All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1529
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Red Dragon breaks Oct opening record with $37.5m
Universal's Hannibal Lecter horror thriller Red Dragon scored the highest ever October opening over the weekend as it scorched to the top of the charts with a redoubtable $37.5m, according to estimates released today (Sunday). Although this was considerably less than the $58m opening for MGM's Hannibal in February 2001 ...
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Minority Report is Cruise's best ever opener in Italy
Fox'sMinority Report enjoyed a strongItalian bow over the weekend, debuting at number one with a $2.78m gross from397 screens in what was a personal best in the territory for Tom Cruise. Thestar did the pre-launch publicity rounds in Rome last week with director StevenSpielberg, helping him pass his previous best ...
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Porchlight takes on sales of Random Harvest's War Bride
UK production outfit RandomHarvest has closed a deal with Los Angeles-based PorchLight Entertainment to handleworldwide sales in all remaining territories for the drama War Bride, which is due for release in the UK on Nov 29through Miracle Communications. The 2001 Anglo-Canadian co-production hasalready secured distribution deals in Japan, South Korea, ...
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BVI scores $14m international weekend with Signs
Buena Vista International's Signs dominated the international markets over the weekend with a $14m haul that should see it cross $100m by the middle of the week and sets it on course for a projected $200m international total. The sci-fi drama directed by M Night Shyamalan and starring Mel Gibson ...
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Goldmember dazzles in Australia with $3m gross
NewLine International's (NLI) Austin Powers In Goldmember scored the 12th highest opening in Australia overthe weekend as it stormed to number one with a $3.07m gross from 329 screens.Averaging a terrific $9,330, the third instalment in the Austin Powers comedy franchise was also the third highest openingfor distributor Roadshow. Goldmember ...
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Fox's Perdition enjoys powerful international openings
Fox's Road To Perdition took another $5.2m from 2,000 screens over theweekend to raise its cumulative international total to $22m. In a mightyLondon-only debut the Depression era gangster picture grossed $393,000 from 32screens in the UK for a $12,283 average. It expands to 390 screens across thecountry on Friday September ...
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XXX marks the spot in Russia as action thriller takes $1.2m
Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI) enjoyed a superb number one opening for its action thriller XXX in Russia over the weekend, taking $1.2m from 162 prints. The picture went out on the widest ever release in the territory, which is starting to yield promising returns for distributors. The opening ...
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Banger Sisters continues Searchlight run of success
MGM's Ice Cube comedy Barbershop remained a cut above the rest in its second week, holding on to top spot with a $13.3m haul according to studio estimates released today. The picture's 36% drop-off, impressive for an urban comedy, and $38.9m cumulative score was more good news for beleaguered studio ...
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Antwone Fisher to open AFI FEST, Talk To Her to close
Thisyear's AFI FEST in Los Angeles will open on Nov 7 with the gala screeningof the psychological drama Antwone Fisher, the long awaited directorial debut of Denzel Washington, whichpremiered at the weekend in Toronto. The festival will also screen the USpremiere of Atom Egoyan's Araratas its Centerpiece Gala on Nov ...
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Jeff Wadlow wins the Chrysler Film Festival $1m prize
Emerging film-maker JeffWadlow has been awarded a $1m production deal with online independent Hypnoticand Universal Studios as winner of the 2002 Chrysler Million Dollar FilmFestival. The year-long festival produced five finalists and culminated in aceremony at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday. Wadlow, agraduate of USC School of Cinema-Television, ...
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Ken Burns to receive IDA career achievement award
Ken Burns will receive theInternational Documentary Association (IDA) 2002 Career Achievement Award atthe 18th annual IDA awards gala benefit at the Directors Guild OfAmerica Theatre on Dec 13. Burns has produced 19 documentaries including theOscar nominated Brooklyn Bridgeand the epic miniseries Jazz and TheCivil War.'Ken Burns is in arelatively early ...
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Laura Ivey joins Infinty in legal & business affairs dept
Laura Ivey has beenappointed vice president of business and legal affairs at the LA-based filmproduction and financing company, Infinity International Entertainment. Iveywill be responsible for negotiating and structuring licensing and productionsdeals with domestic and international parties for all Infinity productions andall productions by Cinerenta, Germany's largest film fund, which are ...
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BVI's Signs flies high in UK, Germany, Mexico
BuenaVista International (BVI) scored its biggest ever live-action opening in the UKover the weekend as it continued the international roll-out of Signs, M Night Shyamalan's domestic sci-fi hit. Thepicture grossed $5.7m from 443 screens in the UK, including previews, which wasalso the biggest UK opening for star Mel Gibson. In ...
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Chen Kaige leads Chinese delegation to Denver
Together director Chen Kaige will be part of a Chinesedelegation attending next month's 25th Starz Denver International Film Festival(DIFF) as part of a tribute to Chinese cinema. The festival, which runs fromOctober 10-20, will present a 'Salute To Chinese Cinema' as part of its annualfocus on a country or region ...
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Sony rebrands its TV units, dropping Columbia TriStar
Sony Pictures Entertainment(SPE) has renamed its domestic and international television concerns, removingthe Columbia TriStar moniker and rebramding them with the Sony name. ColumbiaTriStar Domestic Television and Columbia TriStar International Television willnow operate as Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and Sony Pictures TelevisionInternational (SPTI).The move is calculated tocapitalise on the strength of ...
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MGM celebrates with Barbershop's $21m opening
After a string of flops MGM had some long overdue good news this weekend as Barbershop cut through the competition to open top of the charts on $21m, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. The situational comedy stars Ice Cube as the patron of the eponymous salon and received ...
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XXX opens at number one in Australia
Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI) secured the number one spot in Australia with the release of XXX, grossing a terrific $1.7m from 300 prints. The movie is expected to enjoy a strong run in the territory as school holidays begin next week. XXX also opened in South Africa, Turkey ...
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Columbia TriStar hits international billion dollar gross mark
Columbia TriStarFilm Distributors International (CTFDI) says it has passed $1bn in internationalticket sales this year, the third time the Sony Pictures Entertainment divisionhas crossed over that billion-dollar threshold overseas. The totalworldwide box office gross for parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment nowstands at $2.4bn, already the fifth highest annual total on ...
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Swimfan dives head-first into domestic theatres
Ushering in whatis traditionally a quiet month while the studios fine-tune their end-of-yearslates, the teen thriller Swimfan opened top of the charts over the weekend with a $12.4m estimatedhaul. The film is being distributed by 20th Century Fox and wasproduced by New York's GreeneStreet Films, best known until now for ...
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Mendes gangster picture on Road to Fox profits in Germany, Spain
TwentiethCentury Fox rolled out Road To Perdition in a number of key territories over the weekend, scoring anumber one opening in Germany with $1.67m from 520 screens and a terrific$1.49m opening in Spain, where the picture played on 280 screens and trailedbehind Men In Black II.Sam Mendes' sombre gangster picture, ...