Official Box Office Figures 26th-28th September 08

Whilst Ben Stiller and Co. have retained their position at the top of the charts with Tropic Thunder (Paramount), which has taken £5m to date, but Liam Neeson has stormed into 2nd place with his film Taken (20th Century Fox), which saw £1.2m on its opening weekend. Neeson plays Bryan - a former US spy - whose estranged daughter is kidnapped on a vacation with her best friend to Europe. Using all the skills he has, including the ability to speak in a multitude of languages, he pledges to track down whoever has taken his little princess, whatever the cost.



Two of the greatest Hollywood stars of our time have reunited for the next new entry - Righteous Kill (Lionsgate) - which opened in 3rd place with £769k including previews. It has been 13 years since these two have shared the screen with Heat and the chemistry between them remains unchanged as they play veteran NYC detectives who have to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believed was closed years ago - and if anyone can solve it, surely they can?

One of our favourite Brit boys heads up the next new entry to the charts as Death Race (Universal) opens in 4th place with £683k. Jason "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" Statham stars as ex-con Jensen Ames in Paul W.S Anderson's remake of the 1975 film whereby Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in a car race whereby inmates must kill one another to win. Lovely!!

Kristin Scott Thomas stars in I've Loved You So Long (Lionsgate) - a French film which opened in 13th place this weekend with £117k. Thomas stars as Juliette, a woman estranged from her family for 15 years who is taken in by her sister and her husband to look after her.

The final new entry comes from actor-turned-director Ed Harris as Appaloosa (Entertainment) opened in 14th place with £91k. Harking back to the Western genre, Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen are two lawmen hired to defend a lawless 1880s town from a murderous rancher (Jeremy Irons). Their efforts and friendship are disrupted however when a widower comes to town (Renee Zellweger). Those pesky women!!


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Pearl & Dean win deal to handle Showcase Cinema advertising

Pearl & Dean has scooped a deal to handle the advertising for Showcase Cinemas from Digital Cinema Media, the sales house formerly known as Carlton Screen Advertising, who handled the account for the last six years.

Pearl & Dean, which won back the business after losing it in 2002 to CSA, has signed a contract for the next three years.

Pearl & Dean said that the six-figure deal takes its UK market share to 33.3% and that Pearl & Dean titles will now appear in 48% of UK cinema sites.


Pearl & Dean win deal to handle Showcase Cinema advertising

by Emma Barnett Media Week 23-Sep-08, 13:55

LONDON - Pearl & Dean has scooped a deal to handle the advertising for Showcase Cinemas from Digital Cinema Media, the sales house formerly known as Carlton Screen Advertising, who handled the account for the last six years.

Pearl & Dean, which won back the business after losing it in 2002 to CSA, has signed a contract for the next three years.

Pearl & Dean said that the six-figure deal takes its UK market share to 33.3% and that Pearl & Dean titles will now appear in 48% of UK cinema sites.

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The deal was negotiated by Pearl & Dean chief executive Kathryn Jacob, Howard Warren, business development director, and Rob Cooksey, finance director, with John Zawalich, director of US cinema chain National Amusements.

The Showcase group is owned by National Amusements consists of 20 multiplex locations throughout the UK, with two more scheduled to open this year.

Source: Media Week

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Official Box Office Figures 1st - 3rd August 08

For its second week in the charts, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) has held on to the top spot, having taken £25.4m to date, whilst the all-singing, all-dancing Mamma Mia! (Universal) is in 2nd place with £32m. Not only has the film become the second highest grossing of the year however, it has also become the highest grossing musical of all time with not a jazz hand in sight!

It has been 10 years since we last saw Special Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) trying to convince Special Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) that the truth is out there and they are both back for The X-Files: I Want To Believe (20th Century Fox), which opened in 4th place with £887k. You'll find no aliens or paranormal activity in this one however Billy Connolly plays Father Joseph - a priest who has visions and is bought on to help the FBI recover an agent who has disappeared. Rap star Xzibit also stars although he isn't pimping anyone's ride this time!

There is some serious monkeying around going on in 7th place as Space Chimps (Entertainment) took £564k on its opening weekend. Featuring the voices of Andy Samberg, Stanley Tucci and Jeff Daniels, we follow three mischievous chimps who are sent into space.

