Exhibitor Focus

Cinemas across the UK are to broadcast live private viewings of the British Museum’s major exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum on 18 and 19 June.

The exhibition, which runs until 29 September, is the first ever held on these important cities at the British Museum. Focussing on the Roman home and lives of the people who lived nearly 2000 years ago in Pompeii and Herculaneum, the unique live broadcast event will take cinema audiences back in time in the company of renowned experts and practitioners who, alongside live performances of music, poetry and eye-witness accounts, will bring to life extraordinary objects, some never seen outside Italy before. Interviews throughout the exhibition will be intercut with stunning specially recorded films in Italy, showing Pompeii and Herculaneum and the sleeping Vesuvius.

Read More

Riverside Studios is a unique arts and media centre on the banks of the Thames in Hammersmith, comprising two main performance studios, a cinema, a TV studio and production galleries, numerous offices and a large contemporary Restaurant and Bar, a Film Cafe and River Terrace.

DCM Close Up spoke to the Riverside’s Cinema Director Shira MacLeod on her career in the arts and what’s coming up at one of London’s most eclectic venues.

Read More

Hello Exhibitors

Here we are coming towards the end of March and with no sign of spring appearing on the horizon. I am wondering where spring has gone. In spite of the cold, perfect cinema going weather, admissions in February dipped 8.8% to14m.

The good news however is that, thanks to a phenomenal January, cinema is still up by 7.5% year on year compared to 2012, exceeding 31m admissions in the first two months of 2013.

I very much enjoyed Song for Marion last week and quite by chance happened to pass Terence Stamp in Brewer Street on the same day I saw the movie. Quite a coincidence. I also saw Jude Law in Side Effects which I was thought was excellent and having belatedly seen Ben Affleck’s Argo, I can now appreciate why the movie picked up the major Oscar. What a tense, gripping movie with Affleck directing and acting superbly.

Read More

Congratulations to all our exhibitors for making cinema a Blockbuster year in 2012. Fuelled by titles such as The Dark Knight Rises, Marvel’s Avengers Assemble and the record breaking Skyfall. UK and Ireland Box Office ticket sales exceeded the £1 billion mark for the fourth consecutive year, which equates to admissions of over 172 million people.

In a year dominated by landmark entertainment events in the UK, such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, this is an impressive feat. The exact total across UK & Ireland was £1,172,037,248.

Read More

The top two films from last weekend held on to their places and both experienced strong holds on another impressive weekend for the box office. The snowy conditions last week obviously hampered Les Misérables as it bounced back easing a miniscule 9% to £4m and a huge cume of £24.6m. On Saturday it overtook High School Musical 3 (£22.8m) and now the only musical ahead of it on the all-time list is Mamma Mia with £68.5m. Django Unchained fell just 14% to £2.4m and now has a cume of £7.2m. Despite opening lower than Inglourious Basterds, its final total of £10.9m looks very achievable.

In third spot was another awards hopeful and the highest new entry, Lincoln, with £1.7m. That’s a very solid start and as the BAFTAs and Oscars get closer, it should continue to perform strongly. Fourth place was taken by Life of Pi 3D, which crossed the £25m mark with a further £1.1m and now stands on a spectacular £25.9m, a total that would have put it 8 on the list of 2012’s biggest films. Another new entry rounded out the top five, with Zero Dark Thirty opening with £1.1m. That’s significantly more than Kathryn Bigelow’s last film, The Hurt Locker, which opened with £309k in 2009.

Read More

Despite the snowy conditions across the country the strength of the films currently on release was more than enough to tempt people into the warmth of the cinema. Les Misérables was once again the top film easing 46% to £4.4m and a very healthy cume of £17.4m. That’s already more than the entire run of Chicago (£16.4m) and closing in on Moulin Rouge’s final total of £18.5m. The highest new entry, in second spot was Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained with £2.8m. That’s a bit lower than Inglourious Basterds’ £3.6m debut but the adverse weather conditions wouldn’t have helped. Kill Bill Vol. 2 also opened with £2.8m in 2004.

Read More

Here’s the first round-up of news and features from DCM especially dedicated to Exhibitors. We’d love to hear from you about the type of information and articles that you would like to see in DCM Close Up, so please send us your thoughts and views. Over the weeks, we’ll also be focusing on some of the activities happening in local cinemas nationwide, so if you have anything coming up, please let us know and we’ll share your news. Read on for what’s happening at DCM and in cinema advertising this month.

Read More

DCM has partnered with Sony Digital Cinema and The Comedy Store in a world-first collaboration to bring stand-up to the big screen in a comedy club format to be sponsored by WKD.

This initiative sees DCM secure its first distribution deal for alternative content to be broadcast in cinemas nationwide that will allow comedy fans to enjoy iconic performances in their home town from one of the world’s best-loved comedy brands. “The Comedy Store: Raw & Uncut” kicks off on 22 February and will broadcast four full length, uncensored shows as live from the iconic comedy venue on Friday nights.

DCM’s move into alternative content provides new sponsorship possibilities for advertisers, with WKD, the RTD brand, newly signed up as the official promotional partner for The Comedy Store: Raw & Uncut. The brand association was negotiated through Mediacom and WKD will be supporting the partnership through promotional activity including social media competitions to win tickets to showings in local cinemas.

Read More

DCM has created three new idents which aim to bring to life the “most emotionally impactful medium on earth”. Showing on nearly 3,000 cinema screens across the UK from this Friday (25 January), these short films are the most important creative expression of DCM’s new brand identity, which has been inspired by the company’s transition to digital last year.

DCM’s innovation consultancy Fearlessly Frank, who is working with the DCM team on a programme to reposition the business as a major new digital media platform, worked with long-time collaborator, renowned artist and designer Daniel Eatock, to help co-create the new idents and showcase the dynamic, emotive power of our medium. Production and post was managed by INTRO and the sound mix was handled by Jungle.

Read More

The Guardian & Observer’s new tongue-in-cheek ad campaign marks a new, bold direction for the newspaper group’s January marketing approach which has, in previous years, focused primarily on promotional giveaways. Devised by award-winning creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), the cinema creative comprises 60’ and 30’ versions of a 3-minute film fronted by Hugh Grant, who was not paid for his involvement in the campaign.

Running on Fridays and Saturdays in January and February, the cinema spots have been booked to coincide with the on-sale dates of weekend editions over the course of the three week campaign. The media planning by PHD Networks draws on insight into the Guardian and The Observer readership, which is known be made up of light TV viewers, but includes cinema in its leisure pastimes. This makes Guardian News & Media one of the first advertisers to take advantage of cinema’s new flexibility to book spots by the day instead of by the week, following DCM’s recent switch to 100% digital.

Read More