EONE SURGES AGAIN
SIGNATURE LORDS IT UP
DECLINE SLOWS, SAYS KANTAR…
…AS AMAZON AND TESCO WIN AT RETAIL
ORIGINALS: WORTH THE PRICE?
KRAYS CRAZE GATHERS PACE…
…TWIN RELEASES DUE
STAFF EXIT 4DVD IN RESTRUCTURE…
…TEAM BOWS OUT WITH FOUR 1 MILLION SELLERS…
BUT 4DVD STILL HAS THE HUMAN TOUCH
PRAYING FOR SUCCESS: BISHOP RETURNS…
…TOP GEAR BACK ON THE GRID FROM BBC
ARROW VIDEO’S OUT IS DUE OUT
88 INKS FUSION DEAL
ADVERTISERS DESERT PIRATE SITES
A LONG, LONG TIME AGO: STAR WARS ON VHS…
FOOTBALL EXTRAVAGANZA MEMORIES
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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... eOne, holding one and two in the midweek charts with The Water Diviner joining Insurgent at the top...
It Was A Bad Week For… Russian hackers as a US studio takes them to task for offering up Entourage...
And so, another week, another strong set of releases and another batch of new entries, although as it stands, according to the Official Charts Company midweek bulletin, it’s still eOne’s latest Divergent instalment, Insurgent, sitting pretty at the top of the sales listings, with a strong second week following its 120,000 unit week one performance. In another outstanding achievement for the company, it also held the number two slot in the midweeks, with its Russell Crowe title The Water Diviner on target to be the highest new entry. Commenting on its week, the company’s Louisa Mitchell said: “We are thrilled with the performance of Russell Crowe’s stunning directorial debut The Water Diviner, the action packed marketing campaign combined with great retailer support across the trade is set to deliver healthy week one sales. It's also great to see Insurgent hold onto the number one spot in its second week as the franchise continues to entertain its loyal fanbase.”
Insurgent and The Water Diviner give eOne the one and two slots in the midweeks, while Warner holds three and four for its double whammy released this week of Run All Night, the Liam Neeson actioner, and the Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard. Another good week for Signature too, as its latest outing, Robot Overlords, lording it up at number seven in the midweeks…
Robot Overlords is one of Signature’s highest profile releases of the year, coming on the back of its theatrical outing, with the home entertainment bow following hot on the heels of its theatrical success and coming ahead of the imminent release of its Krays film (for more on that see below). Commenting on its success, Signature’s Claire Loewenthal said: “We are delighted and proud to be releasing Robot Overlords. It’s a quality British film which has received a tremendous level of support from the market. Enthused by early screenings and reactions from our partners, we launched a full-throttle marketing and PR campaign to match our terrific in-store set up across digital and retail outlets. With midweek numbers suggesting a week one figure of 20,000 units we are thrilled how the title has performed.”
Before we move on to the usual mix of marketing, release news and other industry stuff, it’s worth looking at a few just released statistics and figures. Chief among these is the latest physical home entertainment analysis from Kantar Worldpanel, with its usual quarterly raft of data, covering, you guessed it, Q2. It makes for some positive reading too, with the 12 weeks to the beginning of July showing retailers growing share and the rate of decline slowing to three per cent, compared to last year’s seven per cent. Amazon and Tesco were among the key performers cited in the video market, while hmv’s slight decline in video and game share was offset by its online relaunch which, Kantar said, gives it access to almost 4 million online music and video consumers. Smaller retailers were also mentioned in dispatches, with the market growing some 10 per cent year on year to a total value of £47.7 million. Among those singled out for a strong performance here was Zavvi, up to 3.5 per cent share of the total online spend. Online now makes up more than a third of the overall physical entertainment business.
