Written by Josh Tyler | 04 July 2007 | in news - Box office

Josh Tyler has written about his experience of watching Sicko in a Texan cinema, where the audience were spurred to action after watching it (via BoingBoing):

I’ve never seen anything like it. This is Texas goddammit, not France or some liberal college campus.  When the credits rolled the audience filed out and into the bathrooms. At the urinals, my redneck friend couldn’t stop talking about the film, and I kept listening. He struck up a conversation with a random black man in his 40s standing next to him, and soon everyone was peeing and talking about just how fucked everything is.

I kept my distance, as we all finished and exited at the same time. Outside the restroom doors… the theater was in chaos. The entire Sicko audience had somehow formed an impromptu town hall meeting in front of the ladies room. I’ve never seen anything like it. This is Texas goddammit, not France or some liberal college campus. But here these people were, complete strangers from every walk of life talking excitedly about the movie. It was as if they simply couldn’t go home without doing something drastic about what they’d just seen. My redneck compadre and his new friend found their wives at the center of the group, while I lingered in the background waiting for my spouse to emerge.

The talk gradually centered around a core of 10 or 12 strangers in a cluster while the rest of us stood around them listening intently to this thing that seemed to be happening out of nowhere. The black gentleman engaged by my redneck in the restroom shouted for everyone’s attention. The conversation stopped instantly as all eyes in this group of 30 or 40 people were now on him. “If we just see this and do nothing about it,” he said, “then what’s the point? Something has to change.” There was silence, then the redneck’s wife started calling for email addresses. Suddenly everyone was scribbling down everyone else’s email, promising to get together and do something… though no one seemed to know quite what.

Written by Ali Jafar | 06 April 2007 | in news - Box office

The U.K. posted its strongest first quarter takings in four years, bringing in $379.4 million from 166 films, compared with $346 million in the same period in 2006, according to figures from Nielsen EDI.

News of the upturn in box figures coincided with a report predicting a surge of growth in the U.K. cinema market. British cinemagoers are set to pay nearly $2.17 billion for movie tickets by 2011, according to predictions made by Dodona Research. U.K. B.O. totaled $1.63 billion last year.

The rollout of digital technologies in the exhibition sector across the U.K. is likely to be main factor behind the bullish numbers.

Full story in VARIETY

Written by Nic Wistreich | 08 March 2007 | in news - Box office

Piracy and the explosion of video on the web did not impact people's hunger to see films on the big screen last year, with world box office takings up 11% to an all time high of $25.82bn. After a dip in 2005, the US box office also rose 5.5% to $9.49bn according to figures from the MPAA.

 The average cost to make and market a major studio film was $100.3 million in 2006.  This includes $65.8 million in production costs and $34.5 million in marketing costs. The total number of films released in the US continued to increase in 2006 with 607 films released, an 11% increase over 2005's 549 films. Internet advertising rose to 3.7% of a films budget  from 0.9% in 2002.

Written by Nic Wistreich | 22 August 2006 | in news - Box office

The Samuel L Jackson film, Snakes on a Plane, described by one blogger as 'the most Internet-hyped movie of all time' has disapointed in it opening weekend, struggling to hold the top spot in the US ahead of last weeks' Talladega Nights. The film, which went back into production to shoot extra scenes following huge web interest, was hoped by some to show the web's potential for making or breaking a film. Some argued that distributor New Line Cinema's decision to not allow any pre-release press screeners scared off movie goers, while others expect the film to pick up in its second week following strong word of mouth.

However, the box office disapointment (and a no.1 spot for a B-movie title isn't exactly a failure) shouldn't overshadow what has been a trendsetting marketing campaign for the studio. As well as providing endless images, video and audio materials for people to brighten and personalise their blog or myspace page, the film inspired dozens of spoof videos and audio tracks months before even the trailers began to circulate.In a further unusual move, the studio partnered with CafePress.com to permit fans of Snakes on a Plane to become official licensees of Snakes on a Plane merchandise. This opened the door for anyone to design and sell - for free - 'official' t-shirts, mugs and so on.

Written by Dan Milmo and Richard Wray | 22 June 2006 | in news - Box office

Video-on-demand hopes to do for broadcasting what iTunes did for the record industry. In a VoD world, armchair viewers tap into a vast onscreen catalogue and download the film or TV programme of their choice, which can be stored on a hard drive or set-top box, burned on to a disc or rented. Watching films when it suits a viewer rather than a scheduler is already commonplace in the cable and satellite industries, but the widespread availability of fast broadband connections is bringing VoD within the reach of almost all UK households.

Written by Brian Pendreigh | 12 June 2006 | in news - Box office

They are timeless cinema classics that have largely been consigned to the late-night graveyard slots on the small screen. Movies such as Taxi Driver, South Pacific, Top Gun and a string of Bond films were the blockbusters that once put bums on velour seats. But in a back-to-the-future move, they are to be seen in their natural habitat again. A new breed of distributor is buying the cinema rights, enhancing and digitising old movie prints, and putting them back on the big screen.

Written by Nic Wistreich | 30 May 2006 | in news - Box office

Fox's X Men 3 grossed $120m in the US over the 4-day weekend to become the highest grossing Memorial Day weekend film ever, and pushing Da Vinci Code into second place with an estimated $45m over the weekend period. X Men 3: Last Stand, has the fourth highest grossing film opening of all time in the US (for a three day period).

Meanwhile in the rest of the world, where the idea of Christ's descendant being French may be more palatable, Da Vinci Code stayed on top, grossing $92.8m in its second week against X Men's $76.1m according to Screen International.

See full US chart at Box Office Mojo 

Written by James MacGregor | 09 May 2006 | in news - Box office

Mission: Impossible III, starring Hollywood actor Tom Cruise, has topped the UK and Ireland box office on its weekend debut – and out-performing both the original MI and MI 2.

Written by James MacGregor | 03 May 2006 | in news - Box office

The animated sub-zero heroes in Ice Age 2: The Meltdown continued to delight audiences, remaining top of the box office charts for the fourth week running.

Written by James MacGregor | 17 April 2006 | in news - Box office

Scary Movie 4 opened number one in North America grossing over US$41 million, shattering records by becoming the highest grossing Easter weekend opening ever and giving the film the largest opening for a film released by The Weinstein Company.