steven@ism70.UUCP (09/08/84)
You heard it here first from Lotusland: CBS/Fox Video will release "The Empire Strikes Back" on videocassette November 13 in a Christmas promotion that brings first ever price cuts to a CBS/Fox release. CBS/Fox is also committed to issuing all titles in Hi-Fi formats, so "Empire" will and "Star Wars" may also be mastered in VHS Hi-Fi and Beta Hi-Fi cassettes. "Empire" is teamed up with "Star Wars" in a promotional pricing structure that will allow retailers to sell "Empire" together with "Star Wars" for $59.98 each or to give "Empire" the $79.98 pricetag everyone expected for it, while selling "Star Wars" for $39.98. CBS/Fox Video reportedly paid Lucasfilm Ltd. a record $10,000,000 dollars for homevideo rights to "Empire" (the previous record: $4,000,000) and will spend at least $2,000,000 in an intensive 10-week national ad campaign. At $79.98, "Empire" had been expected to be one of the top 3 or 4 selling cassettes. At $59.98, it has a chance to become the highest earning videocassette ever if it tops the $25,000,000 sales figure racked by by the current record holder, Paramount and Lucasfilm's "Raiders of the Lost Ark".