Everything was awesome this weekend for The LEGO Movie as it did fantastic (Lord) business, comfortably topping the box office. The hilarious animation opened with a huge £8.1m, which included £2.2m from previews. The most obvious comparative is last year’s Wreck-It Ralph, which drew on a similar type of nostalgia for many of the video game characters featured in the film. That film opened with a not inconsiderable £4.5m, which was the third highest opening for an animated film last year, only behind Despicable Me 2 (£10m) and Frozen (£4.7m). Wreck-It Ralph finished on £23.8m, so The LEGO Movie will now be looking at a total north of £30m.
Star-heavy comedy drama The Monuments Men opened in second place with £1.6m. That’s more than double the previous highest opening for a George Clooney directed film, beating The Ides of March’s £665k. Just behind was Robocop, which had a decent hold, falling 37% to £1.5m and a cume of £4.9m. By this time next week it will have overtaken the final total for the Total Recall remake (£5.7m). Read more
The new advertising formats and technological advancements that DCM cinemas can offer, such as local targeting and interactive ads, are making cinema a more compelling and attractive medium for advertisers says Chantelle Dietz of Campaign Magazine.
Cinemagoers watching Hollywood’s biggest films this month, such as The Wolf of Wall Street and 12 Years A Slave, are likely to see an innovative Volkswagen ad for the Up! city car. Read more
A list of all changes to the UK cinema release schedule, as of the week ending 21/02, follows below:
NEW TITLES ADDED TO SCHEDULE: Read more
BMW is using Digital Cinema Media's (DCM) cinema companion app, cinime, as part of its Ultimate Driver campaign, as it looks to attract a younger customer base and promote its new Series 2 Coupé.
BMW is offering cinemagoers the chance to pick the perfect line in an interactive big screen challenge. Using cinime, cinemagoers can complete a virtual lap in a new BMW 2 Series Coupé. The fastest to choose the best driving line, breaking or acceleration points using the app will be invited to battle it out on a 2 Series track day. One person will be named BMW’s Ultimate Driver, winning the chance to test drive all new BMW models launched in 2014. All participants will get a video of their own performance on the big screen lap, just for taking part. Read more
The 2014 EE British Academy Film Awards took place at the Royal Opera House last night, hosted by the suave and quintessentially British, Stephen Fry. The awards recognise and celebrate the wealth of content and talent in the British film industry. DCM’s Commercial Director, Joe Evea, was in attendance and admitted to being a little star struck when coming face to face with some of the brightest stars in the industry, including Leonardo DiCaprio.
Gravity collected the most awards, six in total, including Best Director and Outstanding British Film. Although 12 Years a Slave surprisingly only collected two awards, it picked up the coveted Best Picture prize and Best Actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor. American Hustle won three awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Hollywood golden girl, Jennifer Lawrence and Best Original Screenplay. Best Actress went to Cate Blanchett, as expected, for her terrific performance in Blue Jasmine and Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope picked up the Best Adapted Screenplay award for their touching and witty script for Philomena. Read more
For people who love cinema as we do, 2014 so far has been a stunner. The awards season films have been the strongest for many years, with The Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle wowing audiences throughout January and they continue well into February with Her and Dallas Buyers Club. For family audiences, one of the best animated films in recent times in The LEGO Movie is set to charm millions for the next few months and Mr Peabody and Sherman are providing able support.
As it’s Valentine’s Day, it seems as good a time as any to look at the films over the next few months that are perfect for the hopeless romantic in all of us. On March 21, British acting royalty, Kate Winslet returns in Labor Day. Queen Winslet stars opposite Josh Brolin in a tale of a single mother who forms a romantic bond with a mysterious wounded man who she offers shelter. Director Jason Reitman is the man behind Juno, Up In The Air and Young Adult, so expectations for this one are suitably high. Winslet also returns in April in Divergent. Limitless director, Neil Burger adapts this young adult fiction novel that looks like a potential new Hunger Games. Shailene Woodley and Theo James play the romantic leads. Read more
For the first time in three weeks, The Wolf of Wall Street failed to top the UK box office. The Scorsese hit dropped to third as a straight fight for the top spot took place between Mr.Peabody and Sherman and RoboCop.
Although the Friday to Sunday totals were close, the Twentieth Century Fox animation came out on top with £3.9m, which included £1.4m from previews. That’s a very impressive start, especially considering the pairing aren’t so well known in the UK, having made their debut as part of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show in the US in the 1960s. Read more
After enjoying its most successful year ever in 2013, the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) has announced some very special developments to complement the programme strands for the tenth annual festival, including pop up cinema installations and a salute to vintage Hollywood glamour. The festival runs from 20 February - 2 March 2014.
1939 was a very significant year for Hollywood cinema, widely regarded as Hollywood’s greatest year ever. A year which saw 365 films released, 80 million tickets a week were sold and the Best Picture award nominees at the 1939 Oscars were Gone With The Wind, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Dark Victory, Love Affair, Goodbye Mr Chips, Ninotchka, Mr Smith Goes To Washington, Of Mice and Men and The Wizard of Oz. Rather than celebrating the achievement of an individual actor in the popular retrospective programme strand, this year, the GFF will be screening all of these films. Read more
Maxus put cinema in focus this week, with its #Maxuscinema sessions. The agenda included a presentation on the upcoming film slate for 2014, a research and insight session and the final session of the day covered of cinema innovations.
Tom Linay, DCM’s Film Specialist, with Cristina Duffy, Account Manager, Pearl & Dean, kicked of the days sessions, with an update on upcoming movies on the schedule for 2014, including The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transcendence, Neighbours, Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Maleficent and Edge of Tomorrow. Read more
A list of all changes to the UK cinema release schedule, as of the week commencing 03/02, follows below:
NEW TITLES ADDED TO SCHEDULE: Read more
For the third weekend in succession, the top two spots at the box office were taken by The Wolf of Wall Street and 12 Years a Slave. Martin Scorsese’s epic comedy had a strong hold, falling 34% to £2.4m and a cume of £15m. That puts it ninth on the list of biggest 18-cert films of all time and it will surely overtake Silence of the Lambs in fourth with £17.1m. The top two films in that list, Hannibal (£21.6m) and American Beauty (£21.3m), may be out of reach but if The Wolf Of Wall Street wins big at the upcoming Oscars and BAFTAs, it could get very close.
On its fourth weekend, 12 Years a Slave added £1.4m for a cume of £13.7m. It’s looking increasingly likely that Steve McQueen’s drama could overtake the final total of last year’s Django Unchained (£15.7m), which would be a terrific result that few people would have predicted a month ago. Third spot was taken by the highest new entry, Zac Efron comedy, That Awkward Moment, with £961k (including £184k from previews). That’s a vast improvement over both of Efron’s 2013 live-action releases, The Paperboy (£142k) and Parkland (£114k). Read more
A new report released via The Advertising Association reveals that, despite the critical role small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play in supporting the UK’s economic recovery, only 30 per cent of these businesses invest in advertising, an activity which helps to stimulate competition, innovation and expansion.
“Advertising Pays 2: How advertising can unlock UK growth potential” – a report by business advisory firm Deloitte, commissioned by the Advertising Association – has found that although SMEs currently account for 50 per cent of jobs in the UK and 40 per cent of UK revenues, they represent just 18 per cent of total advertising spend. Read more