Mike Myers returns to form as The Love Guru (Paramount) which opened in 8th place with £499k and stars Myers as the love guru Pitka who sets up a self-help business, with his first client being a professional hockey player whose wife has left him for a rival athlete played by Mr Justin Timberlake himself.

Opening in 11th place is the documentary Man On Wire (icon). Taking £99k, it documents tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring but illegal attempt to walk between the World Trade Centres in 1974.

The last new entry is the Bollywood film Kuselan (Ayngaran), which opened in 12th place with £97k including previews.


Interesting Film Fact of the week:

The Love Guru has a wealth of cameos including Jessica Simpson, Kanye West, Oprah Winfrey, Val Kilmer and Morgan Freeman.


Exciting film news of the week:

We all know that the next Terminator installment is currently in production with Christian Bale playing the role of John Connor, but what is to be of the Terminator, the Governator himself - Arnold Schwarzenegger?? Rumours on the internet indicate that although he isn't actually to appear in the film, director McG intends to CGI his likeness onto the body of Austrian bodybuilder Roland Kickinger. Hasta La Vista!

Source: CSA



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UK Box Office Information 4th-6th July 08

So far this year we have seen superheros in the shape of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk but never have we seen a superhero quite like Hancock (Sony). Nonetheless, this drunken superhero (played by Mr Will 'the most bankable man in Hollywood' Smith) who has a PR make over from Jason Bateman has crash landed into first place on its opening weekend with £9.6m including preview. Having the 2nd highest opening of the year to date, Hancock will undoubtedly go on to be one of summer's biggest hits.

Everybody is kung-fu fighting for Kung-Fu Panda (Paramount) which high-kicked its way into 2nd place this weekend, taking £6.1m including previews. Jack Black provides the voice for a slightly podgy panda named Po who has to master the ancient art of kung-fu to protect his valley from a slightly evil snow leopard. Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman and Jackie Chan also provide voices for the other martial-arts inclined characters. Judo-chop!

Frank Darabont is best know for directing The Shawshank Redemption but he has taken another of Stephen King's stories with The Mist (Momentum) which opened in 8th place with £157k. Following a violent thunderstorm, a small town come under threat from mysterious creatures who prowl around in the mist. Luckily there are holed up in a supermarket, so at least they won't get hungry - that's not to say that the creatures won't though!!

Opening in 12th place is the Bollywood film Love Story 2050 (Adlabs), which opened with £49k. Set in the future, this is a rare sci-fi movie for the Bollywood genre and is said to be India's biggest and most expensive sci-fi movie to date.

The last new entry is The Visitor (Halycon) which opened in 13th place with £49k and tells the story of a professor who befriends a young immigrant couple squatting in his apartment.


Interesting Film Fact of the week:

The script for Hancock originally came to light in 1996 under the title Tonight, He Comes and has had names such as Tony Scott and Michael Mann attached to the project before Peter Berg took over at the helm.


Exciting film news of the week:

This year has certainly been the year for remakes and remodels of old 80s classics and it has now been announced that the Cold War action flick Red Dawn is to be remade. The original 1984 film starred Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey as high-school kids defending their small town from Soviet invasion, but the new director - Dan Bradley - intends to update the flick to make it reflect our post 9/11 world.


Source: Carlton Screen Advertising


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Naked reviews Digital Cinema Media strategy

Digital Cinema Media, the cinema sales house formed through the purchase of Carlton Screen Advertising by Odeon and Cineworld, has appointed Naked Communications to undertake a strategic review of the business.

Dan Cresta, strategy director at Naked, will lead the review with one of the firm's partners, Ivan Pollard.

The review will encompass a health check of the current and future cinema ad market, with the aim of developing DCM's long-term brand positioning. The review is already underway, involving interviews with key advertisers and media and creative agencies.

Cresta said: "The initial phase will take approximately three months and we started in earnest a week ago. Our job is to assess the current cinema arena and to develop DCM's brand."

Meanwhile, CSA chief executive Debbie Chalet will become chief executive of DCM, once its acquisition of CSA is cleared by the OFT. Odeon and Cineworld agreed to buy CSA from ITV for £500,000 in March.

Once regulatory approval is secured, DCM will begin looking for a head of sales. CSA head of sales Adam Mills has chosen to remain at CSA's former owner, ITV.

