Hello Exhibitors,

It’s the first week of June and summer seems to have finally started at the weekend after a month of May that felt like winter.

It’s a shame the film product wasn’t quite as strong as expected in April as the weather was definitely with us.

There are still a lot of digital installations taking place and it feels all the more pleasing for those Exhibitors who have fought tooth and nail to raise the necessary funds to invest in digital projection. In the last month we saw Scarborough McCarthy go digital, as did Burleigh Ibbot at The Luxe Wisbech. We were also really pleased to hear about the installation at Ely Cinema taking place in July, a full seven months ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, Raj Jayasingham at Alton Palace has just installed his second digital screen providing patrons with an all-digital site.

Massive applause for Martina O’Connor at Frome Westway who, following all her fundraising efforts, will go digital in the middle of June. Well done Martina! I also spoke with Penny Bicknell, at The Lymington Centre, who is now very optimistic about going digital this summer. And not to be outshone, Mark Barnes at Chesham Elgiva has informed me that they will be going digital by mid-August. At the time of writing too is news from the Guildhall at Gloucester which has received quotations and will be converting in the summer.

The digital revolution has allowed us Media Execs to offer real competition against all other media. It means we can retain all of our incredible intrinsic advantages as a medium, but now with the added advantage of immediacy and flexibility. Now all we need is the beloved economy to pick up and the marketing personnel to be sparked with optimism and begin spending against their brands and services. Let’s look for those green shoots!!

April admissions were disappointing at 11.8m but thank heaven for the massive January result which has allowed us to keep in touch with last year’s results. This means we are only just 3.3% down on the year so far with a total of 53.8m admissions.

Iron Man 3 and The Croods, backed up by Oblivion, provided the backbone for April.  However the success last year of the Avengers Assemble and Titanic 3D during the Easter hols assisted April 2012 to a figure of just above 15m admissions which we couldn’t live up to this year.

I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness, which was nothing like I expected.  My favourite genre, Science Fiction, seems to be in vogue at the moment with the trailers I have viewed just recently looking very good. Let’s hope that this product converts into really strong admissions.

Sorry to end on a gloomy note but I have just heard of the very sad news on the passing of Gerry Parkes after a long fight against illness. I was so pleased he managed to receive his MBE before the end as this was such a wonderful tribute to Gerry for all his hard work and enthusiasm throughout his career.

He was a great man and character and will be sorely missed by everyone. We at DCM send our sincere condolences to Denise and Gerry’s family. Be assured his legacy will never be forgotten.

My best wishes Exhibitors and here’s hoping for some good business in the month to come.

David

Fast & Furious 6 put the pedal to the metal this weekend past and achieved the second biggest opening weekend of the year, with an impressive £8.7m, this is over £3m more than the opening weekend of the 2009 Fast Five release from Universal Pictures.

The F. Scott Fitzgerald adaption from Baz Luhrmann, The Great Gatsby, took a strong second place in the top 10 on its opening weekend, with a potent £4.1m, which is almost quadruple the opening weekend of Luhrmann’s last cinema release, Australia.

Overall, this weekend was up 30% on the weekend before and up 48% on the same time last year.

Star Trek Into Darkness and Iron Man 3 continued to fight it out for third place, with the Enterprise crew winning, to the tune of £3.6m, dropping 56% from its opening weekend. Iron Man 3 managed £1.4m, taking its cume to a whopping £33.8m, also easing 56% from last week.

All Stars appears to be losing its grip on the top five, falling 61% in its third week of release, taking £196k, bringing the cume to a robust £1.6m.

Across the pond, Star Trek Into Darkness easily topped the box office with very healthy $70.5m. The first film in the rebooted series managed a $77.2m opening weekend back in August 2009. The audience skewed heavily male (64%) and older (73% over the age of 25). In comparison, the first Star Trek movie reached an audience that was 60% male and 65% over 25.

In second place Stateside, Iron Man 3 almost mirrored its UK decrease, dropping 51%, taking $35.1m and a cume of $337m.