Some more insight into those figures comes from Kantar Worldpanel’s Fiona Keenan. She said: “The physical entertainment market’s decline of three per cent year-on-year is a positive sign – last year growth was down by seven per cent in the second quarter. Games have been the strongest performer over the last quarter, supported by sales growth in software for the current generation of consoles. Performing particularly well is GAME, which has increased its market share within the sector to 31.7 per cent from 29.1 per cent last year. It continues to be the preferred choice for owners of the Xbox One and PS4, taking 36.5 per cent of their combined software sales. There’s been an improved performance in the video market, where a value decline of 3.6 per cent compares to a drop of 9.5 per cent last quarter. Amazon and Tesco were the major winners, taking 42.5 per cent of the market between them. Tesco was also the strongest performer for the period’s biggest release – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – securing over a quarter of the title’s physical sales. The two retailers are now clearly ahead of HMV despite the three being level this time last year. Meanwhile Asda saw the largest decline in the video market. Its market share fell from 15 per cent 11.7 per cent year-on-year, following a move to an £11 price point on new release DVDs as many of its shoppers switched to other, cheaper retailers.”
A few more figures now and we alluded to this last week in the newsletter, but, according to Ofcom research published last week, those fortunes spent on exclusive programming by the likes of Netflix may have been a tad excessive. For less than a third of UK consumers questioned by Ofcom used their svod service to watch original programming. The latest report from the media watchdog suggested that 31 per cent had watched the likes of House Of Cards or Transparent on Netflix or Amazon Prime Instant Video, compared to 75 per cent who watched films and almost half who watched television series. Further figure stated that Netflix had 4.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2015, Amazon had 1.2 million and Now TV had gone past the 500,000 mark.
Back to Signature (see above) and the independent is behind one of a clutch of Krays-related goodies due at cinemas and on home entertainment formats in the coming weeks. Its outing is Rise Of The Krays and, as noted here recently, sees it becoming more involved in production and also marks the beginning of an ongoing relationship with West Ham chairman David Sullivan. The title is released on home entertainment formats on August 31 and, as Claire Loewenthal explained, it represents one of the company’s biggest releases thus far. She said: “Rise of the Krays has been an exciting project for Signature. Being involved in the production has meant we were able to shape our strategy by engaging with a core fan-base at an early stage. All our key partners were equally on-board with our proposition and their support has been overwhelming. We are kicking off our release with a VIP screening at Genesis Cinema on Friday August 21 and will roll out our marketing campaign with advertising across TV, print and social media ensuring we are reaching our target audience. Our in-store and on-store set up will deliver maximum exposure and, hopefully, a successful release for all parties.”
There’s more Krays activity too, with another big release due in September, in the shape of the The Krays Kill Order, a documentary released ahead of Tom Hardy starrer Legend, complete with a great hook, which states “you’ve heard the legend, now hear the facts”. It’s due from Metrodome at cinemas on September 4 ahead of a DVD bow 10 days later and has been put together by our old pals at Revelation, a company that has made acclaimed gang-based documentaries. Commenting on the release, Metrodome’s Jezz Vernon said: “We wouldn’t have embarked on this film without Revelation, we needed to know that the film makers could go right to the source and challenge the popular conception of who the Twins were with direct access to both their associates and their enemies. To say there are some shocking revelations is an understatement, the documentary rolls a hand grenade into the room.“ The company’s Kalina Jones added: “The doc contains exclusive reveals coming directly from the people who knew them best. The main interviewee is making some pretty astonishing revelations of which very few people are currently aware. I can’t reveal too much yet but the doc will be lifting the lid on what really happened, stripping away the glamour present in other Krays films. It’s all about authenticity and people coming forward to tell their story for the first time. As well as these very candid accounts of what went on during their reign, the doc has exclusive never before heard recordings of Reggie and promises to give a real insight into the murky and brutal world of organised crime.”
As part of the ongoing restructuring of 4DVD following Channel 4’s recent inking of a new distribution deal with Spirit (see recent newsletters), the home entertainment arm of the TV giant has this week bade farewell to David Root, one of the leading figures behind the label in recent years. There are a few other departures at the 4DVD label, but the operation is continuing, with Spirit looking after the physical sales and distribution and 4DVD handling the digital side. Karla Berry is remaining at Channel 4 in the role of distribution manager for transactional business, handling the Spirit and DTO arms of 4DVD. Commenting in the restructure, she said: “I’m really proud of what the 4DVD team have achieved over the past 10 years; four titles selling over 1 million units and The Inbetweeners Movie and Deal Or No Deal both reaching number one in the peak Christmas week when competing with much bigger studio releases. David Root has led one of the smallest but strongest teams in the industry and our commercial success delivered over the years, coupled with fact that most of the team have been with him for a lot of that time, are both testimony to his skill, expertise and leadership. 4DVD is now looking forward to Q4 and beyond, continuing our successful partnership with Spirit Entertainment in the DVD sector and managing DTO in-house.”
