A busy week for new releases – as evinced by the fact that more than a quarter of the Official Charts Company’s midweek bulletin are made up of new entries – and there leading the way is the final instalment of The Hunger Games, Mockinjay Part 2, outselling the rest of the top five and notching up sales of 165,000 in its first three days on sale. It’s been a strong week one not just for this but the high-ticket companion release The Hunger Games Complete Collection, a new entry at number five after shifting 18,000 units, generating a strong value at retail. Even the penultimate film in the franchise, Mockingjay Part 1, in case you didn’t know, is also enjoying renewed sales on the back of Lionsgate’s last film, it is the highest climber in the midweeks, rising back up to number 32. Commenting on its early success, Lionsgate’s Ben Grunbaum said: “We’re very pleased that the fans and public have come out and bought the final instalment in The Hunger Games franchise. The results are looking strong as we go into the Easter weekend. Sales on the 1-4 complete collection have been solid too, with it currently at number five in the charts. Our marketing campaign continues strongly across all key media, plus we have a marathon screening hosted by Scarlett Moffatt from Gogglebox Friday in central London for fans. With Easter here, we sent out a delivery of Easter Eggs to several key media outlets with instructions on how to find three deleted scene Easter Eggs on the Mockingjay Part 2 Blu-ray. They’re hard to find!”
Elsewhere in the midweeks, Disney’s The Good Dinosaur entered at number two, on the back of the activity at London’s Victoria station (see last week’s newsletter), while The Lady In The Van and Game Of Thrones Complete Fifth Season enjoyed further success. Carol from Studiocanal was in at number six, with a brace of other big feature films, Black Mass and Steve Jobs, not far behind as new entries, as eight and nine respectively. Supernatural The Complete 10th Season is new in at number 15, with a quartet of new titles in the lower 20s, The Hollow (25), Stella Series 5 (26), Mythica The Darkspore (27) and Last Action Hero at number 29. Full charts revealed on Sunday…
Big news from Network, which has forged another major licensing deal after signing on the dotted line with the BBC in a deal which will bring what it calls a “large slice” of classic library titles from its vast catalogue to market. These will include previously unreleased and unavailable titles such as The Life And Times Of David Lloyd George (the one with that Ennio Morricone Chi Mai theme tune), Rockliffe’s Babies and Sink Or Swim, with further complete editions of such classic titles as Till Death Us Do Part, The Goodies, Sykes and Absolute Power. The first wave of titles under this arrangement are due later this year. Commenting on the deal, Network md Tim Beddows said: “Our early years saw Network licensing some classic BBC content which really got us going, helping establish us as the best library TV publisher in the business. Releasing complete editions of those early acquisitions and bringing to market previously unreleased gems demonstrates our continued commitment and faith in archive. We’re going back to our roots.”
Network’s certainly keeping itself busy, with its ongoing releases and relationships, notably with the likes of ITV and Studiocanal, continuing and its recent wide-ranging deal with Fremantle, accompanied by the creation of its own sales force. And it’s still keeping its eye in in the theatrical sector too. For Friday March 25 sees it continuing its relationship with director Pablo Larrain, releasing The Club, a moody drama looking at Catholic priests sent to a retirement home for those of the cloth, with all of them having a secret or two to hide. It arrives on home entertainment formats at the end of May. Commenting on the release. Network’s Tim Beddows said: “We're incredibly happy to be working with director Pablo Larraín again, a director whose career we have nurtured since Tony Manero. The Club has been exceptionally well received at festivals all over the world and we're delighted to bring it to a UK audience.”
It’s a big Monday for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment as its further move into the TV sector becomes a reality with the release of The Night Manager. The forward-thinking distribution deal involving the John Le Carre adaptation sees the studio increasing its slate of existing properties and productions and it seems to be paying off if the reaction to the series so far is anything to go by. The programme’s reputation has grown over its transmission, with the final episode, due to air on Sunday March 27, being eagerly awaited by the growing army of fans of both the show and, judging by the online chatter, hunky Tom Hiddleston too. What’s more, its growing reputation over that six-week period could further enhance the chances of the home entertainment release, as fans have cottoned on late to just how good the programme is (and it really is). The series has become the subject of not only much speculation, but has also become the programme that seemingly launched a thousand articles and features across both the broadsheet and tabloid press too. Its release makes for a busy Monday for SPHE, with The Night Before due to be released too. Commenting on the release, SPHE Product Manager Amy Sawyer said: “The Night Manager is the definition of event TV and has kept an incredible 8 million viewers entertained every Sunday night. Now it’s coming to an end, we’re thrilled to be able to offer the legions of fans the chance to relive the action on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday. We’re launching the box set with a heavyweight media and PR campaign that highlights the action, suspense, rave reviews and of course puts Tom Hiddleston front-and-centre.”
