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WARNER: COMMENT FROM 2021’S TOP DISTRIBUTOR
MAJOR LOOKS AHEAD TO 2022
UK BOX OFFICE LEAPS 85 PER CENT YEAR ON YEAR
500 NEW TITLES AT CINEMAS IN 2021, MORE THIS YEAR
STRONG AND CONTINUED RECOVERY IN BOX OFFICE
YEAR-END COVERAGE FROM THE PRESS
101 APPOINTS…
AND ADDS TO AGFA RANGE
BUILDING A HOME. FOR THE HOME
HOFFMAN SCREENS ON SOUTHBANK…
…AS INDICATOR EXPECTS BUSY START
MICHAEL’S BACK
ACORN HODS A SEANCE
DAZZLER ACQUIRES
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
It was a good week for… Warner, looking ahead to 2022…
It was a bad week for… Apologies for the late running newsletter, we've been moving offices and lugging stuff around…
In the last newsletter, we promised more reviewing and looking back at the year that was 2021 and further looking ahead and crystal ball-gazing for the coming 12 months too, along with comment from Warner, which was the top distributor for the previous year. The major hailed the “exceptional” performance of its titles, particularly in what proved to be a fast-changing market. The company’s executive director for sales and customer marketing Sima Westley and vp digital sales and marketing insight Ruth Sharp said: “One of the most overused words of 2021 was ‘unprecedented’ and last year was just that. As the pandemic continued to reverberate through everyone’s lives, we saw the entertainment market once again evolve and shift to meet everchanging consumer needs. However, the demand for great content continued unabated. Physically we continued to show resilience with our results on Tenet, Wonder Woman 1984, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Godzilla v Kong, Fast & Furious 9: The Final Saga. We also closed 2021 with an exceptional performance on Bond, No Time to Die. Additionally, on the catalogue front, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and Bond all continued to deliver fantastic results.”
Looking back over 2021 and looking ahead to this year, Warner’s Sima Westley and Ruth Sharp continued: “Digitally we released our film slate to consumers as early as possible with impressive PVOD results; especially on blockbuster releases Godzilla v Kong, Wonder Woman 1984 and Dune. Topping the EST and TVOD YTD Distributor charts is a great achievement reflecting stellar new release results (Wonder Woman 1984 number one TVOD title, Tenet number two TVOD title) and buoyant catalogue performances across key franchise, festive and boxsets. In 2022 we have another spectacular slate – both from Warner Bros. and from our partners across New Release; Catalogue; Franchise and 4k. We look forward to delivering an exciting offerings in the physical and digital spaces across all of our retail partners.”
Meanwhile, more year-end announcements and reveals and if anyone is looking to early indications of how 2022 is shaping up home entertainment-wise, then the box office for the past 12 months is a good indicator, certainly as it bounced back in the final part of the year, propelled first by James Bond outing No Time To Die and, right at the end of the year, the incredible success of Sony’s latest Spider-man instalment, No Way Home. The final box office for 2021, according to the tally from the experts at Comscore, was £596 million, which, despite being down on the pre-Covid high figure, still represented a giant leap from the 2020 total, up around 85 per cent on the previous year. As the Film Distributors Association noted, the figures “signalled a strong sector recovery”. The organisation further added: "The substantial improvement in box office reaffirmed cinemagoing as the leading out-of-home entertainment choice, made even more remarkable by the fact that cinemas were completely shuttered for 19 weeks of the year.” The year saw the two aforementioned heavy-hitters both crashing in to the all-time top 10 UK box office figures, and, the FDA said, the former helped Universal to the top distributor over the past 12 months, with more than £3 of every tenner spent at the UK box office going on a Universal title. It released an average of two films a month, with 25 contributing to its year-end total of £180 million. Andy Leyshon, Chief Executive Officer at the Film Distributors’ Association said: “Once cinemas were permitted to reopen their doors, it was heartening to see audiences return in good numbers and cinemagoing reaffirm its position as the nation’s favourite out-of-home entertainment choice. 2021 delivered some terrific titles and stellar big screen successes, and in 2022 the recovery story is set to continue with an even more diverse slate of films and something on offer for every taste.”
There’s an interesting post over on LinkedIn from Lucy Jones, executive director at Comscore Movies, which outlines the company's expert response to the figures it has pulled together. She said: “While the last two years were both affected by periods of lockdown in response to rising COVID-19 case rates, the shape of the reopening was very different in 2021. When cinemas were permitted to reopen in mid-May 2021 there was a swift and sustained response, due in large part to a strong slate of film releases. Within four weeks, more than 700 cinemas had reopened, a milestone it took over 10 weeks to reach in 2020 due to regional restrictions and a shortage of new releases. 2020 also suffered from the reintroduction of closures at different times in the various nations, making it difficult to coordinate UK-wide film releases. This was thankfully not repeated in 2021, in the main due to the widespread rollout of the COVID vaccination programme.” She continued: “497 new titles were released into cinemas in 2021, up from 444 in 2020. We expect 2022 to return to the usual volume, which peaked in 2019 at 938 new releases. Looking only at the period when cinemas were able to open, 2021 had just 20 per cent fewer titles released mid-May to December than 2019, which had 625 releases in the equivalent period.”
