About

What is First Weekend Club?

First Weekend Club (founded in January 2004 by Andy Whittaker) is a not for profit organisation based in the UK.  The movie club dedicated to promoting and raising awareness for great Independent films. Through grassroots efforts such as Previews,  Q&A's with talent, contests, premiere parties, advance screenings, film alerts, and much more, First Weekend Club builds audiences across UK cinemas nationwide and creates a "buzz" for the crucial First Weekend of a film's release. 
Membership in the club is free. Films released in UK cinemas face a unique challenge due to the competiveness of the competition from large studio films from USA, and reaching cities around the UK.  Independent films don't often make it past that first weekend since they are not afforded the chance. By Monday they will be forgotten memories.  Even the King’s Speech nearly didn’t make it!

The First Weekend Club strives to change all that by encouraging members to attend opening weekend screenings in order to keep Independent films in cinemas longer by building awareness and strong box office for great cinema. Hence the name, First Weekend Club. 

We are your ticket to great films! 

Currently, First Weekend Club has branches in cities across UK and Ireland including London, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh and Cambridge, and expanding into other cities across the country soon.

How Does it Work?

There are some truly great films out there. First Weekend Club's mission is to tell you about them. 

Whenever a film is released, we send out an email to our members letting them know when and where they can see it. Since the first weekend is what can make or break a film, we encourage our members to put as many bums as possible in those seats during the crucial first weekend - their own, and also their friends' (word-of-mouth can be a powerful tool!). 

What's more, First Weekend Club strives to extend the cinematic experience beyond just the film by bringing in filmmakers and talent for special Q& As, hosting premiere parties, and all sorts of other fun activities.

Why is the 'First Weekend' so Important?

The reason why we are so big on 'first weekend' box office results is not what you may typically expect. You see, every film wants to take gold at the opening weekend's box office, this is not news to anyone. But what you may not know, as we are finding many people are out of the loop on some of the film industry procedures, is that the current system makes it very difficult for independent films to succeed. Theatre owners will extend a film's release only if the first weekend box office is strong. In other words a film simply won't last through to its second weekend if it doesn't have a strong enough audience on opening weekend. No matter how great a film may be it will get kicked out of the theatre if people don't show up to see it within those first three critical days. Now think about the films you've seen. Either there has been so much advertising you just HAD to see it, or it is the film that people have been talking about for weeks… In other words, there has been time for word-of-mouth to travel…

Currently, less than 3% of films box office for films shown in theatres are Independent. Our goal is to change that statistic.

Word-of-Mouth...

We want our members to help us make independent film a "household name". It's easy, too. If you like a film that we send you to, tell five people about it (or tell a few thousand of your closest pals, if you prefer). And we'll make it even easier for you. We've added a "tell a friend" function on our email campaigns, so you can just click onto that option, type in the addresses of a few friends, add a personal message (if you want) and like magic – the word gets out.

Choosing the Films...

Lets face it, not all films are made equal. There are some truly great movies, but there are some frighteningly bad ones too. We want our members to see the good ones - and help spread the word, too.

That's why our selection committee scours film festivals and watches as many films as they can get their hungry eyes on. The selection committee then makes their recommendations to the wise sages that make up First Weekend Club's board of directors. The board then votes on the films that First Weekend Club will support. Our board of directors consists of film veterans who watch a whole lot of Indie movies and know the "biz" inside-out. The board includes filmmakers, distributors, an exhibitor, broadcaster, marketing executive, and even a financial guru a. k.a. a chartered accountant. 

Members also have an opportunity to voice their opinion for which films we support. Following the London Film Festival, the First Weekend Club members will be able to visit our website and vote for their favourite films on line. Votes will be tallied and the Audience Choice will be announced. First Weekend Club will do everything in it's power to organize special events around these films, which may include flying the filmmaker to key cities with the largest number of votes for a special screening presentation. 



Beyond the First Weekend...

First Weekend Club has several exciting initiatives that are revolutionising how we engage with film in the UK and Ireland. SCREENS
UK and Ireland Screens is a monthly screening & TalkBack series. The series strives to bring audiences the very best in indie cinema within an intimate and social environment, fusing cinema, film lovers, filmmakers, and even wine to create an evening that is awfully hard to forget. Guests get to mingle before and after the show (with a glass of wine in their hands), view some great films (often in advance of the film's actual release date), enjoy some live entertainment (such as music or dance, as it befits the film) and get truly up-close & personal with filmmakers and talent via special TalkBacks - in the flesh, as well as via floating heads. By utilizing cutting-edge technology, UK Screens brings the filmmakers and talent to our audiences, bridging the gap that may separate them, all in an intimate environment, in real-time. UK Screens currently runs in London Curzon Soho and is set to expend to other cities throughout 2012.

Come and Join the Club.

Andy Whittaker