One Direction the billion dollar band: how their new film This Is Us will earn a pot of gold

By Alison Boshoff

PUBLISHED: 19:38 EST, 15 August 2013 | UPDATED: 02:13 EST, 16 August 2013

Nobody goes to Leicester Square for the peace and quiet, but unless you enjoy the sound of high-pitched screaming, you ought to give the area a pretty wide berth on Tuesday.

For that is the date when all of One Direction will gather on the red carpet for the premiere of their film This Is Us.

Given that Directioners gather in their hundreds on the rumour that their idols are in the building, and were queueing from 3.45am for a screening of the film in Los Angeles last week, an excitable crowd of up to 10,000 is expected.

The band are out to prove that they are 'Bigger than Bieber' whose film Never Say Never took ?63 million at the box office

And with a reception like that you may surmise the documentary, which cost around ?8?million, is likely to make the kind of profits that will have Sony’s accountants swooning in the aisles, too.

For, hatched at the very height of the band’s record-busting popularity, it is projected to take about ?120?million at the box office. ‘It is going to be gangbusters,’ says one Sony executive — meaning it’s going to be zealously successful.

When and if it does go ‘gangbusters’, the band will have shown they are ‘Bigger than Bieber’ — the last challenge in their domination of popular culture.

For the big landmark when it comes to these kind of films is Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. Released in 2011, the part-documentary and part-concert film took ?63?million at the box office.

In doing so, it changed the game. For even really big concert films never made much money until then — In Bed With Madonna took a modest ?9.7?million in America, for instance.

But the Bieber movie showed there was ‘real money’ to be made. Katy Perry was quick to jump on the bandwagon with Part Of Me, in 2012, which took a healthy ?20?million. (This Is It, the posthumous Michael Jackson tribute, took ?46?million, but clearly it was atypical.)

And, given that One Direction are signed to a division of Sony, which also has a movie arm, the graduation to the big screen was obvious.

The synergies are clear. The band is signed to Syco (a joint Sony-Simon Cowell venture), having found fame on The X Factor, a Syco show. They star in a film made by Syco’s parent company Sony and will no doubt plug their next Syco album on this year’s X Factor.

Paul Williams, head of business analysis at Music Week magazine, told me: ‘From the Fifties and Sixties onwards, it has been the case that when you get globally successful to a huge degree, you then get a film career of some kind.

‘Colonel Tom Parker put Elvis into movies, and The Beatles made A Hard Day’s Night within a few weeks of cracking America. There’s been nothing to touch that recently, but the Spice Girls did make a film as Simon Fuller saw the opportunity to make even more money.

‘One Direction are the most popular British pop band since the Spice Girls. They broke America with ease. Their popularity across the world is so immense that it is hard to see any reason why the film will not be a huge success.’

Hatched at the very height of the band?s record-busting popularity, the film is projected to take about ?120 million at the box office

As a self-sanctioned product, the film will of course be a flattering and warm portrayal of One Direction

Business Insider magazine prophesied they are on course to draw in $1?billion in revenue by the end of 2013. This is probably an underestimate, as the magazine did not add  in the band’s yet-to-be-announced third album.

However, music insiders believe it will be released in time for the crucial Christmas market, and is likely to propel them far past the $1?billion mark.

All good news for Simon Cowell to ponder, then. And the boys, who recent estimates suggest have each netted ?5.5?million so far. Not bad for a group of 19 to 21-year-olds.

So what is in the movie? As a self-sanctioned product, it will of course be a flattering and warm portrayal of One Direction. There won’t be any conflict on screen.

Fans will be glad to hear not a nanosecond is devoted to Harry Styles’ former girlfriend Taylor Swift. They split up just before the cameras started rolling in January.

The director of This Is Us, which is in 3D, is Morgan Spurlock, best known for the documentary Super Size Me, about the effects of eating only huge McDonald’s meals.