On its second week of release in the US, The Great Gatsby took the third spot, bringing in $23.4m, taking its cume to just over $90m.

Pain and Gain and The Croods rounded out the top five, taking $3.1m and $2.7m respectively.

Star Trek Into Darkness has boldly gone where the previous Star Trek movie also went, to the top of the UK box office. An £8.4m opening, including £1.6m from previews, isn’t quite a warp speed start but it’s still significantly higher than the last Star Trek’s £6m three day start. The £6.8m Friday to Sunday weekend is the highest for any Star Trek film and the third highest of the year so far, behind Iron Man 3 and Les Misérables. The majority (59.5%) of Star Trek Into Darkness’ gross was from 3D presentations, which is higher than Iron Man 3 (53.3%).

After two weeks of dominance, Iron Man 3 dropped to second spot, easing 50% to £3.2m and an imposing cume of £31.1m. It has smashed through the target set by the previous two Iron Man films (Iron Man 2 finished on £21.2m) and is setting a benchmark that other live action films this summer will struggle to beat. 21 & Over had an excellent hold, falling just 25% to £581k and a cume of £1.9m. By this time next week, it will have comfortably overtaken Project X’s final total of £2.2m.

Family dance flick, All Stars, experienced an even better hold in fourth place, falling a paltry 12% to £498k but The Croods once again proved a winner, falling a miniscule 3% to £381k and the all-star animation now has a cume of £25.6m.

There was another notable new entry in seventh place, with Matthew McConaughey continuing his career renaissance, as Mud managed £239k from just 70 locations. That gave Mud the third highest location average of the weekend (£3.4k), behind Star Trek Into Darkness and Iron Man 3. Overall the box office was up 36% from last weekend and up 25% from the same weekend last year.

In the US, on its second weekend, Iron Man 3 achieved the fourth highest second week ever, easing 58% to $72.5m. After just 10 days on release, it has grossed a huge $284.9m. Lavish literary adaptation, The Great Gatsby, opened with $51.1m, which is the third-highest second place opening ever. The audience was 59% female and 69% were over 25.

Pain and Gain fell one spot to third with $5m, which is a solid hold (33%), and to date has grossed $41.6m. Tyler Perry experienced a rare failure in fourth spot as Tyler Perry Presents Peeples opened with just $4.9m. 42 completed the top five with $4.7m for a cume of $84.7m.

Once again, the leviathan that is Iron Man 3 dominated the weekend’s box office, amassing a further £6.3m from Friday to Sunday. Including Bank Holiday Monday, the Marvel blockbuster has a sensational cume of £26.2m. This performance is more akin to Avengers Assemble than any previous Iron Man film, which on its second weekend in May 2012 grossed £8.1m.

With strong competition from Star Trek Into Darkness from this Thursday onwards, an Avengers sized final total of £50m looks out of reach for Iron Man 3 but £40m is achievable and would be a fantastic result.

Second spot was taken by raucous comedy 21 & Over, which opened with £772k from Friday to Sunday and including Monday, stands on £945k. The best comparison is probably February 2012’s Project X, which opened with £562k and finished on £2.2m.

Olympus Has Fallen continued its impressive performance in third place with £673k from Friday to Sunday and including Monday, the brutal Gerard Butler thriller now has a cume of £5.3m.

New British family film, All Stars, opened in fourth place, taking £564k over the weekend and £797k including Monday. This is a solid performance for independent distributor Vertigo and their second success story in just over a month after Spring Breakers.

The Croods rounded out the top five with £395k over the weekend. The extra £157k it added on Monday pushed it over the £25m mark and it now stands on £25.1m.

There were a couple of other notable new entries, with Pedro Almodovar comedy I’m So Excited disappointing slightly, taking £311k from Friday to Monday (including £58k from previews) and Colin Farrell thriller Dead Man Down managing just £294k. Overall the box office was down 40% from last weekend and down 45% from the same weekend last year, when American Reunion had two full days of previews. With Star Trek Into Darkness arriving in cinemas this Thursday, expect that to turn around.

