February 22, 2012

More foreign films in China means more potential for Toronto-based IMAX Corp. to profit.

Last week, the Asian superpower announced it will allow more movies made in other countries to screen inside Chinese theaters. Being able to show an additional 14 IMAX and 3D films in China each year and allowing filmmakers to keep more of the money they make – though the controversial “foreign film quota” remains – has Aravinda Galappatthige excited about the Canadian projection pioneer’s future prospects.

“This represents a substantial boost to IMAX both in terms of having additional flexibility to introduce more Hollywood titles to the Chinese market, but perhaps more importantly, leading to a higher [Digital Media Remastering] royalty for IMAX in China,” the Canaccord Genuity analyst told clients on Tuesday, maintaining a Buy rating and a $32 price target on the company’s stock.

“The Chinese market is particularly important to IMAX as it is the second biggest and the fastest growing.”

At least 85 theaters in China currently have IMAX technology installed, with another 132 planning to upgrade their systems in the near future. The total of 217 remains less than the 300 theaters in the United States with IMAX cinemas, though Mr. Galappatthige believes “over time, China can surpass the U.S.“

Blockbuster IMAX titles such as Avatar and Transformers: Dark of the Moon have enjoyed substantial box office success in China. The Motion Picture Association of America, meanwhile, called last week’s agreement a “landmark” in U.S.-China trade relations.

Investors seem to agree. IMAX stock was trading at about $25.10 per share early Tuesday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange, up more than 6% for the day.

Source: Financial Post

Posted in: Front Page, Industry News

February 22, 2012

More foreign films in China means more potential for Toronto-based IMAX Corp. to profit.

Last week, the Asian superpower announced it will allow more movies made in other countries to screen inside Chinese theaters. Being able to show an additional 14 IMAX and 3D films in China each year and allowing filmmakers to keep more of the money they make – though the controversial “foreign film quota” remains – has Aravinda Galappatthige excited about the Canadian projection pioneer’s future prospects.

“This represents a substantial boost to IMAX both in terms of having additional flexibility to introduce more Hollywood titles to the Chinese market, but perhaps more importantly, leading to a higher [Digital Media Remastering] royalty for IMAX in China,” the Canaccord Genuity analyst told clients on Tuesday, maintaining a Buy rating and a $32 price target on the company’s stock.

“The Chinese market is particularly important to IMAX as it is the second biggest and the fastest growing.”

At least 85 theaters in China currently have IMAX technology installed, with another 132 planning to upgrade their systems in the near future. The total of 217 remains less than the 300 theaters in the United States with IMAX cinemas, though Mr. Galappatthige believes “over time, China can surpass the U.S.“

Blockbuster IMAX titles such as Avatar and Transformers: Dark of the Moon have enjoyed substantial box office success in China. The Motion Picture Association of America, meanwhile, called last week’s agreement a “landmark” in U.S.-China trade relations.

Investors seem to agree. IMAX stock was trading at about $25.10 per share early Tuesday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange, up more than 6% for the day.

Source: Financial Post

Posted in: Front Page, Industry News

More foreign films in China means more potential for Toronto-based IMAX Corp. to profit.

Last week, the Asian superpower announced it will allow more movies made in other countries to screen inside Chinese theaters. Being able to show an additional 14 IMAX and 3D films in China each year and allowing filmmakers to keep more of the money they make — though the controversial “foreign film quota” remains — has Aravinda Galappatthige excited about the Canadian projection pioneer’s future prospects.

“This represents a substantial boost to IMAX both in terms of having additional flexibility to introduce more Hollywood titles to the Chinese market, but perhaps more importantly, leading to a higher [Digital Media Remastering] royalty for IMAX in China,” the Canaccord Genuity analyst told clients on Tuesday, maintaining a Buy rating and a $32 price target on the company’s stock.

“The Chinese market is particularly important to IMAX as it is the second biggest and the fastest growing.”

At least 85 theaters in China currently have IMAX technology installed, with another 132 planning to upgrade their systems in the near future. The total of 217 remains less than the 300 theaters in the United States with IMAX cinemas, though Mr. Galappatthige believes “over time, China can surpass the U.S.”

Blockbuster IMAX titles such as Avatar and Transformers: Dark of the Moon have enjoyed substantial box office success in China. The Motion Picture Association of America, meanwhile, called last week’s agreement a “landmark” in U.S.-China trade relations.

Investors seem to agree. IMAX stock was trading at about $25.10 per share early Tuesday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange, up more than 6% for the day.

