Universal & Paramount in NZ Home-Video Deal

AUCKLAND: Universal Pictures International Entertainment (UPIE) has taken on the distribution rights for Paramount Home Entertainment International’s (PHEI) slate in New Zealand.

Beginning this month, the three-year deal will see Universal Pictures Australasia distributing all Paramount DVD and Blu-ray home-entertainment product in New Zealand, including all releases from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. Upcoming titles scheduled for release in the fourth quarter include Watchmen, Star Trek, Ghost Town, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe.

Eddie Cunningham, the president of UPIE, commented, “We are delighted to extend our successful distribution deal with Paramount to include the New Zealand market. Paramount has a high-quality range of top-rated content and this is an important step towards increasing consumers’ home-entertainment choice in a growing market.”

Dennis Maguire, the president of PHEI, added, “New Zealand is an important market and we are excited to develop our relationship with UPIE. Paramount Pictures’ lineup in New Zealand continues to deliver encouraging box-office results. For 2009, Paramount’s overall theatrical box-office performance is the second highest ever, and has grown 3.5 percent from 2008 led by the Transformers sequel Revenge of the Fallen, 2009’s top-grossing film, with a box office of NZ$8 million. We are confident that our future theatrical slate will continue to provide quality entertainment that enhances the prospects of additional home-entertainment growth.”

Liz Van Hooven, the managing director of Universal Pictures Australasia, commented, “This agreement will be extremely beneficial in driving increased market presence across both rental and retail outlets. The local Universal team (led by NZ country manager Michael Coley) is thrilled to be adding additional resource to the existing Universal group to ensure strong results are delivered on the Paramount portfolio. A further key alliance will be with Paramount’s Theatrical division, who currently handle Universal’s theatrical distribution, thereby delivering multiple synergy opportunities. Universal is very excited about this new business partnership and we very much look forward to working with Paramount to deliver great results.”