Further comment came from Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association who said: “While the challenges presented to the sector by COVID during 2021 were still all too apparent, the extraordinarily positive public response to the return of cinemagoing in the second half of the year, and in particular their recognition of the huge efforts made by cinema operators to ensure the continuing safety and comfort of audiences and team members alike, augur extremely well for a strong and continued recovery in 2022 and beyond.”
Back to the home entertainment year-end figures, with separate announcements from both BASE and retail association ERA garnering plenty of coverage over the past week or more since they were revealed as everyone returned to work in January. The announcement generated more than 30 pieces of separate coverage and you can see some of the highlights from the Express, the i*, Variety, Deadline, City AM, Yahoo News, Advanced TV, and Media Play News by clicking through…
Recruitment news from the thriving independent 101 Films, and Former hmv staffer Mike Bourne has joined the expanding company as library manager. Bourne, who was a senior member of the visual and chart team at the retailer, will oversee the 1,500 films and 400 hours of TV programming now looked after by the company. It has swelled following its acquisition of catalogues fro mthe likes of Metrodome and Palisades Tartan. Bourne joins fellow hmv alumni Steve Davey and Tim Scaping at the growing company. 101 md Andy Lyon said: “We are pleased Mike will be joining our team at 101 Films, we are in a fortunate position of having a vast catalogue available to our customers and Mike’s in-depth knowledge of film and TV gained during his 20 years at HMV will help us properly curate and ensure maximum distribution of the library. Mike’s knowledge will be extremely valuable as we continue to add more libraries to our business over the coming months.” Bourne added: "Having worked closely with Andy and co during my time at HMV I’m now delighted to be joining the brilliant team at 101. With some exciting projects already lined up for 2022, I’m looking forward to this new challenge and the opportunity to successfully manage and grow the catalogue well into the future."
And more from 101, as the company has announced the next additions to its AGFA library, releasing more classic genre fare from the US. The company’s Tim Scaping said: “With the first two 101 Films x AGFA titles about to hit the shelves we officially announced our next pair of gems from the American Genre Film Archive this week, both releasing on 14th February. Released together on one disc, Jungle Trap and Run Coyote Run are two lost horror projects from director James Bryan and producer-writer-star Renee Harmon, with the former film recently edited and re-scored under the guidance of the director by the team at Bleeding Skull!. The other title is a real standout and likely to be one of the bestsellers in the range, 1989's The McPherson Tape. The film wasn’t legitimately released at the time due to a warehouse fire, but bootleg copies circulated in subsequent years, with some believing the events depicted (the arrival of aliens) to be real. It has since gained a significant cult following, and is considered by many to be the first found footage movie. We're very excited about bringing AGFA to the UK, and are set to release two titles a month for the rest of the year, so plenty more to come.
Due in stores on Monday January 17 is the latest release from Picturehouse Entertainment, with the label getting off to a busy start to 2022, with further releases on the way beyond this Monday’s biggie, Herself. The film, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, moving neatly from big budget fare such as Mamma Mia, is a domestic abuse drama in which a woman escapes an abusive relationship and discovers a way out by building her own home, has already been a hit at London Film Festival and was released at cinemas in the autumn of 2021. Commenting on the release, Commenting on the release from Picturehouse Entertainment, Martin Hearn said "Phyllida Lloyd's new film is a wonderful piece of work. Led by a powerhouse performance from Clare Dunne (who also co-wrote the script), the film richly deserves all the plaudits that it has received. Both touching and uplifting, audiences have loved this genuinely empowering story. We couldn't be more excited about the Home Entertainment release and it's great to be able to bring it to audiences this Monday”
Powerhouse Films and its Indicator imprint were out at the BFI Southbank by the Thames in London on Thursday January 13 for a special screening off rarely seen Peter Sellers title Hoffman. The screening coincided with Indicator’s worldwide Blu-ray debut for the “unsettling” film which sees the former Goon starring as a man obsessed with his secretary. Sellers himself tried to have the film destroyed and it is hardly ever screened. Talking ahead of the January 17 release, the company’s Sam Dunn said: “We celebrated the release of the controversial Hoffman, which stars Peter Sellers as a middle-aged boss who blackmails a young girl from his typing pool (Sinéad Cusack) to spend the week with him, with a screening of the film at the BFI last night. The highlight of the evening was the attendance of director Alvin Rakoff, now 94, who captivated the audience with his pin-sharp recollections about the challenges of making the film and of handling the wayward Peter Sellers. A great time was had by all.”