Spurlock seems to have been chosen to bring a certain credible, leftfield sensibility to the film, and to help to position the band less as a Monkees-style manufactured act and more as ‘real’ young men to whom the fans can relate. There is plenty about their families, the lives they lead, the jobs held by the boys before they became famous, and so on.

Trailers show the families of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik talking about them, and interviews with others such as Simon Cowell. The band have been filmed on tour in Japan, at home and making nostalgic trips. Harry is seen at the bakery in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, where he used to have a Saturday job. The 19-year-old said he hoped the film would show fans a new side to them.

‘On Twitter, you only have 140 characters, and you can’t get personality across in ten-minute interviews,’ he says. ‘But the film is going to be a lot more of how we interact and how we’re chilled out in the dressing room. It will be nice to see us as we are.’

Niall,  who is the most popular of all of them in America, agreed: ‘It’s good in the movie because people can see what we’re like behind the scenes. It’s going to be access all areas. They’ve even been filming us in the toilet.’

Justin Bieber's movie movie showed there was real money to be made. Until then, even big budget concert films hadn't had great success

Katy Perry's This Is It featured snippets from her personal life with Russell brand. One Direction fans will be pleased at the prospect of seeing a snippet of Harry styles' short-lived relationship with Taylor Swift

Louis insisted everything is genuine. He says: ‘Nothing at all was scripted. If we are asked the question, we just answer naturally.’

Producer Ben Winston explains: ‘The doc of what’s happened to them over the past few years is more exciting than any script writer could come up with.

‘You’ve already got a wonderful story to tell.’

The true story is of five young men who applied as solo candidates to The X Factor in 2010 but failed to make the grade in the boys’ category.

Judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested putting them together as a group, under the aegis of Simon Cowell. They finished third behind Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle.

But, thanks to astute management by Cowell, who hired hitmaker Savan Kotecha to write for them, they became a global phenomenon.

If you aren’t a fan, of course, the movie will probably be best avoided — for all the guff about how real it is, the film will be chiefly a promotional vehicle.

However, One Direction seem unstoppably popular. They are  in the middle of the North American leg of a massive sold-out world tour. In America, the tour is heavily sponsored by Nabisco, who are plugging brands such as Oreo and Ritz.

And, as anyone who sat through the Teen Choice Awards this week will attest, 1D fever swept the board with them winning Choice Summer Tour, Choice Group, Choice Single (Live While We’re Young) and Choice Love Song (Little Things). Harry Styles won two individual awards for being Choice Hottie and Choice Smile.

There won’t be an Oscar, a Golden Globe or even a Bafta for This Is Us.

But a pot of gold? That seems pretty much a sure thing.

n?This Is Us is released in cinemas on August 29.

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Microsoft Boss To Leave Amid 'New Direction'

Updated: 3:28pm UK, Friday 23 August 2013

By Thomas Moore, Sky News Science Correspondent

Microsoft has struggled as the PC market has declined.

Five years ago more than 90% of computers ran a version of the Windows operating system, according to tech analysts Forrester.

By 2012 - with Apple and Google dominating mobile computing - it was found on just 30% of devices.

In an effort to revamp its image for the touchscreen era, the company launched Windows 8 late last year.

But the lack of the iconic 'start' button and the new interface of tiled apps irritated users tied to a keyboard and mouse.

It's now done a U-turn and a soon-to-be-launched update - Windows 8.1 - will restore the start button.

Microsoft will hope the tweaks will breathe life into the operating system.

It has failed to convince PC users to upgrade so far, despite a marketing budget that's estimated to top $1bn  (£600m).

Eight months old and Windows 8 is still only found on 5.4% of computers, according to data from Net Applications.

Windows 7 still dominates, with a share of 44.5%.

The malaise is affecting PC makers.

HP recently reported that sales of desktop and notebook computers had slumped by 8% in a year.

So the stakes are high for Microsoft and the industry that relies on its software.

