ITV

Tag: Avengers: Age of Ultron

  • Prime Focus & Double Negative ready new VFX facility in Mumbai

    Prime Focus & Double Negative ready new VFX facility in Mumbai

    mumbai: Prime Focus World (PFW), the creative services division of Prime Focus Limited, and VFX house Double Negative (Dneg) have entered the next phase of expansion plans with the building of a new VFX facility in Mumbai.

     

    Located in Mumbai’s Film City, the new studio will be built to the same exacting standards as Dneg’s facilities in London, Vancouver and Singapore, with particular emphasis on providing one of the best working environment for artists.

     

    Dneg’s technical infrastructure, tools and pipeline will be rolled out to the new facility as part of the build, mirroring Dneg’s other international locations.

     

    Recruitment roadshows are being planned throughout India and key international locations to attract the best VFX talent across all levels of experience to work exclusively on Dneg VFX projects. 

     

    Movies already slated for work in Mumbai include The Huntsman for Universal starring Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt, and Inferno, Ron Howard’s latest movie based on the Dan Brown novel, amongst others.

     

    The new VFX facility will also offer rigorous training programmes for staff with the intention of creating Asia’s leading ‘VFX Campus,’ complete with specifically-built classrooms and training areas, and offering Dneg’s training programmes.

     

    “Prime Focus is the undisputed industry leader in India and knows the market, the culture and the landscape better than any other company. This collaboration plays to the strengths of both companies, the intention being to create a world-class VFX facility that can proudly sit alongside the rest of Dneg’s global network,” said Double Negative CEO Matt Holben.

     

    “This is another great step forward for Prime Focus World and Double Negative, Prime Focus is committed to supporting Dneg in achieving its vision of becoming a truly global company in the high-end film industry, and this new state-of-the-art facility will help them to remain creative and competitive across all of their locations, and to continue producing award-winning visual effects work that is second-to-none,” added Prime Focus founder, executive chairman and global CEO Namit Malhotra. 

     

    Dneg and PFW have recently collaborated on a number of shows, providing VFX and stereo conversion services on projects such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Terminator: Genisys and Ant-Man. Upcoming projects include Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Insurgent, Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, Tarzan, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Spectre.

  • Disney pacts with China’s Youku Tudou to market Marvel films online

    Disney pacts with China’s Youku Tudou to market Marvel films online

    MUMBAI: Disney and China’s online video platform Youku Tudou have partnered, wherein the latter will be the exclusive online movie marketing platform in China for Marvel collection of movies and TV series.

     

    Youku Tudou will drive online marketing through promotion of trailers, online ticketing, live events and original programming dedicated to silver screen movies.

     

    Youku Tudou’s strength as the leading online movie marketing platform in China comes from its market position. Leveraging its 500 million unique monthly users across screens, marketing efforts are able to disseminate across Youku Tudou’s media and entertainment ecosystem resulting in greater audience impact than traditional offline movie advertising.

     

    Disney and Marvel titles resonate with Youku Tudou’s audience with over 530 million cumulative views of titles across movies, television series, trailers, Youku Tudou original productions, and live-streaming.

     

    Online marketing efforts contributed to boosting the box office revenue of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy and in the case of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, to almost 800 million, compared to 80 million RMB of the previous installment of the franchise in China. The trailers and Youku Original productions for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy have over 41 million cumulative views with over 15.8 million combined movie VOD views on the Youku Tudou platform. The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailers and Youku Original productions have received over 25.7 million cumulative views with the movie currently in theaters.

     

    “We are committed to expanding our media and entertainment ecosystem by working with strong partners. These partnerships, like the one with Disney, are multifold and give Youku Tudou the opportunity to use its strengths to further its business model and drive future revenue streams through high-quality content, innovative marketing efforts, and merchandising channels,” said Youku Tudou chairman and CEO Victor Koo.

