Lost in the blinding glare of Spider-Man's spectacular debut and the usual sweeps period clutter, the Dinotopia Mini-Series created by Hallmark Entertainment did very well for the ABC network when it aired on consecutive nights from May 12 through May 14. The three-part, six-hour series, which cost over $85 million to produce, averaged a rating of '8' over its three episodes against very stiff competition. Based on two books by artist James Gurney, Dinotopia: A Land Apart From Time and Dinotopia: The World Beneath, the Dinotopia mini-series depicted a fantasy world in which humans and dinosaurs lived together in a spirit of cooperation and mutual aid. The shipwrecked human protagonists interact with a wide variety of accurately portrayed dinosaurs, which helped the show earn strong ratings with dinosaur-happy kids. ABC has ordered 13 one-hour episodes of a Dinotopia series that will air on the network next season, while Hallmark has also agreed to rerun the both the mini-series and the regular series on its cable network.
For pop culture retailers, the Dinotopia property represents an opportunity to appeal to those elusive younger fans. In addition to a DVD edition of the mini-series, which comes in a two-disk set that will hit stores on July 30 of this year and retail for a very reasonable $19.95, there are lots of Dinotopia books available. The two original Gurney volumes, which were originally published by Turner Publishing, are still available from Harper Collins, and retailers shouldn't forget about the Dinotopia: First Flight: Book and Board Game, which is also by Gurney and which appeared in October of 1999.
But in addition to these original 'Gurney' volumes there are more than two dozen other Dinotopia fiction titles, which range from lengthy hardcover titles for adults to $3.99 paperbacks targeted at younger readers. Some pop culture retailers have done extremely well with the Dinotopia paperbacks, even though the major comic distributors (including Diamond) have largely ignored these titles. With Dinotopia's growing visibility, this is one property that pop culture retailers should explore, particularly if they have or are seeking to attract younger customers.
