NEWSLETTER :: WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 21 2015
 

UNIVERSAL DOMINATES TOP 10…
…AS MINIONS TURN THE CHARTS YELLOW…
…BUT BLACK FRIDAY LOOMS
BVA OFFERS A HELPING HAND…
…GUIDE LEADS CONSUMERS THROUGH FORMAT MAZE
WHO FANS GATHER IN EAST LONDON
SIGNATURE UNVEILS Q1 SLATE
TED GRINS AND BEARS IT
ANT-MAN OFFERS BIG OPPORTUNITY
KALEIDOSCOPE’S WORLD OF RUGBY
ALTITUDE’S LEGACY OPENS
ODEON IS SCREENBOUND…
INDIES GATHER WITH RAYGUN AND BVA
NETFLIX AND AMAZON BIG HITTERS GO HEAD TO HEAD
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... Universal (again), with half the top 10…
 
It Was A Bad Week For… Music pirates in the US, jailed for three years apiece… 
 
As is so often the case, we’re kicking off this week’s newsletter with a look at what’s selling this week and, no surprise, Minions is leading the way, with the cute yellow figures shifting more than 200,000 units in the first few days on sale according to Official Charts Company’s midweek bulletin. But it’s not just the Despicable Me offshoots flying the flag for Universal. The company’s dominance of the year continues into the home entertainment sector, with the major offering up half of the midweek top 10. The final series of Downton Abbey is next up for the studio at number four, with Jurassic World still pulling in the punters at five and further new entries for Michel McIntyre’s latest live outing, Happy And Glorious, at number six and, last but by no means list in the top 10, there’s a strong showing for the excellent I Believe In Miracles, the football documentary charting the rise and rise of Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough’s tutelage during the 1970s. Universal is even showing up elsewhere in the top 20 too, with Roger Waters’ documentary The Wall figuring at number 12 as a new entry. Commenting on the performance, Universal md Ian Foster said: “This week marks the start of Christmas for Universal and we're delighted with the results across all genres - family, sport, TV and comedy. Thanks to the fantastic support of our partners, the festive in-store set up looks phenomenal.”
 
Next week, of course, sees the recent American import Black Friday arriving in stores and online. Last year’s near riots at certain locations have caused some retailers to rein in their plans this year, but Amazon is still going big online on its offering for the day. Or, rather, week or more, as it’s already offering a myriad of deals (you can see some here) It also offered up a four-day deal on Prime membership, which includes next day delivery and access to its streaming service, at a discounted rate until Wednesday November 18, with £20 off taking it down to £59. Commenting on that deal, Amazon UK md Christopher North said: “Amazon Prime is the best deal in the history of shopping and for four days, customers [got] an annual membership at a great discount – just in time for Christmas. Sign-ups to Prime always increase in the run-up to Christmas as customers want fast delivery for gifts as well the ability to stream popular movies and TV shows to keep the family entertained. This year, members will also be able to stream great Christmas music and get 30-minute early access to Lightning Deals, including during Black Friday Deals Week when there will more deals than ever before.” He’s not wrong there – there are some 7,000 deals on offer. Last year’s event saw 5.5 million items ordered on the day, a rate of 64 per second. Peak time is just before 8.30am…
 
The BVA has this week unveiled its latest innovation, working with the Industry Trust to produce an online guide to help consumers navigate their way through today’s technological minefield, explain different formats and help direct them towards legal offerings of entertainment. The Guide To Screen Entertainment takes in Blu-ray, downloads, Digital HD, what’s legal and what’s not and aims to, as the BVA said, “bridge the format familiarity gap” and help them get the most from screen entertainment. Its publication follows research into what consumers do and don’t understand, what they’re familiar and comfortable with and is part of the BVA and Industry Trust’s joint consumer education efforts. You can see the guide here, hosted at the ever-growing FindAnyFilm site…
 
