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NO TIME TO DECEMBER
BASE AWARDS WINNERS…
…AS INDUSTRY EVENT RETURNS
SONY SNAGS SEVEN AWARDS…
…PRAISE FOR STUDIO’S INITIATIVEÒ
UNIVERSAL PICKS UP FIVE GONGS…
…STUDIOCANAL WINS TWO AWARDS
CATEGORY HEROES CELEBRATED
OC IS VOTED EXTERNAL AGENCY
AWARDS ROUND-UP
STRICTLY ON SALE
A TOUGH ONE TO SWALLOW
NOTHING HAPPENING IN STORES
101 INKS ARCHIVE DEAL
THE TIMES ARE A-CHANGJIN
RAYGUN CHRISTMAS PARTY
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Bond is well and truly back. After much cloak and dagger discussion, and after the film was made available digitally to rent at a premium price, it has been confirmed that the fifth and final Daniel Craig 007 outing, No Time To Die, will be released on home entertainment formats on December 20. It means the film will be ending up in stockings and under the tree - and in digital wallets - in time for Christmas Day, offering up an action-packed gift as well as holiday self-purchasing and viewing too. What’s more, after saving cinemas on its return this summer, James Bond and his cohorts and enemies will now be on hand to give a shot in the arm to the home entertainment industry in Q4. The oft-delayed film has outperformed many expectations and brought audiences back in their drives to cinemas, showing that the great British public’s appetite for blockbusters has not diminished during the pandemic. It’s now the fifth highest grossing film of all time at the UK box office – and counting. What’s more, a whole host of records have been broken along the way. The physical formats - it’s being released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD - will include a raft of extras focusing on key Bond elements, breaking down the spectacular pre-credits sequence, the costume design, the practical, live action stunts and the exotic global locations. The 4K SKU will include an exclusive piece of value-added-material in the shape of Daniel Craig looking back on his Bond era too. More details on the title, the marketing behind the release and more in the coming weeks…
Right, after Bond, on to the big news of the past seven days or so, and that was, of course, the BASE Awards, the highlight of the industry’s calendar albeit one that’s been missing for some two years or so because of that pesky pandemic thing. Thursday November 18 saw a return to an actual in person event after last year’s digital affair, and more than 600 of the great and good of the business, faces old and new, were in attendance for the event, held at the new venue of the Roundhouse in Camden (or Chalk Farm, if you’d rather). It was a venue that in the previous few days had played host to Horse Meat Disco and Stereolab at the Pitchfork festival and the event, complete with a pole-dancing sexy Joker and a tribute to Star Wars, no less, was glitzier than many previously experienced at the storied location. Almost 30 awards were doled out to assorted winners by host Rachel Parris from the MASH Report, with the big victors on the night being Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which came away with seven gongs, with Universal picking up five in total and Studiocanal a brace. We’re running through the winners here, with comment from BASE bigwigs and a few thoughts from awards winners. We’re running two weeks’ worth of coverage, so please feel free to come to us with comments and follow-up from the event for the next newsletter…
First to speak after the big event was BASE chief executive, Liz Bales who said: “Being together to celebrate the category, the winners, and the work tonight was incredibly special. It was also a special moment to reflect on the legacy and life of home entertainment legend Anne Miles, surrounded by the industry we all love. I extend a huge thank you to all of the guests for coming out to join us, to our many sponsors who enable us to stage this special event and the BASE team for delivering such a memorable night. The ongoing strength of our industry is thanks to you all and I cannot wait to celebrate again next year.” Robert Marsh, BASE Chair & Vice President Commercial (Home Entertainment), Sony Pictures Entertainment, said: “It was an unprecedented year, full of challenges that our amazing category rose to and met with creativity and resourcefulness. Congratulations to all the winners and huge thanks to the BASE team for organising such a fantastic event where old friends and new could get together and celebrate all of our achievements. I am immensely proud of the wonderfully talented Sony team who excelled in this most challenging year, what we achieved together as an industry, and the spirit of collaboration and support across content distributors and retailers, coming out of last year and into the future!”
It was the company that Rob Marsh heads up, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, that led the field in terms of awards won, with seven in all. These were (deep breath), Campaigns of the Year for highvalue/premium 4K release for its Criterion release of The Irishman; for reactive/debut/premiere new release for Bloodshot; for TV for The Crown; for film £10m to £19.99m box office for Bad Boys For Life; for film over £20m box office for Little Women; as well as the Creative Marketing Initiative of the Year for its March Movie Nights Made Easy and an Outstanding Innovation Award for its Digital Messaging Playbook. Of the former award, the judges said: “With the March Movie Nights Made Easy campaign, Sony elevated a selection of niche digital-only titles by uniting them under one creative banner. With the challenge of marketing titles that may have struggled to cut-through individually, the Sony team managed to bring together the different target audiences with a truly well-rounded campaign and clean, clear creative messaging. The multi-faceted approach included a stand-out PR campaign that generated huge amounts of exposure, clever use of talent access, and a clever PR partnership with Honest Burger. The results spoke for themselves and despite a lean budget, the campaign made a big impact, delivering fantastic sales in tandem with the digital platforms.”
