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THE SECRET’S OUT
2022 BOX OFFICE SOARS AHEAD OF LAST YEAR…
…MAVERICK IN THE TOP 10 ALL-TIME CHARTÒ
…AND JODIE MAKES A CASE FOR EVENT CINEMA
NEVER BEEN IN BETTER SHAPE…
…AS CARTER IS GOT BY CONSUMERS
ARROW BACK TO SUMMER CAMP…
…AND READIES OCTOBER SLATE
AS NETWORK GOES WHOOPS IN AUGUST
STALKER FOLLOWS FRIGHTFEST SCREENING…
…AND PARKER GETS BURIED
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
As we noted here recently, trade organisation ERA, the Entertainment Retailers’ Association, has been posting Monday morning business updates that make one of the more interesting industry uses of so cial media and Twitter (apart from our less-and-less-to-do-with-the-business tweets), and the one posted on Monday August 1 was a timely post about the ongoing success of the latest Fantastic Beasts film and what it’s doing for the market. The ERA post noted: “It's been a fantastic week for Fantastic Beasts and 4K, as Secrets Of Dumbledore sells 47k units, 10 per cent of which were via the premium 4K UHD format. Year to date, new release DVD and Blu-Ray enjoy a 50 per cent increase in sales vs 2021- a positive sign for a market in recovery!” It comes on the back of recent weekly update tweets from ERA flagging up the success of a brace of Disney titles, first Beatles doc Get Back (“despite the lack of a DVD or 4K variant, Get Back has topped the video charts with their special Blu-ray hitting nearly 9,000 units and £268,000) and Doctor Strange (“the Multiverse of Madness has given a welcome lift to the physical video market, selling over 15,000 DVDs and over 17,000 Blu-rays”). To follow ERA and its Monday morning market drop, go here https://twitter.com/ERALTD
Seeing as we’re rounding up a few figures, here’s some more that bode well for the coming months ahead, as this past weekend ending the month of July has seen total box office for 2022 so far sail past overall cumulative theatrical receipts for the whole of 2021. The figure for last year, when cinemas were still struggling – as was the country – through the pandemic and assorted lockdowns, was just shy of £600 million, but the weekend’s haul for current cinema hits pulled it clear and up to £607 million, And, obviously, that figure has been achieved at just past the halfway point of the year, with five months still left to go and more great theatrical outings to come. A statement on the Film Distributors’ Association website noted: “Audience numbers improved significantly across the first half of 2022, with increasingly confident cinemagoers keen to enjoy the wide-ranging slate of films on offer: from action and adventure (Top Gun: Maverick, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Batman, Jurassic World: Dominion, Uncharted, Thor: Love and Thunder, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Northman); to comedy (The Lost City, Jackass Forever, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent); drama and suspense (The Worst Person in the World, The Black Phone); family releases (Sing 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore); and films for returning older audiences (Belfast, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Elvis, The Duke). Of the key worldwide theatrical markets, the UK & Ireland has posted one of the strongest recoveries with box office running at 80 per cent of 2019 figures for January to June inclusive. With receipts now already ahead of 2021 and almost double that of 2020’s nadir, full sector recovery looks to be ongoing despite the challenging cost of living increase affecting consumer spending habits across the home nations. In periods of economic upheaval and uncertainty, cinema has often prospered as a relatively low cost, much-needed out-of-home activity.”
More from cinemas as more records tumble, this time in the event cinema world. For Killing Eve star Jodie Comer is continuing to coin it in at UK cinemas with the live version of stage play Prima Facie currently airing around the country. The as-live screening drew £1.4 million, while it has now amassed some £2.6 million, with pundits at Comscore predicting it will end up around the £3 million mark. It is now in the top 10 all-time event cinema chart, although it’s still some way off Fleabag’s £4 million plus haul. The version of the acclaimed stage play is now the biggest event cinema release since the pandemic started. “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the National Theatre Live broadcast of Prima Facie, in partnership with Empire Street Productions,” said Emma Keith, Director of Digital Media, National Theatre. “NT Live continues to provide a collective moment for our audiences to enjoy theatre, helping to ensure that as many people as possible have the chance to see incredible performances, no matter where they might be in the world."
