Publishing
TV and Film
Marengo Films
Teaser: As tiny Marengo Films cleans up 'B' movies one slow film at a time for DVD -its sales are beginning to clean up across the country.
Killer 'Bs' Making a Buzz on DVD Horizon
The painstaking efforts of a small film company to restore classic B movies gaining
traction with film buffs and giant retailers.
Pull Quote: "The Baby Boomer is definitely our target audience. But younger audiences
are beginning to discover classic older movies, too -- they're like The Beatles." -- Philip
Hopkins, Marengo Films
Pull Quote, Page 2: "These titles are selling very well for us. They've been constant
since we began selling them." -- Tara Distel, Borders Group, Inc.
Looking for a copy of your favorite B movie? Chances are you've discovered that without
a name star, "The Movie Vanishes." Now, Dallas-based Marengo Films is attempting to
breathe new life into the cinematic corpses of Bela Lugosi, Clayton Moore, and other
long-forgotten movie stars. Marengo is restoring B movies for the growing DVD market,
with an eye on the baby boomers who remember the films. And a new deal to distribute
in the nation's leading book and video chains could allow the 'Killer B' to make a real
killing in sales, as well.
Marengo currently offers 32 titles, priced at $14.98 for a double feature. The company
will release eight new films at the end of March, and between three and eight new titles
every other month thereafter. Marengo co-founder and vice president Philip Hopkins
estimates total sales to be somewhere between a quarter and a half a million dollars by
year's end, an enormous number for such a small library.
Hopkins bases his aggressive sales figures on an exclusive retail distribution deal that
Marengo signed in November with Koch International of Port Washington, NY. Koch is
a leading independent music distribution company that has just added home video to its
business strategy. In fact, Marengo was one of the very first companies that Koch Vision
signed up. In addition to the independent video shops, Koch has already placed Marengo
DVDs in Borders, Best Buys, Blockbusters and Tower Records, and expects to move
about 75,000 units by the end of the year.
"There are other people doing this," explains Hopkins, "but the quality of our films is
better. They look sharper and cleaner. And people expect more on DVD than they do on
VHS."
Tara Distel, spokesperson for Border Group, Inc. the parent company of Borders, notes
that Marengo DVDs are now available at most Borders stores. Distel believes that's
because film buffs want the best possible visual and audio experience, and Marengo is
offering it. "These titles are selling very well for us," she says. "They've been constant
since we began selling them."
Accidental Entrepreneur
Philip Hopkins didn't expect to get into this line of work. The former rock guitarist and
journalist and his partner Craig Cosgray were trying to raise money for an independent
film of their own when they got hold of about 1500 B movies in a private collection. The
pair realized they could use their knowledge of music and production to restore the
collection, and simultaneously make some money for their own film projects.
Early on, Hopkins realized that they'd have to be selective about which films to restore if
they wanted to make a profit. But once the decision is made to go forward with a movie,
Hopkins and Cosgray restore the visuals and run the individual tracks through a series of
digital processes to clean the sound. The finished product is then packaged in a sleeve
featuring artwork from the original movie posters. Between studio time, equipment and
royalties, Marengo spends about two to three thousand dollars restoring each movie.
Khris Tahmin, video director for Koch International, notes that the audio quality on these
films is particularly impressive, and says that Marengo's quality was a huge factor in the
decision to enter an agreement with the unknown firm. But the unconventional packaging
was also a plus.
"Two things attracted us to Marengo," Tahmin explains. "In our opinion, their audio and
visuals are unparalleled. They also matched full-length films with other complementary
pieces. The pairings are unique in this industry."
Hopkins is proud of his funky matches, and indeed, has based much of his business
strategy on the quirky logic that underlies them. For example, Marengo pairs a featurelength Clayton Moore 'Lone Ranger" film with one of the early "Lone Ranger" TV
episodes. A Classic Christmas offers a double feature of the 1935 version of "Scrooge",
and the heartwarming yet relatively unknown "Beyond Tomorrow", in which three
businessmen return from the grave with dire warnings about the pitfalls of greed and
ambition. Marengo is currently readying a kitsch grouping that will include early John
Travolta and Don Johnson films.
"They've really put a lot of thought into this," Tahmin claims, "and it's fun to work on it
together." Tahmin insists that part of the beauty of the pairings is that it helps the films
get discovered by a whole new generation of younger fans, while also appealing to baby
boomers. And trends in the video industry are also lending a hand.
"We think the DVD industry turned a corner this Christmas," Tahimn enthuses. "We're
now finding people who have both DVD players and VHS in their homes."
That's music to the highly-tuned ears of the folks at Marengo. Though Marengo splits
profits with Koch 75 - 25, Hopkins and Cosgray put a lot of their own money into the
company, and they expect to be recouping that over the next several years.
Tahmin doesn't sound too worried. She says that there is always a concern about
competitors, but with 35 sales 'feet on the street', a top quality, innovative product, and a
groundswell of interest by customers, Marengo is a 'B' with a killer future.
For further reading on this subject, don't miss...
www.marengofilms.com
http://www.kochint.com/
www.borders.com