Universal’s screenings of Billy Elliot the Musical - Live became event cinema’s first number one at the UK box office last month.

Billy Elliot

Niels Swinkels, MD of UK & Ireland at Universal Pictures is to give the keynote speach at the ECA Conference on Oct 16, set to be held at the recently restored Genesis cinema in London.

It follows Universal’s live stream of Billy Elliot the Musical - Live from London’s Victoria Palace Theatre on Sept 28, which made $3.1m (£1.904m) at the UK box office, setting a new record for event cinema releases.

Based on figures from Rentrak, in terms of theatrical releases, Billy Elliot surpassed the previous best opening set by NT Live: War Horse at $2.5m (£1.6m). War Horse is also currently the highest grossing theatre release at $4.6m (£2.7m).

Billy Elliot also debuted ahead of Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor which landed with $2.9m (£1.82m) last year. Due to Billy Elliot’s huge success, encore screenings took place in 350 cinemas across the UK last week.

Swinkels said: “We enjoyed record-breaking success with Billy Elliot the Musical - Live in cinemas recently and the timing seems perfect to address the industry about our views on this very interesting new part of the movie industry.“

The day will also feature two panel discussions concerning marketing event cinema and a focus on new business models and technology. In addition, the conference will feature a new format with six breakout sessions taking place throughout the day.

Last year’s sold-out event was attended by 180 delegates from 19 countries.

Speakers from the UK, US, Canada, France, Poland and Germany are among those due to take the stage during the course of the day.

Breakout sessions will cover topics such as production and financing, rights acquisition, practicalities in live delivery and ‘utilising the intermission to generate revenue’.

Since the last conference in Oct 2013, other event cinema milestones have included BBC Worldwide’s Dr Who: Day of the Doctor, which saw cinemas gross $10m in three days worldwide; Secret Cinema presents Back to the Future, which put the 1980s classic back in the box office charts; Andre Rieu’s 10th Anniversary Concert; Matisse Live; and the continuing box office smashes by NT Live such as War Horse. 

The conference will also include the 2nd Annual ECA Awards, which will hand out trophies honouring Best Box Office, Excellence in Programming and Excellence in Exhibition.

More information can be found here http://www.eventcinemaassociation.org/

 

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