Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Releases Spanish Sub-Titled Collections.

As part of a strategic initiative and continued expansion of its Spanish-language business in the U.S., Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE) has launched CINEMA LATINO, a series of subtitled, critically-acclaimed Spanish-language films to be released on DVD and video for U.S. consumers. To further satisfy the home entertainment needs of loyal Hispanic consumers, TCFHE and Venevision International (VVI), a Cisneros Group Company and the premier supplier of Spanish-language films from throughout the Americas, have joined forces to release 10 critically lauded VVI films on DVD and VHS as part of TCFHE’s hugely successful Fox En Español initiative – under the newly created CINEMA LATINO banner supported by substantial advertising, promotional and publicity. Debuting on September 16, 2003, the first three titles in the CINEMA LATINO collection will include Santitos (The Box of Saints), Pantaléon Y Las Visitadoras (Pantaléon And The Visiting Ladies) and Todo El Poder (All The Power).

SYNOPSIS:

Todo El Poder:

Gabriel (Demian Bichir from “Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas) is a filmmaker in Mexico City, where he is a victim of crime and violence sometimes even three times a day. This is a black comedy that shows the extreme situation Mexico City is living as far as crime is concerned, and the tension the city and its inhabitants live day after day. The film is like a documentary of the psychological reactions of the inhabitants of Mexico City towards violence ($7.25MM in box office revenues – from the producers of Oscar-nominated film Amores Perros). Todo el Poder is one of the highest grossing films in Mexico and represents the new generation of Mexican cinema.

Pantaleon Y Las Visitadoras:

Nominated for the 2001 Goya Best Spanish Foreign Film, this “entertaining, ribald comedy” (Los Angeles Times) revolves around a Peruvian army captain Pantaleon Pantoja, a very serious and efficient officer, is chosen by his superiors to set up a special service of ‘visitors’ to satisfy the sexual needs of the soldiers posted on remote jungle outposts. At first unhappy about this assignment, he nonetheless puts his remarkable organizational skills in action and in a short time has his ‘unit’ running smoothly. On the home front however things get complicated though; his wife dislikes his long hours and the secrecy surrounding his work, and he, despite being a dedicated husband, feels tempted by one of the ladies under his command.

Santitos:

Executive produced by acclaimed indie filmmaker John Sayles and based on the best-selling Mexican novel Esperanzas Box of Saints, Santitos won the Latin American Cinema Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Santitos is the story of a young woman as she embarks on a humorous, passion-filled journey of self-discovery, travelling from her humble Mexican village to the wilder streets of Tijuana and Los Angeles in search of her child.

Recognizing the growth and importance of this lucrative market with a population reaching over 38 million or 13.5% of the U.S. population, Fox Home Entertainment launched its first promotional campaign to the Hispanic Market in May 2002. Research shows that Hispanics devote a larger percentage of their disposable income on entertainment than any other group and are heavier consumers of home entertainment products, even more than the general population with household penetrations of 90% VCR and 50% DVD. This rapidly growing market grew to $4.7 billion or 20% of the total $23.7 billion in revenue, marking an annual growth rate of 39% from 2001 to 2002 in Hispanic home entertainment purchasing.

Marking the first time a major motion picture studio has pioneered a promotion of such significance to this very important and consistently growing demographic, TCFHE boasts more than 60 films in its Fox En Español library – constituting the largest collection of dubbed studio films in the industry. It is estimated that this year, DVD purchase transactions among Hispanics will be 53MM units (an increase of 55% from 34MM DVD transactions in 2001). Further proving the power of this demographic, active Hispanics rent more DVD and VHS product than the active domestic households and also purchase more VHS product, averaging 19.3 units per year and 15.5 DVD units per year.