Fandango today announced a new relationship with HBO Home Entertainment to make HBO’s award winning content available for purchase via digital download on FandangoNow. Individual episodes and seasons of HBO content will join FandangoNow’s robust collection of 40,000 new release and catalog movies and TV shows.
Karol Martesko-Fenster and Evan Saxon have joined the executive team of Abramorama as executive vice president and COO, and West Coast head of acquisitions and business development respectively. Company founder Richard Abramowitz made the announcement.
Laika’s acclaimed animated film Kubo and the Two Strings is being released in China today by Infotainment China Media, a leading movie acquisition company. This is the first time a Laika film will be presented to the massive Chinese audience and marks a remarkable achievement in the evolution of the 10-year-old Portland-Oregon based animation studio
Laika has signed a distribution deal with Gaga Corporation to release its latest film Kubo and the Two Strings in Japan sometime this year. The exact dates have not been announced. Gaga also distributed Laika’s first feature film, Coraline (2009).
The Film Arcade and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment have entered into a multi-year home entertainment distribution agreement in which Universal will handle all marketing, sales and distribution services for Blu-ray, DVD, electronic sell-through, video-on-demand and television of The Film Arcade films in the U.S. and Canada.
Film Mode Entertainment has acquired The Axe Murders of Villisca, a psychological thriller feature from Alpine Labs and director Tony E. Valenzuela.
Qube Cinema has introduced Qube Wire, an online digital cinema distribution service designed to eliminate the process of physical digital cinema package transportation. Targeted at the international filmmaking community, Qube Wire offers users a secure, patent-pending service to issue key delivery messages and digitally transport DCPs to theatres globally, having completed a highly successful beta-testing phase in India this year. Now in its initial launch, the service offers a simple and secure online way of issuing KDMs to cinemas worldwide. This will be followed by a commercial launch in early 2017 that will enable the global distribution of DCPs with a unique approach to last-mile delivery.
In one of the biggest deals in the emerging digital cinema business, the Ymagis Group has acquired Eutelsat’s 50.2 percent stake in DSAT Cinema and now, effectively, controls the company.
The Orchard has acquired rights to Hunter Gatherer, the debut film from filmmaker Josh Locy. Rough House Pictures will release the film in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on November 16 with a theatrical rollout to follow. The Orchard will release the film via digital platforms in early 2017.
Funimation Films has acquired the highly anticipated Japanese animated film One Piece Film: Gold from Toei Animation. The film, from Eiichiro Oda, original creator and executive producer of the One Piece anime series, is the 13th film in the franchise and the first since 2012.
