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STRANGER THINGS HAS HAPPENED…
…NETFLIX TO PHYSICAL MEDIA RELEASE SCORES BIG
OBSESSION IS HEALTHY
NEW BRANDING FOR CLASSICS
MANHUNTER LEADS THE CHARGE
REDISCOVERED EVENT FLIES FLAG FOR PHYSICAL…
…LABELS SHOW OFF THEIR WARES…
…AND MEET THEIR CONSUMERS
HMV’S PHYSICAL STRENGTH EARNS COVERAGE…
…SPIDER-MAN HELPS SPIN SUMMER SUCCESS
SALO’S RELEASE HITS THE HEADLINES…
…AND LEADS THE WAY FOR THE BFI…
…WITH Q4 TITLES UNVEILED
THE DEVILS RETURNS TO CINEMAS
EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ROSE
CRITERION’S ANGRY MEN…
…WITH MORE IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER
SEEKING SALVATION IN STREAMING…
…AS REDEMPTION GOES SOCIAL
DOUBLE WHAMMY FROM THE “KING OF DTV”
AN EXOTIC RELEASE
CINEMA DAY A SUCCESS…
…AS BOX OFFICE BOOSTED
THE ODYSSEY CONTINUES
SPOTTED OUT AND ABOUT SUPPORT THE RAYGUN
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK 
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It was a good week for… Obsession off to a flyer, Stranger Things putting more than a million through the tills and The Odyssey (and Spider-Man) still doing the business…
It’s been a bad week for… Rumours swirling around about one retail operator that may or may not be on the berga of callig administrators in, our friends at Zavvi, here’s sending our best wishes to all its staffers and hoping things work out…
We’ve been watching… Keep an eye out for Blue Finch title Boorman And The Devil, due at cinemas this weekend, the perfect companion piece to Arrow Video’s superlative Exorcist II: The Heretic (and its recent Excalibur too). We’ve also seen the restored The Devils, restored and the closest to director Ken Russell’s brilliantly bonkers and controversial tale we’ll ever see, as well as popping along to part of the BFI’s Claude Chabrol season ahead of next year’s home ent releases… You can follow what we've been watching over here
Arrow Video has been a prime mover in keeping the flag flying for physical media in the post-streaming era and the partnership that has seen it giving a first physical release for one of streaming giant Netflix’s flagship franchises, Stranger Things, has seen the show become the biggest earner in stores in 2026 so far. Stranger Things: The Complete Series, released on both Blu-ray and 4K UHD at the end of July, put more than £1 million through the tills in its first month on sale, making it the number one title in terms of retail value for physical media for the year to the end of August. The penultimate and final series of the sci-fi show are among the biggest ever shows on Netflix in terms of hours viewed, and the release, spread across some 25 discs in Arrow’s mouth-watering release, complete with extras and in different SKUs with prices starting at around £145 for the standard edition and north of £200 for the deluxe SKU, are a first for Stranger Things on both sides of the Atlantic. Arrow’s director of sales and marketing Dean Lawson said: “Ten years after Stranger Things first premiered on Netflix, to bring the complete series to physical media for the first time ever in the UK and US has been a phenomenal project for Arrow to work on. We’re thrilled to see the appetite for this series on physical media and how positively it has been received by fans across the UK and US. Whilst the market as a whole is perpetually volatile, there continues to be a real demand for quality physical media releases.”
BASE, which issued the statement about the success of Stranger things, said the success further highlighted the “growing trend towards analogue media”, with consumers happy to pay higher prices for superior quality, collectable releases, noting 4K UHD’s impressive growth numbers in 2025. BASE also said the success tied in with another trend it has oft discussed, with fandom increasingly driving sales thanks in part of exclusive to disc content and other features which appeal to hardcore devotees of franchises. It pointed to some of the other TV sales successes in 2026, such as Doctor Who, Star Trek and It. BASE chief executive Liz Bales said: ““The exciting success of Arrow Video’s Stranger Things release confirms the continuing relevance of physical media and the undeniable influence of fan communities. It’s clear that audiences have an appetite for first-rate physical releases and are willing to pay a higher price point to add the right title to their collection. These impressive numbers also demonstrate the power of embracing a complementary relationship between different parts of the entertainment lifecycle that are too often siloed. To have one of the most popular streaming series of all-time committed to disc in its entirety, and for it to then sell so well while it remains readily available to stream, is a testament to what can be achieved when transactional and streaming work in tandem. From the simultaneous theatrical and streaming release of the finale at the start of the year to now a stellar performance on physical right out of the gate, Stranger Things showcases how the whole industry benefits when consumers are offered meaningful choice.”