And for the Digital Messaging Playbook initiative, the judges noted: “The judges all agreed that the Digital Messaging Playbook from Sony Pictures was a work of true outstanding innovation. With the goal of encouraging increased consistency of language across the industry to grow digital transaction through reduced consumer confusion, the Sony team created an insight-led recommendation of the optimal way to market digital home entertainment formats to consumers. Addressing a major challenge affecting the whole industry by working back from the consumer, the judges were inspired by Sony’s ambition on this project, and the benefits to the whole industry, as well as the potential for future work to continue to align best practice across the industry post-pandemic.”
Universal, always a strong performer at the BASE Awards, picked up five awards on the night, including Physical Distributor of the Year; joint awards for Campaign of the Year for Special Interest for Audrey and Les Miserables The Staged Concert; Campaign of the Year for Film Up to £5m Box Office for Trolls World Tour and Campaign of the Year for Catalogue Multiple Product for its Japanese artwork releases (covered here on the newsletter extensively last year). Comment came from Universal marketing director Louisa Mitchell who said: “After an extraordinary year it was fantastic to have the opportunity to celebrate our vibrant category with industry colleagues. Thanks to BASE for organising an exceptional event and congratulations to all the winners. We are proud to be named Physical Distributor of the Year and thrilled with the recognition that our campaigns received which is a testament to the hard work, creativity and collaboration involved.”
Studiocanal earned two Campaign of the Year awards on the night, including one for Film £5m to £9.99m Box Office for A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon and Catalogue Single Product for its 40th anniversary edition of Flash Gordon. And there was further joy for home entertainment marketing chief Kristin Ryan, who won one of the eight Category Hero gongs handed out on the night to some of the industry’s leading movers and shakers. Ryan said: “The BASE Awards were a fantastic return to form, it was great to reconnect with colleagues and celebrate as an industry. We were delighted with our award wins for the Flash Gordon and Shaun the Sheep Farmageddon campaigns and I'd like to congratulate the Studiocanal teams and Elevation Sales on not just these projects but for all their hard work and dedication over the past 18 months. Being given a Category Hero nod (and especially alongside the hardest working man in the industry, Bobby Dhani) was the unexpected cherry on top to a wonderful evening. Many thanks to all at BASE, associated teams and agencies for putting on a truly great celebration.”
Those other Category Hero awards went to Alex Carter (CEO and Founder, OC Group), Bobby Dhani (Head of Operations, Elevation Sales), Ian Foster (MD, International UPHE), Vicki Geddes (Commercial Manager, BASE, The Industry Trust and The Digital Entertainment Group International) , Wez Merchant (Founder & CEO, Strike Media), Doug Putman (Putman Investments and Owner, HMV), Kristin Ryan (Head of Marketing, Home Entertainment, StudioCanal) and Katie Sharp (Film and Music Buying Manager, Tesco).
It was a double celebration for agency OC, which haws expanded and rebranded this year to huge success, with two gongs heading its way, with the coveted External Agency award going to the company and its head honcho Alex Carter picking up a Category Hero award. Commenting on the dual awards, Carter said: “What can I say? I’m truly flattered and bowled over by the recognition our agency received last night. Very unexpected, but an absolute honour. I need to point the spotlight in the direction of our amazing agency team who deserve all the credit for their hard work and dedication in the last 12 months. Even the Category Hero win couldn’t have been achieved without the support of the OC team. And of course our fantastic clients and partners. I’m truly humbled.”
Other awards on the night went to Disney, with one apiece for Digital Distributor of the Year and Title of the Year on disc for The Rise Of Skywalker. Warner picked up the digital Title of the Year for Joker. On the retail side, Amazon won a brace of awards, for Digital Retailer of the Year and Retailer Initiative of the Year for its Prime Video Cinema activity. Physical Retailer Of The Year went to Tesco and there was a richly deserved Outstanding Achievement award for hmv. We’ll have more from the awards, including further comment and reaction, on the next newsletter…
You can’t have failed to notice that the BBC’s popular flagship Saturday evening show Strictly Come Dancing is currently back on our screens, given the huge coverage across the BBC and beyond, the series dominating both the broadsheet and tabloid press as well as the mid-market papers in between. The entire country seems to be talking about it, which paves the way nicely for the latest BBC Studios home entertainment release under the Strictly banner. Motsi & Anton’s Strictly The Best. As ever, the DVD release, in stores on Monday November 22, is aimed squarely at the show’s devoted fans and the gifting market for Christmas. Greg Wilson, Senior National Account Manager for BBC Studios: "We’re very excited to bring another Strictly Come Dancing DVD release to retail this Christmas. The DVD will be a key gifting title in the market supported by Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke with a fantastic campaign across TV, radio and social media, plus continued great support once again from our retail partners.”
