Archive for May 9th, 2008

Women shape the focus in Nintendo North America’s latest campaign for Wii Fit, the fitness game scheduled to hit streets on May 19. Events, marketing and advertising will support the release. A microsite, wiifit.com, is filled with sample videos, interactive demos, and instructional downloads on how the game works, says Eric Walter, public relations manager for Nintendo North America. “Right now, we’re really focusing on women,” he says. “The game is both for men and woman, but we think it will really appeal to working moms.”

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LONDON — Cinema admissions in the European Union fell by 1.3% last year to 919 million, with the market share of American movies dropping to 62.7%, the second-lowest figure in the past five years.The latest figures from the European Audiovisual Observatory also reveal that production of films across the 27 EU states nudged upwards, with 921 pics made in 2007, 10 more than the previous year.

In the major markets, the biggest growth in ticket sales occurred in Italy (up 13%) and the U.K. (up 3.7%). But Spain fell by 3.9%, France dropped by 5.9% and Germany was down by 8.2%.

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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Broadcast TV networks’ upfront advertising sales will be down this year, posting a drop of between 2% and 14%, a leading Wall Street analyst said.

A “material decline is probable given ratings declines, the disruption in the development cycle due to the recent writers’ strike and economic woes,” Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch said in a report published yesterday.

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The emerging pop star Santogold’s mix of what Rolling Stone described as “electronic beats with punk guitars and New Wave synths” took the recent South by Southwest music festival by storm. Now Anheuser-Busch is hoping that sound can sell some beer, too. A-B is featuring Santogold’s music in creative for Bud Light Lime, the light beer’s first brand extension, which is targeting drinkers who would otherwise be knocking back Corona, Miller Chill or cocktails. The brewer is also giving away free downloads of a remixed Santogold track on its website.

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LONDON — ITV has been fined an eye-watering £5.675 million ($11.06 million) — nearly three times the previous record fine imposed on a British TV station — for repeatedly ripping off audiences in TV phone-in competitions.

The size of the penalty imposed by U.K. regulator Ofcom reflects the seriousness of ITV’s failure to run phone-contests responsibly and the repeated nature of the misconduct, which saw millions of viewers routinely defrauded in competitions staged by high-profile shows like “Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway” and “Soapstar Superstar.”
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MADRID — Spain has a new major mainstream indie distribution house: Wide Pictures, headed by distribution vet Luis de Val, former head of Manga Films.

With a E20 million ($31.9 million) initial investment tranche, Wide has tied down all rights for Spain to 25, usually star-driven U.S. titles.

Highlights on its first release slate include Russell Crowe Western “3:10 to Yuma,” Berlin-screener “Fireflies in the Garden,” with Julia Roberts, Richard Gere vehicle “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story” and “Swing Vote,” toplining Kevin Costner.

The slate also has movies with Spanish stars, such as the Will Smith-produced Paz Vega relationship drama “The Human Contract,” and the Richard Eyre-helmed “The Other Man,” which teams Antonio Banderas with Liam Neeson.

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BERLIN — Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers are becoming regular clients of Germany’s Federal Film Fund, which has agreed to bankroll their latest production, “Ninja Assassin,” to the tune of E5.8 million ($9 million).The James McTeigue helmed actioner is currently shooting at Studio Babelsberg near Berlin.

Continuing its support for a growing slate of domestic and international productions, the $92 million-a-year government sponsored vehicle, which launched last year, has so far put up $31.7 million for 26 productions that are shooting or being produced in Germany this year.

Other productions benefiting from the fund include Stephen Daldry’s Kate Winslet starrer “The Reader,” which received $5.7 million; Julie Delpy’s period drama “The Countess,” which got $1.3 million; and “Desert Flower,” Sherry Hormann’s biopic of fashion model and human rights activist Waris Dirie, with $1.9 million.

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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — 2008 is going to be a rough year for Gwyneth Paltrow haters. First the actress lightened up her prissy image with her action-movie debut last week alongside Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man.” Now the woman who notoriously branded herself as a macrobiotic food snob has expanded her diet to include eel, cheese and even — gasp! — fried churros, all to be chronicled in “On the Road Again … Spain,” a new docu-series making its debut in September on PBS.
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The Ad Council and ESPN are joining forces to motivate men to take their health into their own hands.

The sports network and the advertising nonprofit will launch a series of PSAs designed to raise awareness about the importance of preventive medical testing for middle-aged men.

The ads are founded in concepts created for the campaign by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They will debut this week on ESPN media across television, radio, print and the Web.

The PSAs are a pro bono initiative focusing on life-threatening illnesses and conditions including heart disease, cancer and chronic respiratory disease. They feature ESPN anchors Mike Golic, Mike Greenberg, Tony Reali, Woody Paige, Jim Rome and Stuart Scott, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2007.

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HONG KONG – Indian group Adlabs Films has bought Lotus Five Star Cinemas, Malaysia’s third largest cinemas chain.

Adlabs said that it had acquired a majority and controlling stake in the firm, but other deal terms were not disclosed.

Lotus operates 51 screens across the country and Adlabs said “the chain will have a footprint across Malaysia and will be playing mainstream Hollywood films as well as Chinese and Malay, in addition to movies in Indian languages such as Hindi and Tamil,” Anil Arjun, Senior Vice President – Reliance ADAG, said.

Adlabs, a stock market listed subsidiary of privately controlled Reliance Entertainment and the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is rapidly building multiplexes to expand its 160 screen circuit within India and acquiring hardtop assets abroad. In March it announced that it had established a 220 screen circuit in the U.S. It also has cinemas in Mauritius and Nepal.

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