THE RAYGUN NEWSLETTER :: WEEK ENDING JANUARY 14 2016

LIONSGATE LA LA LANDS ON ITS FEET

WATER AND SEA VIE FOR TOP SLOT

ARROW VIDEO HEADS TO SUPERMARKET…

…AND UNVEILS PHANTASM AND OTHERS

MANGA TAKES THE TUBE

US FIGURES UP FOR 2016

UK THEATRICAL BEATS 2015 HIGH

FOX HAS THAT FRIDAY FEELING

FACT SPREADS THE WORD

MORE STRINGS TO LAIKA’S BOW

A HYMN TO HUR

RAW POWER FROM DOGWOOF…

…AND THE MOTHER OF ALL DOCS

NEW DRIVE FOR LYNCH IN 2017

AMAZON EYES SALES TRENDS

AT THE MOVIES

SITE OF THE WEEK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

TRAILERS OF THE WEEK

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It Was A Good Week For... Lionsgate, at theatrical, at home entertainment and at the awards…

It Was A Bad Week For… Anyone accessing pirate content online from the UK, as Internet service providers’ piracy alerts will soon be fired off to them, warning about illegal downloads and directing them to legal sites…

It’s been a heck of a week for Lionsgate, as the company has gone into 2017 all guns blazing across both its theatrical and home entertainment arms and beyond. It ended 2016 with a double success story on the latter, with Brotherhood and Mechanic: Resurrection both in the top 10 and the pair selling around the 130,000 between them, while this week it’s sitting pretty in the Official Charts Company’s midweek bulletin with USS Indianapolis: Men Of Courage going head to head with Studiocanal’s Hell Or High Water (a double delight for the Studiocanal and Lionsgate joint Elevation sales venture, which is looking after both) for the top spot. It’s also seen its La La Land enjoying success at the Golden Globes, with a raft of BAFTA nominations AND open at UK cinemas (go see it if you haven't already, it’s an absolute treat). It all makes for a busy January for the distributor, as noted by the company’s Marie-Claire Benson, who said: “We kicked off the New Year with Mechanic: Resurrection as the Number 1 selling title with sales of over 52,000 on the single and double pack. Brotherhood, which also released on Boxing Day also reached the top 10, showing the ongoing appeal of two heavyweight British actors and demonstrating the huge appetite for DVD and Blu-Ray with volume sales of 130,000 units across both titles to date. Furthermore, we’re delighted to see Nicolas Cage at Number 1 with USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage. Upcoming releases for January include Blair Witch, the terrifying sequel to the global phenomenon, The Blair Witch Project, and Deepwater Horizon, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell in an unforgettably powerful story based on real-life heroes. And if that wasn’t enough – Lionsgate is celebrating the launch of La La Land in cinemas this week. As one of the most talked-about films this awards season, it really is an exciting time to be at Lionsgate UK.”

What of the aforementioned midweek figures, then? Well, as noted above, USS Indianapolis, the latest outing from the hugely prolific Nc Cage, is neck and neck with Hell Or High Water, the former trumping the latter at the halfway stage by a mere 283 units, according to the Official Charts Company’s bulletin. Fitness was still strong elsewhere, with Joe Wicks still the bestseller among the keep fit releases, ahead of Scarlett’s Superslim Me, now in the top five, and more experienced fitness fanatics such as Davina McCall and Lorraine Kelly. Trainspotting’s drafting continues to boost sales ahead of the sequel’s release at the end of January, while Morgan, from Fox, is in at number eight. The Night Manager’s big success at the Golden Globes has proved to be a fillip to the SPHE release too, it has shot back up the charts again on the back of its gongs at the ceremony. Other new entries in the chart include Rupture at 38 and Mythica: The Iron Crown at number 40…

