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RETAIL SHUTDOWN AS TIER 4 INTRODUCED
CHRISTMAS CHART TAKEOVER
BBFC WANTS MORE STREAMERS TO SIGN UP
BBC: 2020 “TOUGHEST TIME” IN 108-YEAR HISTORY
FACT: FIRST LOCKDOWN INCREASED PIRACY…
…AS ORGANISATION SENDS OUT MORE LETTERS
…AND ADVERTISES AT THE FOOTBALL
ARROW RELEASES SEND OUT SALES TREMORS…
…AND DIGITAL RELEASES CRASHES SYSTEMS
ARROW ALSO UNVEILS MARCH TITLES
NETWORK REVEALS JAN, FEB SLATE
101 UNEARTHS T-REX
ELYSIAN PLANS DEBUT WITH GHIBLI
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
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There’s an ever-changing playing field out there, for, as the final Saturday before Christmas came to a close, the government pulled the rug from underneath the feet of physical retail, as the news that London and other parts of the south east and beyond, were moving into the newly-created Tier 4, which was shuttering non-essential shops once more. For the likes of hmv, this closed some of their outlets with just a handful of key trading days due before Christmas, further impacting on a year that has been tough for everyone in our business. All this came with just hours’ notice, with all the resultant impact it will have on supply chain, stock levels and more. The news came just days after cinemas in London and many parts of the south east were closed again as two thirds of the country ended up in tier three. All this leaves the film and home entertainment business with an extremely uncertain 2021 ahead. As retailers looked out on the bleak week ahead, the mood among retailers was perhaps summed up by Gary Grant, founder of toy retailer The Entertainer, who said: “You plan an entire year for this week. It will be a very, very busy weekend for us on the web, but we want children running around our shops.” All we can say in the meantime, to all our Raygun readers, is we hope you make the best of it this holiday season, stay safe and we wish you all a happy and prosperous 2021.
It’s Christmas, and in this, the final (almost) missive from The Raygun this year (we’ll have a truncated one before Christmas, returning in full in the week beginning January 4, not least to give a Tenet update and report on the final charts before December 25, but in the meantime, it’s Christmas films still doing the business in stores, as the feel good factor continues for the public. Starved for good news and good vibes, the great British public is warming its cockles and buying into Christmas cheer by snapping up Elf, Last Christmas, and other seasonal comedies and tearjerkers. Eight of this week’s top 10 are seasonal movies, and that’s not including the wintry theme of one of the other two, Frozen 2. The only one without a snowflake in sight is Mulan. Elf tops the chart, with 75 per cent of its sales on digital, with number two Last Christmas the biggest physical seller of the week. Liz Bales, Chief Executive of BASE said “The Official Film Chart gives us a real insight into UK viewing habits, and with Christmas titles dominating the top 10, households across the country are coming together to enjoy the comfort and nostalgia of these festive films. Whether families are gathering for a movie night or ordering a last minute gift for a loved one, consumers continue to find value in the huge wealth quality catalogue titles available across transactional formats, which is a story we will see echoed in BASE’s Year End report in the New Year.”
The BBFC has achieved its goal of having 100 per cent of the content that’s available on Netflix in the UK classified with an official age rating from the organisation. The news came in the final BBFC podcast of the year, which saw the board’s chief executive David Austin and senior policy officer Matt (no surnames here, this is a podcast), about the past 12 months viewed from the organisation’s perspective. What’s more, the BBFC is now aiming to have all streaming platforms in the UK featuring BBFC age ratings. Austin said: “We saw more content coming through from streaming services. We achieved a really important milestone with Netflix We have had a partnership with Netflix for almost 10 years now and for the past four years working towards having 100 per cent of the content that British families via on Netflix having a bbfc age rating at the end of November we achieved that goal. Really proud of our work with Netflix. Although cinema had a bad year, we had a bad year, streaming platforms had a pretty good year.” And, as the BBFC’s Austin concluded: “The reason we exist is to help families choose content thats’ right for them and their children and avoid content that isn’t. Our mission applies wherever, however, and whenever families view content, whether that be the cinema, DVD or streaming services. We’re providing a brilliant service through Netflix I’d love to provide the same service we know families want. More than 90 per cent say they want the same age ratings from cinema and DVD to apply to streaming services. Given the marching orders from the UK public I hope we can fulfil their wish to see trusted age ratings and content advice across all streaming platforms operating in the UK.”
