Neve Campbell will have more to worry about with the release of Wes Craven’s “Scream 4” slated for April 15th. Photo credit: Dimension Films
Making money in the film industry from a film alone typically evokes images not much more elevated than a crapshoot. For real income, we keep hearing, you must make side bets: aftermarkets such as DVDs and VOD as well as peripheral enterprises like games.
As part of their next step to build up their Hudson Street operation, games are just what the Brothers Weinstein have added to the mix with the launch today of TWC Games. With a “strategic consultancy” in place with Bay-area based Beefy Media, The Weinstein Company plans to use its Dimension Films’ many “strong and recognizable properties” to lead the way. While titles based on Scream, Hellraiser, Halloween, Scary Movie and others might just seem another me-too play, in its press release the company calls out “mobile, social, and console platforms”, a strategy that seems to emphasize the fast build out of mobile and social media.
“The video game marketplace is changing at such a rapid rate. With all of the digital platforms, there are so many opportunities to broaden our audience with compelling, high quality, cost-efficient, video game entertainment,” Bob Weinstein, co-chairman, said in the statement. “Cost-efficient” is a key term here for TWC, since typically each new cycle of video game development has suffered cost spirals as debilitating as Hollywood’s constant budget inflation. Beefy Media claims to offer streamlined production processes and faster go-to-market, which is what TWC Games needs if it expects to compete.
The game division is the latest in a recent spate of announcements of a build-out by TWC. This past January the company’s management (Harvey and Bob along with David Glasser) announced that it bought a 25 percent stake in Starz Media, which includes the Anchor Bay Entertainment home entertainment company. “The King’s Speech” is slated as first up for release on DVD through Anchor Bay.
In another recent sign of the company’s push for relevance in today’s puzzle of a media market, the Deadline New York blog announced last week that The Weinstein Company would soon add another experienced hand to the mix–MGM’s Erik Lomis–as President of Theatrical Distribution and Home Entertainment.