In the US, Iron Man 3 opened with $174.1m, the second highest opening weekend of all time. It’s also a big improvement on Iron Man 2‘s $128.1m. The audience was 55% over 25 and 61% male.  All other films played second fiddle to Iron Man 3 this weekend and Pain and Gain had a tough time of it, falling 63% to $7.5m for a cume of $33.8m.  Baseball drama 42 fell 43% to $6.1m for a cume of $78.2m.

Oblivion was the biggest Iron Man 3 casualty, falling a whopping 68% to $5.6m and a cume of $75.8m. The Croods completed the top five with $4.2m and a total of $168.7m.

The box office received a Stark boost this weekend as Iron Man 3 rocketed to the top. The Marvel blockbuster debuted with a mammoth £13.7m, including £2.3m from Thursday previews. That’s by far the biggest opening for an Iron Man film. The first instalment achieved £5.5m and Iron Man 2,  £7.7m. It’s getting into Avengers Assemble territory, which took £15.8m in its first weekend (including £2.5m from previews) almost exactly a year ago. It’s also the 18th best opening of all time in the UK.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the top 15 took a bit of a hit with Iron Man 3 opening so impressively, but Olympus Has Fallen continued to perform strongly with £913k taking its cume to just over £4m.

Oblivion fell one place to third with a further £683k for a cume of £9.5m, which for an original sci-fi title is a strong showing.

The Croods bounced back from last weekend’s stiff drop, this time easing just 11% to £606k and has now grossed £24.5m, which puts it just ahead of Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (£24m) and hot on the heels of Ratatouille (£24.8m). Evil Dead rounded out the top five with £538k taking its cume to £2.6m.

One disappointing performer was The Look of Love in seventh place with £209k (including £13k from previews). Michael Winterbottom and Steve Coogan have previously collaborated on 24 Hour Party People (£265k) and A Cock And Bull Story (332k).

Overall the box office was up a whopping 118% from last weekend but down 16% from the equivalent weekend last year, when the Avengers Assembled.

With Iron Man 3 not opening across the Atlantic until next weekend, it was left to Michael Bay’s new comedy, Pain & Gain, to top the box office. The body building caper opened with $20m, which is not the kind of opening weekend figure Bay is accustomed to, but still impressive.

Oblivion fell 53% to $17.4m and now has a cume of $64.7m. Baseball drama 42 continued to perform strongly with $10.7m for a cume of $69.1m.

All-star ensemble comedy The Big Wedding opened with a disappointing $7.5m and The Croods rounded out the top five with $6.6m and a cume of $163m.

Olympus Has Fallen has risen to the top of the Box Office with a decent £2.2m opening (including £651k from previews). The first of the year’s White House set action films has set a solid benchmark which September’s White House Down will be looking to beat. It was the best opening for a live-action Gerard Butler film since 300 in 2007 (£4.7m).

Oblivion dropped to second spot with a further £1.7m, a total which would have been enough to hold on to the top spot had it not been for Olympus Has Fallen’s previews. The stylish Sci-Fi epic has now grossed £8.1m and should have no trouble overhauling the final total of Tom Cruise’s last star vehicle, Jack Reacher (£9.5m). Evil Dead possessed third spot with £1.4m (including £288k from previews). In terms of recent horror remakes, that’s above Texas Chainsaw 3D (£1.2m), The Thing (£486k) and Fright Night (£682k).

Now the Easter holidays are a distant memory The Croods is starting to slow down but another £676k takes its cume to £23.7m and it has now overtaken Wreck-It Ralph (£23.4m) to become the biggest animated film of the year so far. We may have to wait until Monsters University in July to see it surpassed. The Place Beyond the Pines completed the Top 5 and had the strongest hold of the weekend, easing just 13% to £581k. The Gosling-Cooper drama now has a cume of £1.6m.

