From Nirvana sticksman to Foo Fighters frontman, and with a musical legacy spanning collaborations with Killing Joke, Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures, Dave Grohl has already achieved a career of legendary status in music. Sound City sees him turn his assured hand to directing, documenting the life of LA's legendary Sound City recording studio.
Opened by joint owners Joe Gottfried and Tom Skeeter in 1969, Sound City housed over four decades of recorded music, journeying a roller coaster ride of financial peaks and troughs along the way. The documentary is split into three parts opening with the history of the studio, progressing to the impact of technology and finishing with an emphasis on the principals of musical performance and songwriting. Read more
Speaking to our independent cinema colleagues recently, alternative content is a growing and thriving area on many of your schedules. Cinemas are not the only places looking for new and innovative ways to draw audiences. Using venues outside of their main purpose can attract new people, which means marketers can extend their brands’ reach through partnerships and sponsorships.
Following the excitement of the London 2012 Games, the Olympic stadium will soon house music events with major summer concerts moving from Hyde Park in 2013. Marketing Week’s Mindi Chahal, takes a look at what is arguably the biggest change in the use of a venue in recent years and how the trend is spreading in other spheres including cinema, read on for her coverage on events in our industry. Read more
He may been knocked off his perch last weekend but he made it back to the top a week later, Wreck-It Ralph 3D eased less than 1% to £3.4m and a hugely impressive cume of £18.6m. It’s only a matter of time before Ralph overtakes Tangled’s final total of £20.5m and closes in on Brave’s £22.6m.
A Good Day To Die Hard fell 50% (not including previews) to £1.6m and dropped to second place in the process. It now has a cume of £8.2m and it’s going to have a hard time overtaking Die Hard 4.0’s final total of £13.9m. Creepy horror Mama was the highest new entry, in third place with £1.5m. That’s an improvement over both Insidious’ and Sinister’s £1.4m debuts in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Both those films went on to gross over £6m. Read more
Late last night, the power brokers of the film industry met to recognise the best in the business at the 85th Academy awards, or to you and me, “The Oscars”.
Some surprises were in store on an unpredictable evening, with the top categories (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress) all going to different films. This just shows the calibre of the films and talent in contention. Read more
Hello Exhibitors,
This is my first monthly blog and whilst January is traditionally a subdued month of the year there is nothing subdued about January 2013. Read more
It was a good weekend to Die Hard as the fifth installment in the franchise, A Good Day To Die Hard topped the box office. An opening weekend of £4.6m, including a whopping £1.3m from Valentine’s Day was enough to knock Wreck-It Ralph 3D into second place. Although it’s slightly lower than Die Hard 4.0’s £5m opening in 2007, which opened on a Wednesday, the previous installment had the benefit of an extra day.
Last week’s number one, Wreck-It Ralph 3D, dropped to number two, despite outperforming A Good Day To Die Hard from Friday to Sunday. A further £3.4m takes its cume to £10.5m and, with half term this week, expect the big performance to continue. Read more
Reckitt Benckiser Group plc. has chosen cinema for the first time to promote its Nurofen brand. The brand has utilised the new flexibility DCM offers advertisers taking advantage of the ability to book any day of the week and ran for one day on 13 February.
The overall campaign has been designed to add emotional resonance to Nurofen’s established functional brilliance and generate greater awareness of the reasons people reach for Nurofen products. It targets people ‘with lives bigger than pain’ and continues to promote the whole Nurofen family as a trusted brand chosen by all those who try and squeeze as much out of life as possible and won’t let pain, whatever that pain may be, get in the way of them living life to the full. The new ads focus on real people with amazing lives who trust Nurofen to deal with their pain so they can get on with their day. Read more
The Glasgow Film Festival 2013 officially kicked off on 14 February and DCM’s Rebecca Rau was there to share the evening with DCM Close Up.
A glitzy Opening Gala featured the UK Première of the classy French comedy Populaire, followed by a glamorous after-party that echoed the froth and fancy of the stylish rom-com. Director Régis Roinsard was in attendance and charmed the audience, inviting them to travel back in time with him to 1950s France, and announcing his love for Scotland by declaring; “When I was a kid, I wanted to be Scottish and immortal,” referring to his obsession with the film Highlander at the age of 11. Read more
The great, the talented and the beautiful of the world’s film industry descended on London’s Royal Opera House last Sunday for the British leg of awards season, the EE BAFTAs. You may have watched it on TV, along with 6.2 million other film fans. You may have been one of the lucky few in possession of a golden ticket to the night itself. BAFTA Senior Partnership Manager, Natalie Moss, however had an exclusive back-stage pass and gave DCM the low down on the evening from behind the scenes.
Well….what a weekend! Read more
Last week, cinema exhibitors, technology experts and other representatives from the cinema industry convened at London’s Vue Westfield for the first ever UK Digital Cinema Conference, hosted by Digital Cinema Solutions, more than 250 delegates discussed the challenges and opportunities that have come with one of the biggest transitions in media history – the move from film to digital projection in cinemas.
The team from DCM took the opportunity to catch up with a number of exhibitor partners including Kevin Markwick from The Picture House, Uckfield, Jas Kapur from the Wolverhampton Lighthouse, Dorothy Smith from Ambleside Zeffirellis and Jason Valentine from the Letchworth Broadway. Read more
Wreck-It Ralph 3D duly smashed it this weekend. A £4.5m debut is the highest opening for a Disney animation since Tangled in 2011 (£5.1m) and is a big improvement on their February offering last year, The Muppets (£2.7m). Both those films finished comfortably over £15m, so expect the same from Wreck-It Ralph 3D.
The biggest film of the year so far, Les Misérables finally vacated the top spot after four weeks, falling to second and £1.6m. It has now grossed £33.5m and a finish in the high thirties is expected. British romantic comedy I Give It A Year made a solid start with £1.4m which compares favourably with the debut for The Five Year Engagement last year (£1.1m) and with Valentine’s Day arriving this Thursday, it should have a strong week. Read more
Argo was named Best Film at last nights EE British Academy Film Awards hosted by Stephen Fry, held at London’s Royal Opera House. Ben Affleck won the Director BAFTA and the film also took the Editing award.
Les Misérables won four BAFTAs, Production Design, Sound, Make Up & Hair and Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway. Read more
