In the US, the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street opened to an estimated $32.9m last weekend, catapulting the film straight to the number one slot in the Box Office charts. The new film has out-grossed the entire runs of the first, second, fifth and seventh Nightmare movies.
Exit polls report that audiences were evenly split between male and female. Sixty percent of audiences were under 24 years old and so weren't even alive when the original hit the cinemas in 1984! Read more
Europe's largest cinema chain, ODEON & UCI Cinemas Group, sped up its digital roll-out this week. The Group already operate 154 digital screens in the UK and plan to invest £35m in this country alone. The move to 100% digital projection is expected to be fully completed before the end of 2011. Other exhibitors such as Cineworld are expected to follow this digital roll-out.
Digital technology delivers significant benefits for consumers, exhibitors and studios delivering a range of benefits such as 3D programming and alternative content (such as opera, sports, ballet and concerts). Digital Cinema Media (DCM) can offer brands greater flexibility in scheduling trailers and advertising, shorter lead times and savings on digital delivery. Read more
Kicking off the Summer Blockbuster season, Iron Man 2 shot to the number one slot grossing a whopping £6.8m in its opening weekend. The sequel has smashed Iron Man’s £5.5m debut weekend back in 2008 and is the most successful Robert Downey Junior film to date.
Iron Man 2 has also beaten the record for the top May bank holiday opening, beating both X-Men 2 which grossed £7.0m and X-Men Wolverine at £6.7m. Read more
Comedy thriller Date Night, starring Tina Fey grossed a solid £1.27m in its opening weekend knocking Clash of the Titans from the top spot in the weekend’s rankings.
How to Train Your Dragon is still doing extremely well, with its income to date hitting £18m in its fourth weekend. 3D continues to prove its worth with over 76 % of people choosing to watch the 3D version over the 2D. Read more
Latest Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) figures show cinema admissions are continuing to climb, with an impressive 14.5 million cinemagoers heading to the big screen in March alone. The new figure marks a massive year-on-year increase of 21.7 per cent and ranks the month as the strongest March for cinema admissions in over 10 years. To date, the overall cinema admissions for 2010 stand at 44 million, a 6.2 per cent increase on the same period in 2009. 2009 proved to be the second most successful year for cinema ever.
Tim Burton’s 3D remake of Alice in Wonderland was the UK’s number one cinema release for March. Stealing the top spot, it took £36.3 million in March alone; over four times the figure taken by the second most successful film of the month, Shutter Island. Starring Leonardo Dicaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, the psychological mystery-thriller took £8.3m in March, positioning it at number two in the box office chart for the month. Gunning its way up the chart is Paul Greengrass’ army thriller, Green Zone. Featuring Matt Damon, the film took £5.2m. Read more
The release of the romantic drama 'Dear John' helped Grolsch's first cinema campaign in five years deliver more than 884,163 impacts last weekend, according to estimated figures from Digital Cinema Media.
The Grolsch ad, which was created by The Leith Agency, shows the distinctive Grolsch bottle twirling around to the Jazz classic tune 'It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)'. Read more
Despite a solid hold of -36% last weekend for Clash of the Titans, it was knocked from the top spot by new opener Dear John, the romantic drama starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum. As in the US, it has out-performed titles in its genre, grossing almost £2m including previews. It beat the opening weekends of recent female drama Remember Me (£987K) and 2009's Time Travellers's Wife (£1.4m).
The best result this weekend came from How to Train Your Dragon, dropping just -8%, bringing its cume to date to over £13m after its third weekend. Read more
Brands including Diet Coke, Cadbury, Kellogg and Max Factor are investing in cinema advertising around new release Sex and the City 2.
The popularity of the Sex and the City franchise has attracted several brands to cinema advertising for the first time. Read more
The blockbuster releases of 'Clash of The Titans' and 'Kick-Ass' helped deliver at least one million impacts over the weekend for an African-themed football ad from sports brand Puma.
The Puma ad, created by the New York and Stockholm-based creative agency Syrup, ran in a campaign that was planned and bought by Publicis media agency ZenithOptimedia. Read more
Clash Of The Titans triumphed in the box office at the weekend, staking its claim to the top with an impressive three-day gross of £5.7m. This secured it the second-biggest opening in 2010 so far – behind Alice In Wonderland’s £10.6m – and also saw it outperform its US debut.
The mythical epic, starring Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson, leads fellow newcomers, How To Train Your Dragon and Kick-Ass, in at two and three. How To Train Your Dragon opened with £4.8m, beating Paramount’s previous animated 3D release Monsters vs Aliens, which debuted on £4.3m last year, while Kick-Ass had a flying start, grossing £3.9m. Read more
Nanny McPhee landed at the top of the box office rankings at the weekend with a bang. Stealing Alice in Wonderland’s three-week box office crown, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, starring Emma Thompson, took £2.6m. The original Nanny McPhee film grossed £16.5m.
Meanwhile, The Blind Side opened at the weekend, scoring an impressive £1.3m. The US drama-sports film, featuring a multi-award-winning performance by Sandra Bullock, has achieved the second-best opening weekend result for a sports drama in the past five years, beaten only by Rocky Balboa. British urban youth movie Shank put in an unexpectedly strong performance, debuting at nine. Read more
Alice in Wonderland put in another first-class performance, grossing £7.3m in its second weekend in the UK. The Disney and Tim Burton 3D fantasy tale has already topped $200m in North America and more than $420m worldwide. Its success has also contributed to weekend earnings figures up 42% on the same weekend last year.
Alice is now the 10th-best second-weekend grossing film of all time in the UK, just beating Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. After its first two weekends, the film is already the second-top earning Tim Burton film, behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Read more
