Europe’s International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), comprised of the major exhibitor trade organizations across Europe, held its first European Cinema Summit (ECS) trade show in Belgium mid-June, one week prior to Cinema Expo. It was a reasonable success. In terms of organization, it was a significant departure from the ShoWest/Cinema Expo style of trade show. With few Americans participating, it was very much a European show. It would be a stronger show, however if UNIC was a stronger organization. At present, UNIC remains without a permanent office, and without a lobby presence in the EU.
UK Film Council announced a pilot program to finance 20 digital cinema screens in rural areas by means of UK National Lottery money. The pilot will run for 3 years, at which time additional and similar rollouts may be considered.
Disney’s latest quarterly results indicate that consumer spending on media is still down. Disney announced a 12% drop in revenues over the prior year in its studio entertainment division. But movies are doing better than games, with Disney’s interactive unit losing 20% over the prior year. But Disney fared better than most. Overall, video game sales for the industry dropped 29% year over year.
In-Three, the industry’s leading 2-D to 3-D conversion company, scored a hit with its first major release in Disney’s G-Force. G-Force uses a combination of CGI animation with live action footage. All live action shots were captured in 2-D, and converted in post to match the depth of the CGI overlays.
XDC announced the signing of 200 new screens with Zon Lusomundo of Portugal.
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