The Expendables are back in The Expendables 2! The band of elite, muscular mercenaries led by Sly Stallone are once again causing mayhem in far flung places under the guise of maintaining international security. The first Expendables film brought together some of action’s biggest names but there were some notable stars either missing or in brief cameo roles. In this second instalment, out on Friday, a couple of those omissions are addressed and there’s bigger roles for Schwarzenegger and Willis. What’s not to like?
The plot is mercifully simple, leaving more time for wanton destruction and one liners. After accepting a straightforward job for Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), the Expendables are soon set on revenge after one of their team is murdered by rival mercenary, Jean Vilain (yes, Vilain), played with relish by Jean Claude Van Damme. Vilain also has plans on stealing large quantities of plutonium, which is never a good sign. Read more
Digital Cinema Media (DCM), the UK market leader in cinema advertising has partnered with the outdoor media owner Primesight to bring brands closer to their consumers by beginning the installation of 100 interactive 6-sheet panels across DCM’s cinema estate in Cineworld, Odeon and Vue.
The state of the art units will unlock even more creative opportunities for advertisers and deliver more effective, targeted campaigns through ground-breaking technology. Allowing for two-way communication with the cinema-goer, brands will be able to tailor messages to the user with touch, Wi-Fi, NFC (Near Field Communication) and QR embedded in the unit case. This means even more creative, more targeted and more effective campaigns in cinemas. Read more
Digital Cinema Media (DCM) has pioneered the world’s first ever sound activated cinema advertising spot in collaboration with Unilever as part of an experiential marketing campaign to launch the latest addition to the Lynx Shower Gel range.
Cinema audiences have been handed the power to control what they see on the Big Screen before new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises by voting with their voices for the outcome of the advert for Lynx Sportblast 2 in 1 Showergel & Shampoo. Targeting a young, active male audience and harnessing the Lynx effect to get guys ahead in the mating game, the creative from BBH features five very different, yet challenging “Lynx Mynxes” – Brainy Girl, Flirty Girl, Party Girl, High Maintenance Girl and Sporty Girl. The interactive ad runs for two weeks before The Dark Knight Rises and starts with a 30” clip on how to “keep up” with a brainy girlfriend. Four 5” previews of the other girls are subsequently teased, demonstrating how guys should keep up with each of the girls. The Batman fans are next invited to choose whichever Lynx Girl they find the “most demanding” and cheer for their favourite. The girl receiving the loudest response is then revealed to the audience as her advertisement is played in full. Read more
Cinema advertising is about to become faster, more flexible and even more creative than ever before with the advent of DCM’s Digital switchover this autumn, enabling advertisers to book campaigns by the day instead of by the week.
September 28th will mark the biggest change in the medium’s history and unleash a raft of new opportunities meaning that brands can book and schedule media in more tailored plans that are bespoke to their campaign and marketing requirements. The Digital Age has revolutionised the industry, with a new dynamism last seen at the introduction of “talkies” and technicolour. As part of this new era, innovations at DCM mean that advertisers can take advantage of slashed lead times, faster scheduling and more agile speed of response. Read more
London, 19 July 2012: From 28 September, Digital Cinema Media (DCM), the UK market leader in cinema advertising, will be able to offer advertising scheduling by the day instead of by the week.
This is the date when DCM will completely switch its advertising distribution, campaign delivery and scheduling to digital, offering cinema advertisers, who spent £169 million in 2011 (Source: Nielsen NMR), greater flexibility and improved speed of response. Read more
London, 28 June 2012: M&M’S characters ‘Red’ and ‘Yellow’ will be back on the big screen for a further year following the renewal of Mars’ exclusive sponsorship of Digital Cinema Media’s (DCM) ‘From The Red Carpet’( FTRC) show.
Introducing a new animation, the charming M&M’S characters, ‘Red’ and ‘Yellow’ are now seen joking around in a cinema environment. Read more
In an extremely close race for the top spot less than £90k separated the top four films but Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter just managed to come out in front. The historically inaccurate action horror opened with £1.1m but owes its number one spot to Wednesday and Thursday previews, which provided £375k of its total. The film feels similar in style and tone to the Underworld franchise and the most recent film in that series Underworld: Evolution also opened with £1.1m. A sizeable 81.2% of Abe Lincoln’s total was from 3D presentations.
