The cinema market was once again in great health in 2013 with the UK & Ireland box office achieving the second highest year ever and its fifth consecutive year of over £1bn. The final total of £1.17bn was only 1% behind the record high of 2012 and proves once again that the UK public loves going to the cinema. It remains one of the most popular social activities for people of all ages.
The final admissions total for the year was 165.5m, which is the eighth highest since 1971 and above average since 2000. This is testament to the all-round strength of the film slate throughout the whole of 2013. Read more
January is a month filled with great films and one that will surely rank among the year’s best topped the box office this weekend. Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave picked up the Golden Globe for Best Picture (drama) on Sunday night and took the number one spot to cap a great weekend. £2.5m from just 207 locations (including £41k from previews) is McQueen’s highest opening ever and higher than the entire run of his last film, Shame (£2m). With more awards surely heading this film’s way and an expansion into more cinemas over the coming weeks, 12 Years a Slave is assured a long and successful run.
American Hustle fell one place to second but still had a terrific hold, falling just 18% (once previews are removed) to £1.9m. The all-star crime caper has grossed £6.8m to date and after it picked up the Golden Globe for Best Picture (musical or comedy) and stars, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence won acting awards on Sunday night, it should have plenty left in the tank. Read more
Last year gave a us an abundance of quality film content, ranging from independent hits to big-budget blockbusters. Tom Huddleston of Time Out offers his thoughts on the question; "Is this a golden age for film?"
Movie enthusiasts always bang on about the Golden Age of Cinema, but there’s no consensus as to when that hallowed age actually took place. Was it the 1920s, when budgets were huge, cameras were mobile and sound was just a dream, leading to soaring spectaculars like Metropolis and Sunrise? Was it the 1950s, when world cinema collided with postwar Hollywood and the line between art and commerce cracked open in everything from Night of the Hunter to Rashomon? Or was it the 1970s, when the breakdown of the studio system led to an anything-goes attitude at every level of the industry, from Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song to Star Wars? Read more
A list of all changes to the UK cinema release schedule, as of the week commencing 13/01, follows below:
NEW TITLES ADDED TO SCHEDULE: Read more
Lucy Shaw, Research and Insight Executive, Digital Cinema Media, reports from the Sundance Film Festival and picks her must-watch movies of the festival.
Whilst an eight hour flight can't be described as my idea of fun (unless anyone wants to buy me a seat in First Class?) watching three films back to back is a great warm-up to the next two weeks. No, I'm not hibernating from the terrible weather with a Netflix marathon, I'm on my way to Park City, Utah, for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where seeing three films a day is all part and parcel of the experience. Read more
The 71st Golden Globes took place last night and in a year with so many great films, it’s fitting that just almost all the good ones won something. 12 Years A Slave won Best Motion Picture - Drama and American Hustle won Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, but Alfonso Cuaron picked up the Best Director - Motion Picture award for Gravity. The acting awards went to Matthew McConaughey (Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama) and Jared Leto (Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture) for Dallas Buyers Club, Leonardo DiCaprio (Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy) for The Wolf of Wall Street, Cate Blanchett (Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama) for Blue Jasmine and Amy Adams (Best Actress In A Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy) and Jennifer Lawrence (Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture) for American Hustle. Spike Jonze won the Best Screenplay - Motion Picture award for Her, which meant Nebraska, Captain Phillips and Philomena were the only major contenders to go home empty handed.
The full list of Golden Globes 2014 winners and nominations is as follows: Read more
The all-star American Hustle topped the box office this weekend, with help from previews that kept it ahead of both The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Frozen. American Hustle gave director David O. Russell his biggest ever opening in the UK with £3.5m, including £1.1m from previews. That’s well ahead of Silver Linings Playbook’s £1.3m debut in 2012 and that film, directed by O. Russell, featured Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, who all appear in American Hustle.
Second spot was taken by The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with £3.2m, narrowly missing out on being the first film since Les Misérables to top the box office for four consecutive weeks. Peter Jackson’s fantasy epic has now grossed an impressive £37.3m and should comfortably pass the £40m mark. Read more
Tom Linay, Film Specialist, DCM, gives The Huffington Post his top 12 film picks for 2014.
The past twelve months have seen a stellar slate of films released in cinemas, a selection that ranks alongside any in the last twenty years. Gravity showed that the cinema is still unrivalled in providing jaw-dropping spectacle, Blue Is The Warmest Colour put unforgettable, raw emotion in tight close-up on the big screen with heartbreaking results and Alan Partridge proved that television characters can make the transition to the big screen, retaining their personality and humour. 2014 also promises to be a great year for the big screen, proving once again, that there’s never a bad year for cinema. The UK is a nation of cinema fans, with one in five people over the age of 15 visiting the cinema at least once a month. If you’re one of them you may want to start planning your visits now, so I’ve highlighted 12 upcoming films, one for each month, that make 2014 such an exciting year. Read more
Ian Burrell, Media Editor at The Independent, takes a look at second screen in the cinema and in particular, cinime. The order to "switch off your mobile phones" has become almost as much a part of the film-going ritual as buying hot dogs and popcorn.
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Early this morning, the British Academy of Film and TV Arts (BAFTA), played host to the announcement of the nominees for the upcoming EE British Academy Film Awards 2014. The nominee list reads like a who's who of the film world, including new and established talents in the field, such as Tom Hanks, Dame Judy Dench, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Léa Seydoux. The EE British Academy Film Awards are the second of the high profile awards that take place in Q1, preceded by the Golden Globes and followed by the Oscars.
Gravity receives 11 nominations. 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle are each nominated in ten categories. Captain Phillips has nine nominations. Behind the Candelabra and Saving Mr. Banks are each nominated five times. Read more
Happy New Year!
I trust you had a pleasant and joyous festive period. Most of mine was spent at the cinema, although not as much as yours I imagine. Read more
Early this morning, the British Academy of Film and TV Arts (BAFTA), played host to the announcement of the nominees for the upcoming EE British Academy Film Awards 2014. Tom Linay, Film Specialist at DCM, gives us his thoughts on this mornings announcements.
Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi spectacular, Gravity leads the way at this year’s BAFTAs with 11 nominations. 12 Years A Slave and American Hustle are just behind with 10 each and Captain Phillips with nine. The nominations were announced by Helen McCrory and Luke Evans at BAFTA HQ this morning. Read more
