All articles by Michael Gubbins – Page 6
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Cine-Expo: Exhibitors waiting for Christmas punch
Cinema Expo should have been a celebration with recordnumber of international films topping $100m international takings and a packedtrade show promising a host of new technology innovations.But as the Amsterdam event closes today, there was adistinctly glass half-empty atmosphere among many exhibitors that contrastedwith the enthusiasm of the studio executives ...
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Cine-Expo: Exhibitors waiting for Christmas punch
Cinema Expo should have been a big celebration, with a recordnumber of films topping $100m in international takings and a packedtrade show promising a host of new technology innovations.But as the Amsterdam event closed there was a distinctly glasshalf-empty atmosphere among many exhibitors that contrasted with the enthusiasmof the studio ...
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Cine-Expo: Top industry figures honoured at closing ceremony
'This is the film that is going to turn around the summer boxoffice,' UIP president and COO Andrew Cripps told guests at a screening of WarOf The Worlds, at this year's Cinema Expo in Amsterdam.As if to underline the importance to exhibitors, the showingwas delayed as delegates were made to ...
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Cine-Expo: Top industry figures honoured at closing ceremony
UIP chairman and chief executiveStewart Till was named distributor of the year as Cinema Expo in Amsterdam drewto a close today.The honour concluded a successfulweek for the company, which earlier picked up a record nine Gold Reel awardsfor films earning more than $100m outside the US. The company topped the ...
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Cine-Expo: Herbie revs up Disney's attempts at international record
Disney-branded films are heading for 18 months ofunprecedented success in the international market, delegates to Cinema Expo inAmsterdam have been told.The company did a record-breaking $1.7bn of business in 2004but Mark Zoradi, president of Buena Vista International is promising biggerthings to come.The key to the predicted run will be this ...
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Cine-Expo: Warner Bros pledges to be the 2005 hit factory
Warner Bros had pledged that its strategy of a tighter slate ofbigger films will deliver exhibitors the box-office success they crave thisyear.Speaking before the first European screening of Tim Burton'sCharlie And The Chocolate Factory at Cinema Expo in Amsterdam yesterday, Warnersenior vice president for European distribution, Monique Esclavissat said thecompany ...
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Cine Expo: box-office fears beneath forward-looking agenda
"This film has huge expectations of turning around the summer boxoffice," Andrew Cripps, UIP president and COO, told guests before a WarOf The Worlds screening at yesterday's opening of Cinema Expo in Amsterdam.While anti-piracy measures are routine at blockbuster previews, the confiscation of every potential recording device before the screening ...
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Cine Expo: record releases reel in $100m overseas
Nielsen EDI has awarded arecord 32 films the International Gold Reel Award for surpassing $100m innon-US box-office revenue during the past year.Making the awards at CineExpo in Amsterdam, Nick King, international president of Nielsen Entertainment,said the numbers reflected the growth of the international market."We are seeing proof thatfilms can have ...
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Piracy strategy switches direction to win over public
The fight against film piracy is turning away from"finger-wagging" towards more credible personalised appeals.Disney vice president of anti-piracy Richard Atkinson said achange of approach had proved necessary as the sophistication of the criminals increased and public cynicism grew."The pirates have become extremely efficient in managingtheir own ecosystem," he told Screen ...
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AOL launches virtual film festival online
AOL Moviefone will launch its first "virtual short filmfestival" next week.It is the kind of deal that some in the film industrybelieve points to potentially lucrative future partnerships with new-media businesses. AOL's moviefone.com will ask readers to rate competitionfilms from new and up-and-coming directors as well as films that have ...
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Curzon offers school for shorts
London's Curzon Soho cinema is hosting a four-day short filmfestival, starting on July 6.The Short Film Summer School (SFSS) will screen some of thebest work from new and established directors.The Screen International-supported event also includes workshops,advice sessions and a chance to pitch ideas with the UK Film Council. One of ...
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New venture aims to break US digital cinema deadlock
Yet another new business venture has been formed with the promise of breaking the digital cinema fundingdeadlock in the US.Access Integrated Technologies and projection equipment supplier ChristieDigital Systems have created a subsidiary offering to help pay for installationcosts of 2K resolution projectors in exchange for long-term support and equipment ...
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HBO Films London relocates to the US
HBO Films London is shutting up shop andrelocating to New York and Los Angeles.Themove follows the HBO Films partnership with New Line in the newly-formedindependent US theatrical distribution company, Picturehouse,"With greater focus from HBO Films onproducing theatrical films, we feel our new international theatricaldistribution activities will be most effectively handled ...
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HBO closes London sales arm in US relocation plan
HBO Films London is shutting down as part of a rationalizing move that will see overseas sales of HBO's films now handled out of the US.Theclosure follows the creation of Picturehouse, the New York-based joint venture US theatrical distribution company that unites HBO Films with New Line. That recent tie-up ...
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Overseas satellite operations still on HBO horizon
The decision to close HBO Films London should be taken as a signof greater global ambition rather than retrenchment, claims HBO president ofinternational distribution, Charles Schreger.And that may include creating satellite branches of the business acrossthe world in the future.Schreger says HBO is serious about growing both the domestic and ...
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Pinewood Shepperton shares drop after profit warning
Shares in Pinewood Shepperton have dropped 20 per cent after the studio issued a profit warning.The UK institution has been expanding recently, acquiring TeddingtonStudios two months ago. But it has been struggling to tie down the bigblockbuster movies on which it has built its business and reputation.In April,the share price ...
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UK anti-piracy trailers switch emphasis from studio losses
A new anti-piracy campaign in the UK is shifting emphasisaway from crime and financial losses towards promoting a positive image ofcinema going.A new trailer, drawn up by major exhibitors anddistributors, contrasts the big-screen "cinema experience" with a scratchypirated DVD."There has been a strategic shift because research showsthat the industry's messages ...
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Eastern promise for Egyptian Top Gun
Independent producer YoussefEl-Deeb is on a mission to break Egyptian cinema out internationally.El-Deeb's Takhayalproduction company is here with an as-yet unnamed film based around Egypt's1967 disastrous war with Israel, a project he says will have "Top Gun" elements and is intended to appeal to the youngermarket.Anotheris a biopic of the ...
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Pele plots film expose of South American football
Football legend Pele isplanning what he says will be a sporting equivalent to Fernando Meirelles' Cityof God. Pele says he has beenworking on a script which will expose the seedy underbelly of South Americanfootball, where the flip side of the beautiful game is endemic corruption inthe boardroom."Flamengo is the best-supported ...