3.5 Case study – the release of Spooks: the Greater Good

Usually on a film you tend to have one distributor in any one territory. This was slightly unusual in that Pinewood Pictures, who were and are the lead distributor, led the charge and were responsible for running the campaign and also putting up the P&A, the marketing spend to release the film. Altitude were also co-distributor and involved in the campaign and side by side in all the key decisions that were being made. And the third element was Fox who were essentially the back office but were also creatively involved in the campaign. And Fox was responsible for the key thing they were doing was doing the bookings, so booking the screens.

And a giant company like Fox have unbelievable experience and clout in the marketplace to really get the film on screens. And they also really helped us in terms of being able to place our trailer on big films, they gave great notes on our teaser trailer and our trailer, and were incredibly helpful in helping guide us on how to release a film in a way that makes it feel like a big major studio release. We were thrilled with the release of Spooks in the UK. We opened at number two to Avengers, which I like to think doesn't count because how can you compete with Marvel's The Avengers.

And we opened at just over a million pounds, which as a launch for independent British film is a great result. And the other gratifying thing was how well the film has held since that opening. We're on about 3.2 million pounds, I think, in week four and the numbers, particularly midweek, have been really, really strong week on week. And that's allowed Pinewood in conjunction with Fox and Altitude to really hold on to screens in a way that is sometimes harder when you don't open as strongly.