If the new-look Windows fails to stop the slide in sales many will ask whether the PC has a future.

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Microsoft Boss To Leave Amid 'New Direction'

Updated: 3:28pm UK, Friday 23 August 2013

By Thomas Moore, Sky News Science Correspondent

Microsoft has struggled as the PC market has declined.

Five years ago more than 90% of computers ran a version of the Windows operating system, according to tech analysts Forrester.

By 2012 - with Apple and Google dominating mobile computing - it was found on just 30% of devices.

In an effort to revamp its image for the touchscreen era, the company launched Windows 8 late last year.

But the lack of the iconic 'start' button and the new interface of tiled apps irritated users tied to a keyboard and mouse.

It's now done a U-turn and a soon-to-be-launched update - Windows 8.1 - will restore the start button.

Microsoft will hope the tweaks will breathe life into the operating system.

It has failed to convince PC users to upgrade so far, despite a marketing budget that's estimated to top $1bn  (£600m).

Eight months old and Windows 8 is still only found on 5.4% of computers, according to data from Net Applications.

Windows 7 still dominates, with a share of 44.5%.

The malaise is affecting PC makers.

HP recently reported that sales of desktop and notebook computers had slumped by 8% in a year.

So the stakes are high for Microsoft and the industry that relies on its software.

If the new-look Windows fails to stop the slide in sales many will ask whether the PC has a future.

View the original article here

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One Direction Fans Camp Out For Film This Is Us

One Direction fans are camping out in London's Leicester Square ahead of the premiere of the boy band's new film.

Eager 'Directioners' have turned up with banners, tents and camping supplies, with some arriving as early as Sunday morning.

Fans get a number which lets them return later and gain access to the red carpet area, but many have chosen to spend the night on the pavement.

"With our numbers that we got they said that the first 200 would probably be right at the front of the barriers so hopefully we get to meet a few of them and get an autograph, maybe a photo," said 22-year-old Rohays Vonmrtzinger.

Georgia Dawkins, 18, from Manchester, said the event was "amazingly organised".

Homemade banners are one way to get noticed

She said she hoped it would stop fans getting too competitive for a glimpse of their idols.

"A lot of the fans ... when it's not organised get really aggressive and there is a lot of, not fights as in punch fights, but fights as in really nasty things getting said to each other.

"And then obviously it's not nice to be around."

One Direction: This Is Us, made by Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock, follows the band's life on the road during their rise to worldwide fame.

Fans arrived armed with plenty of material for the group to sign

Spurlock said fans would enjoy seeing how "normal" the band are.

He said: "There is no air of superiority, there is no air of success that permeates this movie.

"You see five guys who are the same five guys they were three years ago."

Band member Harry Styles told a press conference on Monday that it would give fans a new insight into their lives.

"We just want to show what we're about and with social media and stuff there's only so much you can get across in terms of your personality," said Styles.

One Direction's documentary is directed by Morgan Spurlock

Security will be tight for tomorrow's premiere - especially after police were called to control the crowds at an LA screening of the film last week.

The five-piece group have enjoyed massive success since being formed on The X Factor in 2010 and have topped charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

It is estimated that they will gross $1bn (£640m) in the next year.

One Direction: This Is Us comes out in the UK on August 29 and in the US the following day.

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One Direction Fans Camp Out For Film This Is Us

One Direction fans are camping out in London's Leicester Square ahead of the premiere of the boy band's new film.

Eager 'Directioners' have turned up with banners, tents and camping supplies, with some arriving as early as Sunday morning.

Fans get a number which lets them return later and gain access to the red carpet area, but many have chosen to spend the night on the pavement.

"With our numbers that we got they said that the first 200 would probably be right at the front of the barriers so hopefully we get to meet a few of them and get an autograph, maybe a photo," said 22-year-old Rohays Vonmrtzinger.

Georgia Dawkins, 18, from Manchester, said the event was "amazingly organised".