  • Alibaba’s Tmall.com partners Disney to distribute movie merchandise

    Alibaba’s Tmall.com partners Disney to distribute movie merchandise

    MUMBAI: China’s third-party B2C platform for brands and retailers Tmall.com, which is a part of the Alibaba Group, has teamed up with The Walt Disney Company as the first exclusive distributor of their Marvel Studio’s 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron merchandise.

     

    This is the first time Alibaba Group has opened up its resources in connecting brands and filmmakers to establish a convenient model in developing a movie-related merchandise market made available online for movie fans.

     

    By leveraging Alibaba Group’s strong foundation of merchants and user base, Tmall.com partners with Taobao ticketing platform to collaborate with more than 40 premium brands including Audi, Lego, Ecovacs, Hasbro, Li Ning, etc., to bring a selection of genuine Avengers: Age of Ultron merchandise to Chinese consumers as the movie opens yesterday in cinemas across China. These superhero themed merchandise are available on Disney’s flagship store on Tmall.com.

     

    “We are pleased to be working with Disney and brands on Tmall to bring genuine movie merchandise to our online consumers. This marks another effort into further enhancing the collaboration between the participants within our platforms and to also fully utilize the resources we have across Alibaba,” said Tmall.com director of co-marketing Sherry Lang.

     

    For the first time, Alibaba Group worked with Taobao ticketing platform and Tmall.com to establish a convenient connection between filmmakers and authorized intellectual property merchants on the website.

     

    Avengers: Age of Ultron sequel topped US box office for the second weekend in a row with an estimated $77.2 million according to Rentrak as of 10 May, 2015. The movie opened in theatres in China yesterday.

     

    Merchandise ranging from superhero themed t-shirts, gold pendants, cleaning robots, and special designed cars are available on Tmall.com.

  • ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ nets Rs 46 crore in five days

    ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ nets Rs 46 crore in five days

    MUMBAI: Marvel’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron has already created box office records across the globe with stupendous collections.

     

    In India, the movie has seen collections of Rs 46 cores in its first five days’ run at the box office.

     

    Trade sources claim that the film amassed approximately a Friday opening of Rs 10.98 crore coming after unprecedented advance openings and theater bookings. Saturday’s figures were pegged at Rs 11.85 crore net, whereas Sunday’s collections stood at Rs  13.17 crore taking the total three-day collection to Rs 35.74 crore.

     

    The movie’s weekday collections have also been rock steady with a trade figure of Rs 5.4 crore on Monday and Rs 4.6 crore on Tuesday.

     

    Avengers: Age Of Ultron saw a limited release of 1500 screens across India, lesser than Fast and Furious 7, which had 2500 screens.

  • ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ nets Rs 36 crore in opening weekend

    ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ nets Rs 36 crore in opening weekend

    MUMBAI: Marvel’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron is on its path to break box office records with a record-breaking three day opening collections.

     

    Trade and industry expert sources claim that the film, which opened to glowing critical reviews, amassed approximately a Friday opening of Rs 10.98 crores coming after unprecedented advance openings and theater bookings.

     

    Saturday’s figures were pegged at Rs11.85 crores net, and adding to the grand tally was Sunday’s collection of Rs 12.91 crores taking the total three day collections to Rs 35.74 crores.

     

    Trade experts peg this as the highest three-day Hollywood film box office collection till date in India and is almost three times bigger than 2012’s Avengers.

     

    Avengers: Age Of Ultron’s box office performance was despite it being a non-holiday weekend. The movie saw a limited release on 1500 screens across India, which is lesser than Fast and Furious 7 that released across 2500 screens.

  • Star World unleashes marketing blitzkrieg for ‘Weekend Binge’

    Star World unleashes marketing blitzkrieg for ‘Weekend Binge’

    MUMBAI: Star World is all set to launch its new Weekend Binge slot from 25 April.