Hoffman is part of a busy slate of titles from Indicator in January, as outlined by Sam Dunn. He continued: “January is a very exciting month for us. First, we're rescuing some truly brilliant British films from relative obscurity and releasing them on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world. Secondly, we're showcasing each of these important titles in all-new Powerhouse restorations for which we've already received some great critical feedback. The films in question are Hoffman (1970), which features an unsettling performance from Peter Sellers, Girl Stroke Boy (1971), a hilarious and prescient look at gender identity and race relations, The Blockhouse (1973), also starring Sellers in a devastating true story about a group of PoWs who get trapped underground, and The Brute (1977), a no-holds-barred exposé about domestic abuse. And, as if that wasn't enough, these films are also the launch titles in our new USA/Canada distributing venture, too.”
Back to Monday January 17 releases and one of the week’s biggest is yet another outing for a successfully revived Michael Myers. The savage psychopathic killer is reborn for a new generation of horror fans in Halloween Kills, the second of his revived adventures. Commenting on the release, Universal’s Stephen White said: “We’re very excited to be bringing HALLOWEEN KILLS to audiences this week with an extended edition that features more of the un-killable Michael Myers and will satisfy die-hard fans and horror dabbling film buffs alike - including an alternate ending that will provide more lead-in to the upcoming HALLOWEEN ENDS coming later this year.”
There’s more horror in stores on Monday January 17 from Acorn under the banner of itssister horror specialist Shudder. Outlining the activity, the company’s Helen Squire said: “It’s great to start the year with another two of the most popular titles from sister company's horror SVOD Shudder channel. Jakob's Wife see horror A-lister Barbara Crampton thirsty for blood in the titular role of this darkly comic twist on the vampire movie and Suki Waterhouse is the new girl at an elite boarding school who awakens something murderous in Séance. We're bring both to market on Blu-ray and DVD.”
Back to Dazzler Media, and, after teasing us last week while outlining its plans for forthcoming drama releases A Discovery of Witches, Father Brown and Responder, the company has revealed a trio of acquisitions and forthcoming releases for TV programming. Commenting on the announcement of releases fo The Tourist, Screw and Trigger Point, the company’s Paul Holland said: “Starting on BBC1 on News Year Day, The Tourist, starring Jamie Dorman has been getting rave reviews and great ratings for its originality and punchy storylines. Fans of No Offence will be enjoying the launching of Screw on Channel 4 every Thursday. Starring Nina Sosanya (His Dark Materials, W1A), this prison drama brilliantly captures the comedy and tragedy of a UK jail, full of characters with interesting back stories. And arguably the most eagerly awaited of all the new drama in 2022 is Trigger Point. Line of Duty writer Jed Mercurio and AC-12 Star Vicky McClure collaborate to produce an action packed drama in which Vicky plays a bomb disposal expert who is stretched to limit as London is under a bombing terror attack. It starts on ITV1 on Sunday January 23. All these titles will be released in March.”
AT THE MOVIES
Tim Allen, a long-time Disney favourite stretching back to his appearance in three Santa Clause films for the studio and also voicing Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story series, is to return to the studio for a new series picking up the tale of the former franchise. Yes, Allen, who made his name on Home Improvement, is to reprise his role as the bringer of presents in the North Pole for a series on the Disney+ streaming service. The series will see Santa planning to retire and seeking a replacement… Production will begin in March with, we’d wager, a season airing due in the winter.
It’s long been mooted and big budget, Western remake of The Raid is back on the cards again as news has emerged of the production stepping up a gear. Michael Bay is teaming up with original film director Gareth Evans alongside Patrick Hughes with the new take set to land on Netflix. The original, directed by Evans, was an all-out action assault and redefined the genre. Made in Indonesia, it was released in 2011 and followed by a sequel three years later. Numerous attempts at a Hollywood-backed English language version have stalled, but with this trio producing a script that sees the action transported to Philadelphia, looks set to happen. The producers said: “We’re incredibly excited about Patrick’s unique vision for this film. It’s a distinctly original take on the material, which promises to pay great respect to the original film while also bringing a fresh approach and perspective that will set its own course in the action genre." Can it work this time? It's looking closer than ever... TWEET OF THE WEEK
Follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun…
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Video legend Fairbrass returns…
Strong buzz on this…
It’s a wonderful Mif
Suspicion, minds…
Bob’s on the big screen…
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