Curzon A Commotion
Much has been written about HMV’s partnership with Curzon Cinemas, the strategy behind it, the fit between the retailer and the theatrical exhibitor (which is, in turn, part of the same group as Artificial Eye), but little has been said about the cinema itself. How does it work? How do you fit a cinema inside [...]
Click here for more >Landing On Your Feet
La La Land kicked off its run on BBC3 this week ahead of ITV Studios’ June 7 release of the DVD following Marc Wootton’s three comic creations – psychic Shirley Ghostman, wannabe actor Gary Garner, a Cockney Stathamalike and aspiring yet hapless documentary maker Brendan Allen – as they try and make it in Los [...]
Click here for more >Meeting The Punters
There are so many potential captions you could use for this, but sadly, most will end up sounding a bit snide or cruel about some of the hundreds of thousands of punters who rushed out and bought Avatar on DVD and, crucially, Blu-ray this week. There will be a full report on Avatar’s early record-breaking [...]
Click here for more >Playing The Numbers Game
Jim Caviezel is tired, jetlagged and waiting to finish promotional activity for The Prisoner, the new version of the much-loved TV programme currently airing on TV and is due on DVD on May 3. He’s still finding time to speak to The Raygun as part of his British promotional activity which is supporting both the [...]
Click here for more >Building Your Own Army
Joey Leung had experience in the Asian film market, so, almost on a whim, he decided to set up his own label. Here he recounts Terracotta’s first year as a distributor… “Let’s start a film distribution company,” I said to my wife. “OK” she replied. And the within a week we registered at Companies House [...]
Click here for more >Draper’s Record
Lionsgate has picked up more than its fair share of coverage over the weekend for the release today (April 26) of the third season of critically acclaimed US TV drama Mad Men (pretty much the finest American import gracing our television screens, we reckon). And its marketing campaign is impressive too, with press ads, as [...]
Click here for more >War! What Is It Good For?
Well, in answer to the above question, for Metrodome, it invariably means strong sales. Here’s a couple of Monday morning goodies for you, trailers from Metrodome for a brace of May 3 releases. The independent sends them out as a regular promotional device to assorted websites, blogs and the like to embed (as we’ve done [...]
Click here for more >A mug’s game
We at The Raygun are big fans of the odd cuppa, so it is with great joy that we received this from Momentum recently, to promote its release of Law Abiding Citizen. Heat sensitive, as you pour your boiling water in, not only do you get the satisfaction of knowing you’re just about to get [...]
Click here for more >Weekend manouevres
It’s a busy weekend with not nearly enough time – or babysitters – to go around. But we are going to try our damnedest to pop along to the European and UK premiere of Downtown Calling, part of the East End Film Festival, over in London’s trendy Shoreditch (in the words of every Sunday supplement). [...]
Click here for more >Kidding around
Last week it was flash mobs on the tube and Glee singers visiting the women’s weeklies, but the best PR stunt of the last week has seen a pair of goats – yes, that’s no typo – visiting magazine offices to help launch Momentum’s The Men Who Stare At Goats. Agency Premier PR took the [...]
Click here for more >Inbetweeners Days
Building a brand is one of the key tasks facing any smart marketer in our business. Whether it’s a film licence, with umpteen sequels to come, or a TV programme that is aiming to turn into the next friends, it is essential that you have an ongoing range of titles that offers up instant recognition [...]
Click here for more >All In The Game
Danny Baker should be a familiar character to most in the home entertainment business; this is, after all, the face that launched a million blooper-style football related seasonal videos and DVDs with his Own Goals And Gaffs release through a then newly-formed VVL back in the 1990s. But before that idea, Baker was, of course, [...]
Click here for more >Top 10 Most Pirated Films
We’re aiming to mix up our Top 10s on The Raygun, veering from the sublime to the ridiculous. We’re not quite sure where this one falls into, but we’re putting it out here for your interest, although we must admit, it doesn’t necessarily make for happy reading… This is the current Top 10 most downloaded [...]
Click here for more >Happy Slappers
We’ve told you a couple of times (both before and after the event) about Momentum’s latest initiative to raise the profile of one of its DTV releases. The distributor organised a special day’s worth of activity at London’s Prince Charles Cinema, which culminated in a “premiere” of Bitch Slap. And to mark the event, these [...]
Click here for more >Mob rules
We at The Raygun have been watching these and have been in tears. Organised by Fox to mark the DVD release of Glee, it is a series of impromptu flash mob-style Glee performances, of which there were a number around town, on trains, at stations… All over the place. A clever idea and it has [...]
Click here for more >