All articles by Mary Scott – Page 3
-
News
Spinal Tap adds UK date to global tour
Rob Reiner's legendary rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap is staging a UK come-back tour.The spoof story of spandex-clad heavy rock band Spinal Tap, infamous for such "classics" as Big Bottom, Bitch School and Stonehenge, will get a theatrical re-release in October through independent UK distributor Optimum Releasing.Optimum has struck ...
-
News
British patriotism eggs Chicken Run back to top
British claymation feature Chicken Run beat out two of Hollywood's highest profile summer blockbusters to the number one slot in the UK chart last weekend when it grossed $3.9m (£2.6m) over the three days. After a running total of $21m and 17 days on release, the Aardman animation rules the ...
-
News
UIP's gamble pays off
Setting what other distributors will hope is a precedent, Mission: Impossible 2 has broken the spell of the summer cinema slump in Italy. Grossing $2.5m from 456 screens and going straight to the top of the chart, M:I2 recorded an unheard of success in the month of July when ...
-
News
M:I2 blasts into UK chart
Mission: Impossible 2 proved its blockbuster weight when it opened in the UK over the weekend (July 7-9) grossing $6.27m (£4.14m) from 461 sites, excluding previews of $725,876 (£479,411). Although healthy, it was not enough to push it into the UK's top 10 opening weekend chart despite playing on around ...
-
News
CINE EXPO: Zoradi supports old-school marketing
Mark Zoradi, president of Buena Vista International, encouraged international exhibitors to focus on traditional marketing methods in order to improve profit margins, at Cinema Expo this week. Speaking prior to BVI's product showreel and digital screening of Dinosaur, his message to cinema operators was to revitalise their use of traditional ...
-
News
CINE EXPO: Sands to keep focus on festival circuit
Rick Sands, Miramax's chairman of worldwide distribution, has reassured the company's international distributors that it will not forsake international film festivals to launch its films, despite the pressure to shorten global release windows."There is a growing trend to accelerate the international release but we must not forget the invaluable support ...
-
News
CINE EXPO: Internet makes release dates go global
One of the strongest messages to emerge at this week's Cinema Expo conference in Amsterdam is that the growing influence of the internet - particularly among cinema's prime audience of 14 to 19-year-olds - is driving distributors towards global release dates.Driving the point home was a screening of Sony Pictures ...
-
News
Cinema industry puts date-stamp on digital dawn
Digital cinema pioneer QUALCOMM became the first company to commit to a date for the commercial launch of its new technology at the Cinema Expo convention in Amsterdam this week.QUALCOMM said it expects to launch and roll out its first generation digital cinema delivery system within the next 12 months. ...
-
News
Big Momma fails to topple Gladiator
Big Momma's House failed to unseat Gladiator from the top of the UK box office last weekend as the Roman epic continued its glory run in the cinema arena. Gladiator scooped $1.5m (£1m) on its seventh weekend bringing its total to an unbelievable $36.7m (£24.4m). The Martin Lawrence comedy from ...
-
News
European exhibitors urged to curtail over-building
Unless European cinema operators, particularly those in Germany, scale back their multiplex building ambitions then admissions per screen will reach dangerously low levels, a leading analyst has warned exhibitors attending the Cinema Expo convention in Amsterdam.Speaking at Monday's European Exhibition seminar, Karsten-Peter Grummitt of Dodona Research, the UK-based outfit normally ...
-
News
Qualcomm, Technicolor form joint digital venture
Digital media technology company Qualcomm and Carlton Communications-owned Technicolor Digital Cinema are teaming up to provide an open standard distribution system for digital cinema. The joint venture, to be called Technicolor Digital Cinema LLC, marks another major step forward to finding a useable method to deliver digital films worldwide - ...
-
News
Crawford to quit Village Roadshow
The future of Village Roadshow's international exhibition arm looks uncertain following the surprise decision of chairman and co-chief executive officer John Crawford to leave the company. Crawford is quitting Village's UK-based international arm in December after deciding not to renew his contract. The UK headquarters will relocate to Melbourne, despite ...
-
News
Sweet And Lowdown rises above soccer
Blame the start of the Euro 2000 soccer tournament or blame the warmer weather, but no amount of counter-programming could prevent last weekend's box office retreating to the traditional pre-summer holiday season low. The only film to open with any redeemable gross was Woody Allen's Sweet And Lowdown which ...
-
News
Gladiator retains pole position at UK box office
Gladiator's rule in the UK box office arena continued for the third weekend running as the film's cumulative reached over $20m. Taking a three-day gross of $4.4m over the UK's bank holiday weekend, box office revenues dropped just 14% from last weekend and the site average remained strong at $10,580. ...
-
News
Mission drives US box to all-time high
The North American opening of Mission: Impossible 2 has broken a raft of box office records across its Memorial weekend debut, grossing an estimated six-day figure of $92.8m from Wednesday June 24 to Monday June 29. In the traditional four-day Memorial slot, the John Woo directed blockbuster raked in around ...
-
News
Carlton Media reports 12% interim profit increase
Carlton Communications has reported that profits for its media division, Carlton Media, were up 12% to $149m (£101m) in the six months to March 31, on turnover of $751m (£508m) up 13% from the corresponding period the previous year.Film and video/DVD duplication unit Technicolor, currently up for sale with a ...
-
News
UK box office spawns hits and misses
Aided by seven opening films, the UK box office picked up again last weekend after the recent spate of warm weather. But with Gladiator holding over well, falling just 3% from its opening weekend, not all the new releases profited from healthy box office returns. Best out of the ...
-
News
Carlton snaps up US cinema ad company Screenvision
Carlton Communications has made a vital step forward in tackling the US cinema advertising market through its purchase of New York-based Screenvision Cinema Network. The $93.3m cash deal announced yesterday (May 22) gives Carlton access to Screenvision's 65% share of the US screen advertising industry. This is a major ...
-
News
Kevin And Perry go large again in the UK
The British comedy Kevin And Perry Go Large is back at the top of the UK chart after pinching the number one slot from last weekend's chart topper Scream 3. However, box office revenues across most of the country plummeted over the weekend (May 5-7) as the first ...
-
News
Gladiator storms Australian box office
Ridley Scott's highly-anticipated Roman epic Gladiator scooped an eye-popping $0.6m (A$1m) from 293 screens on its opening day in Australia (May 4) - the first territory worldwide to play the film. This opening figure is the territory's sixth highest ever, no doubt boosted by the film's protagonist Russell Crowe who ...