Over on the film side, physical releases are still holding their own; one of the latest to make an impression is one of our favourite films of 2026, and, in what’s been a good year for horror, certainly in box office terms, arguably the best shocker of the year, Obsession. It’s got off to a strong start following on from its strong box office and premium home release from Universal, with the physical coming from the studio’s ongoing deal with Spirit. The company’s Sarah Stanley said: “We are obsessed with Obsession, and it looks like the public are too given its physical media performance so far. Spirit is absolutely delighted with how it is doing and are very glad no-one actually had a One Wish Willow in the office.”
Since its fully fledged arrival in the UK after acquiring indie distributor Optimum Releasing, French media giant turned global media powerhouse Studiocanal has been at the forefront of film restoration and catalogue home entertainment releases (alongside its new releases and own productions too). The company boasts “one of the most prestigious film libraries in the world” and the largest catalogue outside of the US, taking in more than 18,000 and covering in a century of film history. In the past seven years alone, it has invested somewhere in the region of £21 million in 4K restorations od almost 1,000 films and, the company said, it is aiming to give “both longtime cinephiles and the Letterboxd generation the opportunity to experience classics as they were meant to be seen; on the big screen”. And, of course, these theatrical outings are backed by comprehensive home entertainment releases too, as the company said: “A 360 approach to development, production, distribution and catalogue remains the cornerstone of Studiocanal’s strategy and one which sees 112 theatrical releases and 170 home entertainment each year. Studiocanal is responsible for the worldwide sales and licensing for its catalogue and continues to actively seek out strategic acquisitions for their extraordinary library spanning generations of iconic and auteur driven must see cinema.” Now, with a busy slate across cinemas and physical media and digital for the rest of the year, Studiocanal has announced a worldwide launch for Studiocanal Classics, a catalogue label to encompass all its activity in this area, with an accompanying logo to boot. Anna Marsh, Studiocanal CEO and chief content officer of CANAL+ Group said: “We are immeasurably proud to announce STUDIOCANAL CLASSICS today. Our world-class library represents a unique opportunity to champion some of the most beloved, iconic, timeless and influential films spanning more than 100 years of cinema history. Through expert restoration, thoughtful curation and innovative audience engagement, we have a responsibility to preserve the enduring impact and cultural legacy of these extraordinary films and filmmakers, while bringing celebrated classics back to cinemas around the world. We believe that every generation, in every corner of the world, should have the opportunity to discover, celebrate and revere some of the greatest films ever made. Because great films live forever.”
We’ll be rounding up more of its activity here in the next issue and beyond, but brief highlights of its forthcoming theatrical and festival releases include a 40th anniversary 4K restoration of the first big screen iteration of Hannibal Lecter in Michael Mann’s Manhunter The Final Cut, due in cinemas in the UK on September 25, Terminator 2 Judgement Day, Pan’s Labyrinth and a Jacques Tati retrospective. Home entertainment releases (we’ll be rounding all these up soon) include the Joseph Losey-helmed, Harold Pinter-penned Accident, a brace of Coen brothers classics in the early Blood Simple and the more recent Inside Llewyn Davis and the aforementioned Manhunter The Final Cut. The 4K Ultra HD collector’s edition of this has already sold out months ahead of its planned release at the end of November. Commenting on that tile, Michael Mann himself said: “Forty years ago – though armed with Thomas Harris’ excellent novel, Red Dragon – its subject matter, the profiling of serial killers, as well as being shocking and raw, was unknown. When adapting, I wanted to make its storytelling deliver audiences into a certain state of threat and emotional engagement. Integral to that was the visualisation and use of music with lyrics sometimes working like a libretto. We have carefully remastered the film to try to evoke that mood and intensity, heightened with audio sourced from the original 5.1 35mm analogue masters. This latest iteration is that version of the film with which I’m most satisfied.”
