Strong opening weekend for delusive thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio suggests audiences are happy to be kept in the dark

Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Inception soared to the top of the North American charts this weekend with estimated takings of $60.4m. Good on Warner Bros for having the nerve to stick their necks out. One might think there was no risk involved because it comes from Nolan, through whom Warners has enjoyed huge commercial success and critical acclaim in recent years with the Batman films. But there was no guarantee that it would work.

For starters, this was not an easy movie to sell to audiences. I have always believed filmgoers are smarter than people give them credit for – but it’s still a job to entice crowds to watch something that’s intellectually engaging, especially in the summer. This is the season of caped crusaders and comedies, not high-concept stories involving dream logic.

Nolan first pitched Inception to Warner Bros 10 years ago and has said he initially conceived it on a smaller scale. After the success of the Batman movies, however, he felt equipped to paint on a more expansive canvas. Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures (the studio’s partner on the Batman franchise as well as 300, Watchmen and The Hangover, among others) trust Nolan and felt this was a bet worth taking.

They reportedly ploughed $160m into the production and a further $100m for worldwide marketing, so we’ll see how it plays out. The $60.4m launch weekend was a great start for an original concept – in other words, one not based on an existing franchise, book or video game. Inception grossed roughly $15m in a handful of international markets including the UK, so overall $75m for a fresh idea will be pleasing to the head honchos in Burbank.

Marketing the movie was a challenge precisely because it’s a difficult story to sell. Warner Bros didn’t want to give too much away and therefore audiences didn’t know what to expect. The posters in Los Angeles show Leonardo DiCaprio et al standing in the middle of a street while neighbouring thoroughfares rise up on either side of them like waves. I stopped people outside my local multiplex and asked them what, from its promotional campaign, they felt about The Dark Knight director’s latest effort. This decidedly cursory and unscientific poll revealed that few had any idea what it was about, but most thought it looked cool and wanted to see it.

Nobody I spoke to said they were going to see it because of DiCaprio and the cast, although that was clearly regarded as a bonus. OK, I only spoke to about 10 people. But $60.4m says a lot. Half-way through 2010, we’re at a stage where crowds in Los Angeles are prepared to go to the cinema to watch an idea unfold about which they know nothing, simply because it belongs to a director they admire. That alone is a small victory for the industry.

North American top 10, 16-18 July 2010

1. Inception, $60.4m
2. Despicable Me, $32.7m. Total: $118.4m
3. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, $17.4m. Total: $24.5m
4. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $13.5m. Total: $264.9m
5. Toy Story 3, $11.7m. Total: $362.7m
6. Grown Ups, $10m. Total: $129.3m
7. The Last Airbender, $7.5m. Total: $114.8m
8. Predators, $6.8m. Total: $40.1m
9. Knight and Day, $3.7m. Total: $69.2m
10. The Karate Kid, $2.2m. Total: $169.2m

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The impressive returns posted by the latest chapter in Stephenie Meyer’s vampire tale make a nonsense of trade press carping

Any studio executive would give his or her right latte-holder (that’s an arm to you and I) to have followers like the Twi-hards. This gothic brigade of mostly over-21, mostly female aficionados burns with an undying love for Stephenie Meyer’s vampire saga that makes it hard for Summit Entertainment to screw up the movies. The studio did well to snap up the rights several years ago, and it’s done a decent if unremarkable job with the adaptations. Nobody is saying a Twilight Saga picture is as good as the best of the Harry Potters, but they’re atmospheric, get the job done and boast a perfect cast led by the talented Kristen Stewart. They also made Summit Entertainment the distributor it is today.

The fans have duly played their part in all this, supporting the movies come rain or shine, November or July. As expected, their loyalty has reaped rewards for Summit. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse grossed $82.5m (£54m) from Friday to Monday over the 4 July holiday weekend in North America, rising to $175.3m since the midnight launch on 30 June, figures which tell their own story. And let’s not forget that $68.5m opening day – the biggest Wednesday opening ever and the second biggest opening day on any day of the week behind, yes, you guessed it, The Twilight Saga: New Moon on $72.7m last November.

I’m happy to cite these box office figures because they demonstrate the franchise’s enduring commercial appeal. For the second and now third Twilight movies to generate the two biggest opening days in North American box office history is some track record. Eclipse, which by the way grossed roughly $105m from a mere 24 territories outside the US over the weekend, has raced to almost $280m worldwide in six days and will join the previous two episodes as a proven commercial entity, not to mention an entertaining movie. Yet for some, it’s not good enough.