And here is BVA chief executive Liz Bales on the launch of the Guide To Screen Entertainment. She said: “As a nation we’ve never been more in love with film and TV, with the average consumer carving out four hours from their busy lives to watch their favourite films and TV shows. That’s only possible due to the increasingly flexible and convenient raft of ways to watch, which can only be a good thing for our audiences. However, alongside this ever growing choice of ways to watch, there is some confusion. That’s why it’s important that as an industry we continue to collaborate on initiatives such as the guide to help steer people towards legal choices and ensure they are getting the most from their viewing experience. Recent BVA insight identified that video category shoppers are lacking essential information when it comes to understanding the different ways they can watch filmed content across physical and digital formats. Not only is lack of familiarity a barrier when it comes to uptake of new formats, it is also an infringement risk. As wider audiences venture online to source content 40 per cent aren’t confident about what is and isn’t legal. These findings highlighted a clear opportunity for the industry to produce consumer facing tools to help bridge knowledge gaps. We know that if we can increase familiarity of existing and emerging technologies and help people feel more comfortable with new ways of watching, then we can engage them in the category for longer and increase their propensity to spend with legal sources of content.”
 To the Excel centre over in east London, home of the MCM London Comic Con, for another fan-based event, albeit one far more focused on a particular franchise. The Doctor Who Festival saw some 15,000 fans of the Timelord’s adventures filing through the doors over three days. There are all kinds of events, talks, panel sessions, competitions and, crucially, loads for Whovians, both young and old alike, to buy. The event, hosted under the umbrella of BBC Worldwide, saw the organisation’s shop selling scores of DVDs and Blu-ray releases. We’ll have a full feature on it up on our website shortly, but here’s BBC Worldwide’s senior vp of eCommerce, Steve Wind-Mozley on some of the home entertainment offering and its performance at the event: “Boxed media is central to our retail offer, both at Festival and online at BBCShop.com.  Blu-ray performed strongly for titles like Doctor Who Series 9 part 1 and the newly released Christmas Specials Boxset, whilst older titles from the “New Who” re-boot did better on DVD. Over the weekend at Festival we saw a large number of younger (eight to 16-year-olds), mainly male customers buying classic Who, many commenting that they were working on completing their collection over time.”
 
More Q1 business now and Signature is embarking on another busy stretch for the label, with a hefty slate for the quarter, so, take a deep breath as we run through the highlights, in chronological order. After its post-Christmas Rise Of The Footsoldier Part II (see last week’s newsletter for more), Signature heads into 2016 with the January 4 release of The Vatican Tapes, a possession horror that has recently had a high profile theatrical release. The same date sees 5 To 7, a romantic tale about a passionate affair starring former Bond star Berenice Marlohe. Black Or White is a Kevin Costner starring drama that sees him fighting Oscar winner Octavia Spencer for custody of their granddaughter. Momentum is nut now at cinemas and the thriller, starring, among others, James Purefoy, Morgan Freeman and Olga Kurylenko, has also benefited from a high profile FrightFest premiere. Still in January and Streif: One Hell Of A Ride sees Signature moving into documentary territory with a winter sports tale. Into February, there’s half-term family fun in the shape of another recently released theatrical outing, Animal Kingdom: Let’s Go Ape and, at the opposite end of the scale, a  with a modern take on Frankenstein set in LA, as well as something far gentler in All Roads Lead To Rome, starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Into March and two key highlights come in the shaw of Jackie Chan, John Cusack and Adrien Brody in martial arts meets Rome tale Dragon Blade, due out at cinemas in January ahead of its planned March release. And, crucially, at the end of March comes more East End business in the shape of Fall Of The Krays. This too is benefiting from a theatrical release and all the accompanying brouhaha. The first in Signature’s twin Krays movies, Rise Of The Krays, has already topped the six figure mark in sales terms. There’s more announcements due from Signature too, the growing company is hosting an event next week, more on next week’s newsletter. 
 
Back to Universal and what next for the studio? Well, another week, another biggie, as the company launches the further adventures of its very own foul-mouthed bear in Ted 2, arriving in stores on Monday November 23. The campaign has already kicked off in earnest, as Universal’s Poonam Chudasama explained: “The release has been supported by a strong and irreverent marketing campaign that will include two weeks of TV advertising reaching 16 million people and a creative digital campaign across  all platforms. Ted 2 has had an incredibly successful social campaign so far, with a whole host of content still to come. Fans will also enjoy the opportunity to win their own thunder buddy, with 24” Teds placed for competitions on key media and social platforms.”
Disney is entering a hugely busy period for the studio, with Inside Out arriving on Monday November 23, Ant-Man a week later and the not inconsiderable matter of that Star Wars films due at cinemas before the year’s out. And so we headed to the ever-swish Hospital Club in the West End of London, where Disney was hosting a special screening of not just the feature, but some of the additional features from its forthcoming release of the latest Marvel outing, Ant-Man. And if some of the extras are anything to go by, it’s shaping up to be a strong release. Among the things we learnt from the screening: technology has, the team behind it admitted, caught up with Ant-Man, enabling the film to be made, while a particularly buff Paul Rudd, who spent a year training for the role and slimming down, admitted: “Normally, for the parts I play, they don’t want me in shape.” We also, strangely, learnt that Americans seem to refer to insects and the likes as creepy crawlers, rather than the more usual (on these shores at least), creepy crawlies.
 