The aforementioned Accident, along with Billy Liar, were two of the key films aired at the excellent Cinema Rediscovered event held in Bristol in and around the Watershed cinema in the city recently. The Raygun’s Tim Murray was there and caught both those two – the former just came out in a special restored version from Studiocanal, while the latter is due at the end of September – along with a raft of other films. A wealth of boutique labels and other assorted distributors were loosely involved, with our time at the festival kicking off with a look back at the history of Curzon forerunner Artificial Eye with the company’s Jake Garriock, while Powerhouse was another showing off its wares, with the company’s Anthony Nield talking about its history, while Radiance showed off its own titles and those from sister label Transmission, including the excellent Nadja. You can see all of our thoughts about it on the Film Stories website here. Curzon, Powerhouse and Radiance all set up stall at various times during the five day event, all doing a brisk trade in physical media and assorted goodies – Curzon sold out of its lavish, pricier sets too.
The Cinema Rediscovered event also indicated the close, symbiotic relationship between restored films airing at cinemas and subsequent physical media releases, as well as selling on stands, companies were able to flag up their physical releases too. And, of course, it offers the opportunity to talk to film fans and cineastes. We were really excited to have a stand at Cinema Rediscovered,” said Powerhouse’s Alan Simmons after the fact, “not just because there were screenings of two of our beautiful restorations: Pastor Hall and Obsession, but also because Cinema Rediscovered was celebrating its 10th anniversary, just like us! Sales were great, and it was brilliant to meet old and new fans and get such positive feedback on the label from customers. Attending festivals and conventions is really important to us. It is always a treat to meet and chat to fans, and hear what they've loved and what they are hoping to see! We also think it's important for the fans to be able to see and talk to us. As well as being able to physically browse and examine our Limited and Standard Editions, they can ask us questions and get personalised recommendations. The volume of younger customers has been exciting, not just for us, but for the industry, and even those we spoke to who didn't have a player said they were planning on getting one. Anecdotally, it felt very much like the streaming tide was on the turn.”
Further comment on the event came from Radiance’s Bruno Savill de Jong, who said: “It was great to be back in Bristol for Cinema Rediscovered's 10th Anniversary. We're always impressed by the team there for spotlighting different curators, strands and aspects of repertory cinema and they've always been incredibly accommodating to us at Radiance too. Alongside being a sponsor of this year's festival, we also spoke at their Industry Day session about our upcoming slate and theatrical distribution. This included the 4K restoration of Michael Almereyda's Nadja, with audiences reacting very positively to its unique atmosphere and blend of vampire horror and 90s indie-film spirit. Plus, we set up a pop-up stall selling some of our releases to the Watershed visitors. While we hosted a stall last year too, this year other labels like Indicator and Curzon also set up stalls on alternate days, demonstrating the public's reawakened appetite for physical media. We felt this during our stall day, where there was a definite uptick in recognition of Radiance. Even those unfamiliar with us discussed starting their Blu-ray collection. So it was an inspiring event all around.”
A few noteworthy hmv items here, as the retailer has enjoyed a strong summer and plenty of positive PR, as evinced by this story in the Standard about the return to physical media (we at The Raygun have been charting the media surge in reporting on this for months now). Whole beginning to discuss items such as squishy toys and K-pop collectables, it soon went beyond into vinyl, CDs and DVDs too. The Standard noted that store visits to the retailer’s 114 outlets were up 12 per cent year on year, further adding that this would equate to 50 million visits in 2026. Phil Halliday, hmv md, was quoted as saying: ““For years, it was quiet on a Saturday, and that’s when the kids used to come in. The store colleagues will tell you, it’s heaving on a Saturday now… and you can see it in the numbers. Kids are coming back in because they want to be around each other and spaces where they can gather to share experiences… not everyone wants to sit at home on the computer.” The report added that vinyl sales at hmv were up 27 per cent in stores and a hefty 45 per cent online, with CD sales up 10 per cent. Halliday added: “A lot of that product is on CD. We’ve definitely doubled down on it and tried to really improve the offer. And kids are seeing it as a more cost-effective alternative to vinyl.” He continued by bringing DVD in to play, concluding: “There is an entire depth of experience and connection with these products that you don’t get from streaming.”
