Showing Films Blogs

Mark Cosgrove’s Blog – 27th Feb 2019

Posted on 28 Feb 2019

Each week, Watershed Cinema Curator, Mark Cosgrove shares insights into Watershed’s cinema programme, how well films are performing compared with the National average and expectations for up-coming titles.

Who says the weather doesn’t affect audiences’ cinema-going habits? The unseasonal warmth at the weekend had people sunning themselves on the Harbourside during the day rather than head into a darkened auditorium. As a result, this weekend box-office was significantly down compared with previous February weekends, which certainly impacted on Capernaum’s opening weekend. This critically well-reviewed film felt like it should do strong business and, whilst doing the highest of all our films, was lower than I was anticipating for its release. It’s getting strong responses from audiences and it will be interesting to see if it gets to where it should have been box-office wise in its second weekend.

The second weekend of A Private War was our next highest performer followed by the third weekend of If Beale Street Could Talk. It’s difficult for smaller new openers Old Boys and Teddy Pendergrass coming into the market whilst all the noise is still about awards season. This was a particular shame for Old Boys as this modern reworking of Cyrano de Bergerac plays well to audiences and features the seriously rising star Alex Lawther, whose television work attracts a younger audience.

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