‘Stalking Santa’ coming to DVD … and skipping theaters
Remember “Stalking Santa,” the fun mockumentary about a guy trying to prove the existence of Santa Claus? Sure you do! I posted a review several months back, and alerted you to some screenings in the Provo area.
Now I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the film is being released on DVD this Tuesday, so you can buy it or rent it and watch it in the comfort of your own home. The bad news is that this is occurring without the movie ever being released to theaters.
What annoys me is that this is the work of Excel Entertainment, which bought the film earlier this year, full of promises to give it a nice theatrical release and plenty of promotion. The producers had other options. They went with Excel because Excel — despite only having previous experience with Utah-centric Mormon films — pledged to handle it effectively.
And now they’re dumping it straight to DVD. “Stalking Santa” isn’t mentioned anywhere on Excel’s website. It’s not for sale at Amazon. (It is for rent at Netflix, though.) As far as I can tell, the only place you can buy it is at Deseret Book stores or at DeseretBook.com — where it’s incorrectly categorized as an “LDS DVD,” no doubt because it came from Excel, and Deseret Book is used to everything Excel does being LDS-themed.
In other words, it’s being marketed (and halfheartedly at that) only to Mormons, even though it has nothing to do with Mormonism and would appeal to a general audience. Indeed, it HAS appealed to general audiences, when it has played at film festivals over the last year. Excel’s bumbling has slashed the movie’s potential.
Why didn’t Excel release it in theaters? An insider told me it was due to the regrettable circumstances of the season. The marketplace is very crowded this time of year, and it’s hard to get theater chains to give up screens for something small like this.
That’s a good point — but it was also 100 percent foreseeable. They could have known that (and should have known that) months ago, when they acquired the film. The holiday season didn’t exactly sneak up on us this year. It was on the calendar.
Anyway, they are doing three free promotional screenings in theaters, one in Salt Lake City on Monday, one in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and one in New York City on Thursday. The details are at the film’s website. I do believe cast members will be on hand at all the screenings.
(By the way, I can see from the picture on the film’s website that I’m quoted on the DVD cover, but I can’t quite make out who it says I write for. It should say “Eric D. Snider, eFilmCritic.com,” but the text looks a few letters longer than that. Can anyone else make it out?)
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:04 am
It does say “Eric D. Snider, eFlimCritic.com”. I looked it up on Imdb, and you can see a bigger picture of the cover there.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:08 am
Well, the *&^# thing won’t stop spinning for me to get a perfect look, but it looks like eFilmCritic to me. I can see a capital F and C. For whatever that’s worth.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
You can see the picture by clicking this link.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Dear Eric,
You raise alot of reasonable concerns. Thankfully they all have equally reasonable explanations. I’ll just respond one by one:
1. None of “Santa’s” other options wouldn’t even attempt a theatrical. We attempted in good faith and couldn’t rally the support necessary to succeed. We did know that it would be tough in the 4th quarter but we also knew that even if we failed at theatrical, that we could make a lot more money for our producer than anybody else would, or more importantly, ever has demonstrated that they could. That is still true.
2. We are executing a deal with Amazon. We have dragged our feet on this because Amazon pays poorly and we like to pay our filmmakers. Wal-Mart has been far more generous and committed to “Santa” so we are puting our efforts towards supporting their sales.
3. Excel’s website doesn’t get any traffic and we therefore don’t put emphasis on updating it, especially when we are very busy. It literally gets a dozen hits a week if anything.
4. DB is the only online retailer selling it, that is why we are linked to them now. On street it will be in WalMart nationwide, Blockbuster, Hollywood, some grocery stores and in LDS bookstores.
5. Currently you can see “Stalking Santa” plugged with video clips on all of the archived satire videos on theonion.com. We’ll be doing a national radio buy on the Glenn Beck radio program and we got a favorable quote from Glenn. We got William Shatner to do a series of interviews to support the DVD and we expect him to talk about the DVD on Kimmel the day before its release. We also got an AP review and featurette that will run early next week.
6. Your quote on the cover is “Smart, jolly with a sly sense of humor!”–Eric D. Snider, eFilmCritic.com.
Regarding your “general audience” “not a Mormon movie” concern I would like to simply agree with you. Nothwithstanding the fact that 90% of our effort is directed outside the LDS niche, we certainly won’t ignore a channel that could deliver tens of thousands of units of sales. It will be well placed in LDS stores.
Our screenings are overbooked and we have a radio stations supporting its release in NY and SLC. Thanks for your ongoing interest in “Stalking Santa” and in Excel’s films in general.
Randy Davis
GM Excel Entertainment
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:18 pm
I wonder whether The Disney Channel or some other family-programming network could be sold on broadcasting this movie next year. That would certainly introduce it to a wider audience.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Some words of advice to Randy Davis – Think Outside the Bun, dude. Glenn Beck? Kimmel? DB.com? If that is your strategy, this movie is doomed for failure like the rest of the crap that Excel puts out. It just too bad that Stalking Santa happens to be decent and worth any extra effort you could possibly muster. Is it just me or does your list of “explanations” sound like pathetic excuses?
November 6th, 2007 at 9:30 am
I’m so glad I found this blog – I happened upon the Stalking santa trailer and it was SO funny a few weeks ago I couldn’t wait for today to buy it. I searched everywhere online and no luck… Though I found this and just went to walmart (huge sacrifice – hate it there) and bought the movie – they just put them out
Thanks
November 6th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
I went to the Orem Walmart today with the express purpose of purchasing Stalking Santa (couldn’t get into the showing at Jordan Commons). Not only was it not to be found in the store, none of the employees heard about it.
I found these sources:
Tower.com $10.24
CD Universe 10.80
Deseret Booksore: $11.99
Seagull Books: $11.99
Amazon $12.99
BYU Bookstore: $14.99
Missionary Emporium: $14.99
November 14th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
The trailer looks funny, and I think it’s great that Randy gave us his feedback. The great thing about Christmas movies is that they can have a really long shelf life if they find a fan base, so hopefully this film will get a “cult following” (no bad Mormon jokes please
) and get the recognition it deserves. But I’m still Netflix’ing it first.
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Nice work guys!
So, Eric & Justin think this film should’ve had a wide theatrical release & have made millions in dvd sales. Maybe Hollywood should hire you guys to be their head strategists. Perhaps Justin & Eric should go into film distribution together. You could call your film company Just-eric films. Maybe Eric should just stick to movie reviews & Justin maybe you should see if Eric will hire you on to be his personal assistant.
Because it sounds to me like they tried to release this movie into theaters, but big movie chains a lot of times won’t pick-up these lower budget movies when there are big studio blockbusters coming out by the plenty.
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:02 pm
it sounds to me like they tried to release this movie into theaters, but big movie chains a lot of times won’t pick-up these lower budget movies when there are big studio blockbusters coming out by the plenty.
That’s a good point — but it was also 100 percent foreseeable. Excel could have known that (and should have known that) months ago, when they acquired the film. The holiday season didn’t exactly sneak up on us this year. It was on the calendar.
(Why does that sound familiar?)
P.S. “Billy,” I hope it’s just a coincidence that your last name, as suggested by your e-mail address, is the same as the guy who works for Excel … as the head of theatrical booking.