The press coverage comes on the back of plenty of in-store activity at hmv in what used to be the traditionally quieter summer months. One of the highlights included a store takeover by Spider-Man ahead of the release of Brand New Day (see pictures), with, what hmv head of marketing Kate Longbottom told The Raygun was it was “a full range of merch – tees, comic books, Funko and more, and we had a range of exclusive sleeved Spiderman back-cat lines on Blu-ray and 4k”. Over on LinkedIn, Longbottom said: “What a busy summer it's been at hmv - Spider-man fan events, Olivia Rodrigo listening parties, new store openings and more...and the results are fantastic. Physical retail stores are still bringing customers in droves when done right. For hmv, [this means] creating events and spaces customers want to be at [and] to meet like-minded communities, buy product they love and talk to knowledgeable staff. hmv is no longer a legacy brand—and there is so much more to come from us over Q4 and into 2027.” Elsewhere, the retailer has also showed its increasing interest in adding even more books to its offering by hiring a new book buying team and rejoining the Booksellers Association. It has traditionally stocked books and at one point owned book-retailing giant Waterstones, while owner Doug Putman has recently launched Putman Publishing, its own publishing arm with former Our Price staffer Pete Selby. The retailer wants to become a “destination store for books on the high street”, it told trade publication The Bookseller.
Talking of press coverage, and it was interesting to see the reaction to the BFI’s Q4 home entertainment product line-up, For, among its ever-eclectic selection of titles, the organisation’s slate includes, at the end of October, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salo Or The 120 Days Of Sodom, the controversial, oft-banned Marquis de Sade adaptation set in fascist, wartime Italy. And the story was picked up by, among others, LADBible and the Metro, both of whom discussed its forthcoming availability and seemed to slightly misinterpret the nature of the release, describing it as “rare”. The former was a rather strange affair, written in what a seasoned journalist might call a rather baffling style, under the heading of “'Most disturbing movie ever made' banned for 24 years in the UK will be available to watch in rare re-release” (see here). The latter, under the headline “the 'sickest film ever made’ gets rare UK release” quoted the BFI’s Ben Stoddart, who said: “In the decades since it was made, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom has remained a deeply controversial and divisive film. Refused a certificate in 1976 on the grounds of gross indecency and not released uncut in the UK until the BFI’s VHS release in 2001, Salo has been banned, censored, and reviled the world over. Pasolini seeks to confront the ultimate implications of fascism in a series of sexual and moral atrocities, the result of which is a true cinematic milestone: culturally significant, politically vital, and visually stunning. The BFI is releasing Salo with contextualising extras in 4K UHD on 26 October because whilst it’s naturally not a film with broad appeal, it is still a hugely important work. It asks difficult questions about power, corruption, and their resulting cruelty that are no less relevant now.”
More on the BFI’s Q4 announcement, as the company’s Ben Stoddart talked The Raygun through the organisation’s forthcoming releases for October through to December, kicking off with the late October release of Salo. He said: “As 2026 continues to fly by, our last releases of the year are now available to pre-order, perhaps for oneself or perhaps a gift for the film lover in your life! Though saying that, I'm not sure who exactly one buys Pasolini's controversial masterpiece Salo for, this time in glorious 4K! A stable in the BFI's catalogue for the last 25 years, Salo continues to shock and divide those who watch it, but love it or hate it, one can't deny its reputation. A more fun and certainly more toe-tapping cult movie hits shelves in October, with Dave Robinson's tale of one of the UK's most beloved bands, the always energetic Madness, in Take It Or Leave It. Starring the band themselves and featuring some of their biggest hits, the film will launch with an already sold out premiere at BFI Southbank on September 30th. Pre-orders are unsurprisingly high and with the support of the band and the film's director, it's shaping up to be a fantastic release.”
