All articles by Robert Mitchell – Page 4
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LFF opens with Gardener, closes on a Good Night
Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener will open the 49th London Film Festival on October 19, it was announced today. The festival will welcome back Meirelles whose City Of God (Cidade De Deus) played in the 2002 line-up. The closing film, on Nov 3, will be George Clooney's second feature as ...
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...as Garcia enjoys acclaim with festival hit
Rodrigo Garcia'sNine Lives proved thehit of the 58th Locarno International Film Festival, with the jury awarding itboth the Golden Leopard grand prize and the best actress award, which wasshared between the film's nine leading actresses.2005 jurypresident, Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, revealed the jury's finaldiscussions went on until 3am. He told ...
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Malkovich lines up Zemeckis project
JohnMalkovich has revealed details of several new projects he is slated to work onduring the next year. The actor producer-director discussed the projects whilegiving a masterclass at the Locarno film festival this week. Chiefamongst these was the revelation that he may be joining the cast of RobertZemeckis' highly anticipated project ...
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German box office blow as Siegfried disappoints
Aftera catastrophic first half to the year (that saw box office down 19%year-on-year) the German box office was dealt a further blow at the weekendwhen the most anticipated local film of the year failed to deliver up toexpectations.Siegfriedis the new comedy from Sven Unterwaldt, director of one of last year's ...
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UK film distributors boost media advertising spend
UK film distributors are investing more money intomedia advertising according to the Film Distributor's Association (FDA), thetrade body for UK theatrical film distributors. Inthe first six months of this year the territory's distributors spent $139m (£79.8m)on media advertising, a massive increase of 16% over the same period of 2004when $120m ...
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Bay's Island looks for international rescue
As NorthAmerican figures broke over the weekend analysts were quick to label MichaelBay's The Island adisaster. Certainly it isthe director's first domestic flop, but observers largely failed to recognisethe film's strong start in international markets, which more and more oftenacts as a saviour these days. That will be oflittle consolation ...
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Pan-Euro exhibitor Kinepolis sees admissions fall
Pan-Europeanexhibitor The Kinepolis Group has announced its first half of 2005 figures with10.7m admissions recorded, a fall of12% year-on-year.Between January and June the company, which operatessites in France, Spain, Belgium, Poland and Switzerland, sold 10.7m tickets.This is comparable with 12.1m in 2004. However,excluding figures for the Paris Max Linder complex ...
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Defiant London returns to business as usual after attacks
Last Thursday's terrorist attacks in Londonforced the closure of many cinemas with admissions dropping between 75% and 80%from the previous day. However, general consensus amongst UKdistributors on Monday was that little impact had been made to the capital'sweekend box office as resilient Londoners continued with their normalroutines.Box office for the ...
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Worldwide box office slumps in first six months of 2005
Theworldwide box office has slumped dramatically in the first six months of theyear, according to latest figures from Nielsen EDI.TheNorth American and international box office was already performing poorlyaccording to first quarter figures. Updated figures for the first six monthsmake those first-quarter figures look positively rosy.Thenegligible 1% first-quarter deficit in ...
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UK box office dips after disappointing second quarter
The one ray oflight for the European box office at the end of the first quarter, the UK, has also dimmedsignificantly.Up 13%year-on-year at the close of the first quarter, the UK was the toast of Europe,looking rosy for a potential record year. Now, however,second-quarter figures closed out last Thursday (June ...
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Smiths end Star Wars' international reign
Action comedy Mr And MrsSmith ended Star Wars reign at the top of the international chartlast weekend. Released in 36 territoriesthe Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie film is the first major day-and-date launch since EpisodeIII and was expected to take the crown. However, Mr And Mrs Smithwill immediately face stiff competition for ...
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Sin City explodes onto international chart
In its first weekin major European territories, BVI's Sin City exploded onto theinternational chart in second place with $11.7m. BVI will be aimingto do similar business to last year's Kill Bill Vol. 2 - and the firstmajor week for Sin City certainly looks good to head in that direction. Kill ...
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UK box office rides into blockbuster season on a high
Takings were down significantly in April, but the UKbox office is still riding high going into blockbuster season.Atthe end of May, year-on-year figures remained up 5% with a year to date totalbox office of $578m (£318.2m), according to Nielsen EDI figures.This is noticably down on the 13% gain the territoryboasted ...
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Brave few shine behind Star Wars shadow
Thisweek's international chart saw the battle of the also rans against the second(or in Korea's case opening) week of Star Wars: Episode III.WarnerBros' horror House Of Wax saw solid numbers with second place launchesin the UK, France and Belgium and other European debuts including Italy,Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.TheOscar winning ...
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Pass rise could raise $3.1m for UGC
UK exhibition major UGC cinemas is expected to generate£1.7m ($3.1m) from a £1 ($1.82) price rise for its loyalty passes.The company, which was bought last year by Cine UK, has140,000 subscribers allowing a small rise to make a big difference to itsrevenue line.The company hasn't upped the cost of its ...
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xXx sequel splutters into int'l chart lead
XXx: TheNext Level took the lead on theinternational table this week.However, The Next Level's lead was marred by its relatively weak performance($15m) given its 60 plus territory release count. The action title, the firstof the summer's major day-and-date releases, saw openings range fromfirst places (including Germany and Spain) to a ...
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Councillor emerges as latest Russian box office champ
TheRussian film industry has another hit film on its hands.TheState Councillor (Statsky Sovetnik) opened at the top of the Russian box officeover the weekend, grossing $2.5m in Russia and the CIS for distributor KaroPremier. It also opened top in Ukraine with $238,400 for Kinomania.Thesuccess follows recent Russian successes this year ...
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Interpreter rules international, North American charts
For the first timethis year the international and North American tables aligned to produce asingle champion: The Interpreter.This feat islikely to be the first in a string of such occurrences as the approachingsummer season brings with it a plethora of day-and-date global releasesstarting with Sony's xXx2: State Of The Union ...
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Sony sets release date for Bond's Casino Royale
The search for a new 007 continues to drag on, but adate has already been set for the release of the next Bond film.Bond's new distributor Sony (which has just completedits acquisition of former Bond studio MGM) has earmarked November 17, 2006, forthe release Casino Royale in North America and ...
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Vin Diesel's Pacifier takes pole position on int'l chart
Continuingto follow in the career footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger, action star VinDiesel has made the successful transition to comedy with BVI's The Pacifiertaking the number one spot on the international chart.The film opened top in Germany, Austria, Switzerland,Hong Kong and Malaysia this week, held the lead in Australia in its ...