Commenting on his time at 4DVD (he joined after stints on both sides of the fence, first at retail with Woolworths and then at VCI) and its successes, across the TV, feature film, special interest and live comedy sectors, popular industry figure David Root said: “It's been a privilege working on some tremendous titles with such a fantastic team over the last eight years and I am immensely proud of what we have achieved in that time. It's obviously sad that it has to come to an end but I'm excited about some interesting opportunities for the future.” For more on 4DVD going forward, see next week’s newsletter…
The last release out of the door as the restructure comes and the new-look 4DVD kicks in is one of the year’s most talked about programmes, Humans, the big budget, homegrown sci-fi series that broke Channel 4 viewing figures. The August 17 bow sees 4DVD putting its not inconsiderable marketing muscle behind the release, with a campaign that includes TV advertising. Its shelf-life is likely to be extended courtesy of a second series of the programme, which has now been commissioned and is set to arrive in 2016. Commenting on the release, 4DVD’s Karla Berry said: “Humans launched as Channel 4’s best-rated drama series in over 20 years and has captivated audiences and critics alike. Featuring a top-class cast including William Hurt, Katherine Parkinson, Colin Morgan and Rebecca Front, Humans is both an action packed thriller, and a rumination on the nature of humanity. Sci-fi can be a cult genre, but the show is much more about the relationships, so it moves way beyond just sci-fi. The show appeals to both a sci-fi audience as well as the older broader market, both demographics that we know are still collectors of physical product.”
To the old BBC Television Centre (the one Roy Castle danced in front of), currently the home of the Beeb’s commercial arm (and home entertainment supplier) BBC Worldwide, where the organisation was holding what was dubbed its Big British Christmas, offering a look at its entire consumer products range for the final part of the year. And it was good to see home entertainment still forming a key plank of its strategy. Key releases for the autumn include a new live outing from John Bishop, Supersonic Live At The Royal Albert Hall, Peter Kay’s Car Share, a second series of Karl Pilkington’s The Moaning Of Life. Crime and drama comes in the shape of Luther with a chilling fourth series and From Darkness (starring Ann Marie Duff ), plus we there’s also natural history at its finest, with Sir David Attenborough narrating The Hunt. And there’s still lots of children’s fun in the likes of Hey Duggee, Sarah & Duck, and David Walliams latest adaptation, The Boy In The Dress, plus the return of Horrible Histories. “We’re glad to see the return of John Bishop,” said BBC Worldwide’s head of sales and marketing Rhidian Bragg. “John Bishop’s pedigree is already well established and he’s sold well over a million units over his first three releases. It’s good for the category and stand-up as well. And Peter Kay is back on DVD for the first time in a long time too.” He added that there was real drafting potential too across its range, with the likes of Luther, Sherlock and Doctor Who. The latter was being split into two parts, the first of which would be released on DVD while the Timelord’s adventures were still being broadcast. “It’s pretty much the strongest drafting slate we’ve had for a long time. The Sherlock one-off at Christmas offers a huge opportunity for our box sets. Part one of Doctor Who is this side of Q4, which means having a new release in the market at the same time as transmission.”