Carrying on with a look at the BFI’s Q4 slate and the company’s Ben Stoddart continued: “Following on from the BFI's award-winning release of Watership Down in 2024, November will see the 4K and Blu-ray release of the 1954 classic, Animal Farm. Directed by the pioneering Joy Batchelor and John Halas, the animated adaptation of George Orwell's novel is a true classic of British cinema. The release will mirror that of Watership Down, including a book, postcards and poster. Also in November is the much loved Brassed Off, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. With a stellar cast including Ewan McGregor, Tara Fitzgerald, Sue Johnston, Stephen Tompkinson, and the late great Pete Postlethwaite, the film's wonderful blend of humour and pathos has ensured that people's love for it hasn't dimmed over the years. Last but by no means least is The Goons at Rediffusion, the fourth entry in the BFI's already much-loved Associated Rediffusion series. Initially overseen by director Richard Lester and starring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, but only broadcast in the London region, these supremely silly and surreal sketch shows remain the most uproariously successful attempts to capture the quicksilver genius of the Goons on the telly-box. This long-overdue box set gathers together available archival material that still exists from these shows – newly presented in the best possible quality, for new generations of comedy fans to enjoy.”
Meanwhile, also from the BFI, in partnership with Warner Bros Clockwork the recently announced new imprint from the studio which, the major said, builds on its legacy for “socially relevant, provocative, and culturally resonant cinema for audiences globally”, has unveiled a new restoration and re-tooling of the classic Ken Russell BBFC-bothering The Devils will be released at cinemas on October 30. It’s been fully restored in 4K and, the announcement noted, cut to Ken Russell’s specific direction, making it the first time the public has ever seen the definitive version, “as intended by the filmmaker”. It comes 55 years after it first aired and has already premiered to acclaim at this year’s Cannes. No word yet on home entertainment, the last version, on DVD, was released also by the BFI in 2012. Hugely controversial, starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, the film follows the true story of a priest accused of corrupting a convent. Stuart Brown, BFI director of programme and distribution said Stuart Brown said: “Ken Russell's The Devils is one of the great masterpieces of British cinema: a film of astonishing imagination, searing power and dazzling formal brilliance. The BFI is thrilled to be partnering with Warner Bros. Clockwork to present the new restoration, which reveals anew the extraordinary artistry of Oliver Reed, Vanessa Redgrave, Derek Jarman and the many others who collaborated to create a truly singular work. The BFI has long supported Ken Russell’s film and television work across BFI Southbank, BFI home entertainment and BFI Player, and so it is a fitting privilege to help bring this landmark restoration to audiences across the UK and Ireland.” You can see the trailer here.
Finally with the BFI, and the organisation has just released one of our favourite films of the year, Rose Of Nevada, the third outing from Mark Jenkin, one of the most exciting directors working in the UK right now. It’s his third feature released under the BFI banner, with the trio, including the latest alongside Bait and Enys Men, released as a box set called The Cornwall Trilogy. In an interview with The Raygun’s Tim Murray, some of which is appearing in the next issue of Shindig magazine, Jenkin talked about the great work the BFI does, his pride at being released by such an esteemed imprint as well as physical media in general. He said: “I’m very proud [of the box set]. I still pinch myself whenever I'm at the BFI, at the South Bank, that my films are part of that, to be so embedded at what is sort of the HQ. I grew up in Cornwall. My sister was at medical school, in London. I’d save up my pocket money and get the train up to London to stay with her. The first thing I'd do was go to the BFI. I would go along and I would hang out there because it was the place to go, like going to church. I used to read up on the board what films were showing. I’d often go around the museum and to the shop to look at all this stuff that I couldn't afford. To be so familiar with that place and have so much support from the BFI, it's kind of nice. I still do that, even if I haven't got anything going on at the BFI, go there and have a cup of coffee – just hang out there and soak it all in, as a punter. And to then walk into the shop and to see my stuff there… Sometimes people take the piss out of me that I do that, because I'm going to hang out next to the merch in order to get recognised or something, but it's actually much more to do with just checking it's real, checking it's still there. I do feel so, so proud that the work is there. It’s there forever now. This trilogy, even if I never make another film or the next film is an absolute stinker, those three films will be there forever. They're there now for good. I'm constantly surprised and grateful that that's happened. It’s also the idea that there's a physical media box that shows you made these films and these films exist. And, in the physical media realm too – the idea that they're sitting in a shop next to a bunch of other directors that you are in awe of. I'm just looking across at my shelves now, and I can see copies of Bait, and next to them is Das Boot and Taxi Driver. You just go, ‘wow!’”
