New Releases

Following the 85th Academy Awards ceremony last month, Digital Cinema Media’s (DCM) Simon Rees shares his highlights and looks ahead to what promises to be another strong year for the film industry.

The great, the talented and the beautiful of the world’s film industry gathered just over a week ago for the 85th Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars. Some surprises were in store on an unpredictable evening, with the top categories (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress) all going to different films. This demonstrates the variety and calibre of the films and acting talent in contention this year.

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From Nirvana sticksman to Foo Fighters frontman, and with a musical legacy spanning collaborations with Killing Joke, Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures, Dave Grohl has already achieved a career of legendary status in music. Sound City sees him turn his assured hand to directing, documenting the life of LA’s legendary Sound City recording studio.

Opened by joint owners Joe Gottfried and Tom Skeeter in 1969, Sound City housed over four decades of recorded music, journeying a roller coaster ride of financial peaks and troughs along the way. The documentary is split into three parts opening with the history of the studio, progressing to the impact of technology and finishing with an emphasis on the principals of musical performance and songwriting.

Skeeter admits that to achieve their goal of attracting the best artists throughout the inaugural years of Sound City Studios, they knew that only the best recording equipment would entice them. The acquisition of a custom Neve Mixing Console was exactly the piece of kit to assume the role of their star magnet. The console – considered by many as the Rolls Royce of mixing desks – was priced at over $70k, double what Skeeter had paid for a house at the time.

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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.

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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.

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Cinema continues to pull in the crowds and it is now thirteen consecutive weeks that the box office has been up on the equivalent weekend last year. Although a number of films delivered strong performances this weekend, by far the most impressive was blockbuster musical Les Misérables. It followed up its nine BAFTA nominations on Wednesday with an £8.1m opening. That’s the highest ever debut for a musical film and perhaps surprisingly, it’s Universal’s biggest opening weekend of all time. Last January the marquee theatre adaptation was War Horse but that could only manage a £3.9m opening.

Also boosted by its nine BAFTA nominations, Life Of Pi 3D once again continued its stunning performance easing just 30% to £2.3m and a cume of £21.9m. With the Oscars and BAFTAs both a few weeks away, expect that total to at least get very near £30m. Glossy crime drama Gangster Squad was in third place with £2.1m (including £275k from previews). That’s not far off from Public Enemies’ £2.2m debut in 2009. In fourth spot, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 3D edged even closer to £50m with £1.9m taking its total to £48.5m. True life family drama, The Impossible rounded out the top five, continuing its strong run with another £1.9m taking its cume to £7.2m. One other new entry landed just outside the top 5, with 3D horror sequel Texas Chainsaw 3D opening with £1.2m (including £584k from previews). The last Texas Chainsaw film only managed £1.5m over its entire run in 2006.

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It’s now winter and Christmas is fast approaching so Roxanne, Richard and Tom crammed themselves into the smallest room at DCM for warmth and while they were there, they recorded the third edition of the DCM Podcast.

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Pt 2 had the strongest second weekend for a Twilight film with £5.3m taking its cume to £27m after ten days. At the same point, Breaking Dawn Pt 1 had grossed £23.3m, which suggests that Breaking Dawn Pt 2 will finish a few million higher than that film’s final total of £31.1m.

On week four of Bond-watch, Skyfall is up to £89.6m and it is without question now a case of when, not if, it’ll pass Avatar’s final total of £94m to become the highest grossing film in UK history. The next question is whether it can reach £100m, a total that was almost unthinkable four weeks ago. Before the weekend it was £14.2m away from £100m and it grossed a further £3.8m over the weekend. Back in January, War Horse opened with just over £3.9m and went on to reach £18.6m. If Skyfall performs similarly, it should comfortably pass £100m.

The highest new entry, in third place was yuletide sequel, Nativity: Danger In The Manger. With £1.6m (including £18k from previews) it doubled the performance of the first Nativity film in 2009 (£786k). We can now expect it to easily pass that films final total of £5.3m. Fourth place was taken by another new entry, exhilarating rom-com, Silver Linings Playbook with £1.3m (including £292k from previews). For a film that has a very different feel to other romantic comedies, it’s tough to find a comparison but Love And Other Drugs was another edgy star led comedy and that opened with £1.6m in December 2010.

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The film we’ve all been waiting for is finally here and it hasn’t disappointed. Skyfall took an extraordinary £37.2 million in its opening week, overtaking Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 to secure the biggest 7 day gross of all time in UK box office history. It’s also by some distance the highest opening of 2012 beating The Dark Knight Rises (£14.4m) and Avengers Assemble (£13.2m).

Many advertisers, including Omega, Heineken, Toyota and Guinness, anticipated this success and skilfully aligned themselves with one of the hottest releases of recent times.

Intrigued by how the online world had responded to the latest Bond phenomenon, we contacted our friends at Way to Blue. Way to Blue is a global digital communications agency for the film and entertainment industry, specialising in social media strategy, engagement and analytics. They fed our curiosity with the following presentations.

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The film we’ve all been waiting for is finally here and it didn’t disappoint. Skyfall opened with £20.2m, the highest opening weekend of all time for a 2D release (Friday – Sunday) and the second highest of any film, behind 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 3D (£23.7m). That’s the highest opening for a Bond film, comfortably beating Quantum of Solace (£15.4m) and Casino Royale (£13.4m). It’s also by some distance the highest opening of 2012 beating The Dark Knight Rises (£14.4m) and Avengers Assemble (£13.2m) In fact, Skyfall had taken more than Avengers Assemble’s entire weekend after just Friday and Saturday (£13.5m).

Saturday was Skyfall’s most productive day grossing £7.2m, which is the second biggest Saturday performance of all time behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 3D (£7.6m). However, Harry Potter had the extra ticket price that 3D entails and distributor Sony are proclaiming Skyfall now has the all-time Saturday attendance record (source: Hollywood Reporter). Skyfall also made up a whopping 75.2% of the top 15’s box office and its location average was £34.4k, over £10k more than The Dark Knight Rises’ opening weekend location average (£24.2k).

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Last Thursday I was lucky enough to attend a media screening of the highly anticipated, 23rd Bond instalment, Skyfall. Whilst spending my lunchtime speaking to BT and reheating the previous night’s pasta bake was a flawless plan, I felt attending the screening was something I couldn’t pass up on.

Left with a sour taste in my mouth from the last bond venture, A Quantum of Solace, I was feeling sceptical about Skyfall. Whilst it’s been one of my most anticipated releases of the year, I was hesitant to throw my full enthusiasm into it in the interest of avoiding disappointment.

After entering the plush Sony screening room with dubiety squashing my child-like excitement, I am happy to confirm that I left the screening grinning like a 6 year old that’s overdosed on Sunny Delight.

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