Following the 85th Academy Awards ceremony last month, Digital Cinema Media's (DCM) Simon Rees shares his highlights and looks ahead to what promises to be another strong year for the film industry.
The great, the talented and the beautiful of the world's film industry gathered just over a week ago for the 85th Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars. Some surprises were in store on an unpredictable evening, with the top categories (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress) all going to different films. This demonstrates the variety and calibre of the films and acting talent in contention this year. Read more
This April is notable for two things that are great for cinema admissions: the bulk of the Easter school holidays and later in the month, the start of the summer blockbuster season. It may not feel like summer in late April but the first of the year’s big superhero films, Iron Man 3 3D is released on April 26 and after that the tent-pole releases come thick and fast.
Arty thrills and Ryan Gosling - Upmarket Dramas Read more
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 3D defied the critics to top the box office this weekend with £1.5m (including £404k from previews). That compares very favourably with the tonally similar Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which achieved £1.1m (including £375k from previews) in June of last year. A sizeable 90.7% of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 3D gross was from 3D presentations.
Wreck-It Ralph 3D dropped one place to second with £1.4m, which saw him comfortably break the £20m mark. Expect it to finish around Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’s mark of £22.8m. Mama continued to perform strongly, easing just 30% to £1.1m and a healthy cume of £3.5m. A total in the region of £5m now looks very achievable. A Good Day To Die Hard experienced another sharp drop, with £824k and a cume just shy of £10m. It’s now certain to finish below Die Hard 4.0’s final total (£13.9m). The top five was completed by Nicholas Sparks’ adaptation, Safe Haven. An £812k opening was a little shy of the last Sparks adaptation, The Lucky One’s £1.2m opening last May but that had the star power of Zac Efron to propel it. Read more
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