Source: Media Week


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P&G chief warns against economic 'negativism'

Alan George Lafley, chairman and chief executive of Procter & Gamble, the world's biggest advertiser, has urged the US Presidential candidates to resist the urge to talk down the economy and spark a deep global recession.

Lafley reportedly said he was worried about "excessive negativism" when candidates talked about the economy, particularly during the contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to become the Democrat's presidential candidate.

"You know we are in a business where psychology matters - even in the staples business - and in the economy, psychology matters. It could go negative on the economy, that could be a problem ... we will talk ourselves into a worse recession," he told the Financial Times.

"I am hoping McCain and Obama will have a different dialogue than Clinton and Obama," he added.

P&G owns some of the biggest brands in the world, including Pampers, Pantene, Ariel and Duracell.

Nielsen Media Research figures showed that Procter & Gamble increased spend on above-the-line advertising in 2007 by nearly 13% in the UK, spending a total of almost £203m. It uses the agencies Starcom MediaVest, MediaCom and ZenithOptimedia.

In the US, spend by the company for the year was up 6% to $3.7bn (£1.8bn).

Lafley added that P&G was well placed to withstand the economic downturn.

The biggest threat comes from lower-cost, own-brand versions of its branded products, he said.

Procter & Gamble is responding by producing cheaper versions of some of its leading brands, including a basic version of Bounty (pictured) kitchen paper.

Source: Media Week


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UK Box Office Information 20th - 22nd June 08

Having smashed his way into 1st place on opening weekend last week, The Incredible Hulk (Universal) has managed to hold on to the top spot for a second week, taking £6.3m to date. Still the highest grossing film of the year, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (Paramount) is in 2 place, with £37.8m, whilst those sassy New York gals have put Sex and The City (Entertainment) in 3rd place with £23.1m).

2006s acclaimed film Kidulthood highlighted what life is like for teenagers in 21st century West London and its sequel, Adulthood (Pathe) takes us back there, six years on. Opening in 4th place with £1.2m, Adulthood follows the life of the main protagonist Sam (Noel Clarke), 24 hours after his release from prison for killing Trife. He comes to realise however that life on the outside isn't much better than on the inside as he's pursued by those who haven't forgiven him for his actions some years ago.

Opening in 7th place with £236k is not your average "date movie"! Teeth (Momentum) follows Dawn (Jess Weixler) - your average teenager, promoting chastity amongst those in her school and at church. What makes her unusual however is that she suffers from a shark-tooth lined (my work email blocks the word but it starts with a v and ends in an a!), which means that there are some unlucky times for those men in her life who are a bit too forceful with her. Harking back to the B-movies of the 50s, Teeth certainly has that extra bit of bite!!

Opening the Edinburgh Film Festival and in the West End only, John Maybury's The Edge of Love (Lionsgate) opened in 9th place with £181k. Based around the life of Welsh post Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys) during WW2, the film examines the relationship between him, his wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller), his childhood love Vera (Keira Knightley) and her soldier husband William (Cillian Murphy).

The last new entry into the chart is The Ruins (Paramount), which opened in 10th place with £124k. Following a group of friends backpacking around Mexico, their vacation takes a turn for the worse when they stumble across an archeological ruin in the jungle which holds something very evil within it. As they say, never stray off the tourist track!

Interesting Film Fact of the week:

The screenplay for The Edge of Love was written by Sharman MacDonald (that's Keira's mum to you and me!). Also, Sienna Miller took over the role of Caitlin after Lindsey "Li-Lo" Lohan dropped out.


Exciting film news of the week:

Continuing the theme of Sienna Miller, it has been announced that she has joined the cast of Nottingham - Ridley Scott's revisionist tale of Robin Hood - as none other than Maid Marion. With Russell Crowe already signed on to possibly play the Sheriff of Nottingham, and a release date of Q4 '09, we can expect the cast list to swell from here on.

Source: CSA
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Edinburgh film fest opens in style

Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller are bringing a touch of glamour to the opening of this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The pair star in the Dylan Thomas biopic The Edge Of Love which has its world premiere in the city on Wednesday.

Written by Knightley's playwright mother Sharman Macdonald, the film also stars Matthew Rhys and Cillian Murphy.

It is one of 142 feature-length films set to show at the festival which runs until June 29.

