The Sweeney was out on its tod at the top of box office this weekend. The new Ray Winstone and Ben "Plan B" Drew version of the 70s television favourite opened to £1.5m, which included £433k from Wednesday and Thursday previews. British director Nick Love has not had huge success at the UK box office in the past but this is comfortably his biggest opening, almost tripling his previous best - 2007’s Outlaw (£586k). Outlaw is also Love’s highest grossing film outright, with £1.6m and The Sweeney almost beat that in one weekend.
Charming stop-motion animation ParaNorman 3D opened in second place with £1.4m and would have come out on top had it not been for The Sweeney’s previews. ParaNorman 3D is the second feature film from the American stop-motion animation studio Laika, with their first Coraline released in May 2009. Although it didn’t open as well as Coraline’s £2.4m debut, it’s still a decent start for an animation film outside of the school holidays. Read more
The final quarter of the year is full of testosterone fuelled movies. With many Action epics scheduled for release in this period this is an ideal time to reach the traditionally hard to target young male audience in the 15-24 age bracket.
LOOPER Read more
The awards season kicked off when The Toronto Film Festival opened on Thursday with a preview of the Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt time travel thriller, Looper.
The festival is a chance to see some of the early contenders for the upcoming awards season. Anticipation was high for one of the world's premier film festivals that follow other big, international events in the film calendar, such as Festival De Cannes, Venice and Sundance, which for the first time, was held in London this year. Read more
On Friday the exhibitors were imploring the populace to get their mass to ours, as the remake of Total Recall was finally on general release. The populace agreed and twenty two years after the original was released, the new Total Recall topped the UK box office with £2.8m (including £959k from previews).
In second spot and benefitting from the unusual step of opening on a Monday was all-star comedy The Watch with £2.2m (including £1.4m from previews). Brave 3D continues to enchant adults and children alike with a further £1.6m over the weekend taking its cume to £17.9m. Ted still bears fruit, easing 42% to £989k for a cume of £28.1m. Read more
Ask any cinema goer and they’ll agree that the immersive big screen experience provides complete escapism from daily life. It’s no wonder, therefore, that gamers are avid cinema goers.
Recent TGI (Q3 2012) data shows that 64% of cinema goers own a games console (with 32% of these bought in the last 12 months), spending above the UK average and making up a whopping 83% of the total £1.6bn spent on consoles, and 86% of the £1.4bn spent on games in the last year. Read more
For the second successive weekend Brave 3D hit the bullseye, falling a very light 9% to £2.4m (fall-off not including opening weekend previews). Including bank holiday Monday, Pixar’s latest smash now has a cume of £14.4m and is fast closing in on Cars 2 (£15.6m) and Cars (£16.5m). After that the next Pixar title in its sights is Toy Story with £22.3m, which is looking increasingly likely.
The remarkable performance of ribald bear Ted shows little sign of slowing down as a further £1.7m over the weekend takes its cume to £26.2m. It has now grossed more than any Austin Powers film and will probably finish around Meet The Fockers’ final total of £28.9m. It is also the fourth biggest film of the year so far, having just surpassed The Amazing Spider-Man 3D’s current cume of £25.8m. Read more
Every so often a documentary is released that emphatically proves the age old adage that truth really is stranger than fiction. The Imposter is one such film; an extraordinary tale of intrigue, deception and the nature of memory that will leave audiences opened mouthed with its twists and turns.
In 1993, thirteen year old Nicholas Barclay went missing after playing basketball with friends in San Antonio Texas. Three and a half years later Frederic Bourdin is found by police in Madrid claiming to be Nicholas Barclay. Despite bearing little resemblance to Barclay, indeed having different colour hair and eyes, and speaking with a strong French accent, Barclay’s family welcome Bourdin into their home, convinced he is their missing son/sibling. Read more
What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more. The immortal words sung by 90s pop star Haddaway but they could just have easily been spoken by Seth Rogen’s character Lou in Sarah Polley’s wonderful and painfully honest drama Take This Waltz.
Lou is the kind, gentle (slightly boring) husband to Michelle Williams’ Margot. Margot and Lou have been happily married for five years and their relationship is all brilliantly observed affection and baby talk. However, after a series of coincidences, Margot meets their new neighbour, the handsome, spontaneous, Daniel (Luke Kirby). There’s an instant, electric connection between them that is in stark contrast to Margot’s relationship with Lou. Read more
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
