All Screen articles in 13 January 2006
View all stories from this month.
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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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Hi-def DVD rivals reveal US product slates
Backers of the two rivalformats for high definition DVDs have announced their initial US productrelease plans and further details of player availability.In a publicity blitz at the ConsumerElectronics Show in Las Vegas, the five Hollywood studios backing Sony'sBlu-ray disc format revealed their initial slates for the next-generation DVDplayer.Sony Pictures HomeEntertainment ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Argentina experiencing film production boom
In a country ravaged byeconomic and political disarray just over four years ago, Argentina iscurrently enjoying a film production boom.More than 70 feature anddocumentaries films were produced in 2005, up from 2004 (54) and 2003 (67). There are 109 movies currentlybeing filmed, recently completed or in post-production and at least ...
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News
Guillou's bestselling Arn novels take to the screen
Two screen adaptations and a television seriesof Evil author Jan Guillou'sbest-selling historical Arnadventures are currently in development by Svensk Filmindustri. The project hasa $26.7m (22m Euro) budget, a considerable amount of money by Swedish industrystandards. Financing is currently in its final stages with Svensk awaitingconfirmation from several European film and ...
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News
Thema plans to build new studio in St Petersburg
Thema, the Luxembourg-based productioncompany, is rapidly ramping up its activities - opening a new,5,000-square-metre state-of-the-art studio in St Petersburg, Russia bySeptember and starting a UK operation headed up by formerentertainment lawyer Kami Nagdhi.Thema, an offshoot of Russian financial servicesgiant AFK Sistema, has also expanded its investmentactivities in the last month, ...
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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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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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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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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
Sky starts movie download service with 200 titles
On the heels of LoveFilm's launch of a 500-title library of film downloads in the UK, satellite TV company Sky is also offering digital downloads of films to customers' computers. The Sky by broadband service is now being offered to Sky's digital TV subscribers in the UK and Ireland. More ...
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Bender named sales chief at Harmony Gold USA
Susan Bender has beenappointed to the new post of president of sales at Harmony Gold USA as thecompany makes a concerted bid to expand its worldwide sales activities.Effective Jan 23, Bender will oversee all domestic and international sales andspearhead strategic development with the existing sales team, which includesvice president of ...
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Reviews
Glory Road
Dir: James Gartner. US. 2006. 115mins.Playing out like Remember The Titans for basketball fans,Glory Road is yet another would-beinspirational true story which follows Hollywood sports-movie conventions somechanically that it feels more generic than stirring.Opening on January13 in the US, the same weekend that the hoops-themed Samuel L Jackson feature Coach ...