popmarket Collaboration with Tsuburaya at San Diego Comic-Con with Retailer Exclusives at Official ULTRAMAN Booth
PLANTATION, Fla., June 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: AENT) (“Alliance Entertainment”, “Company”), a global distributor and wholesaler specializing in music, movies, video games, electronics, arcades, toys, and collectibles, announced today a partnership with Tsuburaya Productions for the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, July 25-28, 2024. Alliance Retail’s popmarket e-commerce site will run the on-site retail operations at the ULTRAMAN booth on the main convention floor, offering collectibles, posters, and Blu-ray™ and SteelBook® products for sale to attendees.
Online retailer popmarket is a core property in the family of Alliance Retail e-commerce sites, focused on serving collectors and collectibles across multiple product categories. The ULTRAMAN booth will feature products from Bandai, Nakatomi, and AEC’s Mill Creek Entertainment division.
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with this iconic property. Getting to interact with fans and collectors reminds us of why we are in this business,” said Tim Hinsley, Senior Vice President, Retail Sales, Alliance Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to bringing exclusive ULTRAMAN products to Comic-Con that will connect with new and existing fans.”
ULTRAMAN has over 50 product licenses in the US, including feature films such as Shin Ultraman (2022)—worldwide box office of $32M—and Ultraman Rising, released on Netflix June 14, 2024. The San Diego Comic-Con partnership is part of an ongoing strategy at Alliance Entertainment to maximize the brand’s expanded awareness across its multiple divisions, and super-serve new and existing fans with high quality, collectable ULTRAMAN products.
"What a pleasure it’s been to work with Alliance Entertainment on ULTRAMAN!” said Danny Simon, President of Tsuburaya Fields Media & Pictures Entertainment. “The popmarket promotion we have planned with Alliance at San Diego Comic Con is designed especially for loyal ULTRAMAN fans and we can’t wait until they see what we have in store.”
The ULTRAMAN popmarket booth will include a Blu-ray™ special package exclusive to San Diego Comic-Con, a limited-edition poster, apparel and more to be announced via popmarket social media and the Ultraman Connection official website at www.ultramanconnection.com.
About Tsuburaya Fields Media & Pictures Entertainment Inc.
Tsuburaya Fields Media & Pictures Entertainment Inc., located in Los Angeles, is active in the production and distribution of Ultraman entertainment content for North America and other markets. Headed by Danny Simon, the new subsidiary established in 2023 will expand the Ultraman North America licensing program into the UK, EU, South America, India and MENA markets thereby solidifying the franchise’s place on the global stage. For more information, visit https://tf-mpe.com/.
About Tsuburaya Productions
Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd. has created dozens of heroes and other characters, including Ultraman, who have been loved from generation to generation. The base for the company was Tsuburaya Visual Effects Research, which was launched by the Japanese “Father of Tokusatsu” Eiji Tsuburaya. After showing his skill and making a name for himself working on many monster movies and special effects laden fantasy science films, in 1963 Tsuburaya incorporated Tsuburaya Visual Effects Research and established Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd. in order to advance further research and development of special effects technologies and release visual works that could be enjoyed by a wider audience. The company has continued to maintain Eiji Tsuburaya’s policies even after his death. 2023 marked the 60th anniversary of the company’s founding, and it continues its work to this day. Currently, the company carries out activities including production of works for television, original video works, and films for theatrical release; licensing of owned characters’ content; development of various products; event planning and live staged events that bring out the maximum appeal of its owned characters, and development of facilities that handle related items.
Alliance Retail, a/k/a DirectToU LLC, a division of Alliance Entertainment, is the retail brand-centric home for all things entertainment. Led by in-house brands Critics’ Choice, DeepDiscount, Movies Unlimited, Collectors’ Choice, popmarket and WowHD, Alliance Retail markets and sells Alliance’s vast variety of products across in-house websites, mail-order catalogs, third party marketplaces (including Amazon, Walmart and eBay), social media (including Facebook and TikTok) and specialty retailers (including Urban Outfitters and Discogs). With a successful retail history dating to 1978, Alliance Retail boasts a dedicated and well-renowned team of experts in the Film, TV, Music, Gaming and Collectibles industries, acting as a vital bridge between the creative community and their legion of fans.
About Alliance Entertainment
Alliance Entertainment (NASDAQ: AENT) is a premier distributor of music, movies, toys, collectibles, and consumer electronics. We offer over 325,000 unique in stock SKU’s, including over 57,300 exclusive compact discs, vinyl LP records, DVDs, Blu-rays, and video games. Complementing our vast media catalog, we also stock a full array of related accessories, toys, and collectibles. With more than thirty-five years of distribution experience, Alliance Entertainment serves customers of every size, providing a robust suite of services to resellers and retailers worldwide. Our efficient processing and essential seller tools noticeably reduce the costs associated with administrating multiple vendor relationships, while helping omni-channel retailers expand their product selection and fulfillment goals. For more information, visit www.aent.com.
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements included in this Press Release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding estimates and forecasts of other financial and performance metrics and projections of market opportunity. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether identified in this Press Release, and on the current expectations of Alliance’s management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as and must not be relied on by an investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Alliance. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including risks relating to the anticipated growth rates and market opportunities; changes in applicable laws or regulations; the ability of Alliance to execute its business model, including market acceptance of its systems and related services; Alliance’s reliance on a concentration of suppliers for its products and services; increases in Alliance’s costs, disruption of supply, or shortage of products and materials; Alliance’s dependence on a concentration of customers, and failure to add new customers or expand sales to Alliance’s existing customers; increased Alliance inventory and risk of obsolescence; Alliance’s significant amount of indebtedness; our ability to refinance our existing indebtedness; our ability to continue as a going concern absent access to sources of liquidity; risks and failure by Alliance to meet the covenant requirements of its revolving credit facility, including a fixed charge coverage ratio; risks that a breach of the revolving credit facility, including Alliance’s recent breach of the covenant requirements, could result in the lender declaring a default and that the full outstanding amount under the revolving credit facility could be immediately due in full, which would have severe adverse consequences for the Company; known or future litigation and regulatory enforcement risks, including the diversion of time and attention and the additional costs and demands on Alliance’s resources; Alliance’s business being adversely affected by increased inflation, higher interest rates and other adverse economic, business, and/or competitive factors; geopolitical risk and changes in applicable laws or regulations; risk that the COVID-19 pandemic, and local, state, and federal responses to addressing the pandemic may have an adverse effect on our business operations, as well as our financial condition and results of operations; substantial regulations, which are evolving, and unfavorable changes or failure by Alliance to comply with these regulations; product liability claims, which could harm Alliance’s financial condition and liquidity if Alliance is not able to successfully defend or insure against such claims; availability of additional capital to support business growth; and the inability of Alliance to develop and maintain effective internal controls.
For investor inquiries, please contact: MZ Group Chris Tyson/Larry Holub (949) 491-8235 AENT@mzgroup.us