We’re almost exactly a month away from the release of The Hunger Games, the hotly-anticipated screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling young adult sci-fi/thriller novel. Lionsgate is hoping the film’s Super Bowl XLVI trailer managed to land it on the radars of those not yet familiar with Collins’ source material – and will further help to get this would-be franchise started with a bang by simultaneously releasing The Hunger Games in digital IMAX theaters (possibly, for more than a limited time) when the film begins its regular theatrical run.

Today, we have a new IMAX promotional banner for The Hunger Games – featuring Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen striking her (already?) iconic pose with bow and arrow in hand – along with a dozen new character images that offer yet another look at the film’s most important “players” (pun intended).

For Hunger Games newcomers: the story takes place in a futuristic version of North America known as Panem, where twelve impoverished districts are ruled over by the technologically-advanced and flourishing Capitol. In order to keep the various provinces in their place (and as punishment for a failed rebellion many years before) the Capitol holds “The Hunger Games,” an annual event where two randomly-selected teens (one male and one female) from each district are pit against one another in a televised death match that concludes when a single “contestant” is left standing.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) volunteers to take the place of her younger sister in that event, which forces her to fight fellow District 12 member Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) as well as a variety of other “players” from different regions of Panem – whose personalities vary from kind and innocent to merciless and blood-thirsty. Katniss and Peeta are assisted in their attempts to stay alive by such adult figures as the often-inebriated ex-Hunger Games champion Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) and the kindly but mysterious fashion designer Cinna (Lenny Kravitz).

« 1 2View All»

Too Soon!!

Here’s a chance for all you rich the scum bags to cash in on Whitney Houston‘s death.

Blood thirsty auctioneer, Darren Julien, announced his auction house will be selling a few of the late diva’s prized possessions next month. The sell of Whitney’s black velvet dress (above) as well as a vest and a pair of earrings she wore in The Bodyguard, was announced Sunday, the day after her funeral!

Julien says reasoning is simple: the shit is more valuable now. He says:

Read more »

Limit currently set at 20 blockbusters a year to be raised to 34 – but additional movies must be 3D or Imax versions

A breakthrough in the final hours of Xi Jinping’s US tour has eased restrictions on imports of US films into China, and could lead to more 3D and Imax films being made in Hollywood.

Major American studios and independent film-makers alike are celebrating the deal to settle a long-running trade dispute, struck by Joe Biden and Xi.

The two national vice-presidents agreed the deal over dinner in Los Angeles on Friday.

China currently permits only 20 big foreign films a year to be released there, to the frustration of US studios. The pact allows in an extra 14 films each year, provided they are in Imax or 3D formats.

It also allows foreign film-makers to keep a bigger share of box office takings: they will receive 25% instead of 13%.

“This is a very big deal,” said Chris Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America.

“The industry has been living with the numbers in terms of percentages and quotas for 20 years … it begged for a conclusion.”

Though the Hollywood films released in China are few in number, they account for about 40% of the country’s box office takings.

China’s film world has reacted with caution, with directors, cinema operators and film critics saying extra foreign films will squeeze domestic producers, but may ultimately raise quality.

In 2011, the total value of China’s box office was more than 13.bn yuan (£1.3bn). Of that, foreign releases took roughly 6bn yuan, according to the state administration of radio, film and television data.

“The box office of domestic movies will definitely be impacted, which means Chinese movie-makers have to work their butts off to improve their competitiveness,” said Yuan Xin of cinema operator Stella Mega International group.

Domestic critics regularly berate China’s film-makers for failing to produce movies as popular as US ones.

Particular criticism was fomented by the stellar success of the first Kung Fu Panda film, a runaway hit that used – or, some said, exploited – Chinese themes.

Su Mu, a professor at Beijing’s film academy, said: “More and more [Chinese] movies are not focusing on the story and plot but relying on big stars or promotion stunts to ‘deceive’ audience into theatres.

“More US movies may force domestic producers to take a correct attitude toward their works and learn from others.”

However, market trends suggest that blockbusters are exactly what Chinese audiences want.

Many of the nation’s new cinemas – an extra 803 theatres opened in 2011 – are equipped for Imax and 3D.

Recent big Imax or 3D hits included Avatar, Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Nonetheless, US independent film-makers also see the new agreement as a milestone for revenue-earning opportunities in China.

“We do think it’s a breakthrough,” Jean Prewitt, president of the Independent Film and Television Alliance, told the Los Angeles Times.

“For the first time we really have the building blocks to begin to work competitively in that marketplace,” she said.

Independent producers will now be able to negotiate fixed licence fees at similar percentages to those they would get elsewhere, rather than the 2% or 3% of earnings typical now.

About 40 foreign independent films get releases in China each year, outside the quota of 20 big studio films.