Such is the US trade press’s obsession with the record books that if a movie launches below the level set by its predecessor, it’s deemed to be something of a disappointment. On Saturday, one online publication wrote with alarm that the movie was already dipping in popularity because the Thursday and Friday box office wasn’t as high as Wednesday’s $68.5m haul. What did they expect? An addictive crowd like the Twi-hards don’t wait a week or even a day or two to see these movies – they pile in as soon as it goes on release. So naturally, that opening day milestone was going to be nearly impossible to beat.

I’ve been told by sources at Summit that the movie cost around $68m to make. The studios always underplay cost so let’s throw another $10m on for argument’s sake, and factor in say $40m for marketing. Even with a $120m exposure, that $175m North American gross already looks good after only six days in release. The movie will play on for weeks and is certain to attract repeat viewings from fans, so who else - beyond a few idle reporters - is interested in making a fuss just because it took three or four million dollars less than New Moon on its first day? With another week of the World Cup ahead of us, this classic counter-programming release looks set to go from strength to strength.

North American top 10, 2-5 July 2010

1. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $82.5m. Total: $175.3m

2. The Last Airbender, $53.2m. Total: $70.5m

3. Toy Story 3, $42.2m. Total: $301.1m

4. Grown Ups, $26.5m. Total: $85.1m

5. Knight and Day, $14m. Total: $49.3m

6. The Karate Kid, $11.5m. Total: $155m

7. The A-Team, $4.3m. Total: $70.4m

8. Get Him to the Greek, $1.7m. Total: $57.9m

9. Shrek Forever After, $1.3m. Total: $232.6m

10. Cyrus, $1m. Total: $1.7m

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The annual iTunes Festival has turned into something of a beast since its modest launch with a small but powerful line-up at the ICA in 2007.

This year’s festival at London’s Roundhouse is giving away 60,000 tickets for gigs scattered throughout July - but an astonishing two million people have applied for them.

The iTunes Festival isn’t a big money spinner in Apple terms; it’s free, for starters. But this is a powerful marketing exercise for Apple, putting the virtual iTunes brand into the real world and reinforcing it with live artists. We also know how powerful live music and events are for driving music sales. I asked Apple for any figures on how influential the iTunes Festival is in that respect, but they couldn’t comment.

The festival does generate exclusive content for the iTunes store, however - 60 tracks from the live recordings that go on sale in all 23 iTunes stores. A duet between Florence Welch and Dizzie Rascal at this year’s Brit Awards in February was sold exclusively through iTunes five hours after the gig, and generated enough sales to push the track to number one.


Photo by tallkev on Flickr. Some rights reserved

This year’s festival includes The XX, Ellie Goulding and Phoenix, along with Tony Bennett and Ozzy Osbourne. We can only hope that latter two decide to do a duet. (*Pretty please*)

What else is Apple brewing in the music space? Apple has already experimented with live music streaming to the iPhone in a low-profile Underworld gig last summer. That used Apple’s HTTP streaming protocol, which is designed to make streamed content more reliable even with a patchy or busy network.

We’ll probably see streamed gigs through iTunes too. And then there’s the streamed music service, based on Apple’s acquisition of Lala, widely expected to launch soon. That could blow Spotify out of the water.

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The UK streaming service has shown that internet advertising can cover running costs and pay proper royalties to artists. Why can’t rival Spotify do the same?

This week, We7 announced that it had managed to get advertising revenues to cover the cost of royalties due to artists and songwriters, claiming that it is “the first music streaming service to demonstrate that the music on-demand ad-funded model can work in the mainstream market”.

Meanwhile, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) published a report on worldwide revenue for recorded music in 2009, showing that ad-supported services, such as Spotify, We7, Last.fm and YouTube, increased their contribution to industry income in the UK by 247% to £8.2m – though, importantly, this still only represents 1% of the annual total.

Last August, Per Sundin (managing director of Universal Music Sweden) announced that in the five months from its launch, Spotify had become the labels’ largest digital source of income, surpassing iTunes. I didn’t believe this, and the songwriters and artists I’ve spoken to agree, saying that their royalty statements tell a different story.

