This weekend
Major release
- The Conjuring 2 – Warner Bros
Supernatural horror sequel to the surprise sleeper 2013 hit; paranormal investigators Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return travelling to Enfield to investigate poltergeist activity in a council house between 1977 and 1979. Even though the film is set in London majority of its filming was done in Los Angeles.
Have been several TV series based on the Enfield Poltergeist most recently The Enfield Haunting which was broadcast on Sky Living last May.
More famously was the basis of 1992 BBC mockumentary drama broadcast Halloween 1992 Ghostwatch which was one of the scariest programmes ever broadcast on British TV as featured TV favourites Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene and Mike Smith in what seemed to be a live Crimewatch style factual TV show with Sarah Greene as a live reporter who was seen at the end being dragged by a spirit behind a door.
Ghostwatch received huge TV audience and BBC received 30,000 phone calls many worried something had happened to Sarah Greene who had to make an appearance on Children’s TV the Monday after to prove that she was ok; was released on DVD 20 years later with a documentary Behind the Curtains released on DVD in 2013.
ITV 1995 documentary Strange But True – The Enfield Poltergeist tells the real-life events that inspired the film.
Brazilian TV had a terrifying prank similar to one held in the UK on June 9th at the Waterloo Vaults recreating scenes from the film.
After having previews on Friday June 10th opened today giving it an 8 day opening weekend. Has received very positive reviews unusually for a horror and a sequel.
Footage was screened at CinemaCon in April receiving positive response; receives its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 7th.
The first film opened with £2.1m in August 2013 only dropping 25% in its second weekend taking £1.6m going on to take £10m which was incredible performance for a horror film as normally they are very front loaded.
The sequel is likely to be more front-loaded than the original film likely to perform strongly in the opening weekend before the onslaught of the mega-movies in the coming weeks.
Also released
- Gods of Egypt – eOne
Fantasy action movie starring Gerard Butler, Chadwick Boseman, Rufus Sewell, and Geoffrey Rush and directed Alex Proyas. Received negative reviews when it opened in the US in February opening with $14.1m having a $140m budget; generating backlash having mostly white cast playing Egyptians similar to the 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings.
After sitting on eOne’s shelves for the past 5 months choosing to give it a limited theatrical release as so many films do to quality for lucrative Sky Movies TV deal.
- Barbershop 3: A Fresh Cut – Warner Bros
Fourth film from the Barbershop film series all poor performing at the UK box office Warner Bros giving the sequel a very limited theatrical release as to Gods of Egypt for Sky TV deal.
Barbershop opened March 2003 £145,741
Barbershop 2 opened April 2004 £73,174
Beauty Shop opened April 2005 £131,060
Out next week
Major release
- Independence Day: Resurgence
Twenty years after sci-fi disaster Independence Day sees Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox and Brent Spiner return with newcomers Liam Hemsworth, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe, Sela Ward, Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Fichtner and directed by Roland Emmerich.
The sequel has been in development ever since the first film was released in 2009 Emmerich had plans to make two sequels with Will Smith returning but after Fox refused to pay him $50m it got delayed. In March 2013 was announced plans for two films but 18 months later announced that there would be only one film.
First trailer was released in December, TV spot shown during Superbowl in February second trailer released in April and a 5-minute extended trailer released in May.
Early buzz has described the sequel as the most entertaining film since Deadpool and as its marketing has been as fun as Deadpool and similar to Finding Dory is a sequel audiences want to see more than simply being a cash-in.
Similar to the first film which had the infamous White House scene blowing up in the trailers the sequel has had a strong viral marketing campaign including a website looking back at the war of 1996 explaining Will Smith absence in the sequel as Captain Steven Hiller died testing the ESD first alien hybrid fighter.