The US complained to the World Trade Organisation about China’s quota in 2007, and won a favourable judgment in 2009.

Xi and Biden agreed the new system can be reviewed in five years.

Source: New York Times By Michael Cieply

LOS ANGELES — More “Mission: Impossible”? Bring it on.

The next “Les Misérables”? We’ll see.

A new agreement widening access in China to films from around the world, announced by negotiators for China and the United States late on Friday, brings with it a message about what the next wave of movie exports will look like: They will be large, in 3-D and mostly unrelated to the real world.

In an interview on Sunday, Christopher J. Dodd, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the focus on premium-format films reflected a bit of diplomacy that allowed the Chinese to add 14 films in a special category, without formally abandoning their existing quota of 20.

“To use their words, it was too politically sensitive for them to break that 20-film quota,” said Mr. Dodd. The new system, he said, is subject to review in five years, and it is still possible that American studios and officials will press for more access in the interim.

The agreement carries a proviso that the special-category films be available in premium 3-D or large-screen Imax formats, even if they are accompanied by conventional 2-D versions.

To some extent, the format requirement simply corresponds to realities in the Chinese market. Rapid growth in the number of screens — from about 6,200 last year to a projected 16,000 three years from now — has been accompanied by a major expansion in both 3-D and Imax theaters, with an audience response to match.

“Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” which had an Imax version, and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” in both Imax and 3-D, were blockbusters in China. “Avatar,” another 3-D extravaganza, played 24 hours a day in some Chinese theaters.

But the agreement effectively guarantees, at least for the foreseeable future, that only Hollywood’s most fantastic enterprises will be admitted to China on a favored basis, since those dominate the premium formats specified in the trade deal.

Of about three dozen 3-D films scheduled for release by American studios in the next year, almost all are animated whimsy, like “Dr. Seuss’ the Lorax,” from Universal Pictures; superhero fantasies, like “The Amazing Spider-Man,” from Sony Pictures; horror, like “The Cabin in the Woods,” from Lionsgate; or science fiction, like “Prometheus,” from 20th Century Fox.

A “Titanic” re-issue in 3-D from Paramount Pictures, and a 3-D version of “The Great Gatsby,” from Warner Brothers, are among a handful of films that might be favored under the new rule, while bridging any cultural divide between West and East with reality-based stories.

If Universal’s new version of “Les Misérables” appears next December in 3-D or Imax, it can presumably seek to take advantage of the expanded quota as well. Mr. Dodd speculated that the agreement might prod some studios to reformat existing films in 3-D versions, or to develop a broader range of 3-D and large-screen fare.

The agreement — struck partly through personal diplomacy between two vice presidents, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Xi Jinping — also increased a foreign studio’s permitted share of box-office receipts from a film released in China to 25 percent, from 13 percent. The deal promises a significant increase in revenue from a growing Chinese movie market that had $2.1 billion in ticket sales last year, and is expected to reach $5 billion by 2015.

Speaking this month about a new China-based film fund that expects to invest at least $800 million in both Chinese film distribution and in Western-led productions, Bruno Wu, one of its partners, pointed to “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” — a fanciful action thriller — as the kind of import that would have a future in China.

“We’re primarily going to be working with the tent-pole side of the business,” Mr. Wu said in an interview.

The Independent Film and Television Alliance, which represents independent filmmakers, said the agreement included provisions that would help independent movies, with their often-grittier fare, get a share of the Chinese market. Mr. Dodd said he believed nonstudio films attracted nearly $100 million in China last year.

While allowing new rights to audit film revenue and consult on marketing campaigns, the independent film alliance noted, the deal also bars any attempt by a Chinese partner to declare rejection by state censors a material breach of a distribution agreement.

Instead, the alliance said, a film studio and Chinese state-owned enterprises will be required to “work together when these situations arise.”

And arise they may, even with the 3-D blockbusters newly permitted by the deal.

A film as fanciful as “Mission: Impossible III,” after all, required some editing for the Chinese market: unflattering scenes that showed laundry hanging in Shanghai had to be cut for its 2006 release there.

The next “Les Misérables”? We’ll see.

A new agreement widening access in China to films from around the world, announced by negotiators for China and the United States late on Friday, brings with it a message about what the next wave of movie exports will look like: They will be large, in 3-D and mostly unrelated to the real world.

In an interview on Sunday, Christopher J. Dodd, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the focus on premium-format films reflected a bit of diplomacy that allowed the Chinese to add 14 films in a special category, without formally abandoning their existing quota of 20.

“To use their words, it was too politically sensitive for them to break that 20-film quota,” said Mr. Dodd. The new system, he said, is subject to review in five years, and it is still possible that American studios and officials will press for more access in the interim.