Interesting to see the ever-expanding Arrow Video has added another feather to its cap this week with the launch of a new branded Blu-ray shelf in 150 stores, the first time ever the imprint has had a bespoke campaign in one of the supermarket giants. Titles on offer as part of the campaign include Donnie Darko, Videodrome, The Hills Have Eyes and Battle Royale. Commenting on the initiative, Arrow’s head of sales Pete Thompson said: “We’re delighted to partner with Sainsburys to offer Arrow Video products to a new audience. It’s always exciting to widen our physical retail distribution and I am grateful to them for giving us this opportunity. Initial sales have been higher than forecast and we expect a big spike over the weekend when our marketing campaign really takes off.” Sainsbury’s film and TV buyer Andrew Dean said: “As the catalogue Blu-ray market continues to grow and move toward premium product and content, we’re delighted to team up with Arrow Video, who lead the way in this arena. We’re thrilled to be able to offer our customers this unique range for the first time.”

Meanwhile, sticking with Arrow Video, the imprint used its traditional means of social media to unveil its titles due in April, with the typically enthusiastic response from the genre label’s scores of fans. What’s more, it includes another lavishly packaged high ticket limited edition, the kind that delivers big margin to retailers and proves equally welcome to fans. It’s a title we discussed last year when it screened at the London Film Festival, with the remastered version of Phantasm proving to be one of our highlights of the LFF. It comes as part of a six-disc, sumptuous set containing the first five Phantasm films, replete with a raft of extras and, as part of the packaging, a silver ball featured so famously in the films. In keeping with the imprint’s modus operandi, it’s available in a limited edition of 10,000 – these things regularly sell out as well. Other titles due from the Atlantic-straddling Arrow Video label and its sister US imprint include The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave, Wolf Guy, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, Caltiki The immortal Monster and, as UK only releases, Catfight and The City Of The Dead. Commenting on the April slate and Phantasm, the company’s senior marketing manager Mike Hewitt said: “April sees a phantastic array of releases on our Arrow Video label with something to truly please everyone. The long-awaited Phantasm 1-5 boxset is perhaps the highlight for most of our fans, but we are equally proud to be releasing a classic Christopher Lee horror in City Of The Living Dead, plus Mario Bava’s Caltiki: The Immortal Monster and Sonny Chiba in Wolf Guy. Not only that, we also have our second new release title on the label with the wonderfully darkly comic Catfight, starring Anne Heche, Sandra Oh and Alicia Silverstone. The Arrow Video label is going from strength-to-strength and April is a real taste-setter for the rest of this year’s line-up which is currently shaping up amazingly well!”

Manga has gone underground this week, with a double-header campaign promoting its forthcoming activity appearing all over stations across the capital’s tube network, The two separate creatives highlight Ghost In The Shell, due to air at more than 100 screens on January 25 as interest in the franchise builds ahead of the big live action Hollywood remake, and Yu Gi Oh and the February 1 theatrical release for The Dark Side Of Dimensions. Both cinema releases presage home entertainment activity, the former will arrive in a special edition on March 20 as the Scarlett Johansson take turns up on the big screen, the latter is due in May. It’s all part of the latest thrust of Manga activity following on from the record year enjoyed by the company in 2016, as reported here previously. “The London underground campaign represents a considerable spend for us,” said the company’s Jerome Mazandarani. “Anime will have a much higher profile this year, with the likes of us, Studiocanal and Anime Ltd all having big releases. This is our biggest ever theatrical push and it’s all about premium, right through to home entertainment, with special retail releases. Believe it or not, Ghost In The Shell has never had a theatrical release and the pre-orders for tickets and the home entertainment release are very strong.” The activity is all part of Manga and sister company Animatsu’s aim to become a home for animated and associated brands in 2017, running through from Pokemon and the recently announced Power Rangers through to more grown up offerings such as Ghost In The Shell.