     

    Weekend Binge is a property, which is designed to bring a new TV viewing experience to Indian viewers. To take this innovation to the next level, Star World has created an integrated marketing campaign with the channel’s first-ever mascot – Binge Baba, to add fun and excitement to the campaign.

     

    Keeping in mind the growing need for uninterrupted entertainment, Star World Weekend Binge will give viewers a chance to watch all seasons of television’s popular series at one go, thereby showcasing more than 1200 hours of shows and premiering more than 30 shows across 52 weekends for its viewers.

    The Binge line-up includes popular shows like How to Get Away with Murder, Homeland, 2 Broke Girls, Modern Family, Two and a Half Men and Agents of Shield, among several others.

     

    The mascot Binge Baba is positioned as the epitome of an indulgent lifestyle. Star World has conceived Binge Baba to drive home the maxim of the property – it is for those who can’t have enough and want more, in this case, the complete story of a show at one go. As the brand’s voice, Binge Baba will spread the message of ‘indulgence is good’ every weekend. The channel is leading all marketing efforts for the property through Binge Baba.

     

    With the support of various engagement activities for this flagship property, multi-dimensional efforts have been initiated across cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Apart from leveraging the network strength to drive visibility for this innovation, the channel is also undertaking a cinema campaign across 120+ screens in its core markets to capitalize on the buzz around Avengers: Age of Ultron. Star World will not only run promos during the screening of the movie but will also be using branding opportunities to build visibility.

     

    The new initiative will also be promoted in upscale shopping malls across metros and at major domestic airports. In addition to this, to gain further visibility in Bangalore, the channel is also launching an outdoor campaign. Star World will also be taking the digital route with a powerful reach campaign that is being rolled out to target core consumers. 

     

    To mark the launch of this innovative property Star World is also rolling out an office contact program with focus on trade in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore by giving key offices and their employees a chance to binge on their favorite ice creams as they get ready to binge watch the biggest international shows on the channel starting 25 April from 12 pm.

     

    A Star spokesperson said, “Star World Weekend Binge will mark a new beginning and set a new trend for consuming content in India and to support this innovative initiative, we have ensured that no stones are left unturned with the marketing of this property. Our objective was to create a differentiated marketing campaign and developing a mascot like Binge Baba is a step in that direction. The character has already gained popularity amongst our core target audiences on digital and we are very excited with the positive response and sentiments that are being built for this weekend innovation of ours.”

  • Mark Ruffalo to visit MAMI this year

    Mark Ruffalo to visit MAMI this year

    MUMBAI: Avengers: Age of Ultron star Mark Ruffalo, who plays Hulk in the movie, is likely to be a part of the Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) this year.

    Ruffalo said, “I received an invitation a couple of days ago and am figuring out the dates. I’m really excited about the festival. I have heard a lot about Bollywood and it’d be great if I could visit Mumbai.”

     

    Ruffalo will reprise his role of The Hulk and he was excited to be on set with his fellow Avengers actors and experience again the camaraderie that had formed among all of them. “We all as actors went on this journey together, through this wild thing that became The Avengersand this successful thing and then everyone going off and having all these other successes that spun out of it, and there’s a lot of goodwill between us. So coming back after being away and seeing each other was a very sweet reunion and working together was a lot of fun. There’s a lot of goofing around and a lot of playfulness and digging in when it’s time to dig in on it, so I think that some of the best, most exciting stuff is when they are all together,” he said.

     

    Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Ruffalo as Hulk and Chris Evans as Captain America. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Stellan Skarsg?rd as Erik Selvig and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.

     

    Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige,Avengers: Age of Ultron is based on the Marvel comic book series The Avengers, first published in 1963. The movie is set to release on 24 April, 2015.

  • Prime Focus raises Rs 240 crore; completes RMW transaction

    Prime Focus raises Rs 240 crore; completes RMW transaction

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus has raised Rs 240 crore by way of issue of equity shares worth Rs 120 crore each to Monsoon Studio Private and Reliance MediaWorks (RMW), at Rs 52 per share, on percent basis.

