Theatrical
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MoviePass Acquires Indie Crime Drama ‘American Animals’
Subscription theatrical ticket service MoviePass acquired the rights (with The Orchard) to art crime drama, American Animals, for $3 million at the Sundance Film Festival. The acquisition was done through MoviePass Ventures, the upstart subsidiary launched at Sundance to co-acquire movies and distribute through multiple channels, including packaged media, on-demand and streaming. “I made this … Continue reading “MoviePass Acquires Indie Crime Drama ‘American Animals’”
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Sky Bows Original Movies Platform
Taking a page from the Netflix playbook, U.K. TV satellite operator Sky Jan. 25 announced the launch of an original content production platform, dubbed Sky Cinema Original Films. Sky is the largest satellite TV operator in Europe with 23 million subscribers, and co-owned (39%) by 21st Century Fox. It could become majority owned by The … Continue reading “Sky Bows Original Movies Platform”
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‘Shape of Water,’ ‘Dunkirk’ Lead Oscar Noms
Among the nine nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture announced Jan. 23, Warner’s Dunkirk and Universal’s Get Out were the only ones already available on home video. A third, Darkest Hour, is due on DVD and Blu-ray Feb. 27 from Universal. Other Best Picture nominees include The Shape of Water, which led all … Continue reading “‘Shape of Water,’ ‘Dunkirk’ Lead Oscar Noms”
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FilmStruck Launching International SVOD Service
FilmStruck, Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks’ subscription streaming movie service, is launching an international platform, beginning in the United Kingdom. The service will draw primarily on Warner library content and the Criterion Collection, as well as other global and local content partners. Movies include mainstream, cult, independent, classics, art house, foreign and documentaries. The … Continue reading “FilmStruck Launching International SVOD Service”
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Cinedigm Expands Chinese Distribution
Cinedigm Jan. 19 announced an alliance with leading China-based Starrise Media Holdings Ltd. to release movies in China theatrically and digitally. The deal also paves the way for Cinedigm to distribute Chinese films in North America. Los Angeles-based Cinedigm is majority-owned by Hong Kong private equity group Bison Capital. Hanks He, executive director of Starrise … Continue reading “Cinedigm Expands Chinese Distribution”
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MoviePass Launches Movie Distribution Business
Subscription ticket service MoviePass and corporate parent Helios + Matheson Jan. 19 announced the launch of a subsidiary to co-acquire movies with distributors. The announcement was made at The Sundance Film Festival during MoviePass’ content series, “Off-Script: The Future of Film,” to a room of filmmakers, producers, directors, investors, distributors, and other industry executives. MoviePass says that … Continue reading “MoviePass Launches Movie Distribution Business”
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MoviePass Partners with ‘I Heart Media’
MoviePass, the subscription theatrical ticket service, has inked a media deal with iHeartMedia. The agreement affords New York-based MoviePass an extensive marketing campaign across iHeartMedia’s multiplatform network, including radio, digital, social and live events. With more than 1.5 million subscribers, $9.95 MoviePass eyes iHeartMedia helping target new subscribers, in addition to selling ads on its … Continue reading “MoviePass Partners with ‘I Heart Media’”
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Amazon Upping Indie Film Compensation
Amazon Jan. 11 announced it is nearly doubling compensation to independent movies and documentaries participating in the Amazon Video Direct Film Festival Stars platform. The program, which affords creators direct access to millions of Prime members through streaming video, paid out $5.8 million in one-time bonuses to more than 100 titles from the 2017 Toronto … Continue reading “Amazon Upping Indie Film Compensation”
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AMC Theatres CFO: ‘No Consensus’ on PVOD
Rollout of premium video-on-demand (PVOD) this year seems increasingly remote after the CFO of the country’s largest theatrical chain said discussions with studios remain at an impasse. Speaking Jan. 9 at Citi 2018 Global TMT West Conference in Las Vegas, AMC Entertainment CFO Craig Ramsey suggested negotiations with studios have cooled regarding shrinking the longstanding … Continue reading “AMC Theatres CFO: ‘No Consensus’ on PVOD”