Also in stores in Monday, and at the opposite end of the spectrum is another goodie from one of our favourite imprints, the wonderful Second Sight, with another more recent outing. Swallow is the unusual rate of a women who feels a compulsion to eat all sorts of weird and wonderful things, a psychological horror like no other. As ever, it comes with Second Sight’s attention to detail, with gorgeous packaging, a comprehensive booklet, new extras and more, and further sees the label developing its scope to give this kind of treatment to more recent genre fare (Censor is one of the next titles due). Commenting on the release, the company’s Chris Holden said: “It’s great to add Swallow to our growing library of films we feel deserve special care and attention. It’s an incredible debut from director Carlo Mirabella-Davis who has been very generous with his time in supporting the release and is very pleased with the final presentation. We’ve had great feedback on the packaging and content and a big thanks as ever to all our excellent contributors.”
We’ve been charting the phenomenon of People Just Do Nothing for some time now, dating back to the series’ first BBC3 appearance, watching the rise of the west London wannabe DJs and MCs and their Kurupt FM pirate station (as well as following their home entertainment antics in The Raygun, we’ve also interviewed MC Grindah, in character no less, for The Ransom Note). And now the team’s first feature length outing, Big In Japan, which sees them heading, well, you guessed it, to the far east for promotional hijinks is heading in stores, courtesy of Universal. Commenting on the release, senior product manager Jess Keegan said: “'The Kurupt FM crew are coming straight from cinemas into fans homes in People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan, a feature-length adaptation of the BAFTA award-winning TV series. To support the home entertainment release on both physical and digital formats, we’ve built a digital-focused campaign across Social, YouTube & Amazon to ensure we’re reaching the many dedicated fans of the TV show, using AV creative to showcase the hilarious cast as they go global! And talking of the hilarious cast we were also lucky enough to have time with the talent for some key broadcast interviews that will be airing next week.”
News from 101 Films, which has inked a deal with the American Genre Film Archive, aka AGFA. The move will see 101 releasing titles from the vast AGFA catalogue on to Blu-ray from January 2022 onwards, with a brace of titles slated to kick off the partnership. Commenting on the deal and further highlighting the launch titles, the company’s Tim Scaping said: “We're very excited at 101 Films to be bringing the American Genre Film Archive to the UK in 2022. This ongoing partnership will see a steady slate of some of the weirdest and wildest films ever committed to celluloid released on Blu-ray and across digital platforms for the first time on this side of the Atlantic. The first releases in the 101xAGFA range will be the sleazy and terrifying EFFECTS, featuring various alumni from the films of George Romero, and exploitation legend Renee Harmon’s LADY STREET FIGHTER, both releasing on January 10 2022 on Blu-ray and digital. With two titles a month scheduled for 2022, we're looking forward to raising the profile of these under-seen genres gems by presenting them to a UK audience.”
Bond and No Time To Die may have taken all there headlines at the box office, but it’s not the biggest worldwide box office hit of 2021 – that honour belongs to The Battle At Lake Changjin, an epic Chinese tale that is the second biggest earner of all time at the box office in its native territory. And the wartime tale has just been released for the first time internationally by Trinity CineAsia, with the title rolling out to UK cinemas on November 19. Trinity’s Cedric Behrel said: “Cinemas have been very supportive and previews are looking very good. The film is a total big-screen experience, and just like Dune or No Time To Die, it must be seen first and foremost on the cinema screen. That’s not to say it won’t have a good life on on-demand platforms and home, where it’s bound to attract a mix of viewers with a specific interest in war film, big action pieces or the director(s) work, which makes it broader than Wolf Warrior II. Longer-term, I see it triggering a new space for discussion and debate on a moment in history still impacting current geopolitics. It’s a privilege for us to be able to release the biggest box office story of 2021, when cinemas are just seeing the first real shoots of recovery. We are very grateful to Distribution Workshop for entrusting us with this unique offering.“ The title us due on home entertainment formats in Q2 2022.
We’ll end with more party news and given the number of people who came up to us and said they were up for our industry Christmas drinks event on December 16, it looks increasingly likely that the great and the good from the industry past and present will be gathering together once more before Christmas. But please, you must register your interest in the event with us here at The Raygun to ensure that it definitely does happen… More detail to come, but please email tim@theraygun.co.uk to tell us you’re up for it so we can press on.
AT THE MOVIES
Everyone’s heard of the Grateful Dead, everyone knows a few bits about the band’s storied career, which even founder Jerry Garcia’s death has not put an end to. Many may not be able to name any of the band’s songs, but that may change with a new project in development. For director Martin Scorsese is working on a biopic about the band and Garcia, and Jonah Hill, no less, who worked with the director on The Wolf Of Wall Street, is being lined up to play the singer and guitarist. The film is said to be in development with Apple, which is currently readying Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon for release.
There were all kinds of legal shenanigans between star Scarlett Johansson and Disney-owned Marvel over Black Widow and the studio’s release strategy, with threats of court action and sone rather bristling words exchanged between the pair. Not only have they kissed and made up, but it looks like they’re getting into bed with each other too, For it seems as if the star is working with Marvel on an as yet untitled, rather secretive project. Marvel chief Kevin Feige has said, and it’s likely to be a neon-black Widow related TV series for the Disney+ service…
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun…
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
“Scooby-Doo this crap…”
On the way from Pixar…
Waiting for the Millwall one…
Handsome astronomer and yelling lady…
THE OBLIGATORY GDPR BIT
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