Man of Steel held off a strong challenge from World War Z this weekend, topping the box office with a further £5.1m, taking its cume to £21.3m. It has now flown past Superman Returns’ final tally of £16.4m and has the £25m mark in its sights.
Despite coming in second, zombie epic World War Z started with a sprint rather than a lurch and its total of £4.5m is the highest for a second placed film since Skyfall’s fourth weekend in November 2012 (£5.5m). It’s also the highest for a 15 certificate film since Ted’s £5.9m last August. Overall, 47.9% of World War Z’s total was from 3D presentations. Read more
Digital Cinema Media (DCM) has partnered with Yummi to develop cinime - a mobile application that enables cinemagoers to use their little screen to get more from the big screen. Developed by the cinema industry for the cinema industry, cinime aims to create a dynamic new media experience that enables brands to entertain and engage people before and after the movies.
In the UK, 46% of people (15+) own a smartphone (TGI, 2013), while smartphone penetration amongst the 3.3m (Rentrak, EDI) average weekly cinemagoers is 60% (FAME 2013). Research has also revealed that the average dwell time in the cinema foyer of smartphone users is 15 minutes before the movie, while 50% of respondents are interested in doing some form of integrated activity with their phone in the movie theatre (FAME 2013). Read more
DCM's Marketing Director, Zoe Jones, shares her final thoughts on this year's Cannes Lions festival.
Looking back on the biggest Cannes ever, I'm struck by two things - the quality of the work and the fantastic people I met. The challenge now is to ensure that all the DCM Cannes attendees share with the rest of the company everything we've learned and follow-up on the great connections made and ideas generated. Read more
The Westway Cinema in Frome, Somerset has secured its digital future thanks to the fundraising efforts of the local community.
Local cinemagoers pulled together to raise the funds with events including pub quizzes and clothes swaps. Children also helped by donating pocket money towards the initiative, which has reached £10,000.The new digital era for the cinema will allow customers to enjoy better sound and picture quality, along with a wider selection of movies. Read more
Digital Cinema Media's marketing director, Zoe Jones, continues her Cannes adventure - and admires the impressive haul of awards from UK agencies.
The last couple of days have been really inspiring. So much so that its been impossible to find a minute to write! The challenge here is to strike the right balance between meetings off Cannes to catch up with people and share ideas and to attend the huge variety of seminars and awards that showcase great creative work from around the world. Read more
Man of Steel forged its way to the top of the box office this weekend with the second highest debut of the year so far, only narrowly failing to steal the “best opening weekend of the year” title from the current record holder, Iron Man 3. £11.2m is a fantastic result, falling just £200k short of Iron Man 3’s £11.4m opening weekend in April.
It’s also a 158% improvement over the £4.3m debut of the last Superman film, Superman Returns in 2006. Man of Steel’s Friday total of £3.4m was the highest opening day of any film so far this year, although Iron Man 3 opened on a Thursday which is usually a quieter day than Friday. Over half of Man of Steel’s box office was from 3D presentations and 7.6% was from IMAX screenings. Read more
Digital Cinema Media's marketing director, Zoe Jones, reports from Cannes Lions this week where she has seen some fantastic examples of how creativity is evolving through the clever use of technology - from a prototype pair of bifocal 3D glasses to audio watermarking.
In 1954, an international group of cinema screen advertising contractors gathered together in Venice to celebrate great ads. Inspired by the International Film Festival, which had been staged in Cannes since the late 1940s, they felt that the makers of cinema ads should receive similar recognition to their colleagues in the feature film industry. Read more
The National Theatre Live programme (NT Live) has recorded its highest audience figures ever for a live cinema broadcast of The Audience, starring Helen Mirren in her second outing as the Queen.
The 13 June broadcast from London's Gielgud Theatre was seen by nearly 80,000 people across the UK and 30,000 people in North America, which exceeded expectations. Read more
In the coming months there really is something for everyone in UK cinema, Family Fun, Fashionistas and Screenagers. DCM has put together a number of packages to help brands target these valuable audiences.
First up, the “Back to School with DCM” package, which can help your brand reach the family unit. Why families? They account for a hefty 79m admissions per year, 49% of total admissions (Source – FAME 2013) and 92% make sure they are seated before anything is shown on screen (source – FAME 2013). One of the movies making up this package offering is The Smurfs 2 3D, which is predicted to generate over 2m admissions at the box office. Read more
After Earth didn’t quite crash land but definitely struggled to take off this weekend as it debuted in the top spot with £2.2m. Although that’s relatively low for the former undisputed box office king, Will Smith, in terms of director M. Night Shyamalan’s recent output it’s his biggest opening since The Village in 2004 (£2.9m).
The Hangover Part III dropped a place and 61% to second, perhaps suffering due to the sunny weather. Despite that, a further £1.1m takes the comedy blockbuster to £16.2m. It is now almost certain to be the lowest performing film in the series but it’s still a respectable performance. Read more
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is to stream its upcoming production of Richard II starring former Doctor Who actor David Tennant live in cinemas this November.
The sold-out performance of the show on 13 November will be broadcast in real time from Stratford-upon-Avon on the big screen, while a recording will also be beamed direct into 1000 schools on November 15. With all advance theatre tickets already snapped up ahead of the October opening, cinema will take the production to a fan-base that would otherwise have missed out. Read more
This Hangover shows no sign of going away any time soon, as part three in the comedy series held on to the top spot for a second week and the top three remained unchanged. After last week’s previews are removed, a drop of 40% to £2.9m is a decent hold for The Hangover Part III and much stronger than the 62% drop the film experienced on its second weekend in the US. After 10 days it has now grossed £13.5m and is comfortably the highest grossing live-action comedy of the year so far.
Second place was once again taken by Fast & Furious 6, which managed another £2.1m for a huge cume of £21.5m. With Fast Five having set a series best of £18.5m, the franchise is growing in popularity and the sixth instalment looks set to get close to £25m. Read more