We promised you some more year-end figures and we've got some this week, with the US home entertainment stats proving to be particularly revealing. US trade organisation DEG, the Digital Entertainment Group, unveiled its preliminary figures for 2016, which showed that consumer spending roe by 1.36 per cent to a whopping $18.28 billion. On the disc side, sales were down 9.55 per cent, less than the double digit decline in previous years leading up to 2016. For the UK, which traditionally follows the US and is a year or so behind, that could be heartening as it indicates that 2017 might be better on these shores. The steep decline was stemmed thanks to an uptick in Blu-ray sales. Subscription streaming and vod grew by more than 17 per cent to above the $8 billion mark, driven by Netflix and others. Also heartening was the fact that 4K Ultra HD sales are growing faster than they did when the high definition Blu-ray and competing HD DVD did when they launched in 2006. In its briefing, the DEG said: “Consumer home entertainment spending saw another annual increase in sales in 2016 powered by a double-digit rise in key digital categories. Consumers continued to embrace the convenience and accessibility of purchasing and collecting digital content. Of particular interest, 4K Ultra HD TVs, players and discs all showed strong sales in their first year of launch.”

And over on the theatrical side, the figures are looking pretty impressive too: the 2016 data showed that total UK and Irish box office receipts were up on the record set the previous year, the total of £1.32 billion was 1.45 per cent up on 2015. What’s more, there was greater breadth too, with the top five providing just around 18 per cent of the total for the year, down from 2015. And there’s more for retailers too – the top three earners for 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and Bridget Jones’s Baby, are all due from home entertainment release in the first part of 2017, which should significantly boost the home entertainment coffers this year. Commenting to The Raygun ahead of the announcement, the FDA’s Mark Batey said: “The topline is remarkably robust, coming off a strong year in 2015. UK/Ireland box-office receipts crossed the £1 billion mark in the autumn 3 weeks ahead of 2015, and ROGUE ONE has just posted the biggest opening weekend of the year (over its first 4 days). Given the plethora of other media/entertainment options available both in and out of the home, this is encouraging. Film viewing is, of course, content- or product-led, supported by effective distribution to cut through and connect the huge range of titles with the audiences for whom they were intended. This being the case, it is heartening to reflect that the diverse line-up for 2017 looks hugely appealing – with plenty for everyone, from La La Land to Logan, Miss Sloane to Moonlight, Paddington to Fast & Furious, Dunkirk to Lion, Wonder Woman to Transformers, and so much more…”

Thank Fox it’s Friday… The studio’s UK home entertainment arm has used that play on words to launch a new online initiative aimed at Facebook types, with the Facebook page of the same name counting down to the weekend and offering fun for film and TV fans. You can see it here , and, as Fox’s head of publicity and promotions Liz Silverstone said: “Thank Fox It’s Friday aims to capture the sentiment of that Friday feeling; when the working week is almost over and the feel-good mood of knowing the weekend is just around the corner. We love films, as does our audience and who doesn’t love Fridays? Think of Thank Fox It’s Friday as the quick-witted voice and slightly unruly little brother to Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. The page will focus on familiar, shareable content from our new releases and classic film archive along with light-hearted memes, GIFs, film stills, behind-the-scenes images and regular competitions and exclusive giveaways.”

FACT has been busy this week, working with the City of London’s anti-piracy task force PIPCU on the latest part of the Operation Creative initiative, visiting eight different brands, agencies and networks whose ads were currently appearing on illegal download and streaming piracy sites. They were told how advertising on sites helped fund illegal websites, and all have pledged to support Operation Creative and sign up to the Infringing Website List, effectively stopping their advertising on the sites. It’s another victory for the scheme, which lists more than 1,200 sites and has helped cut down advertising on pirate sites by as much as 73 per cent. Operation Creative’s lead officer Detective Constable Steven Salway said: “Operation Creative is key to ending the funding of websites involved in digital piracy. It is important we tackle this issue, not only for brands and businesses’ reputation, but for consumers too. When adverts from established brands appear on these sites, they lend them a look of legitimacy. By working with industry to discourage reputable brands from advertising on piracy sites, we will help consumers realise these sites are neither official nor legal.” FACT director general Kieron Sharp, added: “FACT is a proud original partner of Operation Creative and is keen to support PIPCU on increasing awareness of this iniatative to brands and the advertising community. PIPCU’s IWL is the first of its kind and is a great tool for businesses to protect their brand reputation by ensuring their adverts don’t appear on pirate sites. Consumers need to be aware that not only are the criminals behind these websites making substantial amounts of money from adverts, but simply visiting the sites can put the public at risk of malware, viruses and click-through scams.”