Also looking ahead to forthcoming titles, and just released by Criterion is its big September title 12 Angry Men with, in the same month, another restoration we first saw at Cinema Rediscovered, Days And Nights In The Forest, which looks amazing. Talking us first through these two, ahead of further discussion on October and November, here’s Spirit’s JP Partridge. He said: “Our lead title for September is a welcome 4k restoration for one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, courtroom drama of all time, Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men. Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb lead a note perfect ensemble cast of jurors in the most pressure-cooker, one-room hour-and-a-half you will ever watch. Also new to 4k is Satyajit Ray’s astonishing Days and Night’s in the Forest. If you are not already a fan, this beautifully constructed weekend road trip which takes some dark turns, will convert you. September is rounded out with Little Odessa, a New York gangster film anchored by a stunning turn from Tim Roth and Harlan County USA, one of the greatest American documentaries ever made and a must see for fans of non-fiction filmmaking. October means Halloween and Criterion have a great title to celebrate the month of monsters with – Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein. If you thought you had seen all there was to see on Netflix, think again. The Criterion edition premieres an entirely new Reborn Cut – extended to 158 minutes, alongside the original version. With both featuring Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos and loaded with extras, this is the definitive way to watch and own Del Toro’s latest gothic masterpiece. With a title that big there is barely room for anything else, but British cult film fans will be pleased to see The Shout making its way back onto Blu-ray in the UK (the previous Network release is long deleted and hard to find). Restored in 2k, Criterion’s The Shout features different extras to Network’s which add new context to this unnerving tale of an enigmatic stranger (Alan Bates) who claims he can kill with his scream! Which brings us full circle back to October and Halloween… the month of screams!”
On to November from Criterion and Spirit’s JP Partridge continued: “A genuine favourite of mine sees a long awaited 4k re-release with Philip Kaufman’s 1983 epic The Right Stuff, an astonishing account of the space race with an enviable cast that includes Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid, Barbara Hershey and Lance Henriksen. Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer even turn up as NASA recruiters. From one American dream to another, Grizzly Man is Werner Herzog’s frankly unforgettable study of Timothy Treadwell, a self-styled environmentalist who, for thirteen summers, lived among grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness, forging an intense bond with the animals and ultimately losing his life to one of them. It is a strange, profound and affecting experience. A palate cleanser to all this heady stuff rounds of the month in the form of The Shop Around the Corner, a delightful confection starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan that provided the inspiration for You’ve Got Mail. Set at Christmas, this stunning 4k presentation makes a perfect companion to It’s a Wonderful Life as the season of goodwill approaches.”
Salvation Films and its assorted imprints, such as Redemption, have been on the home entertainment landscape since the VHS era, with its founder Nigel Wingrove, the only man ever to have a film banned by the BBFC for blasphemy, a key figure in industry, not least for pushing the boundaries with the company’s taste for the shocking and outré, pushing films that have now been picked up by less controversial labels after first being ushered into the market under a Salvation umbrella. As noted here before, he’s moved into the world of streaming, with redemptiontv.net, an operation which focuses on the kind of films Wingrove specialises in. And we must admit, we’re mightily impressed by his summer social media campaign under the tagline of “I Don’t Scare”, which features what Salvation said is a collection of “fashion-inspired Black Metal/Punk/Barbie/modelly vibe mash-ups [including]. It eschewed highlighting its films, rather playing on "the wider culture surrounding RedemptionTV.net - a world where horror, exploitation cinema, Japanese Pinku culture, erotica, underground music, punk and Alternative culture and fashion naturally overlap”. Wingrove said: “I’ve always believed that the exploitation and sexploitation genres have their own visual language. We wanted to create something that looked less like film advertising and more like a contemporary fashion campaign. Every image is different, but together they form a single statement. They’re playful, stylish, slightly subversive and unmistakably Redemption.” You can see examples here, here and here.
