Exploitation Nation

Just got this bit of news when I logged on today…

Navarre shuts down BCI Elipse

Corporation looks to reduce costs due to recession

By Susanne Ault — Video Business, 12/17/2008

DEC. 17 | Navarre Corp. is shutting down the primary licensing operations of its in-house label BCI Eclipse in order to reduce costs in the current recession.

As part of this decision, Navarre will be reducing its workforce and writing down assets. Going forward, BCI’s exclusively distributed disc business will be folded into the corporation’s distribution unit. Its BCI brand is not expected to be stamped on future releases. Among former BCI-managed titles now distributed by Navarre Distribution Services is the ongoing Ultimate Fighter mixed martial arts releases.

Retro TV titles, featuring the licensed He-Man and She-Ra series, have been among the label’s more popular titles.

Current BCI president Bob Freese will be in charge of the company restructuring. Its expected that about 10 employees will be losing their jobs with the label’s closure. Navarre did not specify layoffs and did not further comment about executive departures.

Navarre CEO Cary Deacon said that BCI needed adjusting because it has been an unprofitable business for the last two years.

The company did not quantify the number of BCI-related layoffs. But Navarre expects that its fiscal 2009 third-quarter results for the period ending Dec. 31 will include a significant charge due in part to severance costs.

Navarre hopes to complete the restructuring, which is part of the company’s general strategy to lower costs, by the end of January 2009.

“To deal with the effect of the recession, we are moving quickly to decrease expenses in all areas of our business,” said Deacon. “Rapidly changing conditions in the licensing and budget DVD markets during this holiday sales season have prompted us to make more fundamental changes. We continue to be very excited about the DVD content that will now be exclusively sold and marketed through Navarre Distribution Services. These changes will allow us to focus our efforts on growing the sales of the DVD content that is most appealing to our retail customers and consumers.”

BCI was one of the best companies out there and a personal favorite. Many of the reviews here at Exploitation Nation have been of their product and they were one of the few companies I have continued to support ad nausium. They put out the Exploitation Cinema Lines, distributed the Code Red titles (which had an INCREDIBLE line up for the upcoming year), and the Spanish Horror line which had already went under from apathetic buyers (you stupid fuckheads, those Paul Naschy discs wear among the best on the market!).  The Savage Street 2 disc edition was one of the BEST dvd releases of last year, restoring a sleaze classic to pristine condition with tons of extras, putting it into landmark status, and they did great work on lesser titles like Final Exam as well. They also supplied great nostalgia fair like the Dungeons & Dragons and He Man cartoons. But most loved by consumers were the Drive-In sets that you could pick up for around ten bucks. Ten movies, usually about half of them unreleased for a ten spot, almost all from the awesome Crown International library of slimy sleaze and horror. Many letterboxed and a couple even with commentaries. The company was started to have quality issues here latey (see my reviews of the Exploitation Cinema lines) but no other company has been constantly delivering the grindhouse goods at such an affordable price.

This corporate restructuring means that this good shit is now all going to be GONE. The niche programming is out the window in an effort to cater to big business. The mention of the UFC tapes being successful is a sign post of the future. More sports related dvd and no more horror/cult stuff. I mean they FIRED the staff who produced the stuff for Christ’s sake.

I only partially blame the company though. They were at least putting out the product. But if people weren’t buying it then maybe they were forced to make this decision.  And unlike other companies much of their material made it into Best Buy and other Brick and Mortar stores as well as sold at very reasonable price points. No, I largely blame THE FANS. Fans that claim they are horror and cult fans, but pass up this “old stuff” to buy the latest repackaging of the Saw franchise, or something else Hollywood has farted out. The fans that would rather just rent it at Netflix than support a company that is trying to put out something worthwhile. I understand we are all in touch with hard economic times here. But if you can afford to buy a new I-phone every two months, or other new gadgets, then you have some disposable income. Hell, the money fans spend on a new issue of Fangoria every month could have bought a new release from BCI. But the biggest disappointment is the downloaders. I’m guilty too, I bittorrent like everyone else, but I try to keep it to stuff I’m not able to find from anywhere else. It burns me when I see people post whole discs from struggling companies such as Code Red, Synapse or Severin and people swarm over them. These people helped KILL this company.  We’ve fostered a culture that wants something for nothing and has no concept of the outcome. Here is the outcome folks. The company was putting out the great shit you guys were taking and giving away for free? They have stopped now. They FIRED the people responsible for those releases and canceled the future releases. Say thanks guys.

Let’s hope Code Red at least is able to find another distributor to pick them up so they can continue. But in this market place it seems grim.

This is the saddest news for cult fans in a while.

Andy C

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