For the third weekend in a row, Men In Black 3 secured second place holding off the challenge from The Five-Year Engagement by just £13k. The sci-fi comedy now has a cume of £19.1m and is the sixth highest grossing film of 2012. Also with £1.1m, The Five Year Engagement made a solid start. It is some way off the last Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller collaboration, Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s £2.1m opening, but a more apt comparison would be something like March’s Wanderlust, which opened with £491k. Read more
A brand new batch of trailers arrived this week and excitement is already building for some of the biggest Autumn releases and beyond.
First up is Keira Knightly in Joe Wright’s sumptuous Anna Karenina. With an all-star British cast, the Leo Tolstoy adaptation looks as lush and regal as 19th century aristocracy should. Out on the same day as Anna Karenina is another potential smash hit with a host of British talent involved, Dredd 3D. This time Karl Urban plays the titular Judge Dredd and the film looks to have nailed the darker, grimier aspects of the comic. Read more
The top 3 was exactly the same as last weekend with Prometheus 3D again coming out on top, and in doing so joining War Horse, The Woman In Black and Avengers Assemble in topping the box office for three successive weekends in 2012. Ridley Scott’s sci-fi brain teaser grossed a further £2m taking its cume total to £19.5m, making it the fifth highest grossing film of the year to date. Judging by its performance over the weekend, you would expect it to have the legs to overhaul The Woman In Black’s £21.3m total in third place. Now seventh on that list is Men In Black 3, which grossed a further £1.5m over the weekend and the family friendly sci-fi comedy now has a cume total of £17.4m.
In third spot was Snow White And The Huntsman, which managed a further £1.3m, taking its cume total to £11.9m. With the sequel already being given the green-light, the producers are clearly hoping for a Twilight style franchise and over the weekend SWATH eclipsed the original Twilight’s £11.2m total. In fourth spot and the big disappointment of the weekend was 80s jukebox musical Rock Of Ages. Adaptations of stage musicals have been big business recently with Mamma Mia opening with £6.6m, Fame with £2.4m and Hairspray with £2m. Rock Of Ages however couldn’t muster more than £1m (including £214k from previews) and Hairspray’s final total of £12.8m looks a long way off. Perhaps a more suitable comparison would be the recent remake of 80s hit Footloose, which opened with £460k in October 2011. Read more
Leicester Square was teeming with celebrities last night at the very impressive premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man 3D. I've never seen Leicester Square that busy before and it certainly was a sight to behold. A giant red spider, lots of webs and fearless free runners greeted us as we walked down the red carpet.
When a director is hired off the back of one movie (500 Days Of Summer) you begin to wonder if he can fill the very big shoes left for him by Sam Raimi. Will he follow the path set for him by the Drag Me To Hell and Evil Dead director or will he follow his own indie love story path? He did, in fact, neither of these. Clearly, Marc Webb wanted to emulate The Dark Knight's success by making Spidey slightly darker and grittier, and for me it worked perfectly. This is by no means Spiderman 4, it is definitely a reboot in the most basic sense. Taking Spidey back to high school and re-examining his roots, his powers and the reasoning behind his views on the world. The casting of Andrew Garfield and Emma stone was spot on as their chemistry shone through from the start, and who would of thought Rhys Ifans could play an evil lizard so convincingly?! Read more
Prometheus 3D has finally landed and on the day of its official worldwide release, Digital Cinema Media treated 75 media industry contacts to an exclusive screening of one of the most anticipated film of 2012.
The screening held at the Charlotte Street Hotel on 1 June saw attendees from Carat, Innocean, Mediacom, ISBA, News International and Tesco treated to drinks, nibbles and cinema treats before watching the film everyone has been has been waiting for, talking about and dying to see since Ridley Scott announced in July 2009 that he would be returning to the groundbreaking Alien film released in 1979 and that introduced moviegoers to hypersleep, Nostromo and face huggers. Read more
Set in the South two years before the Civil War, DJANGO UNCHAINED stars Academy Award®-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles – dead or alive.
Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South’s most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago. Read more
