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All articles by Sandy George – Page 41
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AUSTRALIA 15 February
Two US films new to cinemaslead the box office on the weekend and both would have got a boost because oftheir links to Australia. The Aviator, starring the homegrown Cate Blanchett, tookA$1,830,974 from 248 screens for Roadshow, and Hide And Seek, directedby the homegrown John Polson, took A$1,652,264 from 205 ...
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Fox's Eucalyptus wilts under script rewrite
Fox Searchlight Pictures has announced that production onJocelyn Moorhouse’s Eucalyptus,which stars Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, will not go ahead as scheduled”to allow time for further work on the script”.The news felt somehow prophetic to local film observers whohad been disturbed at the prospect of the considerably older Kidman playing ...
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South Africa, Australia co-production treaty mooted
The governing council of theScreen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) is expected next week toendorse a report arguing the case for a co-production arrangement to be put inplace with South Africa.If it happens, the reportwill be presented to the Australian Film Commission (AFC), the governmentagency that administers such arrangements. The ...
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FFC Australia bankrolls four new features
Four new Australian features - Two Fists One Heart,Razzle Dazzle - A Journey Into Dance, Footy Legends and Macbeth -are all are going into production thanks to investment decisions madetoday by Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC).The country's principal film backer is also puttingpost-production finance into The Magician, which has already ...
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NEW ZEALAND 9 February
It was a very unusualweekend at the New Zealand box office with nearly half the films rising up inthe chart instead of dropping down. This was caused by a combination of factorsincluding children being back at school, which has given more grown-up films aboost, strong word of mouth being created ...
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Runaway business helps Australian production
Becker Film Internationalhas taken world sales rights on Feed, a psychological thriller thatBrett Leonard is now shooting in Australia.Runaway US films play a keyrole supporting service companies and building skills in host countries but Feedis a rare example of how runaway production has directly helped a localfeature. Producer Melissa Beaufordmet ...
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NEW ZEALAND 3 February
Elektra was the most popular film in New Zealand cinemas onthe weekend, taking NZ$254,990 from 40 screens for 20th Century Fox in itsopening week and clocking up a screen average of NZ$6,375, which was thehighest in the chart. This was for the usual four days from Thursday to Sunday,although Monday ...
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Foreign films struggle at Oz box office
The numberof foreign films released in Australia in 2004 from countries other than the USand the UK nearly doubled compared to 2003.However,the 80 films in question from across the world earned $28.4m (A$36.8m) -down from the $32.6m earned by just 43 foreign films in 2003. Thisequated to average earnings of ...
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AUSTRALIA 31 January
Closer has knocked Meet The Fockers off the top ofthe chart, where UIP's in-laws comedy has reigned for the previous fiveweekends. In its opening weekend SonyPictures' Closer took A$1,609,499 from 157 screens for the four days toand including January 30, equating to a screen average of A$10,252, the highestin the ...
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Australian box office hits record heights in 2004
Australians spent $693m (A$907m) going to the cinema lastyear, the highest annual result ever, according to new Motion PictureDistributors Association of Australia (MPDAA) figures.This was 4.79% or $31.6m more than last year's record.The MPDAA has not released the figure for admissions, however. This may havedipped, meaning that growth came from ...
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AUSTRALIA 24 January
Roadshow sent Alexanderin to battle for the hearts and minds of Australians but UIP's Meet TheFockers remained the most popular film at the box office for the fifthconsecutive weekend. It grossed A$1,762,667 from 290 screens compared to theA$1,667,851 clocked up by Alexander, which had the disadvantage of beingon about 100 ...
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NEW ZEALAND 24 January
Alexander lead the box office on the weekend taking NZ$279,198from 46 screens in its opening weekend. Only Finding Neverland, whichtook NZ$187,540 from 34 screens in its second weekend for BVI, had a screenaverage that was anything like as high as Alexander's NZ$6,070. FindingNeverland, which is in fourth position, had a ...
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Adelaide festival sets Watt's Ways as opener
The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) is to open with the worldpremiere of new Australian film Look Both Ways by director Sarah Watt.Festival director Katrina Sedgwick had previously scheduledthe film for the middle Saturday night of the two-week event starting onFebruary 18. But after seeing a final cut of the film, ...
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AUSTRALIA 17 January
Elektra secured third place for the four-day weekend toJanuary 16 after 20th Century Fox premiered it on 226 screens around thecountry. The A$1,711,680 gross gave it a screen average of A$7,574, second onlyto UIP's Meet The Fockers, which has lead the chart for four consecutiveweekends. Third on the measure ofscreen ...
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NEW ZEALAND 17 January
The two openers in the topfive on the weekend were BVI's Finding Neverland, which grossedNZ$200,127 from 34 screens to grab third place and 20th Century Fox release FlightOf The Phoenix, which was snapping at its heels with NZ$190,986 from 40screens. These two films also secured the biggest screen averages in ...
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Australia celebrates record BO revenues
AustraliaHs annual boxoffice gross looks certain to exceed A$900 million in 2004 for the first timeever although the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA)has not released the final figure, nor admission numbers, and may not until laterthis month. Making significantcontributions to the 2004 tally were Shrek 2 (A$50.26m) and ...
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Fiennes to star in Coetzee adaptation Disgrace
Australian productioncompany Wild Strawberries has secured Ralph Fiennes to play the lead in itsfeature adaptation of 1999 Booker Prize winning novel Disgrace, writtenby J M Coetzee. The politically chargedstory will be filmed in South Africa, where it is set. Fiennes will play atwice-divorced academic in Cape Town who retreats to ...
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AUSTRALIA 11 January
For the third consecutiveweekend of Australia's busy summer holiday season Meet The Fockers and TheIncredibles were first and second at the box office. The UIP comedy sequelgrossed A$3,843,658 from 324 screens over the four days and has already sold A$21.6million worth of tickets in 15 days. The BVI animation took ...
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2004: New Zealand on a roll
The country is on a roll. Producers are financing localfilms at unprecedented budget levels, footloose productions are arriving fromHollywood with great frequency and audiences are swarming into cinemas to watchthe pick of the local crop.Moreover, film-maker Peter Jackson is pumping money intoinfrastructure and skills development that can be accessed by ...
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2004: Oz despairs as production levels plummet
Despair and hope characterised 2004. Local production levelsfell, only a few films found audiences, and everyone had a moan about the rest.But hopes are high that the relatively new and still freshFilm Finance Corporation Australia chief executive Brian Rosen - helpedby his new sidekicks - really will prove to be ...