Overall, the clement weather meant that the Box Office was down 31% from last weekend and 9% from the same weekend last year when Battleship topped the box office and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen made a strong start. Expect the Box Office to receive an Iron Man 3 3D sized boost next weekend.

Across the Atlantic, Oblivion opened with $38.2m which is Tom Cruise’s fifth best opening ever. The audience was 57% male and 74% were 25 years of age and older. Baseball drama, 42 fell 34% to $18.2m and after 10 days has grossed $54m. The Croods had a decent hold easing just 28% to $9.5m this weekend and has grossed a strong $154.9m. Scary Movie 5 fell to fourth with $6.3m and has now earned $22.9m and will struggle to match Scary Movie 4’s $40.2m opening weekend during its entire run. G.I. Joe: Retaliation completed the Top 5 with $5.8m and has a cume of $111.2m.

Tom Cruise is back on top as Oblivion flew to an impressive £5m five day opening, with £1.6m coming from Wednesday and Thursday previews. This is further confirmation that audiences still love to see Tom Cruise headlining major films.

The Croods had yet another strong hold, falling just a measly 15% to £2m and a spectacular cume of £22.7m. By this time next week it should have overtaken Wreck-It Ralph to become the highest grossing animated film of the year so far. In third spot, is the fifth installment in the Scary Movie franchise. An opening of £1.1m is the lowest in the series and a long way off from Scary Movie 3’s series best £3.5m debut.

Fourth place was taken by hugely ambitious Ryan Gosling drama, The Place Beyond the Pines. Although £671k (with £11k from previews) may not seem that impressive, the crime thriller had the second highest location average in the Top 15 (£5.9k), beaten only by Oblivion (£9.5k). With more screens promised next weekend, this title should have legs.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation 3D rounded out the Top 5 with another £525k taking its cume to £6.9m and surpassing the original G.I. Joe (£6.5m) in the process.

A couple of other notable performers were Danny Boyle’s brain-teaser Trance crossing the £4m mark and teen sci-fi The Host crossing the £3m mark. Overall the box office was up 34% from last weekend but down 11% from the same weekend last year when Battleship and The Cabin in the Woods opened. This week, both Evil Dead and Olympus Has Fallen will be hoping to replicate their US performance.

Across the Atlantic, Oblivion is not out until next Friday so it was left to baseball drama 42 to take the honours, with a strong $27.3m debut. That’s a good deal better than Moneyball’s $19.5m start in 2011. As in the UK, Scary Movie 5 could not repeat the performance of its predecessors, opening with $15.2m, which is miles away from Scary Movie 4’s $40.2m bow.

Another $13.2m for The Croods in third place took it to $142.5m and now making it the second biggest film of the year to date. G.I. Joe: Retaliation 3D crossed the $100m mark with a further $10.8m and last week’s number one Evil Dead experienced a sharp drop off with $9.5m and a cume of $41.5m.

For the third weekend in succession, animated hit The Croods proved to be cinema’s biggest draw. A further £2.4m takes its cume to £17.7m and it now sits behind Les Misérables and Wreck-It Ralph 3D as the third highest grossing film released so far this year. With another week of the Easter holidays left, £20m-plus is a certainty.

GI Joe: Retaliation 3D held on to the second spot with £1.1m and has a cume of £5.6m. It’s now less than £1m behind the first G.I. Joe’s final total of £6.5m, which it should have overtaken by this time next week.

Dark Skies was this week’s highest new entry in third spot, taking £1m (including £323k from previews).

In fourth spot, Trance fell 38% (once previews are removed) to £722k and a cume of £3.3m and Jack The Giant Slayer rounded out the top five with £705k and a cume just shy of £6m.

There were two notable new entries at the lower end of the top ten, with Spring Breakers debuting at £345k (including £9k from previews) in ninth place and The Odd Life Of Timothy Green starting with £269k in tenth.