In his overview of 2020, BBFC chief executive David Austin said it was probably the toughest time in the BBFC’s storied history. He explained: “It was a really tough year because of Covid, probably the toughest year in our 108 year history. We’re a not for profit regulator, we get no government money, so our income mirrors that of the film industry so we saw from March a huge drop off in films showing in cinemas with cinemas closed so there was a huge drop off in films coming to us for classification, so a very very challenging year. We worked remotely, we practised before the lockdown, in anticipation this happening, practised working from home with half the organisation working from home and half in the office and swapping round. By the time lockdown came we were pretty much a well oiled machine. We were helped enormously by our new Horizon viewing platform and submission platform, A lot of our film customers were already using the platform before lockdown so it was kind of seamless. We’re really grateful to all the BBFC staff for the work they did under difficult circumstances help them get their films and their videos to their customers. We’re also really grateful to customers, we were able to watch their valuable content in our homes, particularly cinema customers, we had never watched theatrical films in our homes. Lockdown meant for the first time if we classified them we had to watch them at home. Everyone came together, BBFC team, industry we were all in the same boat, we toughed it out together and we are looking forward to a much better 2021."
More year-end round-ups, and the Federation Against Copyright Theft, aka FACT, has given us its summary of 2020 and a look at the world of piracy, illegal streaming and more. It’s reported that its experts monitoring illegal downloads and streaming noticed a huge uptick in illegal online activity after the first lockdown. It noted: “The first UK lockdown brought a significant increase in online content consumption, leading to the inevitable increase in piracy. The FACT scanning team removed more than double the volume of film links and illegal streams in April, compared to February.” As well as firsts – as reported here, FACT has been working with other authorities on initiatives such as sending letters to subscribers to illegal streaming services, a strategy it expects to continue into 2021 – it has also been sending out cease and desist letters to individuals. The organisation said: “We have continued to send cease and desist notices to encourage individuals to put an end to their involvement in providing illegal services, in the hope of preventing them getting involved in longer-term criminality. The serving of these notices has resulted in the removal of hundreds of social media posts, pages, profiles, groups, websites and online marketplace listings. Notices sent out in December included personalised Christmas cards featuring the logos and social media profile pictures of offenders. We will continue to monitor response and will escalate enforcement activity for persistent offenders.”
The latest of those letters has just gone out to 7,000 subscribers to an IPTV service which enables them to watch premium channels for peanuts. The list was discovered after a raid on an illegal operation in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, when a man was arrested and goods seized. The investigation is continuing, but the letters have now been sent out to the subscribers. Olivia Dodding from Lancashire Police Cyber Crime Unit said: “People who subscribe to these services might not realise that they are illegal, but the fact is they are, and we believe that the people who sell them know that. What may cost you a relatively small one-off fee, actually results in television producers and sports broadcasters losing millions of pounds which affects their ability to make and show sports events and entertainments series, which many of us enjoy watching. Anyone who subscribes to IPTV or any other illegal streaming service should stop now to avoid facing prosecutions themselves.” Kieron Sharp, CEO of FACT said: “We are pleased to give our full support to Lancashire Police in sending a really clear message to those choosing to consume content illegally. This is taken very seriously by the police and these notices are a direct and alarming wake up call for people using illegal streams. If you use illegal streaming services you are accountable for your actions and you will be pursued. This is not a grey area and it is not worth the risk. Consumers should also be aware that illegal streaming originates from sophisticated criminal enterprises; your money goes directly into criminals’ pockets.”