Of course, this week’s big talked about TV is Line Of Duty, with the third (and arguably best) of the corrupt Brit cops drama starting on TV on Thursday March 24. It is set to be must-see television over the next six weeks or so, with plenty of twists, turns, downright surprises and shocks due. RLJ Entertainment’s Acorn label has already released the first two titles – the brand is among its bestsellers – with the third due to arrive on May 2, replete with extras and alongside a boxset of all three series. Its earned plaudits galore and fine viewing figures – 4 million plus on BBC2 is almost unheard of – and has already been commissioned for a fourth outing. We’re not even going to say anything else about what happens in this, suffice to say, it’s appointment viewing. RLJ’s Helen Squire said: “We can’t wait for Line of Duty to explode onto TV screens again this week with arguably the strongest story to date and a whole lot of surprises to keep us gripped for the next six weeks. The BBC have done a great job promoting this hotly anticipated new series and we all expect high viewing figures and more positive reviews. Sales of the first two series have already seen sales uplifts too. Our Series 3 DVD release will be supported above the line and by social media and a strong PR led campaign courtesy of Aim Publicity. This is one of BBC2’s bankers, up there with The Fall (also ours!), and loved by viewers and reviewers alike.”
Wildly different, but equally compelling, and much talked about, is Indian Summers, the series most aptly described as like House Of Cards set in India in the 1930s. It has returned to Channel 4 and it too is due via RLJ’s Acorn imprint on May 16. Commenting on its release, RLJ’s Helen Squire said: “Starring Julie Walters and telling a rich and explosive story of the decline of the British Empire in India, Indian Summers is period drama for a discerning audience. Series One was C4’s highest drama launch and received critical acclaim as ‘the new Downton Abbey’ (The Telegraph). Series Two has begun with more of the same and Julie Walters particularly being singled out for praise as “the embodiment of evil in pin curls, running the Empire from a cocktail bar in a bonkers hat by facilitating the maximum amount of adultery” (according to The Guardian). The DVD launch date is May 16, the day after the series finale. Let the revolution begin!”
More on some forthcoming releases and Signature’s getting busier and busier. On Easter Monday March 28 comes the eagerly awaited, by homegrown Brit crime fans, release of Fall Of The Krays. As we’ve noted here previously, the East End twins are still home entertainment gold and, as Signature’s Emilie Barra noted: “We at Signature are extremely excited for the release of Fall Of The Krays on Easter Monday. The interest in the Krays’ story is undeniable and following the PVOD release in January, we are confident our marketing and PR efforts - combined with the fantastic support we’ve received from our partners - will result in yet another triumph for the company."
With the FrightFest Presents imprint now established as a digital proposition – the horror label is a collaboration between the FrightFest organisation and Icon – the distributor is continuing apace to roll out the physical products bearing the sub-label’s seal of approval. One release, the rather excellent Aaaaaaaah!, is already out on DVD and Blu-ray, this will be joined in the coming weeks by a raft of further titles. These include – deep breath now – Emilie and Estranged on April 11, After Death a week later, The Sand on the 25th and, into May, Night Of The Living Deb on May 2 and Some Kind Of Hate seven days after that. The titles now feature more prominent FrightFest branding than Aaaaaaaah!, although not too much to stop them working as standalone releases, while a clear strategy around how best to release the titles is developing. So the second phase of digital releases is now out, with one of those, Emilie, available on physical formats. Titles from those second phase will appear on DVD in Q3, the perfect platform to push the physical releases around the key August bank holiday Film 4 FrightFest event. In physical terms, as Icon’s Chris Warrington said: “These are all well priced, strong horror titles that have a badge of quality and seal of approval from FrightFest. We’re really glad that retailers are seeing the value in these DVDs as great horror titles. And other titles are now being lined up by FrightFest and our acquisitions team to ensure the flow of frighteningly good horror continues.”
It was perhaps inevitable that, ahead of its imminent release on home entertainment formats, assorted release groups – the shadowy, secretive loose-knit organisations at the heart of the illegal download and Torrenting world – would be attempting to get their hands on a copy of Star Wars: The Force Awakens first (a practice that is laid bare in the rather excellent How Music Got Free book we wrote about here) to gain bragging rights over their peers and get it up as an illicit offering ahead of the staggered global release date. And lo, it came to pass that a Blu-ray rip of the film – complete with an image of the disc – is now up and available from the usual dodgy sources. It was met with outcry from those in the business, directed not just at the pirates, but also at sites like i09 and Gizmodo, who tacitly suggested, with a nod and a wink, that you could download it “if you dare”. And many did – 250,000 in the first 12 hours. As illegal download-friendly website Torrent Freak noted: “The first copy appeared online [on March 22] and within 12 hours an estimated 250,000 people had already grabbed a copy. This number is likely to increase to several millions during the weeks to come. The Blu-Ray disc originates from the REPLiCA release group and appears to be a regular retail copy. Under the most recent rules, Scene release groups are required to supply a photo of the physical disc with their group tag as proof. It’s safe to say that the movie studios will be disappointed with the early pirate release, which is likely to eat away at some of the home entertainment revenues.”