The sporting-related releases come thick and fast as eOne takes the route to market that worked so well for its Gascoigne release earlier this year with a one-two sucker punch combination that kicks off on Monday November 23, with Mr Calzaghe, its feature-length look at the boxing champ (AP, with jockey extraordinaire AP McCoy races into stores seven days later, but more on that next week). And it’s been busy this week, with a one-day theatrical release and more, as eOne’s Scott Monahan explained: “We’re hoping to pack a punch next week with Mr Calzaghe. Having secured great interview coverage with Joe following on from this week’s gala screening and a limited theatrical release in Wales we’ll be supporting Mr. C with an impactful online pre-roll campaign, display formats and print advertising targeting core boxing and sports fans and a secondary gifting audience for the Q4 period.”
 
Rugby is set to feature heavily in this sporting and gifting feast, with Kaleidoscope weighing in with its own efforts from the recent World Cup over here. There’s not one but two titles due on November 30, the first looking at the while tournament, with a separate release focusing purely on Wales’ memorable victory over the English team. Commenting on the two releases, Kaleidoscope’s head of marketing Adam Sergeant said: “The first is the official highlights programme and features all the momentous action and unforgettable moments from what has widely been acknowledged as the best rugby world cup ever. The latter is the full Wales v England game, a great keepsake for fans of Welsh Rugby documenting in glorious detail one of Wales' greatest ever nights in Rugby history, when they overturned a ten point deficit at half time despite an injury ravaged squad with players playing out of position across the park. The Kaleidoscope team has worked hard to turn these titles around quickly to bring them to market in time for gifting and whilst memories of the RWC are still strong. For the latter title we've also worked hard to ensure maximum retail presence in Wales and have supported with a vibrant social media campaign that has seen more than 500 rugby clubs and organisations contacted individually, plus a strong local media PR campaign that is delivering excellent weight of editorial. We hope for strong results for both titles.”
 
On a completely different and far more sombre note comes My Nazi Legacy, none of the more powerful films to air at this year's London Film Festival. It arrives on digital HD platforms as well as at cinemas this weekend, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg trials, ahead of its physical bow in January. Taking up the story, here’s Altitude’s James Warren on the film: “This powerful and very timely film arrives heaped with praise (including five stars from the Guardian) and comes from uber-producers Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, who are already riding high in the charts with another hot awards tip, Brooklyn. Activity so far has included a large number of sold out preview and festival outings (including the LFF launch screening at Curzon Mayfair), and a publicity campaign which has covered everything from multiple features and comment pieces across all leading broadsheets, powerful interviews with human rights lawyer Philippe Sands (writer and exec-producer) and Niklas Frank, son of Hans Frank, Hitler’s personal lawyer - including a segment on BBC Four's Today Programme. Not to mention an incredible and historic event marking the 70th anniversary at the Bingham Centre for Law with readings from excerpts of the trial with descendants of key figures. We have a bullish spend targeting our key audiences and have some fantastic support with online platforms like Sky Store, Curzon Home Cinema and iTunes. The DVD will be launched in the New Year where we plan further activity to highlight the doc as a positive and important education piece which will compliment follow–on UK–wide screenings planned with Picturehouse cinemas on January 27 to mark Holocaust Memorial day.”
 Independent DVD label Odeon Entertainment, currently enjoying success with Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors, is to rebrand alongside its sister production and film and TV sales companies under the new umbrella of Screenbound Entertainment Group. The move will see the imprint releasing titles under the Screenbound Pictures logo, while A2B Media is to become Screen Productions and OIL Licensing will look at film and TV ales under the name of Screenbound International Pictures. Not content with that, a new arm of the company, Screenbound Releasing, will look at event theatrical releases and other cinema-based opportunities. Odeon has been trading for13 years alongside the other companies, all will bear the Screenbound name from December 1. Commenting on the move, Alan Byron, group md, said: “It’s now a very different entertainment landscape compared to thirteen years ago, when DVD used to be 90 per cent of our turnover. It’s just over half now as we’ve tapped into various non-DVD revenue streams over the past seven years, but our activity doesn’t have an overall identity. Odeon Entertainment has a great reputation for DVD publishing; A2B Media is known for producing programmes for international broadcasters; whereas OIL Licensing is known as a film and TV sales company. It’s great to have a positive challenge like this to deal with. Some of our customers in one area often don’t make the connection that we operate in related fields, but when they do it opens up further possibilities such as when we screened Billy Fury: The Sound of Fury to several sold-out cinema venues and it came to the attention of BBC4 who picked it up for 2016.” A new website will also launch on December 1. 
 
