Slingshot Entertainment Is Taking Aim at Consumers With Imax Documentaries.

Author/s: Seth Goldstein
August 06, 2000

Retailers relegate documentaries to the nether reaches of their stores, right?
Not always, says Slingshot Entertainment--and especially not when the documentaries have lured moviegoers into spending $8 a ticket at Imax theaters. Consumer exposure, and the attendant hoopla, give titles like Fantasia 2000 and the Michael Jordan Imax a big-feature, Hollywood feel, according to Slingshot execs.

Slingshot, headquartered in Burbank, Calif., hopes the feeling rubs off on DVD and VHS versions of 25 documentaries first seen on giant screens. They're also a first on home video, along with Slingshot's efforts to create DVDs in 3-D and offer reasonably priced discs for Sony's PlayStation 2, which arrives this fall.

Twenty-one documentaries are already on DVD at a suggested list price of $24.99, says Slingshot v.p. and general manager Mitch Perliss, a home video veteran who's been in retail and on the supply side. "We just started releasing on VHS this year," he notes, at $19.99.

The titles are the stuff of Discovery Channel buffs' dreams, including Wilds of the Ocean and The Great Barrier Reef. One of them, Mysteries of Egypt, grossed $60 million at the box office. It's one of a half-dozen giant-screen releases, Perliss says. "The key to this is theatrical," he says. "These programs have not been seen on television."

Perliss cautions "this is not an 80-foot projection," but notes the high-resolution picture and 5.1 Dolby sound transfer well to the DVD format. For the right titles, combined disc and tape sales "will hit 30,000 units," he predicts. "Consumers have become more aware of the concept. We're meeting and beating our projections."

Slingshot began DVD shipments with four titles in late 1998, followed by 13 more last year, and four so far in 2000. The line will expand as producers take on new projects. "We've developed relationships," Perliss says. Slingshot, the most visible arm of a multimedia company which includes authoring house Enterprise DVD, helps develop extra features that can be added during filming.

Most of the documentaries have been funded by institutional grants.

"It's only very recently that the business started crossing over to commercial," says Perliss, who's expanding the genre to include DVDs of extreme sports like ice climbing and tow surfing. He's actively trying to expand the retail foothold.

Slingshot is working with key brick-and-mortar accounts to establish large-format sections "so we don't have to merchandise the line willy-nilly with everything else," according to Perliss. E-tailers such as Bigstar Entertainment that created boutiques for Slingshot have seen an "exponential increase" in sales, he says.

The company will promote eight DVD and VHS gift packs in the fourth quarter to further boost demand at Musicland Stores Corp., Tower Records and Video, Best Buy, Hollywood Entertainment Corp. and, he hopes, Blockbuster Inc.

Meanwhile, Slingshot plans to release a 3-D large-format disc called Ultimate Gs that will require special glasses; a line of interactive cartoons based on Superman, Ace Ventura and "Xena, Warrior Princess"; and PlayStation2 games, developed by Brilliant Digital Entertainment.

They'll sell for $19.99, about half the price of most PlayStation titles, Perliss says. "It's part of the marketing effort to reach parents buying for their kids," he adds.

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