It looks like organisations such as FACT and the BPI will have their work cut out issuing takedown notices and the likes ahead of the film’s release (April 1 on Digital HD in the US, April 5 as a physical release there and on April 11 and 18 for digital and physical versions respectively in the UK). Commenting on the leak, BASE (formerly BVA) chief executive Liz Bales said: “The speed at which illegal content proliferates through digital channels clearly demonstrates why the video category and our many colleagues and partners across the creative sector are continuously pushing Government and search engines for a more effective mechanism to control digital copyright infringement. This incident comes at a time when the BPI reports on the milestone of reporting 200 million infringing URLs to Google in the last five years and while this is something to be commended, it is not enough and so the BPI is also continuing to publicly drive for tougher regulatory measures and urgent reform on the issue of piracy.”
More on that BPI landmark that Liz Bales mentioned above, and the organisation has this week announced that its automated content protection system, which finds illegal copies of music and other entertainment online and automatically sends the URLs to Google so the Internet search giant can takedown the links, will this weekend pass the 200 million mark in terms of individual URLs sent to Google. It has tacked up this figure in less than five years. BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said: “The BPI believes that people who make music or other entertainment deserve to be rewarded for their work and creativity. Only when consumers support legitimate sites can labels, studios and broadcasters consistently invest in the best talent to make high quality entertainment we can all enjoy. The notice and take-down system, as currently structured, cannot represent an effective response to piracy and requires urgent reform. Internet intermediaries like search engines clearly need to take more active responsibility to stop directing business to the black market.We are calling on Google and Bing to show their undiluted commitment to artists and the creative process by implementing a more pro-active solution to illegal sites appearing in search results. This will avoid the cost for both of us in dealing with hundreds of repeated notices for the same content on the same illegal sites.”
Continuing the anti-piracy theme and the City of London’s special anti-piracy unit, PIPCU, has been hard at work again tracking down illegally modified set-top boxes allowing users to tap into pay per view systems they haven’t paid for. And hot on the heels of a raid in the north east of England last week (see the last newsletter), they’ve been busy again, working with the Met Police to carry out two raids on premises in Walthamstow and Hornchurch, both on the eastern fringes of the capital. A 38-year-old man was arrested was arrested on suspicion of making or supplying articles for use in fraud, conspiracy to defraud, and two further offences contrary to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act and Proceeds of Crime Act. He was further arrested for possessing a Class B drug. More than 500 of the boxes were seized. PIPCU’s DCI Peter Ratcliffe said: “Today’s operation demonstrates how we work in collaboration with broadcasters to disrupt copyright related criminality. Those profiting from the illegal sale of modified set top boxes undermine honest subscription payers who deserve a fair deal. People who buy these devices leave themselves open to malware and viruses and their financial details being further used by fraudsters.”
“The officer said, 'I don’t know how to tell you this but there’s a warrant out for your arrest from 2002. Apparently you rented the movie Freddy Got Fingered and never returned it.' I thought he was joking.”
James Meyers, arrested this week for an outstanding warrant in North Carolina fir his failure to return a VHS back to J&J’s Video (now closed), with the news story travelling around the world…
AT THE MOVIES
10 Cloverfield Lane’s impressive opening frame of £1.6 million was not quite enough to dislodge Kung Fu Panda 3 ahead of the Easter holidays. Other new entries in the top 10 at the UK box office on the weekend before the long break were The Boy (£726,003), High Rise (£542,788) and Kapoor And Sons (£187,745).
If there was an award for cameo of the week, or at least the announcement thereof, then this week’s would go to none other than Paul McCartney. For Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft (his old Smash Hits nickname from the 1980s, for our younger readers) is set to appear in the next Pirates Of The Caribbean instalment Dead Men Tell No Tales, due out next year. He’s currently filming his hush-hush role as part of a major set piece from the next Johnny Depp starrer, following hot on the heels of some fella called Keith Richards, who’s already appeared alongside Depp…
Of course, as those in the know are probably aware, one of the finest McCartney impersonations comes from Brit comic Peter Serafinowicz, and, in this week’s most clumsily linked news story, he is set to play The Tick in the revived series currently being put together by Amazon Studios…
Maybe it’s because we like him so much, or possibly because he’s the hardest working man in showbusiness, but it seems as if Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, is never out of this column due to some new project or other. This week the former wrestler and all-round nice guy is being linked with the role of titular explorer in Doc Savage, a forthcoming project from Iron Man director Shane Black. Of course, this is a way down the line, as there’s plenty from Black ahead of that, including Nice Guys…
SITE OF THE WEEK
Forgive us for blowing our own trumpet, or at the very least directing you to our site, but here, from last week's BASE Insight Forum, is HMV's Rudy Osorio on the state of the business…
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun… for scurrilous gossip, sideswipes at loads of people, a bit of news and a big row this week with a film magazine who’d embedded a full illegally uploaded movie on its website…
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Signature’s current biggie…
Truly, truly outstanding…
Did she ever really go away?
Netflix’s new Ricky Gervais outing…
More hunky Hemsworth action…
These are really good, two animated stories to mark the release of Daddy’s Home on DVD in the US…
Great start to this Tom Hanks trailer…