Biggest home entertainment release of the week comes from the BFI, with its pristine restoration of Warner classic title Get Carter given the kind of treatment that the organisation can deliver – and the classic Brit thriller so richly deserves too. The title has been warmly received by press and consumers alike, with a raft of strong reviews and praise for the title. Among the notices it’s received are the likes of Uncut’s 10 out of 10 review which concluded: “The greatest ever British gangster movie gets the restoration it deserves.” Over at DVD Beaver, the site noted: “BFI's 4K UHD release of Get Carter is brilliant…Very strongly recommended!” And at Blueprintreview.com there was equally effusive praise. “This might be,” the site noted, “the boutique release of the year so far.”
Meanwhile, the BFI was suitably proud of its release and it is shaping up to be one of the institute’s biggest ever releases dating right back to the VHS era and its inception nearly 40 years ago. Commenting on the title, the company’s Ben Stoddart said: “We are delighted with both the pre-orders and the reviews that Get Carter has garnered so far, in particular the UHD which is proving to be extremely popular. Our run of 15,000 copies across the two formats is disappearing fast, so anyone wanting to own the limited edition is strongly advised to buy a copy now! Reviewers are already labelling the release as one of the best of the year, which is vindication for the huge amount of work that has gone into it. Get Carter will undoubtedly be one, and most likely the, most successful BFI home ent title ever! My huge thanks to everyone who has helped make this release happen.”
Lots of promotional activity for the summer months on both companies’ own websites and at retail, online and bricks and mortar, and chief among these is Arrow’s annual summer promotion. Outlining its activity, the company’s Louise Buckler and Dominic Walker said: “Making its third year, our Camp Arrow Sale returned on Thursday July 28 with over 900 titles across two territories, it's one of our biggest sales to date with first day sales alone being incredibly encouraging. We've got recent releases such as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, special edition UHDs of Robocop and An American Werewolf in London as well as Claude Chabrol boxsets all at their lowest ever sale prices alongside a range of releases from our third party partners such as Third Window Films. The sale will be supported by a strong bespoke social media focus to keep fans engaged and also support alongside a strong CRM strategy and digital spend. The sale runs until 22nd August so get in quick to pick up your favourite Blu-rays and UHDs at these incredibly low prices!”
Arrow has also unveiled its October releases and after a few relatively fallow monthly release slates, as noted here, the company has returned to a hefty schedule with its October reveals. Here’s the company’s Kevin Lambert on its key titles for the witching month. He said: “After a couple of lighter months in our release schedule we're back with our October announcements, and I'm happy to say that we're back to a jammed packed month of phenomenal cult content. First in October we have Two Witches, Two truly terrifying conjoined tales of witchery, paranoia and terror that hark back to the gory thrills of classic Euro horrors such as Suspiria, Shock and The Beyond. Our second new release title this month is Take Back the Night, An allegorical story of violence against women and the dangers of victim-blaming wrapped in a classic monster movie. Our first box set for this round of announcements is Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror, madness, obsession and messed up families are the order of the day in these four lesser-known monochrome gems from Italy’s peak Gothic period. Alongside this is The Count Yorga Collection, presented in all new restorations by Arrow Films from new scans of the original camera negative, The Count Yorga Collection is a full-blooded feast to die for! And finally making its worldwide UHD premier, Videodrome, combining the bio-horror elements of his earlier films whilst anticipating the technological themes of his later work, Videodrome exemplifies David Cronenberg’s extraordinary talent for making both visceral and cerebral cinema, and it has never looked better than it now does in 4K.”