     

    As part of the transaction, the India and overseas operations of RMW’s film and media services business was combined with Prime Focus through a slump sale. The net consideration was paid in the form of fresh equity shares of PFL valued at Rs 52 per share.

     

    With this, Prime Focus has completed the transaction to combine with RMW’s global film and media services business. The transaction was first announced in July 2014 and received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on 15 December, 2014.

     

    The promoters of PFL and RMW had earlier announced the mandatory open offer in Prime Focus, to the extent of 26 per cent of the fully diluted share capital of PFL, at Rs 52 per share, in compliance with applicable SEBI rules and regulations. The open offer closed on 16 January, 2015.

     

    The tryst with RMW was announced close on the heels of Prime Focus’ Hollywood facing creative services subsidiary Prime Focus World merging its VFX business with acclaimed VFX house Double Negative. The combination of RMW – PFL and Academy Award winning Double Negative creates the world’s largest and the most integrated media services group with over 5500 people present across 20 locations offering visual effects, stereo 3D conversion, animation, and cloud-based digital media solutions that transcend the film, advertising and television industries.

     

    Prime Focus and Double Negative are currently working on a action-packed slate of upcoming movies, including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Terminator: Genisys, Ant-Man, Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, Mission Impossible 5, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Recently delivered shows include Kingsman: The Secret Service, Ex Machina, Jupiter Ascending, Seventh Son and In The Heart Of The Sea.

     

    “We have completed the last leg of a protracted but path breaking transaction today. From here on our full focus will be to drive the integration process and unlock synergies for the benefit of our customers, employees and stakeholders worldwide. Today we are best positioned to offer outstanding creativity, cutting edge technology, integrated Digital Media Services, never before scale, financial robustness and sustainability,” said Prime Focus founder, executive chairman and global CEO Namit Malhotra. 

     

  • Robert Downey Jr. urges ‘Avengers’ fans to donate for kids with terminal diseases

    Robert Downey Jr. urges ‘Avengers’ fans to donate for kids with terminal diseases

    NEW DELHI: Ironman Robert Downey Jr has appealed to his fans to attend the world premiere of Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, to help his charity, which helps children suffering from terminal diseases. 

     

    His post on his Facebook page is imploring fans to donate for such children with a charity event that is supporting Julia’s House, a hospice that provides care and support for life-limited children and their families.

     

    Downey Jr reached out to his fans on social media saying, “Hi folks, here’s the skinny: we’ve raised $1.3 MILLION for kids with terminal diseases. That’s incredible, but I think we can do better. Our goal is to reach $2M to help build a brand spanking new wing for Julia’s House. There’s just one week left to enter to win the chance to go to the premiere of Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron with me. Click the pic and assemble!”

     

    Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige, Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron is based on Marvel comic book seriesThe Avengers, first published in 1963. The movie is set for release on 24 April.

     

    Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Downey Jr. along with Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsg?rd, Samuel L. Jackson, James Spader, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany.

  • Scarlett Johansson to star in DreamWorks’ ‘Ghost in the Shell’

    Scarlett Johansson to star in DreamWorks’ ‘Ghost in the Shell’

    MUMBAI: Scarlett Johansson has been signed on to star in DreamWorks’ upcoming venture, Ghost in the Shell.

     

    The actress, who received accolades for her action lead in Lucy, will feature in the anime-based, live-action thriller directed by Rupert Sanders and written by Bill Wheeler.

     

    Produced by Ari Arad and Steven Paul, Ghost in the Shell is based on the Japanese comic book of the same name. The plot is about the exploits of a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.

     

    Former DreamWorks executive Mark Sourian, will executive produce the movie, for which Johansson had reportedly, received an offer of US $10 million.

     

    Johansson’s upcoming film includes Avengers: Age of Ultron where she plays the Black Widow.