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All articles by Sandy George – Page 50
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News
AUSTRALIA
Along Came Polly held on to the top spot in its second weekend on release despite its gross dropping by over half, although admittedly the original result was for a five-day holiday weekend and the figures have now reverted to the usual four days.The UIP release did A$1,436,260 from 202 ...
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Hopscotch pounces on documentaries
Hopscotch has picked up all Australian and New Zealand rights to 2004 Academy Award documentary nominee My Architect from the Film Sales Company, hoping that again loading the slate with non-fiction will prolong last year's winning streak.The film is already showing in the US and is directed by Nathaniel Kahn, ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
The Return Of The King continues to reign supreme at the New Zealand box office. In its seventh weekend it took NZ$384,449 from 86 screens, which was just 6% down on the previous week. As was the case last week, The Last Samurai is in second position with NZ$301,379 from ...
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Crombie resigns from South Australian Film Corp
The South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) is without both a contracted chief executive and a chair following the resignation of chief executive Judith Crombie during Friday's board meeting, effective immediately. The State Government had earlier decided not to reappoint David Minear as chair.Some mystery surrounds Crombie's decision to leave four ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
UIP's Peter Pan was the most popular film in its opening weekend at the Australian box office, although its gross was a slightly underwhelming A$1,507,592 from 269 screens. This result was surprising given the extra publicity generated by it being shot in Australia by Australian expatriate director P J Hogan. ...
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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealanders' overwhelming sense of pride in and ownership of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy was good news for the opening of the final instalment, The Return Of The King, which did an extraordinary NZ$2.6m last weekend.To put this in perspective, it accounted for more than 75% of the ...
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Brennan joins Oz Film Commission as project manager
Veteran producer Richard Brennan, whose extensive credits across several decades include Cosi, Spotswood, Blood Oath, Grievous Bodily Harm, Starstruck, Stir and Newsfront, has joined the Australian Film Commission (AFC) as a project manager.The AFC is the Australian Government's key development agency for the film industry and Brennan will be working ...
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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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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
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
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
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
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
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
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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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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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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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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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. ...