Some big releases lined up for Monday January 16, with one of 2016’s most acclaim animated titles, Kubo And The Two Strings, finally arriving on DVD and Blu-ray courtesy of Universal on the back of a wealth of critical acclaim. The film, of course, comes from the much-loved Laika studio, which boasts a strong record around this time of year for its releases – think Boxtrolls and Paranorman. The title comes in assorted O-ring covered SKUs, including a3D Blu-ray one complete with lenticular, while HMV has its own exclusive comic book gift. TV advertising on key channels such as Nickelodeon and Sky will kick off the marketing, with further promoted spots on social media targeting the key parents, families and six to 12-year-old target groups Longer format video will also appear on Facebook, while PR support has come from director Travis Knight, as well as puppet and costumer designers, with a stop-motion animation workshop for parent bloggers to boost coverage. Product manager Lucia Magadan said: “Laika’s incredible creative talent and sophisticated narrative have been incredibly inspiring and have made working on Kubo a truly magical experience. Let the quest begin.”

Also due through Universal on Monday, this time through its ongoing deal with Paramount, as the new take on the epic Ben-Hur arrives on physical formats. It shows the benefit of bring two biggies to market on the same day, each helping the other as joint point of sale appears at retail, helping the titles garner more space, with further PR support. TV and vod advertising will give it a big push. The creative features not only plenty of action, but also further boasts the vocal talents of Morgan Freeman himself. Commenting on the release, product manager Emma Sihra said: “With pre-orders looking strong, we are really excited for a great release week… Let the race begin!”

Due on DVD and Blu-ray this Monday is Gimme Danger, the first of two Jim Jarmusch films released into UK cinemas last year. Offering an explosive insight into the life and times of Iggy Pop and his seminal rock band The Stooges, the documentary sees Jarmusch pull at the threads of Pop's understandably hazy memory with the help of archive footage and animations. On the release, Dogwoof's Daniel Green stated: "When we heard Jim Jarmusch was making a doc on The Stooges we jumped at the first opportunity to team up with Amazon Studios for the UK release. In terms of our physical release we've seen huge support from both Amazon and HMV, the former producing its best pre-order performance for a Dogwoof titles since The Act of Killing. This all means that Gimme Danger is poised to become our most successful music documentary."

More from Dogwoof, as the company has announced the worldwide acquisition of documentary Motherland, a look at the busiest maternity hospital in the world, in the Philippines. Dogwoof will look after worldwide sales for the film, directed by Ramona Diaz and due to make its debut at this year’s Sundance film festival. Diaz said: ““I'm honoured and looking forward to working with Dogwoof on Motherland. With their reputation of introducing cinematic documentaries to the world, Dogwoof is particularly positioned to launch Motherland; they have an innate understanding of what the film is and what it can achieve in the marketplace. I couldn't have asked for better representation.” Anna Godas, Dogwoof ceo added: “The busiest maternity ward in the world, what an amazing concept, and what a wonderful execution by Ramona. She presents an incisive, revealing and ever so touching commentary on her birth country which will impact on anyone who watches it.”

The long five month march to the revived Twin Peaks TV series has started this week, with plenty of talk surrounding David Lynch returning to the town and its dark secrets for the series which has been confirmed to air at the end of May. And Studiocanal has taken the time to announce its own Lynch-related plans for 2017. It has announced that the director’s classic Mulholland Drive, one of the cult helmer’s most talked about films, will be getting its full treatment this year. This means a new digital restoration of a 4K transfer of the masterpiece, voted the best film of the century so far by BBC Culture, airing at the Birmingham Flatpack Film Festival at the start of April, with a theatrical release on April 14 and a full Blu-ray, DVD and digital release on May 1. The all-singing, all-dancing disc release will include a raft of extras, more on these closer to the time, but here’s Studiocanal’s Alison Arber on the release. “The work of David Lynch is always surreal and mesmerising and never more so than in Mullholland Drive. Celebrating its 15^th anniversary with a brand new restoration and special edition release seems a fitting tribute to one of the world’s most innovative directors.”

