Small MPU – Page 538
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News
US majors' international take drops 6% in '05
The US majors' aggregate international box office revenuedeclined 6% in 2005 to $7.93bn. The international drop was slightly bigger thanthe 4% fall-off in the majors' domestic take -- but it came after a 2004 thatsaw the studios' international theatrical revenues reach an all-time high of$8.5bn. Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, president of internationaldistribution ...
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News
Narnia remains international champ and nears $300m
The Chronicles OfNarnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe maintained its early 2006 supremacy with an estimated $30.6m weekendhaul that raises the cumulative total to a mighty $277m.The picture has amassed $525m worldwide incorporating the $247.6m domestictally and Buena Vista International (BVI) top brass must be rubbing their handswith ...
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Hostel checks in top of the charts on $20.1m
The newly renamed and everambitious Lionsgate kicked off the New Year with the right kind of scare as it launched itslatest horror title Hostel atnumber one on an estimated $20.1m.The result will have delighted studio executives who were expecting a debut inthe mid teens. Hostel isLionsgate's second table-topping launch in ...
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NSFC hands Capote best picture, actor honours
Capote was named best picture of 2005 at the weekend by theNational Society of Film Critics (NSFC), who also voted the picture's star PhilipSeymour Hoffman best actor.Reese Witherspoon won the best actress stakes for Walk The Line, David Cronenberg was named best director for AHistory Of Violence, while thatpicture's Ed ...
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News
Picture This! acquires Whole New Thing
Picture This!has picked up US rights to Amnon Buchbinder's Canadian coming-of-age story WholeNew Thing and plans anautumn 2006 release.Whole New Thingplayed at Toronto and will screen in the New Voices/New Visions strand at thePalm Springs International Film Festival.The story centres on a precocious teenager raised by hippies in rural NovaScotia ...
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News
Weinstock takes marketing reins at Screen Gems
Marc Weinstock has beennamed executive vice president of marketing for Screen Gems, overseeing upcomingreleases like the imminent Underworld: Evolution, When A Stranger Calls and The Covenant.Weinstock, who moves over from Tristar Pictures to replace Valerie Van Galder followingher appointment as Sony's domestic marketing chief, will continue to work onTriStar titles ...
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News
German box office dropped 16% in 2005
The final 2005 box-office figures for Germany reveal a 16% year-on-year drop.A report released by Nielsen EDI shows box-office figures for the official 2005 period (January 6, 2005 to January 4, 2006) finished at $845.1m (Euro 716.4m).The territory's decline was in line with much of Europe with year-on-year shortfalls seen ...
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News
German box office takings fall by 18.1%
Germancinemas saw takings fall year-on-year by 18.1% and admissions by 20.4% in 2005,according to figures collated by Nielsen EDI for January 3 2005 to January 1 2006.Box-officerevenues amounted to $869.5 (720.1m Euros), compared to 1061.6m ( 879.1m Euros) in 2004, while the total admissions slippedfrom 151m to 121.3m in the ...
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News
Italy's box office takings down by 8.1%
End of year figures fromItalian film data trackers Cinetel - which tracks 75%of the market - show Italy with an 8%-9% year-on-year deficit. Total admissionsresults from Cinetel come in at 88.1 million, 8.7%down from 2004's 96.5 million. Box office was slightly better 8.1% down from2004's $671.7m (569.4m Euros) with $617.2m ...
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News
LoveFilm to offer VOD service to Intel Viiv platform
UK online DVD rental companyLoveFilm.com is building on its recently announced video on demand service bystriking a new deal with Intel.LoveFilm will offer moviesfor download through the new Intel Viiv platform,which is used for networking of digital entertainment."We are delighted to work with Intel to bringa selection of great movies ...
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News
Australia's box office takings down by 10%
Preliminary figures indicate that Australia'sgross box office for 2005 was 10% less than the previous year.A spokesperson for the Motion Picture DistributorsAssociation of Australia (MPDAA) says official results will not be announceduntil mid to late January but a source told Screendaily.comthat the 2005 result will be around $610.6m (A$815m). This ...
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News
BAFTA voters can't play Munich DVDs due to blunder
The saga of the Munich DVD screeners sentto BAFTA members continues. BAFTA voters finally received the DVDs on Saturday,but found that they were Region 1 DVDs encrypted in the Cineaanti-piracy format, so not able to play on any UK Cineaplayers. As ScreenDaily.com reported last week, screeners of Steven Spielberg'slatest were ...
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News
US film-makers join race for Rotterdam's Tigers
Americanfilm-makers are making a return to Rotterdam (Jan 26-Feb 5), with two USfeatures in the running for the VPRO Tiger Awards, announced today.A total of14 films will compete to become one of the three equal Tiger Award winners,including nine world premieres and two international premieres. Four of the 14were supported ...
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News
Orange and BAFTA nominees for rising star acting award
Mobile communications company Orangehas announced the five nominees for its new Orange Rising Star Award, to bepresented at the 2006 BAFTAs. The five actorsnominated are Gael Garcia Bernal, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, James McAvoy,and Michelle Williams. BAFTA announced that the new award will be dedicated to thework of Mary Selway, ...
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News
Big success for three openers at the UK box office
The first week of 2006 atthe UK box office spelled good news, while the battle for the lead continuedunabated three openers impressed in a deluge of records. Momentum Pictures saw itsbiggest opening of all time with comedy JustFriends. The Ryan Reynolds title grossed $3.1m (£1.75m) including previews- $2.7m (£1.55m) without. ...
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News
French box-office admissions down by 10%
French boxoffice admissions plummeted 10% in 2005 as compared with the previous year. Atotal 176 million tickets were sold in 2005 down from 196 million in 2004.Top for theyear was the fourth Harry Potter installment with 7.284 million tickets soldfollowed by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of TheSith with 7.245 ...
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Spanish box-office admissions down by 12.7%
Admissions at Spanish cinemas took a 12.7% dive in 2005,hitting a seven-year low.According to figures from Nielsen EDI, box-office grosses inSpaindiminished 9.5% to $745.9m (617.5m Euros) from $823.8m (682m Euros) theprevious year. Admissions dropped 12.7% from 140 to 122.2 million, thelowest level recorded locally since 1998.The downward turn reverses the ...
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Daniel Burman's Family Law to open Berlin's Panorama
TheBerlin Film Festival's Panorama section is set to open with the world premiereof Daniel Burman's Family Law (Derechode Familia), in an initial swathe of filmsannounced by the section yesterday.FamilyLaw, from Argentina, is Burman'slong-awaited follow-up to The TornEmbrace (El Abrazo Partido),which won two Silver Bears at Berlin in 2004.Panoramahas announced 21 ...
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Reviews
BloodRayne
Dir: Uwe Boll. US. 2006. 94mins.If there is an Ed Wood working in Hollywood todaythen surely it is film-maker Uwe Boll, who over thepast few years has made several critically panned videogame film adaptationsthat have floundered at the box office but done little to dent his career.His latestfeature, the avenging ...
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Searchlight names joint COOs in pursuit of happiness
Former Fox Searchlightdistribution chief Stephen Gilula and marketing chief Nancy Utley have beenpromoted to joint chief operating officers as the studio prepares for itsbiggest year.The company veterans are regarded alongside president Peter Rice as key playersas Searchlight bids to erase the memory of a lacklustre 2005 and emulate thecritical and ...