FACT will be renewing its consumer campaign aimed at warning fans of the dangers of illegally streaming football on Boxing Day. Its summary for 2020 noted that it ran FACT-branded adverts around the perimeter of Premier League games in October and November with social media support and is repeating the ads during the big post-Christmas matches. Its statement said: “This was supported with a promoted ad campaign on Twitter and display advertising that directed consumers to an advice landing page. We will be launching the next wave of Twitter and display adverts on Boxing Day.” FACT has also seen successful prosecutions – all covered here in The Raygun – against individuals selling devices enabling illegal streaming and viewing, and others.
As we've noted here recently, with a lack of big, new releases, other titles are making a much bigger impact in the market – and the charts – than usual. Expect some of this week’s big titles to make their mark soon too, not least those that came out this week from our friends at Arrow Video in the shape of Crash and Tremors, two classic, albeit wildly varying features given the Arrow Video treatment. It’s cemented another strong year for the imprint too. Commenting on their success, Arrow’s Fran Simeoni said: “We are delighted to cap off the year with some our biggest successes in Crash and Tremors, two limited editions that broke the mould once again, this time, on both UHD and Blu-ray and the response has been incredible to both the editions themselves and to our approach to UHD. Our friends at Hanway and Universal respectively were instrumental in helping us to make successes of these but of course the wonderful team at Arrow really outdid themselves too with sensational artwork and jaw dropping extras. It really will be a tough act to follow in 2021 but we're always up for a challenge! In response to the amazing UHD feedback we've lined up more 4K releases for 2021 and are looking to upgrade more from our library as well.”
Crash has also proved to be a digital success, as Arrow’s digital expert Daniel Perry noted. He said: “Our 4K HDR digital release of Crash has been a tremendous success for us. Before day one, it was the biggest pre-order on EST the company has ever seen for any digital title. A year and a half after we begun our 4K digital strategy starting way back with Oldboy, we have been very happy with the results the digital 4K format has given us. With us now expanding in to using the Dolby Vision format for 4K in 2021 we are really excited to see us continue to strive for the most premium watching experience in all our media.”
Sticking with Arrow Video and the company brought forward its regular final Friday of the month announcement by a week to unveil its titles due in March 2021. Here’s the company’s Fran Simeoni again on its forthcoming titles. He said: “ We're thrilled to be announcing two great Arrow Video new editions for our March slate, our Invisible Man double bill of Daiei Studios special effects (or tokusatsu for the official term) spectacles The Invisible Man Appears and The Invisible Man Vs the Human Fly land on Blu-ray special edition for the first time anywhere in the world. With contextualising extras from Kim Newman who discusses the history of the invisible man in cinema, gorgeous new artwork from Graham Humphreys and a booklet with new writing on the films. Following in the footsteps of our previous Japanese genre success like The Bloodthirsty trilogy and the same studio as Gamera, we’re anticipating lots of excitement for this one. Our second release is another slice of our modern cult with The Bloodhound which wings its way onto Blu-ray following a digital release and premiere on our SVOD Channel. Debut filmmaker Patrick Picard delivers this creepy take on Poe's Fall of the House of Usher that horror fans will won't want to miss. The Blu-ray is typically loaded too with director/editor commentary, four short films and extensive making of documentary.” More forthcoming title news and Network Releasing has unveiled two months’ worth of titles due at the start of 2021, taking in both January and February. There are 10 in all, including Gracie Fields in The Show Goes On; Douglas Fairbanks Jr in thriller State Secret; James Mason in drama The High Command; Ealing production Johnny Frenchman; George Formby vehicle It’s In The Air; Tommy Trinder starrer Sailors Three and more. Outlining the other titles, the company’s Juan Veloza said: “Our 2021 kicks off with an array of additions to our ever popular The British Film Collection, including Richard Attenborough's gripping psychological drama The Man Upstairs on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital, January 25. A brand-new in-house restoration of the epic Kidnapped with a star-studded cast led by Sir Michael Caine and featuring one of Roy Budd’s best film scores. 1950s costume drama The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan from British film legends Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and a hilarious '50s comedy from the quintessential Carry On team, Please Turn Over plus more drama and comedy spanning three decades all available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.”