The event is now in its 62nd year and holds the honour of being the longest continually-running film festival in the world.

Patron Sir Sean Connery will attend the opening gala along with a host of other stars including Nip/Tuck actress Joely Richardson.

Directed by John Maybury, The Edge Of Love charts the lives of two women connected by poet Dylan Thomas, played by Rhys.

Knightley portrays Vera Phillips, childhood sweetheart of Dylan, who goes on to marry Caitlin MacNamara, played by Miller.

It will be screened at Cineworld at Fountain Park.

Source: Pearl and Dean

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Tourism Australia launches drive on back of Kidman film

Tourism Australia is working on an international marketing campaign to coincide with the release later this year of epic film 'Australia', set in the outback and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, in the hopes of boosting flagging visitor numbers.

'Australia', which has a budget of £63m, is expected to draw a large audience, being iconic director Baz Luhrmann's first film since 2001's 'Moulin Rouge'.

Tourism Australia has been working closely with 20th Century Fox and Luhrmann on the campaign, called "See the movie, see the country", which will coincide with the film's November release date.

Martin Ferguson, Australian tourism minister, said that the film would "bring to life little-known aspects of Australia's extraordinary natural environment, history and indigenous culture".

He added that it would offer the tourism industry "one of its greatest promotional opportunities in many years".

The period film takes place during the bombing of Darwin in the Northern Territory during World War II, with Kidman playing an English aristocrat left in charge of a cattle range.

She is assisted by a local drover, Jackman, who helps her to drive the cattle across the property.

Visitor numbers have stagnated as the Australian dollar has gained strength against other currencies and Tourism Australia is pinning its hopes on the film drawing people back in.

It is developing factsheets, imagery, movie maps, and location guides to translate the movie experience of Australia into the possibility of a real life travel adventure.

The 1986 'Crocodile Dundee' film led to a surge in visits when its star Paul Hogan fronted an international ad campaign telling tourists he would "Put another shrimp on the barbie".

Tourism Australia is currently reviewing its global ad account. Last month, it dropped incumbent M&C Saatchi, which created the controversial "So where the bloody hell are you?" campaign, and selected DDB Worldwide and Saatchi & Saatchi to go head to head in a final pitch.

Source: Brand Republic

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UK Box Office Information 6th-8th June 08

Euro 2008 has kicked off, and whilst the men are quite happy to watch all the action, women across the country continue to head on down to their local cinemas to see Sex and The City (Entertainment) which is top of the charts in its second week with £16.1m to date. Meanwhile, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (Paramount) has maintained its title as highest grossing film of the year with £32.7m, comfortably sitting in 2nd place over the weekend.

The team behind the Scary Movie films has come together again to produce Superhero Movie (Momentum) which opened in 3rd place this weekend, parodying films such as Spider-Man, X-Men and Batman. Opening in 4th place is a re-make of the 1980 horror movie Prom Night (Sony), taking £508k. After surviving a horrible tragedy and having finally moved on, Donna (Brittany Snow) is enjoying one of the most important nights of any girl's life - prom night - until her worse nightmare comes true.....she gets a stain on her prom dress! No, not really - instead, the sadistic killer who once tried to kill her has returned.

The second of Dennis LeHane's novels to be adapted for the big screen after Mystic River, Gone, Baby, Gone (Walt Disney Intl.) opened in 5th place with £351k. Directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Michelle Monaghan, Gone, Baby, Gone is the story of a child's disappearance and the choices we all have to make in cases like these.

The Bollywood film Sarkar Raj (Eros Int.) opened in 8th place with £188k. Starring one of Bollywood's most famous actresses - Aishwarya Rai - and her husband, the film is a tense political thriller and one of most eagerly anticipated of the year. Opening in 9th place is the film Mongol (Works UK), which took £185k and tells the story of the early life of Genghis Khan before his rise to power.

UK TOP 10 Box Office (6th - 8th June 08)

Sex and The City £3,085,231
Indiana Jones and The Kingdom... £2,671,885
Superhero Movie £851,353
Prom Night £507,985
Gone, Baby, Gone £351,127
What Happens In Vegas £290,427
Iron Man £285,109
Sarkar Raj £187,737
Mongol £185,364
Harold and Kumar: Escape To ... £111,286

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