And what of one of the key BBC brands, a mainstay of recent Q4 sales, Top Gear? Clarkson, May and Hammond may have left the series and BBC Worldwide will be saying farewell with a greatest hits-style release. “We will be bringing out a greatest moments of the Clarkson, Hammond and May era,” said Rhidian Brigg. “Q4 wouldn’t be the same without a Top Gear gifting release and we’ll have a strong campaign behind it to reignite the memories of the series.” The programme is currently being put together, so more details will emerge in the coming weeks, but Top Gear is set to remain a key franchise for home entertainment and consumer products as a whole in its new incarnation due in 2016. More on BBC Worldwide releases in the coming weeks…
As ever, the independents are making great use of social media to unveil titles for the months ahead and the latest to make a dent on Twitter and the likes with a production announcement this week is Arrow Video. It announced a raft of UK releases for November, including shock sequel Nekromantik 2, the excellent The Honeymoon Killers and the Jacques Rivette Collection, a boxset pulling together much of the work of the great director, including the seminal, near-13 hour long Out 1. For both the US and UK, it has the five-film Yakuza saga Battles Without Honor And Humanity and Italian Ennio Morricone scored thriller Wake Up And Kill. Commenting on the announcement, which saw Out 1 trending on Twitter at one point, Arrow Video’s Francesco Simeoni said: “We’re thrilled with the reaction to our latest announcements and the fan buzz has been incredible even the point that Out 1 was trending on twitter. The slate is incredibly diverse, from long lost and barely screened masterpieces by Jacques Rivette to the yakuza series Battles Without Honour and Humanity which has drawn comparisons with The Godfather we could not be more happy with the response from our fans for these and other genre delights. We will be doing lots of campaign activity on the titles including screenings of these films, which for the Rivette’s OUT 1 will mark only the second ever screening of his 13-hour opus in the UK (the first was in 2006 at the BFI)! In typical Q4 fashion we have gone for big gift sets which will be pretty special for the gifting season and with deluxe treatment in packaging and exclusive content will make them stand out from the crowd.”
Some distribution news and the horror and genre experts over at 88 Films have inked a new deal with Fusion Media Sales, which will see the company taking over the s&d for its titles from Q4 onwards. Commenting on the deal, Fusion’s Murray Dibbs said: “The Fusion team are thrilled to be looking after the 88 Films slate from Q4 onwards. We've watched them go from strength to strength over the past few years with now the most impressive cult and horror catalogue in the UK. Together with our existing labels we will have the strongest line up of horror titles available in the market place.” 88 Films’ Richard Elliott added: “We’re really excited by the new challenges and possibilities that working with Fusion Media Sales will bring, We’ve worked really hard over the last three years and this is the next big step in our development as a label. We’re so positive about the future at a time when our Italian Collection, Slasher Classics Collection and Cult Cinema Collections are going from strength to strength. We look forward to a long and successful relationship with Murray and the team.”
Anti-piracy news and the specialist anti-piracy police task force PIPCU was celebrating after seeing its Operation Creative campaign, which targeted legitimate advertisers whose spots appeared on illegal downloading and other copyright infringing websites. It had targeted advertisers trying to discourage them from putting their ads on sites, thus hitting pirates in the pocket. It has this week reported a 73 per cent fall in advertising from the UK’s top online ad-spenders. Commenting in its success, Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe said: “The Government takes copyright infringement extremely seriously - it hurts businesses, consumers and the wider economy. The results of Operation Creative show what can be achieved when enforcement agencies, industry and government work together. I am delighted PIPCU are clamping down on advertising of things like pop music and gambling on copyright infringing sites - protecting our industries and consumers from online crime.” PIPCU chief DCI Peter Ratcliffe added: “Working closely with rights holders and the advertising industry, PIPCU has been able to lead the way with tackling copyright infringing sites by successfully disrupting advertising revenue. Operation Creative and our Infringing Website List (IWL) is just one of the many ways we are working together with the private sector to safeguard the public, protect the creative industries and ensure the reputation of advertisers and brands are not discredited through association with illegal websites. Not only do the public need to be aware that these websites are not safe places to visit as they often contain malware and viruses, but the criminals behind these sites are making substantial sums of money from advertising and inadvertently brand and advertisers are funding this online crime.”