More forthcoming title news and 101 Films added a further title to its slate with the announcement of the latest release on its Black Label imprint. The 18th title on the label is Tammy And The T-Rex, a never-before-released-in-the-UK cult title featuring early roles for Paul Walker and Denise Richards. Commenting on the release, the company’s Tim Scaping said: “We’re very excited to give Tammy and the T-Rex its long overdue UK release as part of our Black Label series. Having never been available in the UK, it’s fitting that the film will be released as originally conceived – the recently-restored Gore Cut – rather than the butchered PG-13 version that was originally released in the States back in the early 90s. It’s an outrageous and genuinely hilarious film, featuring early performances from Denise Richards and Paul Walker and the work of special effects legend John Carl Buechler. We’re currently working on an exciting catalogue slate for 2021, and this February 1 release is a great way to start the year following a very strong 2020, with our Phase IV, Split Second and Silent Night, Deadly Night releases all major highlights.”
Elysian Film Group Distribution, the distribution arm of the new company set up by, among others, Danny Perkins, one of the founders of Optimum Releasing, eventually brought by Studiocanal in the UK, has announced its first release due in 2021. Earwig And The Witch is the latest from Japanese animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli and comes with impressive pedigree – it’s directed by the offspring of anime legend Hiyao Miyazaki, Goro, and comes from a novel penned by How’s Moving Castle scribe Diana Wynne Jones. It represents Studio Ghibli’s first entirely 3D CG feature, and is due in the spring. It will be followed by home entertainment and, with more details to be released in the spring, Elysian said that home entertainment would form an essential plank in its strategy. More in the new year.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Short ratings info is provided to help give viewers, and parents in particular, information about why a film was given a particular rating. People will see it on cinema black cards, on the back of DVDs, now on Netflix as well. Short ratings information for JoJo Rabbit notes that the film was classified a 12A for discrimination, violence, bloody images, sex references and strong language which is quite a heady mix and sounds quire robust and is really up to the maximum length we allow for short ratings info. It needs to fit on the black card, it needs to fit on back the DVD case, I think that really reflects the high number of category defining issues in the film.”
The BBFC podcast discusses the rating of 12 (12A at cinemas) for JoJo Rabbit, released this year. You can listen here https://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-us/news/podcasts/bbfc-podcast-episode-105-2020-in-review
AT THE MOVIES
If last week’s mega-announcement, much of it commenting on Star Wars-related films and TV series, wasn’t enough, Disney was keeping a few things back to announce this week as the second series of The Mandalorian drew to a close. For it has confirmed there will be dipping into further stories and adventures involving one of the most beloved characters in the entire universe, Boba Fett. The Book Of Boba Fett will feature new adventures involving the bounty hunter, something that has long been rumoured, but will now become a reality. It will arrive on Disney+ in 2021.
Another long-rumoured project also moved a step closer to fruition this week with the news that the much-talked about, but yet to materialise Revenge Of The Nerds reboot looks like it may be happening. This has been going on since not long after the ilm become a bona fide video hit back in 1984. It’s going to be a new version of the tale of geeks coming good, with Seth McFarlane set to produce through the now Disney-owned Fox.
Big not-reboot casting news of the week concentrates on the miniseries which will chart the romance between Pamela Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, not least the leaked video tape of their, ahem, activities. The series is being produced by, among others, Seth Rogen, with I, Tonya’s Craig Gillespie set to direct. And starring as the star-crossed lovers, Like James and Sebastian Stan.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun…
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Disenchanted? Not yet…
Exceptional…
The Truman show…
https://youtu.be/6danK2v5tjI
Monster business…
THE OBLIGATORY GDPR BIT
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