Boxoffice-July.1997

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s INTERNATIONAL NEWS BRIEFS PACIFIC OVERTURES NOTES FROM THE PACIFIC RIM by Susan Lambert LEAD STORY: FUNDING AND OTHER (NARROWLY AVOIDED) CATASTROPHES SYDNEY—^The Australian film industr)' breathed a collective sigh of relief when the new federal budget was unveiled in May and. despite rumors of impending cuts, the funding for film held strong. The budget for the 1997-1998 fiscal year allocates AU$1 15 million (S89.7 million) for the film and television production industry which is under current subsidy levels of AUS 1 40 million (US$109 million), but the majority of the cuts affect television and not film subsidies. Concern over potential budget cuts was so high that the Australian film industry was fighting back well before the budget was due. A group of Australia's key industry leaders and top talent wrote a letter to Prime Mmister John Howard in April to lobby in support of funding for the film industry. Signatories to the letter included notable actors, actresses, producers and directors as well as representatives from the directors, writers, editors, composers and cinematography guilds. Then a delegation, which included director Gillian Armstrong, actress Judy Davis and producer Jan Chapman, among others, met with Sen. Richard Alston, federal arts minister, to lobby for support of the industry. The lobbying seemed to do its job. Australia's main funding agency. Film Finance Corp., will maintain a budget of AU$48 million (US$37.4 million) until 2001 . Outgoing FFC chief executive John Morris was pleased with the stability four years of committed funding would bring. The Australian Film Commission will receive AU$1 1.5 million and Film Australia, a documentary producer, will receive a guaranteed AU$5 million per year until 1999. when the government hopes to privatize the organization. Meanwhile, exhibition in the land down under is also holding strong. Village Roadshow upgraded its popular Frankston, Victoria fourplex to an eight-screen theatre for a cost of AU$6 million (US$4.7 million). Competitor Hoyts Cinemas opened an eight-screen complex in Booragoon, near Perth, on June 17. and announced a 12-screen (to be expanded to 16 screens) build in Wettierill Park (the western district of Sydney), which Hoyts expects to open in July of 1998. <strong>Boxoffice</strong> revenues seem to be on the rise, at least in China's two largest markets: Shanghai reported $31 million in boxoffice revenues last year, and Beijing reported receipts totalling $14 million. And the domestic film industry has received a great shot in the arm with the success of "Days Without the Hero," a drama about a martyred soldier, which earned record boxoffice (4.4 million yuan/ US$530,000) for a domestic fihn. Meanwhile, Shanghai-based consortium Smile—a partnership with local Chinese investors, Kuala Lumpur-based South Malaysian Industries and UCI—opened its first mulitplex in Chuongquing. The five-screen, 1,218-seat, stateof-the-art complex premiered with "Dante's Peak" and features a Showscan Dynamic Motion Simulator. And this month, the venture expects to open a six-screen, 1,500 seat cinema in Wuhan. Next up will be the refurbishing of a Huxi entertainment center in Shanghai. MOVIES R US TOKYO—Businessman Den Fujita (chairman of toy retailer Toys R Us Japan) has teamed up with United Cinemas International (UCI—the Paramount/Universal international joint venture) in a partnership to develop and operate multiplex theatres in Japan. The first project is scheduled to open next February in Sapporo, Japan' northernmost major city. The 12-screen, 2,987-seat Sapporo Factory Cinema will be built around an existing screen that was part of an IMAX theatre. UCI and Fujita (who also holds a 50 percent stake in Blockbuster Japan's video store chain and 2,()00 Japanese McDonald's franchises) are reportedly each investing $2 billion yen ($16.7 million). The Fujita/UCI venture hopes to develop 20 multiplexes with 200 screens in Japan over the next five years. Separate from the Fujita deal, UCI (one of four foreign multiplex companies operating in Japan) has plans to open a 2,456-seat nine-plex in Kanazawa in September. They have had record attendance at Otsu in western Japan where they opened a multiplex last November. The boom of multiplex building in Japan is expected to boost the number of screens from approximately 1 ,800 to well over 2,000 by the year 2000. CHINA MOVING INTO MODERN AGE SHANGHAI—Jiangsu-based Yangtze Film Co. recently acquired rights for computer ticketing software from film importer China Film for 300,000 yuan (US$37,500). The move ushers theatres in China's Jiangsu province into the modem-day. The system will be installed in 50 theatres by the end of this month, with plans for 100 theatres to be outfitted by the end of 1997. The ticketing software will enable moviegoers to purchase tickets for shows at any of the networked theatres and allow accurate and timely boxoffice revenue figures—which is often difficult to come by in China where underreporting to avoid taxation is rampant. HARLEY'S HIGH HOPES FOR NEW ZEALAND FILM WELLINGTON—Ruth Hariey, the new CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission, says New Zealand, which produced such filmmakers as Jane Campion ("The Piano"), Peter Jackson ("Heavenly Creatures") and Lee Tamahori ("Once Were Warriors"), should try to increase its film output to six titles per year with help from foreign investments of both money and market endorsements. The local film industry currently gets about US$6 million annually in public funding, which is divided up between usually three to four features. Since the breakaway successes of the early '90s, few New Zealand films have followed the critical and commercial results of "The Piano," Heavenly Creatures" and "Once Were Warriors." Hariey, who was appointed to head New Zealand's chief funding agency in April, hopes that their two new films at Cannes can help turn that around: "The Ugly," a thriller about a serial killer by Scott Reynolds who just completed a second New Zealand feature, "Heaven" (Miramax is distributing in the United States), and a twisted twentysomthing comedy, "Topless Women Talk About Their Lives," by Harry Sinclair. What can also help the local filmmakers is the good news that New Zealand boxoffice is on the rise. For the first quarter of '97 (ending April 30), boxoffice results are reported at NZ$38.7 million (US$26.7 million) which is a 31 percent increase over the same period from last year. 1996 first quarter results were NZ$29.5 million (US$20 million). DO YOU HAVE AN EXHIBITION-RELATED NEWS ITEM ABOUT THE ASIA-PACIFIC MARKET? E-MAIL SUSAN LAMBERT IN CARE OF boxoffice@earthlink.net July, 1997 111
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