Lego Movie is top grossing film of 2014, but UK box office takings fall to lowest in 20 years January 6, 2015 Everything is awesome for the makers of the Lego Movie as it pulled in the most cinema-goers in 2014 topping the year’s UK box office charts. The film, featuring more than three million animated bricks, pulled in £34.3m from audiences in the UK and Ireland beating the second movie in the Hobbit trilogy, The Battle [...]
January transfer window 2015: Tottenham have spent £50m more than Arsenal in winter windows January 6, 2015 Having moved ahead of North London rivals Arsenal in the Premier League last week, Tottenham Hotspur may look to consolidate their position by bringing in new recruits in this month’s January transfer window. After a relatively poor start in the league, Arsenal look to be more in need of reinforcements in midfield and defence, yet [...]
Chelsea have more of the world’s most valuable players than any other club, according to new study January 6, 2015 Three of the 10 most valuable players in the world currently ply their trade at Stamford Bridge, according to a new study from the CIES Football Observatory. Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Francesc Fabregas are all named in the top 10, alongside Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling and Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez. No other club in Europe has [...]
Film review: The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part I November 20, 2014 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ So what happens now The Hunger Games are over? The previous two instalments of the franchise revolved around these Battle Royale-style tournaments, in which two “tributes” from each district of dystopia Panem fought to the death in a grisly reality TV show devised by a fascist regime as a pretty [...]
Twitter chatter about BBC One’s Sherlock nets London £11m in free advertising November 13, 2014 Twitter chatter about the BBC One drama Sherlock has generated millions in free advertising spend for London's tourism industry, according to new research by Film London. The study crunched nearly 35 million likes, mentions and tweets from a range of websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Pinterest to establish the "screen tourism" effect. Adrian Wootton, [...]
Bloomsbury share price dips as publisher feels the chill of last year’s blockbusters October 23, 2014 Publisher Bloomsbury yesterday said last year’s success of Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel And The Mountains Echoed overshadowed this year’s results. The publisher reported a fall in turnover to £46.6m for the year ending 31 August 2014, from £49.2m in 2013 when Hosseini’s book sold by the bucketload. Pre-tax profits also fell to £500,000 this year, [...]
Best of the Brokers for 24 October 2014 October 23, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BLOOMSBURY Numis reiterated its “hold” recommendation, on the basis that Bloomsbury’s first-half results were “slightly below” expectations. The broker stated that the group had a “strong H2 pipeline” across its businesses and noted that it “continues to develop the Harry Potter portfolio”. GLAXOSMITHKLINE [...]
This time next year we’ll be millionaires: How have iconic TV house prices risen? September 26, 2014 After making – and losing – their fortune, Del Boy and Rodney might be pleased to know their flat at Nelson Mandela House could have been helping them towards their much-hoped-for millionaire status all along. Only Fools and Horses characters' iconic Peckham home may not have looked like much when the show started back [...]
What business can learn from the underdogs September 8, 2014 Be positive, and remember that you could be the game changer FROM unlikely World Cup winners, to politicians and Harry Potter – everybody loves an underdog. A 2010 study by Anat Keinan, Jill Avery and Neeru Paharia looked at the sway the underdog business holds with consumers over the big players. Their hypothesis was that [...]
Watch: Jack Reacher author Lee Child on the Amazon row August 13, 2014 Jack Reacher author Lee Child appeared on Newsnight yesterday to explain why he and hundreds of other authors have spoken out against Amazon. The etail giant is in a stand-off over pricing with publishing group Hachette, which has the rights to authors as varied as JK Rowling (post-Harry Potter), Stephenie Meyer of Twilight fame, crime [...]