Homemade banners are one way to get noticed

She said she hoped it would stop fans getting too competitive for a glimpse of their idols.

"A lot of the fans ... when it's not organised get really aggressive and there is a lot of, not fights as in punch fights, but fights as in really nasty things getting said to each other.

"And then obviously it's not nice to be around."

One Direction: This Is Us, made by Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock, follows the band's life on the road during their rise to worldwide fame.

Fans arrived armed with plenty of material for the group to sign

Spurlock said fans would enjoy seeing how "normal" the band are.

He said: "There is no air of superiority, there is no air of success that permeates this movie.

"You see five guys who are the same five guys they were three years ago."

Band member Harry Styles told a press conference on Monday that it would give fans a new insight into their lives.

"We just want to show what we're about and with social media and stuff there's only so much you can get across in terms of your personality," said Styles.

One Direction's documentary is directed by Morgan Spurlock

Security will be tight for tomorrow's premiere - especially after police were called to control the crowds at an LA screening of the film last week.

The five-piece group have enjoyed massive success since being formed on The X Factor in 2010 and have topped charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

It is estimated that they will gross $1bn (£640m) in the next year.

One Direction: This Is Us comes out in the UK on August 29 and in the US the following day.

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One Direction the billion dollar band: how their new film This Is Us will earn a pot of gold

By Alison Boshoff

PUBLISHED: 00:38 GMT, 16 August 2013 | UPDATED: 07:13 GMT, 16 August 2013

Nobody goes to Leicester Square for the peace and quiet, but unless you enjoy the sound of high-pitched screaming, you ought to give the area a pretty wide berth on Tuesday.

For that is the date when all of One Direction will gather on the red carpet for the premiere of their film This Is Us.

Given that Directioners gather in their hundreds on the rumour that their idols are in the building, and were queueing from 3.45am for a screening of the film in Los Angeles last week, an excitable crowd of up to 10,000 is expected.

The band are out to prove that they are 'Bigger than Bieber' whose film Never Say Never took ?63 million at the box office

And with a reception like that you may surmise the documentary, which cost around ?8?million, is likely to make the kind of profits that will have Sony’s accountants swooning in the aisles, too.

For, hatched at the very height of the band’s record-busting popularity, it is projected to take about ?120?million at the box office. ‘It is going to be gangbusters,’ says one Sony executive — meaning it’s going to be zealously successful.

When and if it does go ‘gangbusters’, the band will have shown they are ‘Bigger than Bieber’ — the last challenge in their domination of popular culture.

For the big landmark when it comes to these kind of films is Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. Released in 2011, the part-documentary and part-concert film took ?63?million at the box office.

In doing so, it changed the game. For even really big concert films never made much money until then — In Bed With Madonna took a modest ?9.7?million in America, for instance.

But the Bieber movie showed there was ‘real money’ to be made. Katy Perry was quick to jump on the bandwagon with Part Of Me, in 2012, which took a healthy ?20?million. (This Is It, the posthumous Michael Jackson tribute, took ?46?million, but clearly it was atypical.)

And, given that One Direction are signed to a division of Sony, which also has a movie arm, the graduation to the big screen was obvious.

The synergies are clear. The band is signed to Syco (a joint Sony-Simon Cowell venture), having found fame on The X Factor, a Syco show. They star in a film made by Syco’s parent company Sony and will no doubt plug their next Syco album on this year’s X Factor.

Paul Williams, head of business analysis at Music Week magazine, told me: ‘From the Fifties and Sixties onwards, it has been the case that when you get globally successful to a huge degree, you then get a film career of some kind.

‘Colonel Tom Parker put Elvis into movies, and The Beatles made A Hard Day’s Night within a few weeks of cracking America. There’s been nothing to touch that recently, but the Spice Girls did make a film as Simon Fuller saw the opportunity to make even more money.

‘One Direction are the most popular British pop band since the Spice Girls. They broke America with ease. Their popularity across the world is so immense that it is hard to see any reason why the film will not be a huge success.’

