News from David Prosser

Hi Exhibitors,

June turned out to be sad month with the passing of Gerry Parkes who lost his gallant fight against cancer. There was a huge turnout for his memorial service at the Parkway Cleethorpes with two very good speeches from Phil Clapp of the CEA and his business colleague Rob Younger. All very emotional and our thoughts are with the family. It was good news though that he was able to receive his MBE before he passed away, but tragic he didn't make it to Buckingham Palace to receive it from the Queen personally.  We were thrilled to see how proud Denise, his wife, was while wearing Gerry’s medal at the Service.

We were pleased to report in last week’s DCM Close Up that Martina O'Connor of the Frome Westway, has now succeeded in going digital thanks to all her great fundraising activities. I’d like to add my own personal congratulations on behalf of DCM to Martina and the Westway team on this landmark achievement and for all the effort that went into it.

I managed to get down to visit Dilywn and his full team at the Theatr Mwldan in Cardigan during the month and to discuss all the current issues of the day. The site is really benefiting from its three digital screens and alternative content is playing a large part in their screenings week in week out. The Mwldan is a splendid site with a wonderful art gallery and a great café/bar area.

I’m so pleased we were able to assist Tom Offord on the IT front at the Riverside in Woodbridge. Tom succeeded in making me very jealous when we spoke last week as he told me that he was speaking to me from Spain and he was on the beach with a cold beer in his hand. I can’t tell you what I said to him but I was very jealous. In any case we love the Riverside!

I met up with Raj Jeyasingam last week to celebrate Raj installing his second digital projector and therefore becoming a fully digital site at the Alton Palace.  Raj, as usual, was exercising his great entrepreneurial spirit both in and outside the Cinema, long may it continue.

I also managed to get to see John Warburton at Wallingford Corn Exchange, which is having some wonderful restoration work being undertaken at the front of the building. When I first arrived I was a little worried since the front door was blocked off with the work currently going on and I didn’t think I would be able to get access to see John.  No worries though a quick call sorted everything out and John took me in via the stage door and showed me the digital projector installed last year. A huge fund raising campaign and donations resulted in the Corn Exchange managing to invest in the modern technology. John is doing very well with the alternative content being shown as well as the movies. The demographics and age group of patrons in the town are a natural for live screenings of theatre including the NT Live programme which is proving a great success. Just to note that the Corn Exchange operates solely on volunteers so a huge round of applause to those that sustain such a great service to the town.

May admissions are now in and we were more than happy with the 15.6m result which was a whopping 16.1% up on last year. This means that May has bounced us back to being 0.5% up on the year so far with total admissions being 69.4m.

It was the action/adventure movie sequels in the shape of Star Trek, Iron Man and Fast and Furious that delivered most of the business in May producing a collective £62.4m between them at the box office.  Not bad eh!

So with no Olympics this year we may well be looking at a good half year result. Let’s hope!!

Do hope the next month produces some good business for us all and it will be good to catch up on all the news coming out of Cinexpo in Barca.

All best wishes to you

David