“In 1994, our UK sales director noted that the three Star Wars titles had never actually dropped out of the charts. There were always hanging around the lower regions of the VHS Top 100 retail chart... usually selling a few hundred units a week. Every week. Without any promotion. Imagine, he asked, what we could do if we actually launched the Star Wars titles properly... and TV advertised them. Treated them like we would treat a major new release.” News that the first six Star Wars films are getting another new lease of life set us thinking about the history of Star Wars on physical home entertainment formats and how the original releases, in particular Fox’s work in the UK on releasing them in the 1990s, had changed the face of our business, in terms of catalogue releases, remastering, packaging and a whole lot more. We got chatting to our old pal Steve Collins, who was at Fox and worked on its groundbreaking 1990s Star Wars fare and, before you know it, we had a 2,000-plus word feature on the 1994 releases. It’s up on our website now and, even if we say so ourselves, its essential reading for anyone involved in our business. For those who were there, it’s a reminder of what those wearing rose-tinted spectacles might refer to as the good old days; for younger industry staffers, it’s a must-read and a real history lesson about the VHS era. The above quote is taken from Steve Collins’ excellent piece and keep an eye on our website, for a look at the 1995 re-release, a retail trip to George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch where he revealed his plans for the special editions and a look at the seminal box set produced that same year (which helped set the template for every lavish package since). Thanks to Steve Collins for his efforts. He’s most recently been in the international marketing department at Universal and, when he’s not been writing lengthy articles for us, is currently exploring employment and consultancy opportunities in the UK. You can get in touch with him at sacollins@btinternet.com.
“In the time I’ve been involved with the Football Extravaganza, my personal highlight was watching Pelé take the time before the event to meet everyone in the room and spending a lot of time talking to the kids present.” By the time you’ve digested that rather long feature (excellent as it is), there’ll be another feature on our website containing words of wisdom, like those above from hmv chairman and ceo of Hilco Paul McGowan, on the hmv Football Extravaganza, celebrating 20 years of the Nordoff Robbins-fundraiser. We’ve got some hmv staffers past and present talking about their memories of the event over the years, and more… This year’s event, which honours David Beckham, takes place on September 1 and is on the verge of selling out, to snap up tickets email rae@thefe.co.uk And if you want to add your memories of the event, you can still get it in over the weekend, email Tim Murray at the usual address…
“Warner wants viewers who want to see the picture, seeing it in theatres in the best quality and do not see a poor-quality illegal copy. Ultimately, we hope that these sites will remove illegal content and comply with the Russian law in their activities.”
Russian lawyer Lina Gevorgyan after Warner won an injunction against Russian hackers for illegally distributing digital copies of Entourage…
EVENT OF THE WEEK
Thanks to SPHE for inviting us along to see its big summer family film Pixels as it opened at cinemas. It's a proper family film, our seven year old junior correspondent was particularly enamoured of it, and we got to play games and scoff sweets before...
AT THE MOVIES
After its critical mauling, the latest take on Marvel superheroes Fantastic Four entered the box office at number one with £2.7 million. The only other new entry with more than £500,000 was The Gift…
Here’s some comic book news that’s away from the normal spandex offering, as Tom Hardy is said to have signed on the dotted line to produce and possibly star in the forthcoming planned 100 Bullets adaptation. It’s less Suicide Squad, the DC film he was lined up to star in, and more akin to something like Sin City. The film noir-style tale follows a gunman from a shadowy organisation who offers those who have been wronged the chance for retribution. It comes from Vertigo, the edgier DC offshoot, and is in development from another Warner company, New Line.
Also from New Line, get ready for more Freddy… As it’s getting ready to reanimate Mr Krueger from the strange dreamworld he’s been inhabiting since his last outing a few years back. The new Nightmare On Elm Street (rather than New Nightmare) will join a whole host of other horror franchises such as Halloween on the schedules…
SITE OF THE WEEK
Universal is killing it with its theatrical marketing and this is the best thing we’ve seen on the Internet for a while… www.straightouttasomewhere.com…
TWEET OF THE WEEK
In which we gossip, wind people up, sine at others, tell you what we’ve been doing and other stuff… www.twitter.com/theraygun…
And a long-standing TV franchise is returning too…
A Star Wars Korean trailer. Because there’s a bit you haven’t seen before…
In any other week, this would be the trailer of the week…
…because not even Tarantino can outdo Mainwaring and co…
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