Readers of this column will be aware that I questioned the issue of record labels owning shares in services like Spotify last August and, more recently, The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (Basca) went public with their dismay with the service. One figure that is mentioned is the infamous $167 that was apparently paid to Lady Gaga by Spotify. That figure originated from STIM, which is the Swedish equivalent of the UK collections society for songwriters, PRS for Music. It doesn’t represent the entire sum that Spotify paid out for the most streamed song on its Swedish service: she had a co-writer and a publisher whose shares had, most likely, been deducted from the total. It also didn’t include the recording royalty (which goes to the record label/performer). However, a recent Billboard analysis on revenue from recording royalties made from streaming showed that only 10 artists made more than $2,000 from non-interactive streams in 2009, with Beyoncé topping the list with $5,000. For on-demand streams (like Spotify and We7), Michael Jackson came top with $10,000. Though it’s a lot more than $167, it explains why streaming represents 1% of total revenue from recordings.

I’ve read articles that try to calculate exactly how much artists and songwriters make from streaming, but it’s a futile exercise, as most of the rates are secrets that only the people around the negotiating table are privy to because of Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). The PRS last year set specific rates for ad-funded on-demand streams at 10.5% of revenue, subject to a minimum of 0.085p per stream (interactive webcasting is 8% revenue with 0.065p per stream minima). Jez Bell, who is in charge of negotiating on behalf of the PRS with services like Spotify and We7, says that because of the NDAs he can’t talk about what the deals are with specific licensees. In what other profession does it take a year and a half to get paid – and when you do, you don’t know on what basis your income is calculated?

We7, in my experience, tends to be more forthcoming than most services on these issues – maybe because one of its founders is artist and songwriter Peter Gabriel. CEO and co-founder, Steve Purdham, confirms that We7 does indeed pay the 0.085p per stream rate that the PRS set. I ask him why, according to their press release, 1m streams can generate anything from £2,000 to £4,000. Is it because different record labels have different deals with We7?

“Yes, the range is indicative of unsigned artists (but registered with the PRS), small labels through to significant labels,” Purdham said. “Most of the music on We7 is popular music so on average we tend to pay at the higher rate of the scale.” In other words, songs by major-label artists get a higher per-stream rate (this does not apply to songwriters, however).

Swedish songwriters have now started a Facebook group called Unison (as in United Songwriters, not the UK union). Recently they sat down with STIM to discuss if they could have a say in which music services were allowed to feature their songs. STIM welcomed the idea as, it solely exists to represent its members. A few days later, Sony contacted the songwriters inviting them to their offices so that they could explain why they should support Spotify. Could this have anything to do with Sony owning shares in the service? Surely not.

Spotify says its concerned about the dissatisfaction displayed by artists and songwriters, and asks for patience. I like Spotify as a service, and I believe that the guys who run it are genuine, but I think more transparency would go a long way in gaining goodwill – and patience – from music creators.

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The remake of the 1981 sword-and-sandals epic dominated business at North American cinemas, taking double the box office of its nearest rival, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?

The winner
Rising like the Kraken from the depths of the seas, Warner Bros’ sword-and-sandals remake Clash of the Titans battered the competition at the North American box office over the weekend. Warner Bros’ 11th-hour decision to convert the movie into 3D reaped early rewards as the studio revealed that despite accounting for 28% of the total screen count of 6,500, 3D screens generated roughly 52% of the overall $64.1m (£42m) weekend gross. The adventure remake – as bereft of character development as its 1981 template, but graced by dazzling effects and some of the most thrilling set pieces to emerge from Hollywood in years – dominated the weekend. Thank Zeus they clipped Bubo’s wings – Ray Harryhausen’s pathetic mechanical owl from the original movie only gets a tiny cameo here.

There was a good launch in second place for Lionsgate’s comedy Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? on $30.2m. The film is understood to have cost in the region of $20m to produce so this is a fine opening. Perry’s movies draw a strong following in the African-American demographic and play well on DVD and TV too. Lionsgate knows its relationship with Perry is one of the most lucrative in Hollywood. How to Train Your Dragon will cross $100m this week and added $29.2m through Paramount to raise the animated movie’s running total to $97.5m. It seems a little modest for such a well reviewed movie, but $100m is nothing to sniff at and the latest release from DreamWorks Animation – distributed around the world by Paramount – has only been in action for two weekends and is close to $200m worldwide.