The video created by ESD “United we survive” is similar to the join videos that feature in Starship Troopers or could be seen now as part of the StayIn campaign for the EU Referendum
20th Century Fox have teamed up with Manchester United this year playing their logo before the start of matches at Old Trafford. Players have been incorporated within many of their film campaigns including The Revenant, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse and now in Independence Day: Resurgence which didn’t go down that well with fans and doubtful any of them will win any awards for their acting.
Original film was released in August 1996 opening with £7m including £1m from Thursday previews which was 19% of its final box office of £36.86m and the biggest film of the year.
The UK marketing budget for the first film was about £1.7m the sequel is likely to be triple that included a major advert during England Vs Russia Euro 2016 opening match on June 11th.
Around the time first film was released in August 1996 alien life was discovered on Mars and 20th Century Fox incorporated it within its marketing “We’re not going to say we told you so” and see it while cinemas are still standing. Similarly before the release of The Martian NASA discovered life on Mars so we can only imagine what might be discovered in the next week President Obama did say recently that he would reveal all about aliens before he ends his presidency?
The first film had the famous White House scene which was the focal part of the films marketing in a world before social media.
But now with social media it allows us to get Honest Trailer of Independence Day
The sequel coincidentally opens the day of the EU Referendum while the plot of the film is about unity of the word against a common enemy conspiracy theorists may think it was all part of Rupert Murdoch trying to get people to vote Brexit especially after The Sun came out to leave this week.
The first film was one of the first to have a web presence the first film to have a website was 2 years before Stargate in 1994.
In August 1996 20 years later the equivalent would be £18.2m+ opening and £93m+ final box office sequel is unlikely to get anywhere close.
Also released
- The Secret Life of Pets – Universal
The latest animated film from Illumination Entertainment most famous for Despicable Me franchise. This year have two original sourced animated features while their rivals have sequels with inbuilt audiences. Featuring the voices of Louis C.K., Kevin Hart, Steve Coogan, Bobby Moynihan, Lake Bell, Hannibal Buress and Albert Brooks.
Universal choosing to open The Secret Life of Pets two weeks earlier than its US opening similar to Minions last year (opening with £11.5m including £4.9m in previews) which was very successful but as that had a massive in-built audiences far easier to sell to audiences. Question is will audiences who have seen Zootropolis (opening with £5.3m including weekend previews) and The Angry Birds Movie want to see another animal animated film or prefer to wait to see Finding Dory.
Has previews Sat/Sun giving it a 5-day weekend against 4 days for Independence Day: Resurgence
Trailers had a mixed reception but footage screened at CinemaCon in April was well received.
- The Meddler – Sony Pictures
Comedy drama starring Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne and J. K. Simmons and directed by Lorene Scafaria her second film premiered last year at Toronto Film Festival after being acquired by Sony Classics receiving positive reviews. Over past couple of weeks Sony have been spring cleaning dumping out several films on limited release that have been sitting on their shelves for many months.
- Elvis & Nixon – eOne
Comedy drama starring Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon focusing on the meeting between Elvis Presley and President Richard Nixon in the White House in December 1970.
Amazon Studios acquired US rights in June 2015 their first official film acquisition released in US in April 2016 on limited release receiving positive reviews.
Out in two weeks
Major release
- Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie – 20th Century Fox
Starring Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, June Whitfield, Jane Horrocks and more cameos than featured in Zoolander and Entourage and directed by Mandie Fletcher. Based on the hugely successful BBC TV series broadcast between 1992 and 2012; last a two-parter titled Olympics was broadcast on the eve of the London Olympics on July 23rd 2012 receiving 5.61m (24.1%). audience on BBC1.
At its peak Absolutely Fabulous was getting TV audiences on BBC1 similar to Mrs Browns Boys of over 7.5m regularly with Christmas episodes over 10m; early in the year Dad’s Army opened disappointingly with £2.06m and in August David Brent is back in Life on the Road.