Launching your own streaming service is tough work and has represented something of a steep learning curve, but, with more than 300 titles available and new titles every week, Wingrove believes his redemptiontv.net service has now begun to make its mark. “RTV has established a loyal subscriber base and proved that there is an audience for the catalogue,” he said, “but building and growing an independent service against the major platforms is difficult. That's one reason I'm now concentrating much more on building the identity of RedemptionTV itself, with campaigns such as I DON'T SCARE, rather than simply promoting individual films. It's also been a considerable learning curve, not just in terms of formats and programming, but also in terms of the technical side. For example, we weren't originally able to offer our entire catalogue under a single subscription, so we had to work around that by offering packages of 100 titles and varying them, which was far from ideal. We've now found a way of resolving that and will be combining our Halloween campaign with a new subscriber campaign in October. I'm really looking forward to coming up with something nose-twitchingly magical for that one.”
A couple of recent releases from our old pal and the man dubbed the “king of DTV” (by Film Stories magazine, no less, in a feature about his oeuvre), Jonathan Sothcott. He’s just released Harbinger, influenced heavenly by his love of old British horror titles, through 101 Films. It had a digital release in August, followed by a special signing at the Fopp store in the heart of London and, last week on September 7, the Blu-ray landed in stores. Sothcott said: “Harbinger harkens back to the classic Hammer and Amicus British horror films of old - a spooky monster, a great cast of beloved cult faces and bundles of atmosphere. The ‘Zoltar’ style fortune telling machine is, I think, a fresh and innovative concept and of course it has built in franchise potential. We very much hope that Trinity have huge success with it here and in the USA.” The soundtrack of Harbinger has also been released across CD and vinyl.
Meanwhile, Monday September 14, saw a digital release for his latest, Knightfall, on the back of a review in The Guardian, no less. As Sothcott noted on social media: “We're quietly delighted with The Guardian's two-star review of Knightfall, for indie films of this ilk, two stars from The Guardian is like four from anyone else. And as the review noted: “Resourceful microbudget producer Jonathan Sothcott surely has one optimistic eye on filling the void left by the withdrawal of 007 from public life… a game cast... the pick of the players is a spry, characterful Ian Ogilvy... Knightfall holds a certain nostalgic charm; a bizarro-world vision of Bond.” Sothcott told The Raygun: “We’ve had a nice run with the horrors, but Knightfall is back to me doing what I do best – high end geriaction with a stacked cast and a lot of heart. It’s my best one since We Still Kill The Old Way and Roger Moore’s son Geoffrey brings an extra layer of 007 elan - not to mention a million headlines that write themselves.” Knightfall will be released on Blu-ray in late October.
Nick Wrigley has been in and around the boutique label business since it became a thing, having helped shape the way these imprints operate working alongside Eureka’s Ron Benson on the formation of the Masters Of Cinema banner many years ago and, in the last 10 years or so, working as art director for Powerhouse and continuing to contribute to a bunch of other similar labels. He’s one of those people in the business who’s forgotten more about film than many of us could ever hope to know and he’s behind a new label that has just launched its first release. The imprint is called Exotic Material (it certainly raised an eyebrow with our postman when a package arrived on our doorstep sealed with branded brown tape emblazoned with the company’s name) and its first release is a belter. It’s a compilation of episodes of a long-lost US cable TV show featuring jazz giant Alice Coltrane which defies description – it features “devotional music, wisdom, and meditation”, with music and thoughts from Coltrane herself. It’s a remarkable programme, lovingly assembled and put together by Wrigley, with sumptuous packaging, including extensive information about the programme and its birth. Wrigley told The Raygun: “I don’t have any grand plans for Exotic Material, certainly not a monthly slate of releases like most labels. I really wanted to get ETERNITY’S PILLAR out and then take it from there. I have my eye on a couple of projects, and would ideally like to do 1 or 2 of them a year, as opposed to being involved with about 6 a month, like I have been for the last 20+ years. This allows me to be fully involved with every aspect of the project in the best way possible. Full attention: from licensing, through production, right up to release and promotion. It’s been really enjoyable to go through all these stages with ETERNITY’S PILLAR over the course of the last year and be able to have the time to do each stage properly.”
