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An alliance with TLA, a company specializing in gay/lesbian product, resulted in the acquisition of a half-dozen titles released during the past 12 months. First Run VP [Marc Mauceri] expects big things from the late-summer video release of Fluffer, a well-received send-up of the gay porn industry jointly acquired by TLA and First Run.
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VIDEOBUSINESS ONES2WATCH
Giving the customer quality choices
One of the industry's most successful suppliers of niche product, First Run Features is poised for growth this year as a result of its strong slate of video releases and savvy marketing techniques.
Since its formation a decade ago, the company has concentrated on amassing a collection of distinguished arthouse films most distributors consider "off-trail." Today, First Run's library includes nearly 900 movies-- prestigious foreign films, award-winning documentaries, Jewish-themed subjects and titles with gay/lesbian appeal.
"When we started," First Run president Seymour Wishman recalls, "we made a conscious decision to develop a back list of quality films and sell them directly to retailers wherever we could, rather than relying solely on traditional distributors." First Run now services several thousand retail accounts.
An alliance with TLA, a company specializing in gay/lesbian product, resulted in the acquisition of a half-dozen titles released during the past 12 months. First Run VP Marc Mauceri expects big things from the late-summer video release of Fluffer, a well-received send-up of the gay porn industry jointly acquired by TLA and First Run.
Among the 40 to 50 other titles First Run will release this year on VHS and/or DVD are the recent Stellan Skarsgaard starrer Aberdeen, the 1975 period drama Hester Street, a collection of animated subjects tentatively titled The Films of Michael Spom and the 1986 documentary Sherman's March.
First Run offers its wares directly to consumers via its own Web site and through big e-tailers such as Amazon. Wishman says there's potential for "enormous growth" in online sales. Additionally, he'd like to see First Run product achieve deeper penetration in big chains such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.
"It's not only about the hits," he says. "People don't go to libraries expecting to see only Tom Clancy or John Grisham books. They expect choices." And First Run's success is based on offering good choices.
Copyright Cahners Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. Feb 25, 2002