Talking of independent labels, Odeon, or rather Screenbound, will be one of the attendees at the event hosted by the BVA in partnership with The Raygun this coming Tuesday night (November 24) at a West End hostelry to discuss ways independent labels can engage with the organisation, forge closer links and work together in the fast-changing industry. Oh, and have a beer or two as well. It’s a 6 for 6.30pm event, to join the dozen or more independent labels attending the event and to be part of it, please email tim@theraygun.co.uk…
 
Blur vs Oasis. Biggie vs Tupac. Coronation Street vs EastEnders. Strictly vs X-Factor. Rage Against The Machine vs that bloke off X-Factor. And this weekend, it’s Amazon vs Netflix. For the two streaming giants are going head to head this weekend with two huge new series landing in complete form at the same time. Both Amazon Prime Instant Video’s Man In The High Castle and Netflix;s new Marvel-related outing Jessica Jones going head to head. Both are ambitious series, each backed up with some serious marketing clout (note the former’s wrap around Friday’s Metro newspaper if you don’t believe us). The jury's still out on this one, with both receiving strong notices, and we expect it to run and run…
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Most people don't want to steal. They don't want viruses in their computers, they don't want the hassle of it.”
Netflix chief communications officer Jonathan Friedland on the company’s huge success in Brazil – and how it’s helping curb piracy. Read the full, excellent article here 
 
AT THE MOVIES
Spectre still dominates, up to the Sunday of November 15 it was still at the top of the UK box office, with almost £78 million in receipts. But The Lady In The Van impressed with its £2.26 million opening at UK cinemas. The only other new entry was Bollywood film Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, with more than £900,000 in its opening frame.
 
Want to attract online outrage? Fancy seeing people bashing away at their keyboards in a real fury? Then why not try remaking a film. Or even thinking about it. For one thing that is certain to guarantee all sorts of outrage on the internet is anything involving remakes, especially if it involves the ultimate film fan’s hero, Christopher Nolan. So news that plans are afoot to film a new take on one of his earlier excursions, Memento, was greeted with scorn and much fury from the online community…
 
And, as one franchise comes to an end – the final instalment of The Hunger Games is out this week – could another similar tale of a future world gone a bit mad turn into an equally lucrative franchise? Well, Logan’s Run could be in the, er, running to achieve that status, according to the film’s producer. The long-gestating remake is on the slate at Warner, with producer Simon Kinberg, who’s worked on, among other things, the X-Men franchise, currently seeking a director for the remake to one of our favourite 70s sci-fi flicks, this week told the Collider website: “It’s something that potentially is their Hunger Games kind of franchise that is about a younger audience for a younger audience with a big idea. And Logan’s Run, as you know, is the granddaddy of Maze Runner and Hunger Games and so many of these books and movies now. So yeah, they’re seeing it as a potentially really big franchise.”
 
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun…
 
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Here’s the comedy everyone’s been waiting for…
https://youtu.be/4CL4LNWHegk
 
And here’s more of De Niro in this week’s Red Band business
https://youtu.be/q1zlkaPpMsA
 
For the Michael Shannon fans among you…
https://youtu.be/HEx240-8sRA
 
More from your new favourite telly programme…
https://youtu.be/1iphllcTYOs
 
This film will, er, do your head in…
https://youtu.be/oYGt8Cy_nUc
 
One of this week’s most talked about trailers…
https://youtu.be/_0VDveYwbuU
 
 
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