The agreement carries a proviso that the special-category films be available in premium 3-D or large-screen Imax formats, even if they are accompanied by conventional 2-D versions.

To some extent, the format requirement simply corresponds to realities in the Chinese market. Rapid growth in the number of screens — from about 6,200 last year to a projected 16,000 three years from now — has been accompanied by a major expansion in both 3-D and Imax theaters, with an audience response to match.

“Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” which had an Imax version, and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” in both Imax and 3-D, were blockbusters in China. “Avatar,” another 3-D extravaganza, played 24 hours a day in some Chinese theaters.

But the agreement effectively guarantees, at least for the foreseeable future, that only Hollywood’s most fantastic enterprises will be admitted to China on a favored basis, since those dominate the premium formats specified in the trade deal.

Of about three dozen 3-D films scheduled for release by American studios in the next year, almost all are animated whimsy, like “Dr. Seuss’ the Lorax,” from Universal Pictures; superhero fantasies, like “The Amazing Spider-Man,” from Sony Pictures; horror, like “The Cabin in the Woods,” from Lionsgate; or science fiction, like “Prometheus,” from 20th Century Fox.

A “Titanic” re-issue in 3-D from Paramount Pictures, and a 3-D version of “The Great Gatsby,” from Warner Brothers, are among a handful of films that might be favored under the new rule, while bridging any cultural divide between West and East with reality-based stories.

If Universal’s new version of “Les Misérables” appears next December in 3-D or Imax, it can presumably seek to take advantage of the expanded quota as well. Mr. Dodd speculated that the agreement might prod some studios to reformat existing films in 3-D versions, or to develop a broader range of 3-D and large-screen fare.

The agreement — struck partly through personal diplomacy between two vice presidents, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Xi Jinping — also increased a foreign studio’s permitted share of box-office receipts from a film released in China to 25 percent, from 13 percent. The deal promises a significant increase in revenue from a growing Chinese movie market that had $2.1 billion in ticket sales last year, and is expected to reach $5 billion by 2015.

Speaking this month about a new China-based film fund that expects to invest at least $800 million in both Chinese film distribution and in Western-led productions, Bruno Wu, one of its partners, pointed to “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” — a fanciful action thriller — as the kind of import that would have a future in China.

“We’re primarily going to be working with the tent-pole side of the business,” Mr. Wu said in an interview.

The Independent Film and Television Alliance, which represents independent filmmakers, said the agreement included provisions that would help independent movies, with their often-grittier fare, get a share of the Chinese market. Mr. Dodd said he believed nonstudio films attracted nearly $100 million in China last year.

While allowing new rights to audit film revenue and consult on marketing campaigns, the independent film alliance noted, the deal also bars any attempt by a Chinese partner to declare rejection by state censors a material breach of a distribution agreement.

Instead, the alliance said, a film studio and Chinese state-owned enterprises will be required to “work together when these situations arise.”

And arise they may, even with the 3-D blockbusters newly permitted by the deal.

A film as fanciful as “Mission: Impossible III,” after all, required some editing for the Chinese market: unflattering scenes that showed laundry hanging in Shanghai had to be cut for its 2006 release there.

East billowing Yangtze River water, spray hero. Since IMAX blockbuster Avatar official release since, have in the past two years, in this two years, 2010, Transformers 3 and many other tracts on IMAX billow spring tide and come, for people to bring a new viewing experience.

suddenly one day we found, not only the film can be called IMAX, so a more cover and contain everything IMAX lifestyle emerge as the times require: kind, true, full of sense of history, like the October 14th will begin to measure of savage will present you.

since the savage first published news when, like wild the game player who has been on the original ethical network swims to give high attention. As the future to measure version of the open, game player will once again travel to five thousand years ago in ancient Chinese mainland, launched unprecedented adventure trip, numerous subversive characteristics, level 70 upper Madden, new system, new ways, new maps, new equipment, can make game player once again enjoy the best quality IMAX for great fun!

after the development teams tireless modification, compared to before the first beta, letter to continue testing version of the game player will have more opportunity to display their personality, new weapons, new mounts can better show your out of the ordinary; new maps, copies of the open and clan system, will become your strength the witness; not the same occupation collocation, more perfect new tasks and the epic story, as well as the magic weapon system great changes, will also make your game process from a more rich and colorful.

although the official has not yet announced the IMAX system through official channels to join, but from various channels to obtain information, the to measure will join the IMAX mode can be said is thats final., as many game player attention 3D glasses access issues, I think the official will provide us thoughtful.

welcome to visit the savage website: http://mh.woyou.net /

Slider by webdesign