Jennifer Saunders said she was working on the script film in 2011 but in July 2015 was announced script was finished and would start shooting in October and in August Fox Searchlight announced they would co-finance with BBC Films taking world rights
In April a list of 60 cameos was released that would feature in the film always feel when cameos are revealed its almost like producers are doing it as they are nervous of the film as seen recently with films like Zoolander 2 and Entourage. Always think cameos work best when they are surprises most famously Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder and other films like The Player and Pret-A-Porter let audiences discover the cameos.
In December 2015 the film generated controversy when it was announced comedian Janette Tough would be playing a Japanese character Huki Muki.
The second trailer released in April has been viewed over 1.3m times on You Tube more than 1.1m of Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie.
Kylie has recorded a new remix of the shows classic theme Wheels on Fire; Receives its world premiere on 29th June with the cast attending along with many of the cameos that feature within the movie.
Also release
- Central Intelligence – Universal Pictures
Action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart two actors who have grown in status over the last 10 years.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson started out with roles using his size The Mummy, Walking Tall, Game plan. But then appeared in Get Smart in 2008 and showed he could be big but also be funny starring in several Furious films and last year’s San Andreas and has five films already dated and another dozen he is supposedly attached to be made and released in the coming years.
Kevin Hart similarly climbed the ranks over the last 10 years from small parts in Scary Movie films to starring in Death at a Funeral and Think Like a Man which were both successes in the US but it wasn’t until Ride Along and The Wedding Ringer that mainstream UK audiences took notice of him.
As he came over to UK to promote The Wedding Ringer in the UK in February 2015 helped open to a strong £986,123 as these films never used to perform well in the UK; Think Like a Man – 2012 -81,516, About Last Night – 2014 – £172,181 and Think Like a Man 2 – 2014 – £131,000.
Ride Along opened in 2014 with £1.41m and the sequel with £2.1m in January.
Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson have been over the UK recently to promote film and Kevin Hart hosted a preview screening on June 4th at O2 Cineworld for his fans audience reaction was positive.
Opening Friday
- Finding Dory – Disney
Sequel to 2003’s Finding Nemo featuring voices of Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks Hayden Rolence Diane Keaton Eugene Levy. Directed by Andrew Stanton first film has directed since John Carter back doing what he does best animation having also directed Finding Nemo and Wall-e.
After having many mediocre cash-in sequels this year Finding Dory shows sequels can more that allowing audiences to experience their beloved characters on another adventure building the story forward. Many reviews are saying its Pixar’s best film since Up but then other feel it’s more a remix of what the first film. While many sequels and reboots have been little more than remixes as The Force Awakens was and Ghostbusters looks like it will be Finding Dory takes to story forward doesn’t feel like a rehash or remix.
It the last trailer it looked like we might get the first lesbian couple in a Disney film as we saw for a few seconds two women walking in a park together but we never find out in the film if they are.
Last week was tracking to have biggest opening of a Pixar film between $115m-120m but this was before the reviews came out which could see it open even stronger. It is Pixar’s third film they have released in the past year could they success of studio stablemates Zootopia and The Jungle Book make Finding Dory feel a bit old in comparison.
The current biggest opening for an animated film Shrek the Third (Paramount) – $121.6m – May 2007 and the biggest Pixar is Toy Story 3 $110.3m – June 2010 both records could break with Finding Dory especially after poor performance of Alice Through the Looking Glass there is a gap till studio stablemate The BFG opens July 1st targeting family market.
- Central Intelligence – Warner Bros
Comedy starring stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart a few years ago would seem like a very strange pairing but in recent years both have starred many successful films in recently years and in April appeared together as hosts of MTV Movie Awards.
Ride Along was Kevin Hart’s breakout movie opening with $41.5m in 2014 with sequel opening this year with $35.2m while Get Hard opened last year strongly with $33.8m.
Dwayne Johnson starred in last year’s disaster movie San Andreas opening with $54.5m while many of his films are unintentionally funny its 6 years ago since his last comedy The Other Guys which opened with $35.5m in August 2010.
Expected to open with $40-$50m but how it holds is questionable with Independence Day: Resurgence opening next weekend.
