Frappuccino with your film? Starbucks gets into movie biz

Movies will soon be the latest non-caffeinated addition to the menu at Starbucks. The coffee giant revealed Thursday its first film promotion partnership.

The Seattle-based Starbucks, which operates coffee shop chains worldwide, has signed a deal with Canadian film studio Lion's Gate Entertainment to jointly market and distribute the upcoming drama Akeelah and the Bee.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but an earlierreport in the Wall Street Journal said that the coffee chain would promote the movie in exchange for an undisclosed share of the subsequent box office proceeds.

Set for an April 28 release across North America, Akeelah and the Bee stars acclaimed actors Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett. Relative newcomer Keke Palmer, who has appeared in Barber Shop 2 and on TV's ER and Law and Order, plays the title role, a poor Los Angeles student competing in a national spelling bee.

Promotional plans include advance movie screenings for staff, sneak previews for customers and other in-store events leading up to the film's opening. Starbucks will also sell the soundtrack to Akeelah and the Bee, and will offer the subsequent DVD in its stores later this year.

According to the coffee chain's chair Howard Schultz, the company looked over many films and met with numerous studios to find "the perfect film."

"Just as we have demonstrated with music, we believe that Starbucks can ultimately change the rules of the game for film marketing and distribution," Schultz said in a statement.

DVDs and soundtracks to be sold by the chain in the future will only be available at stand-alone Starbucks locations in North America.

A Starbucks spokesperson hassaid the company plans to begin selling books later this year.

Since buying the California-based music retailer Hear Music in 1999, Starbucks has been making inroads into music distribution. The specialty coffee chain found significant success with the nonexclusive sale of Genius Loves Company, the Grammy-winning posthumous release by Ray Charles.

However, the exclusive deal it struck with Canadian singer Alanis Morissette to offer her acoustic reissue of Jagged Little Pill in June 2005 six weeks before it hit other storesdrew fire fromtraditional retailers, who temporarily pulled Morissette's other material off their shelves.

Last year, Starbucks also struckdeals to sell an album of early Bob Dylan recordings and another of rare Rolling Stones tracks.