Hatched at the very height of the band?s record-busting popularity, the film is projected to take about ?120 million at the box office

As a self-sanctioned product, the film will of course be a flattering and warm portrayal of One Direction

Business Insider magazine prophesied they are on course to draw in $1?billion in revenue by the end of 2013. This is probably an underestimate, as the magazine did not add  in the band’s yet-to-be-announced third album.

However, music insiders believe it will be released in time for the crucial Christmas market, and is likely to propel them far past the $1?billion mark.

All good news for Simon Cowell to ponder, then. And the boys, who recent estimates suggest have each netted ?5.5?million so far. Not bad for a group of 19 to 21-year-olds.

So what is in the movie? As a self-sanctioned product, it will of course be a flattering and warm portrayal of One Direction. There won’t be any conflict on screen.

Fans will be glad to hear not a nanosecond is devoted to Harry Styles’ former girlfriend Taylor Swift. They split up just before the cameras started rolling in January.

The director of This Is Us, which is in 3D, is Morgan Spurlock, best known for the documentary Super Size Me, about the effects of eating only huge McDonald’s meals.

Spurlock seems to have been chosen to bring a certain credible, leftfield sensibility to the film, and to help to position the band less as a Monkees-style manufactured act and more as ‘real’ young men to whom the fans can relate. There is plenty about their families, the lives they lead, the jobs held by the boys before they became famous, and so on.

Trailers show the families of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik talking about them, and interviews with others such as Simon Cowell. The band have been filmed on tour in Japan, at home and making nostalgic trips. Harry is seen at the bakery in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, where he used to have a Saturday job. The 19-year-old said he hoped the film would show fans a new side to them.

‘On Twitter, you only have 140 characters, and you can’t get personality across in ten-minute interviews,’ he says. ‘But the film is going to be a lot more of how we interact and how we’re chilled out in the dressing room. It will be nice to see us as we are.’

Niall,  who is the most popular of all of them in America, agreed: ‘It’s good in the movie because people can see what we’re like behind the scenes. It’s going to be access all areas. They’ve even been filming us in the toilet.’

Justin Bieber's movie movie showed there was real money to be made. Until then, even big budget concert films hadn't had great success

Katy Perry's This Is It featured snippets from her personal life with Russell brand. One Direction fans will be pleased at the prospect of seeing a snippet of Harry styles' short-lived relationship with Taylor Swift

Louis insisted everything is genuine. He says: ‘Nothing at all was scripted. If we are asked the question, we just answer naturally.’

Producer Ben Winston explains: ‘The doc of what’s happened to them over the past few years is more exciting than any script writer could come up with.

‘You’ve already got a wonderful story to tell.’

The true story is of five young men who applied as solo candidates to The X Factor in 2010 but failed to make the grade in the boys’ category.

Judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested putting them together as a group, under the aegis of Simon Cowell. They finished third behind Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle.

But, thanks to astute management by Cowell, who hired hitmaker Savan Kotecha to write for them, they became a global phenomenon.

If you aren’t a fan, of course, the movie will probably be best avoided — for all the guff about how real it is, the film will be chiefly a promotional vehicle.

However, One Direction seem unstoppably popular. They are  in the middle of the North American leg of a massive sold-out world tour. In America, the tour is heavily sponsored by Nabisco, who are plugging brands such as Oreo and Ritz.

And, as anyone who sat through the Teen Choice Awards this week will attest, 1D fever swept the board with them winning Choice Summer Tour, Choice Group, Choice Single (Live While We’re Young) and Choice Love Song (Little Things). Harry Styles won two individual awards for being Choice Hottie and Choice Smile.

There won’t be an Oscar, a Golden Globe or even a Bafta for This Is Us.

But a pot of gold? That seems pretty much a sure thing.

n?This Is Us is released in cinemas on August 29.

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