All articles by Sandy George – Page 50
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News
NEW ZEALAND
BVI's Scary Movie 3 was easily the hit film of the weekend, earning NZ$403,565 from 31 screens upon appearing at cinemas for the first time. It's screen average was a quite extraordinary NZ$13,018 - the Kiwi's love their horror films - bettered only by the re-release of The Lord Of ...
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News
Australia's Southern Star subject of takeover bid
The Southern Star Group, one of Australia's biggest television production and distribution companies, is the subject of a takeover bid from Southern Cross Broadcasting, which operates television stations in most regional areas of Australia, as well as in Adelaide and the national capital of Canberra. Southern Star's directors, who control ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
BVI's Scary Movie 3 was the hit film at the box office in its opening weekend, taking A$3,011,921 from 305 screens to achieve a screen average of A$9,875. The result fell about A$70,000 short of last weekend's opening performance by 20th Century Fox's Master And Commander: The Far Side Of ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
Columbia TriStar's Underworld just managed to push UIP's Love Actually off the top spot in the weekend popularity stakes. It sold NZ$331,282 worth of tickets from 40 screens, admittedly a dozen less than the 52 screens from which Love Actually earned it's NZ$310,788. It was Underworld's first weekend, just as ...
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News
Whale Rider makes splash at NZ awards
As expected, Whale Rider won nearly all the relevant categories at the New Zealand Film Awards tonight (Dec 8) in Auckland, including best film for producers Tim Sanders and John Barnett, best director and best writer for Niki Caro, and best actress for Keisha Castle-Hughes.With Caro currently in the US, ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World grossed A$3,078,560 from 324 screens on its opening four-day weekend. This result meant the 20th Century Fox drama easily claimed the top spot. Contributing factors included extremely strong reviews, a big print and advertising budget, a wide release, thus ensuring it ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
UIP's Love Actually lived up to the promise shown in the previous weekend's previews and easily secured the top spot with a gross of NZ$415,176 from 51 screens. Despite the screen count being second only to The Matrix Revolutions in number, the film's screen average of NZ$8,141 was miles ahead ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Columbia TriStar's S.W.A.T has topped the Australian chart on its opening weekend with a A$2,741,337 gross from 246 screens. It managed to more than double the ticket sales of UIP's School Of Rock, and pushed the comedy down into second position for what was its second weekend on release. Putting ...
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News
Jackson feted as Return Of The King premieres in NZ
Peter Jackson was asked whether he would consider running for Prime Minister of New Zealand during a press conference yesterday, just hours before the world premiere of The Return Of The King in his hometown of Wellington. For the record, he said he was "very happy" with his current job.The ...
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News
Mushroom, Rialto tie up production joint venture
Australian production outfit Mushroom Pictures (Chopper, Gettin' Square) and Auckland based distributor Rialto Entertainment have formed a joint venture to produce thrillers and contemporary horror movies along the lines of 28 Days Later.The aim for the initial 18-month period of the deal is to develop, finance, produce and distribute a ...
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News
Busy new year ahead for Oz production
For full current production listings click hereThere are just four films in production in Australia for the next three months, The Human Touch, some of which has already been shot in France, The Oyster Farmer, Ten Canoes and the Kennedy Miller animation Happy Feet. There may be an unknown ...
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News
Australia's FFC unveils studio model financing plan
Australian funding body the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) is to adopt a studio model when funding local films as part of a radical overhaul of its investment procedures.Chief executive Brian Rosen said that the FFC will choose films to fund and will then work alongside filmmakers to secure marketplace interest. ...
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News
Australian Film Commission slams AFMA
The Australian Film Commission has slammed the American Film Marketing Association (AFMA) for its lack of support in the free trade agreement currently being negotiated with the U.S."If they actually represented the interests of independent producers around the world as they claim, they would be supporting Australian producers, not the ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
Roadshow's The Matrix Revolutions comfortably beat the competition to retain the top spot in its third weekend on release, showing more resilience than in some other markets. UIP's Love Actually put in a strong performance to secure second place, despite only being on previews. It grossed NZ$212,718 from 45 screens ...
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News
Japanese Story sweeps AFI awards
Japanese Story walked away with practically all the honours at the 45th AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards tonight (Nov 21), including best film. It is the third major Australian prize for Japanese Story in less than a month: on Nov 12 it won at the IF Awards and on Oct ...
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News
Oz producer of the year unveils The Wish
Steve Luby and Mark Ruse of Melbourne's Ruby Entertainment and UK producer Deb Balderstone from Haystack have started casting and financing the romantic comedy The Wish.News of the project came as the Screen Producers Association of Australia, at their annual conference, today declared Luby, along with Mick Molloy, as independent ...
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News
April strikes major Oz film financing deal
Sydney outfit April Films has struck an deal with investment bank Babcock & Brown to finance around two films a year for the next five to seven years. The films are likely to be in the US$5.7m-21.4m (A$8m-30m) budget range. The deal is highly significant for the cash strapped Australian ...
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News
Oz financing forum aims to usher in a new era
An Australian Film Financing Forum is to be held in Sydney on November 27. The forum is designed to arm potential film financiers with the knowledge they need to make more informed decisions - and to hook them up with key film industry players. Actor, producer and forum patron Bryan ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
It is unusual to see as many as three openers among the top five films but that was the case on the weekend. The Matrix Revolutions was convincingly ahead of everything, grossing NZ$553,478 despite the 56% drop on the previous week. BVI's Seabiscuit, with NZ$109,682 from 52 screens, and 20th ...
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News
Oz production levels fall dramatically
Kim Dalton, chief executive of the Australian Film Commission (AFC), has expressed 'great concern' at new figures released today that indicate a dramatic fall in Australian production levels.The total number of features of all types made in the 12 months to June 30 fell to 26 from 39 in the ...