Overall, the box office was down 32% from last weekend and down 39% from the same weekend last year when both Titanic 3D and Mirror Mirror were released both titles had help from preview figures.

In the US, Evil Dead took first place with an estimated $26m, which is the 10th highest opening of all time for a horror remake. The audience was 56% male and 56% were 25 years of age and older. Estimates suggest that both The Croods and G.I. Joe: Retaliation 3D grossed $21.1m this weekend. That gives G.I. Joe a cume of $86.7m and The Croods a cume of $125.8m.

In fourth place and bucking the recent trend of disappointing 3D re-releases, Jurassic Park 3D opened with $18.2m. Completing the top five was Olympus Has Fallen with $10m and the Gerard Butler thriller has now grossed $71.1m.

The Croods was the big Easter winner, easing just 6% (when previews are removed) to £3.3m and a very healthy ten day total of £10.6m. This is ahead of the animation benchmark set by Brave 3D last year.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation 3D was the best performing newcomer, easily outstripping the first GI Joe film with £2.8m (including £890k from previews).

Current King of Britain, Danny Boyle, will be mildly satisfied with the performance of his new film, as Trance debuted with £1.6m (including £433k from previews). That’s Boyle’s fourth best opening.

Jack The Giant Slayer 3D continued to perform well, taking £1.2m, falling only 22% from last weekend.

Other new entries to the top 10 included, The Host, an adaption of the novel of the same name by Twilight author Stephanie Meyer (£991k) and Finding Nemo 3D, a 3D re-release of the original film from 2003 (£265k). Overall, the box office was up 12% from last weekend and a healthy 25% from the same weekend last year.

In the US, G.I. Joe Retaliation 3D was the big attraction, taking $40.5m. For its three major stars, this is a potent opening, third-highest for Channing Tatum, second-highest for The Rock, and remarkably, it’s the top debut ever for a Bruce Willis movie.

The Croods fell 38.8% from the previous weekend, banking $26.7m and Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor added $26.1m to Mr. Perry’s coffers, proving how strong the niche for his releases is in the US market.

The Croods 3D proved a prehistoric sized hit this weekend opening with a sizeable £5.4m (including £1.9m from previews). The Friday to Sunday total of £3.5m puts it just behind Oz: The Great And Powerful in fourth place in the biggest opening weekends of the year. 44.9% of The Croods’ gross came from 3D presentations.

Another big family film opened in second spot as fantasy epic, Jack The Giant Slayer 3D debuted with £1.6m. Although that’s a disappointing start, the upcoming Easter holidays should provide a boost. Oz: The Great And Powerful 3D made it a trio of family films in the top three as a further £1.3m took its cume to £10.1m.

Offering an alternative to the big family films, US hit Identity Thief came in fourth with £1.3m. That seems to be the average for comedy films so far in 2013, with This Is 40 opening with £1.2m and I Give It A Year opening with £1.4m. Side Effects completed the top 5 with another strong hold, easing just 20% to £609k and a cume of £3.4m.

The only other new entry in the top 10 was Nicolas Cage thriller Stolen, which continued the star’s recent poor run of form, opening with £202k (including £46k from previews). One other notable performer was blockbuster musical Les Misérables crossing the £40m mark and becoming only the 35^th film in UK history to do so. A spectacular achievement.

Overall, despite the chilly weather the box office was up 79% from last weekend and up 20% from the same weekend last year, perhaps surprising as that was when The Hunger Games went on nationwide release.

In the US, The Croods also topped the box office, grossing a strong $43.6m. The audience was 57% female, 55% were 25 years of age and up. In second place, Olympus Has Fallen surprised everyone with a healthy $30.4m debut, which is a greater opening than A Good Day to Die Hard ($24.8m). Falling from the top spot, Oz The Great and Powerful still grossed a decent $21.6m and after 17 days has earned $177.1m.  In fourth, The Call fell 48% to $8.9m and now has a cume of $31.1m.  Tina Fey and Paul Rudd comedy, Admission rounded out the Top Five with $6.2m.