Organisers have hailed the National Cinema Weekend – an expanded version of National Cinema Day held over the first weekend in September – as a huge success. Using the tagline “who will you take, more than 550 cinemas across the UK participated in the event, which was aimed at getting audiences back into the cinema and encouraging younger viewers to experience the joy of a communal viewing experience. There were some 1.54m admissions over the weekend, with many, according to exit polls, wooed by the £4 ticket offer, which appealed particularly to families, with almost three quarter saying this was why they went along. Some 80 per cent of cinemagoers said the event reminded them of the magic of a cinema visit. A quarter of the visits were from young people aged between 16 and 24 years old and it appears rot have the desired effect – with cinemas reporting “busy screenings and full auditoriums throughout the weekend” and almost 30 per cent saying they now expected to increase their visits to the cinema. Cinema First Chair, Iain Jacob said: “We are delighted that National Cinema Weekend brought audiences back to experience the unique joy of cinema, and we look forward to welcoming them again with an exciting slate of new releases through 2026.”
The National Cinema Weekend gave a further boost to what appears to be a buoyant UK box office – latest figures announced over on Screen Daily state that the summer box office – effectively running from the start of May to the beginning of September – was the most successful ever, with the 18 weeks seeing more than £527 million going through the tills at the box office in the UK besting even pre-pandemic figures. Overall, the year to the start of September saw revenues of more than £902 million raked in at theatrical around the country, up 23 per cent on 2024 and 33 per cent up on 2025. Even more positively, the summer was up some seven per cent on 2019, the last pre-pandemic summer. The year so far’s success was driven by August’s phenomenal results, with almost £120 million in theatrical takings representing a 67 per cent increase on the same month last year. More than half of that total for the month came from just two titles, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. It’s a similar story in the US, where the summer’s record receipts of $4.765 billion represent the biggest summer ever. Those same two films led the charge in the States two. The latest Spider-Man outing has taken more than $2 billion, while The Odyssey has earned some $1.63 billion. UK totals are now at £96.3 million and £82.8 million respectively. The former is now the fifth highest earner of all-time at the UK box office, the latter is likely to join the top 10 by the time it has finished in cinemas.
In more successful The Odyssey news, the film is now far and away the highest grossing film ever at BFI IMAX, the country’s largest screen. The cinema, based in London’s Waterloo, saw the Christopher Nolan film pass the landmark number in August as admissions topped 100,000 and its receipts at the venue move beyond the £2.68 million mark. Nolan’s films account for six out of the top 10 biggest earners at the BFI IMAX, which is the biggest single screen in term terms of box office across the UK and international markets, bested only by the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Its earnings at this one screen now total £xxx. As BFI IMAX programme manager Madeleine Mullett previously commented noted: “As the only cinema in the UK to hold a complete archive of Christopher Nolan’s IMAX 70mm filmography, now including The Odyssey, we are proud to be the home of Christopher Nolan on film. Across the BFI, our commitment to preserving and celebrating celluloid, alongside the filmmakers who continue to champion this format, speaks to the enduring power of storytelling and the unique communal experience of seeing film on film. The extraordinary demand for our IMAX 70mm presentation of The Odyssey, experienced as intended by the filmmakers, is ultimate proof of the appetite audiences have for cinema at its most authentic.”
 The Raygun, is 15 years old and continues to report on the home entertainment industry and its ever-changing face. To ensure we can continue to bring you the latest news, opinion and analysis from a business we love and care passionately about, you can support our independent journalism by donating to us via Ko-fi… Thank you.
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Guy Ritchie’s made his film again
Gen Z heist action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVvWKh336m4 Cinema Verity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l3rfJVPjRY Devilishly good…
Due on Tubi…
Cracking homegrown comedy
“I’m so excited to see it” https://youtu.be/_NA-5-OssSQ?si=_cH2b8xa536YJsSt
The Sun always shines
THE OBLIGATORY GDPR BIT
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