The loser
Disney’s teen drama The Last Song stars the abhorrent Miley Cyrus and opened fourth on $16.2m. It was a decent launch considering the $20m pricetag; however, the studio would have hoped to beat Tyler Perry this weekend, especially when you bear in mind that it debuted in around 2,670 theatres, compared with 2,150 for Lionsgate’s movie. Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer is fading away, which is a shame because it’s a great cheeseball of a movie and deserved more than $11m after seven weekends. If only Summit could show as much love to their other movies as they do to the Twilight pictures. It won the Silver Bear for Polanski at Berlin in February but now seems destined to recoup most of its money on DVD.

The future
Next weekend Fox releases the action comedy Date Night starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey. Both are critical and commercial darlings in the US and this could be big.

North American top 10, 2-4 April
1. Clash of the Titans, $61.4m. Total: $64.1m
2. Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? $30.2m
3. How to Train Your Dragon, $29.2m. Total: $92.3m
4. The Last Song, $16.2m. Total: $25.6m
5. Alice in Wonderland, $8.3m. Total: $309.8m
6. Hot Tub Time Machine, $8m. Total: $27.8m
7. The Bounty Hunter, $6.2m. Total: $48.9m
8. Diary of A Wimpy Kid, $5.5m. Total: $46.2m
9. She’s Out of My league, $1.463m. Total: $28.7m
10. Shutter Island, $1.462. Total: $123.4m

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Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland holds on to the top spot at the US box office, raking in $35m in its third weekend. But a poor show for Jude Law’s Repo Men, following on from the disappointing take of Green Zone, bodes badly for Universal

The winner
Alice in Wonderland is the gift that keeps on giving for Disney, adding an estimated $35m in its third weekend at the top of the charts to raise the running total to $265.8m (£177m). Combined with the $300m overseas tally, Tim Burton’s weird but not especially wonderful take on the venerable children’s fantasy has amassed $569m globally. It’s unusual for a movie to dominate the North American charts so early in the year, when the studios unleash a raft of decent projects that historically have tended to share the spoils. According to early calculations by US box office analysts, 2010 box office is tracking 10.3% ahead of the same period of last year, which went on to set that $10.6bn annual record. So far the total combined box office for the year comes to around $2.43bn.

Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid fared well in second on $21.8m and Sony’s Gerard Butler-Jennifer Aniston action comedy The Bounty Hunter wasn’t far behind on $21m in third place. Don’t be surprised if they switch places when final studio figures come out on Monday. This was a solid launch for The Bounty Hunter, which got off to a promising start internationally, too, led by a second place launch in the UK on $3.2m. Credit must also go to Focus Features for its excellent limited launch for Noah Baumbach’s (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding) comedy Greenberg starring Ben Stiller. It took $120,400 from three sites, which bodes very well as it looks to spread its wings in the weeks ahead.

The loser
Repo Men was a disappointment for Universal in fourth place on $6.2m (see below). Apparition won’t be pleased with the small amount it reported for the rock’n'roll biopic The Runaways starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, which opened in 244 theatres and took a mere $803,000. The distributor was hoping to make a bit more out of the recent world premiere in Sundance but the opening weekend has not delivered and it remains to be see how Apparition and the movie respond when it expands into more cities.

The real story
Universal is in poorly condition and the $6.2m fourth place launch of Repo Men, a sci-fi action romp that pits Jude Law alongside Forest Whitaker, doesn’t help matters. There was a change of the guard at the studio last year following a series of flops and so far 2010 hasn’t treated Universal any better. Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass’s collaboration on the intriguing Green Zone, which is believed to have cost approximately $100m to make, has taken less than $25m from its first two weekends. The Wolfman has scurried back into the woods after grossing a little over $60m from six weeks. That Meet the Fockers sequel can’t come fast enough.

The future
Next week sees the first of three features this year from DreamWorks Animation. How to Train Your Dragon has earned good advance notice in the trade press and boasts a voice cast of the ubiquitous Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill, America Ferrera and Ashley Jensen. Next month DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek Forever will open the Tribeca film festival, and later in the year they will release Megamind. Also new next weekend is the comedy Hot Tub Time Machine from MGM.

North American top 10, 19-21 March 2010

1. Alice in Wonderland, $34.5m. Total: $265.8m
2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, $21.8m
3. The Bounty Hunter, $21m
4. Repo Men, $6.2m
5. She’s out of My League, $6m. Total: $19.5m
6. Green Zone, $5.9m. Total: $24.7m.
7. Shutter Island, $4.8m. Total: $115.8m
8. Avatar, $4m. Total: $736.9m
9. Our Family Wedding, $3.8m. Total: $13.7m
10. Remember Me, $3.3m. Total: $13.9m

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