst thriller,
“TWELVE.” The cost was high: $1.75-mm plus a theatrical release commitment
to open on not less than 200 theatres simultaneously. But the upside seemed greater, and after all,
the funding had been secured (or so we
thought). While Bedrock did, indeed,
fund the $500,000 as a loan for the down-payment for rights to “TWELVE” (and later, funded $300,000 of the $2-million+ spent on theatrical
releasing costs), their original agreement to fund $1.5-mm as a direct
stock purchase never occurred.
With only a
few weeks to go before “TWELVE” hit
theatres on August 6, 2010, Hannover House was in full-scramble mode, working
diligently to try to secure vendor credit, private loans, and ancillary sales
advances to help cover the theatrical costs.
We went from being a reliable (but
small) indie distributor, to being full time managerial firemen, moving
from one emergency flash outbreak to the next.
The release of “TWELVE”
suffered, the relationship with Bedrock tanked, and the company was put into
full scramble mode for months thereafter.
Over the
next six years that followed – the history of Hannover House has been a bit of
a roller-coaster ride, for both management and shareholders. High moments – such as a multi-million-dollar
sponsorship from SEA WORLD in 2011 (for “Turtle: The Incredible Journey”)
were met with humiliating lows, such as the principal cast’s refusal to attend
the red-carpet premiere of “All’s Faire
In Love,” in New York City (also in 2011).
In each of the successive five years, Hannover House has overcome significant
obstacles, and met with welcomed successes, only to face financial challenges
and legal struggles. Finally, when the
most notable events in 2016 were the bankruptcy or closure of the company’s top
two wholesalers, it became clear to management that it was time to look at a
whole new business model: one that meets
and leads the dynamic edge of the industry, rather than seeks out the
occasional crumbs from the trailing tail.
In order to
build a better company, it is essential that HHSE managers and shareholders take
a high-altitude look at the trends in the industry to best determine the
direction in which the consumer market for entertainment is moving. Skipping over the volumes of industry research,
sales trends and analytical studies to reach the consensus bottom-line
conclusions, we see Ten Essential Trends:
1)
DTV
- “Direct-to-Video” programming is rapidly declining in retail value in the
North American retail marketplace;
2) RENTAL
– Except for Redbox Kiosks, Family Video and a handful of stubborn independent
video specialty stores, there is functionally no more retail “rental” home
video market in the USA;
3) VOD
- “Video-On-Demand” continues to grow, but disproportionately in favor of
theatrical titles; VOD is the new “rental experience” for the emerging
generation of consumers;
4) SVOD
- “Subscription V.O.D.” license fees are dropping precipitously as Netflix now
favors major theatrical hits or their own programming over independent or
non-theatrical titles;
5) INTL
- Key International Markets are booming for specific film genres: Action, Sci-Fi and Horror; but low-budget,
no-stars or non-theatrical titles are functionally impossible to sell today;
6) PRODUCTIONS
– Due to the availability of significant international pre-sales for selected
programming, as well as State and Federal tax and rebate incentives, there is a
viable business model that includes the facilitation or physical production of
films as a revenue source;
7) DISTRIBUTION
PACTS – As the retail market shifts away from independent titles – in favor
of Major Studio titles – the value of a major studio partner has grown exponentially…
both for domestic release, but more crucially for international territories;
8) WHAT
ARE CONSUMERS, INTL. BUYERS & RETAILERS RESPONDING TO?
a) High-Concept
Films – action, science-fiction, horror, family-appeal;
b) Films
with one or more “name” stars; Films shot in "original language" English;
c) Films
with wide theatrical visibility, momentum and credibility;
9)
WHAT
ARE CONSUMERS, INTL BUYERS & RETAILERS NOT RESPONDING TO?
a) Low-Budgeted
releases, without stars or theatrical visibility;
b) Comedies
& Dramas are dead genres, unless driven by credible stars in lead roles;
c) Micro-budget
production values that do not compare to mainstream quality expectations;
10) BALANCED
RELEASE SLATE – There is an economy of scale for a distributor in the
current marketplace to release ONE (1) “major” theatrical title per quarter,
plus ONE (1) “mid-level” theatrical title per month, and supplement these with
one or two third-party acquired titles that still are essentially “direct-to-video”
or V.O.D., but are now supplemental revenues (rather than the company’s primary
cash-flow source).
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WHERE ARE WE NOW - WHERE ARE WE GOING FROM HERE?
Last Month, on March 10 specifically,
Hannover House managers signed a letter-of-intent to join with another
publicly-traded company, two private companies and a major studio distribution
partner, to create a new structure that addresses each of the Ten Essential Trends described
above, and which we feel will bring substantial value to our shareholders.
Over these past five weeks, the legal,
operational and structural changes that are required to effectively launch such
an ambitious merger have been in motion.
The two privately held companies will join with the two publicly-traded
companies into an overall venture that is fully reporting, fully registered,
and sufficiently funded to allow for a realistic pursuit of a NASDAQ
listing. This venture involves the
placement of approximately sixty-five million dollars (USD $65,000,000) from pre-existing
international presales and feature film private investor commitments, and will
provide us with both the high-end “major” titles as well as the first two-years
of the “mid-level” theatrical titles.
Due to availability of State and Federal incentives and rebates on the
productions, the company will also be well funded with theatrical releasing resources – as well as earning lucrative production company service fees
upfront. A major studio partner will
handle most of the domestic home video and V.O.D. activities (excluding VODWIZ.TV) as well as
international sales through their existing distribution units in over 100
territories worldwide.
Upon regulatory approval, existing
Hannover House shareholders will receive a significant premium-to-market
redemption, and overall, the Hannover House shareholders will retain a majority
control in the combined entities.
Over the next few days, details of the
venture partners will be released through mutual public announcements. As the
merger L.O.I. contains performance triggers (including
specific funding requirements and regulatory approvals), Hannover House has
honored the temporary, proprietary confidences imposed on all parties - as is
customary for a venture that involves four separate companies and a major
studio distribution partner.
For the principal venture parties
involved in this new structure, we all feel that this is a marriage in which
the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The consensus is that this is the “launch moment” for a truly
significant entertainment company… and a move that will bring substantial value
to all of our shareholders.
We wish to thank the company’s many patient,
“long” shareholders, and we are excited that you will be rewarded for your loyalty
and support as we have navigated a winning plan in this evolving media sector. The
new management team includes some of the industry’s most respected and
successful executives, and our future as a successful, independent studio and
media distributor is bright. Watch for
updates on this BLOG, including advance notification of Form 8 Information
Statement Filings.
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LAST - BUT NOT LEAST - Watch for the Hannover House - CMC Pictures / Crimson Forest Release of "
SHOCKWAVE" to key theatres in the USA and Canada on
Friday, April 28 - with a simultaneous release across China. This is a specialty release for the North American market (Mandarin with English-subtitles), to reach this responsive and targeted audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwKno-hnjik
