Last week, we took a peek at some of the biggest action and romance movies due out in Q1 2014, now Thoughtful Dramas and Family Friendly Fare are in the spotlight.
First up, Thoughtful Dramas, perfect for targeting a more mature and therefore settled audience, in the 45+ plus age range. Typically, they’re smart, tech-savvy, comfortably-off and free to live-it-up in any way they choose. These are no pipe and slipper senior citizens. They’re active, engaged and raring to go, and you’ll find them at the cinema. Read more
DCM's resident Film Specialist extraordinaire, Tom Linay, gives us his take on the latest instalment of the epic Hobbit Trilogy via The Huffington Post.
I didn't care much for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Accusations that Peter Jackson was stretching out a straightforward story to three films and eight hours, purely for financial reasons seemed entirely substantiated from the opening scene. The scene took place at Bilbo's house and seemed to drag on for an age, featuring rude and obnoxious dwarves being constantly unpleasant to the timid, Bilbo while a smug Gandalf found the whole thing highly amusing. It was blockbuster bullying that we were supposed to find engaging and it immediately got the trilogy off to a bad start. And then they started singing. Read more
Once upon a time, in a land long ago, there were Digital agencies whose technical skills were unsurpassed, but whose communication skills often left something to be desired.
And so it was also, that in a land not too far from them, there were Advertising agencies whose communication skills were finely honed, often to a level of pure art. But these agencies did not speak the language of the Digital folk and they were wary of them, so that both eyed each other with great suspicion. Read more
I want to start with a thank you. Thank you to everyone who has made my first five months within this industry so welcoming.
My primary role as Head of Exhibition has been to engage with our Exhibitors, get to know and understand your business in order to create a clear commercial strategy for growth. With your help I’ve been able to do exactly that. Since August, anyone who has met me, David Prosser or Rebecca Rau, will have heard about how our strategy is built around protecting and growing revenue, repositioning cinema and future proofing the business. The DCM Cinematic TMS rollout is a massive part of this. Read more
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug dwarfed the competition this past weekend grossing over half of the top 15’s total box office. A £9.3m debut is the fifth highest of the year and is only fractionally less than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s Friday to Sunday total of £9.5m. That film went on to reach the dizzying heights of £52.3m by the end of its run and although second instalments often aren’t as successful, it bodes well for The Desolation of Smaug. A healthy 56.4% of the box office was from 3D presentations.
On its second week, Frozen had a sensational hold falling a meagre 11% to £4.2m. The Disney animation now has a cume of £10.3m, which is already half way to overtaking Tangled's £20.5m final total and with the school holidays still to start, I’d put money on Frozen coming out on top. Read more
DCM is on the move!
We are excited to announce that we will be moving from our current address in Golden Square to 350 Euston Road. Read more
The contenders for the 2013 Golden Globe awards were officially announced yesterday. The nominees are selected by a popular vote from the Hollywood Foriegn Press Association.
The Golden Globes celebrate the best in Film and TV entertainment. Read more
Disney ruled the box office this week as their big seasonal animation, Frozen opened with a very impressive £4.7m. That’s the second highest Friday to Sunday opening of the year for an animated film, behind Despicable Me 2 (£10m). Wreck-It Ralph opened with £4.5m in February and The Croods opened with £3.5m in March: both of those titles managed to cross £24m, so hopes are high for the rest of Frozen’s run. Over 39.1% of Frozen’s total came from 3D presentations, which is the highest percentage for a family animation since Wreck-It Ralph in February.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire fell 51% to £2.7m, for a cume of £26.4m and has now overtaken the first Hunger Games’ £24m final total. It is now placed seventh on the top 10 biggest films of 2013 and should climb a couple of places higher before the end of its run. Read more
DCM’s resident Film Specialist, Tom Linay, gives us his thoughts on Nebraska, via The Huffington Post.
Nebraska (directed by Alexander Payne of Sideways fame) is the story of an aging, booze-addled father (Bruce Dern) who makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son (Will Forte) in order to claim a million dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize. Read more
Exhibitors, distributors and suppliers came together last night to mark the festive season at the 81st Cinema Exhibitors’ Association Christmas Dinner, held at London’s magnificent Waldorf Hilton Hotel.
Digital Cinema Media was proud to sponsor the drinks reception this year for the first time and delighted to catch up with so many colleagues across the industry. Guests had travelled from all parts of the UK to mark the occasion, including Tamiko Mackie from The Maltings cinema in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Merlin’s Geoff Greaves and Billy Quitco from Cornwall, Steve Reynolds from Four Seasons Entertainment and Picturedrome’s Adam Cunard from Bognor Regis, to name a few. Exhibitors from closer to home included Tyrone Walker-Hebborn from the Genesis, Mile End and Reel’s Klash Suri. Read more
2013 has been another great year for cinema with huge hits throughout, including Despicable Me 2 (£47.3m), Les Misérables (£40.7m), Iron Man 3 (£37m) and Monsters University (£30.6m), with big hitters such as Anchorman 2 and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug still to come.
As we draw closer to the end of 2013, we can look forward to a boat-load of movie entertainment in store in Q1 2014. Read more
An early Monday morning start (25 November) at BAFTA headquarters saw Digital Cinema Media (DCM) host industry leaders to discuss the future of cinema at our inaugural Upfronts event this week.
With the aim of making the 200 strong media audience think differently about the cinema experience and share new advertising opportunities around the upcoming 2014 film slate, we also wanted to provoke discussion about the power of cinema advertising and the health of the industry as a whole. Read more