And we’ll end with some more 2016 fare, as we’ve been poring over the Amazon Trends Report, which looks at what proved most popular among its customers over the previous 12 months. As ever, there’s plenty in there of interest, not least the record-breaking performance of The Grand Tour. As the report noted: “One of the most talked about TV shows of the year, The Grand Tour, revved onto Prime Video in November smashing previous records to become the biggest show premiere ever on Prime Video.” It continued: “Total Prime membership sign-ups exceeded all previous days, with the exception of Amazon’s renowned Prime Day. The episodes to date have received unprecedented customer and critical acclaim, being one of the top rated TV shows on IMDb with an overall rating of 9.5 and over 10,000 votes. The show has been rated 4.7 out of 5 stars by more than 5,000 UK customers on Amazon and currently has a score of 97 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.” On the Prime front, it added: “Many Prime Members have enjoyed a raft of new Amazon Original Series this year, with The Man in the High Castle, Transparent, Wishenpoof! and The Grand Tour being our most watched drama, comedy, kid’s and factual programmes of the year. They’ve also enjoyed watching their favourite shows on Amazon Prime Video at their own convenience, whether at home or on the move. The ‘download’ feature – meaning you can download shows to watch wherever you are, without Wi-Fi, on your mobile or tablet - has once again proven popular with customers.” The biggest Christmas seller it singles out among DVD releases is Universal’s The Secret Life Of Pets, while it further breaks down sales across regions, showing, for example, that Studiocanal’s Eight Days A Week title was a big seller in the Beatles’ home town of Liverpool. In Scotland, it added, another Studiocanal title, Macbeth, was a top seller, and Leicester City’s success rubbed off on sales, with the Champions DVD a top performer in the Midlands. Also mentioned are Charlotte Crosby’s and Davina McCall, queens of 2016’s fitness DVD market…

Actually, one more thing, our final, final call for our Raygun year-end survey. Got a few answers in, but we'd love your thoughts on the best and worst of the last year and what could be the higlights and lowpoints of the year ahead…Just note down your answers to the questions below and send them to tim@theraygun.co.uk… And please feel free to forward it on to colleagues, the more the merrier…

Favourite three releases of the year:

Highlights of 2016:

Lowpoint of 2016:

Event of the year:

Biggest challenge in 2017:

What I’m looking forward to in 2017:

AT THE MOVIES

Fox’s game to film adaptation Assassin’s Creed sat atop the UK box office after its opening frame, the Michael Fassbender starrer earning more than £5 million in its first week. Silence opened strongly for Studiocanal, taking more than £1.5 million. Elsewhere, eOne’s A Monster Calls had earned around £2 million…

We won’t bore you or patronise you, but in case you missed the Golden Globes winners, dominated by La La Land on the film side, you can see them here. And the same goes for this year’s BAFTAs, with La La Land again making a strong showing, you can see all this year’s nominees for the event, which takes place on February 12, over here…

This week’s big comic book rumour, at least from the Marvel side, is that Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage is in line for a role in the next big Avengers film, Infinity. Over at DC, meanwhile, the Green Lantern is returning, with Warner hiring David Goyer, who has worked on, among others, the Dark Knight series and Batman V Superman. He is developing a script for Green Lantern Corps which will return to the adventures of Hal Jordan and his cohorts…

No news of the new Ocean’s outing, Ocean’s Eight, for a week or two, so we can give you a new snippet that also ties in with that James Corden update you’ve all been waiting for: the TV celebrity has this week been confirmed as joining the cast for the female friendly take on the gambling con franchise…

SITE OF THE WEEK

Here’s the latest from BASE ceo Liz Bales for the Huffington Post…

TWEET OF THE WEEK

TRAILERS OF THE WEEK

Be warned, not for the faint-hearted, but a cracking trailer…

https://youtu.be/lhbzjSIcHeA