Over to Network now and the independent, currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, has a busy August with new releases alongside its ongoing birthday activity. Outlining its slate, the company’s Juan Veloza said: “We have a very exciting set of releases coming to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital this August. Kicking the month with Whoops Apocalypse, starring comedy legend, Peter Cook, Loretta Swit and the ever-popular Rik Mayall plus another tv-to-film comic adaptation created by comedy giants John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, Please Sir! Starring John Alderton. The Blu-ray debut of The Sandwich Man and crazy monster movie Konga. Finally, celebrating its 50th Anniversary, one of the most memorable drama series from the 70s, Country Matters.”
More on the late August bank holiday horror marathon that is FrightFest and more and more home entertainment details are emerging of films premiering at the event, with, as oft noted here before, the five-day festival proving to be the perfect launchpad for theatrical and home entertainment releases. Latest to get a firmed up DVD and digital bow is Stalker, which premieres at FrightFest and is now slated for home entertainment on October 10 from Kaleidoscope. The film stars Outlander’s Sophie Skelton, BAFTA winner Stuart Brennan from Risen and wrestling superstar Bret Hart. The plot follows a woman trapped in a deserted hotel’s freight elevator with a mysterious figure who just happens to be obsessed with her. Commenting on the release, Kaleidoscope’s Adam Sergeant said: “Stalker is our second collaboration with the fantastic production partnership of Stuart Brennan and Gareth Wiley, following the internationally successful Kingslayer, which releases in the UK on DVD and Digital on 26 September. We’re delighted to bring the atmospheric and tense Stalker to market, and having its World premiere at Frightfest is great testament to the team’s hard work, and should be a whole lot of fun!. Work is already underway on the third release in our partnership, the recently announced fantasy-action feature, Warchief, which is wrapping filming in coming days, and will be debuting for international sales at TIFF.”
Meanwhile, we mentioned it last week, but it’s well worth keeping an eye out on Burial. The sophomore feature film outing by Ben Parker, formerly a creative on the agency side, whose track record as a designer and more at the company he helped found, OTMentertain, includes a raft of big theatrical and home entertainment releases for a number of labels. Burial sees him shifting focus from the claustrophobic underwater horror of his debut film, The Chamber to the end of the Second World War and the downfall of the Nazi regime. The film has been acquired by 101 Films, as we revealed last week, and is due on home entertainment formats after its platform premiere at the horror and genre film fest. We spoke to Parker, a long-time friend of the industry and a familiar name to marketing people in and around the business and he said: “I'm delighted to have my second feature at Frightfest! My first film played there and the short film before that, and I've been attending the festival since 2006, so for me, it's like coming home. I get to show something I'm really proud of to the fans that matter the most - because I'm one of them! And both 101 and Shudder are sponsors of the festival, so great that the film will roll out with them after the festival screenings. Like every director, I want the audience to like it. I can't wait to see the jumps in seats and gasps. And then I hope people find it after its release. And I'll just have to imagine the jumps and gasps they get in their home screenings.”
AT THE MOVIES
It’s barely been on the service for a week or so (we’ve watched it and it’s like an expensive and rather formulaic DTV title, albeit still rather enjoyable) but The Gray Man is set to turn into something of a franchise for Netflix. The Russo brothers will direct a sequel, based on the series of books from Mark Greaney, and there is also a spin-off in the works too. Joe and Anthony Russo said: “"The audience reaction to The Gray Man has been nothing short of phenomenal. We are so appreciative of the enthusiasm that fans across the world have had for this film. With so many amazing characters in the movie, we had always intended for the Gray Man to be part of an expanded universe, and we are thrilled that Netflix is announcing a sequel with Ryan, as well as a second script that we’re excited to talk about soon."
Following on from Disney’s mammoth presentation at last week’s San Diego Comic Con event, more has emerged about its forthcoming new Avengers films, and Shang Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton, who has been instrumental in the kung fu superhero’s arrival in the Marvel world, is being lined up to direct according to reports from the US trades. Cretton will be at the helm for Kang dynasty, one of two Avengers films slated for a release in 2025. He is also working on a sequel to Shang Chi…
TWEET OF THE WEEK
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