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'Lego Movie' Caught In Amazon's Battle With Warner Home Video

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We begin NPR's Business News with another Amazon standoff. Amazon, the giant online retailer, is in a battle with Warner Home Video. Amazon says it deserves a bigger piece of the pie, and until the company gets it it's refusing to sell Warner's forthcoming DVDs. Here's NPR's Mandalit del Barco.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME")

TEGAN AND SARA: (Singing) Everything is awesome...

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: For fans of "The Lego Movie" hoping to order a DVD through Amazon, everything is not so awesome.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LEGO MOVIE")

CHRIS PRATT: (As Emmet) What is happening?

ELIZABETH BANKS: (As Lucy) You're the special, and the prophecy states that you're the most important person in the universe. That's you, right?

PRATT: (As Emmet) Uhh...

DEL BARCO: Since May, Amazon has been refusing preorders for "The Lego Movie" and other DVD releases. It's apparently part of Amazon's tactics during contract negotiations. The online retailer wants a bigger share of the sales price.

JAMES MCQUIVEY: Amazon, it looks like, is ready to play hardball.

DEL BARCO: James McQuivey is an analyst at Forrester Research. He notes a similar battle Amazon is having with the Hachette Book Group over e-books. The retailer is refusing advance orders and delaying shipment of books, such as the new novel by JK Rowling.

MCQUIVEY: I mean, how do you disappoint your customers with such favorites like that? Amazon can't really afford to let the PR debacle continue too much longer.

DEL BARCO: Neither Amazon nor Warner Home Video are talking to reporters, but in a statement about Hachette, Amazon said such disputes are routine, and it suggested people could order books from its competitors. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

As an arts correspondent based at NPR West, Mandalit del Barco reports and produces stories about film, television, music, visual arts, dance and other topics. Over the years, she has also covered everything from street gangs to Hollywood, police and prisons, marijuana, immigration, race relations, natural disasters, Latino arts and urban street culture (including hip hop dance, music, and art). Every year, she covers the Oscars and the Grammy awards for NPR, as well as the Sundance Film Festival and other events. Her news reports, feature stories and photos, filed from Los Angeles and abroad, can be heard on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, Alt.latino, and npr.org.