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April 28 - May 4

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Ghosted, which premiered on April 21, had 328,500 viewers in its first two days.It’s suggested that those numbers continued to climb as the film headed into its first full week of release...

Senior audiences have been absent from cinemas because there haven’t been films for them to see and not because of the pandemic, said Jane Hastings, MD and CEO of Australian exhibitor EVT. “Our seniors audience simply hasn’t had the films to see and that’s why they’re not coming,” said Hastings, adding: “They’re a regular audience. From our research it’s not Covid behaviour; it’s that there haven’t been films for them to see. “There’s not been a return of customers,” Hastings elaborated, “there’s been a return of films. The customers have always been there.” She added that family crowds too have been underserved, which is why many parents took their children to see global smash The Super Mario Bros. Movie twice during the recent school break...

Toho, Japan’s leading film studio, has launched a subsidiary to provide production services for the growing number of international productions filming in the country. Toho Tombo Pictures has been established as a joint venture with Tokyo-based producer Georgina Pope, one of Japan’s most experienced and well-known bilingual. Interest in filming in Japan has skyrocketed over the past decade, drawn by its iconic locations and highly skilled crew. However, while there are incentives from regional film commissions, Japan does not offer a national incentive programme like many of its neighbouring countries in Asia...

AromaRama debuted just before the 1960 premiere of the only film to feature the original version of Smell-O-Vision. Both of these systems were meant to provide aromas for viewers that would allow them to tap into whatever the on-screen characters were smelling. They didn’t last long and have only reappeared in other forms as gimmicks for intentionally ridiculous movies, like the John Waters feature Polyester. AromaRama and Smell-O-Vision were plagued by a problem that hurts all movie theater fads: they’re “solutions” to problems nobody has. There has never been a single soul in the world that remarks “I wish I could smell this scene” when they’re watching The Godfather or Do the Right Thing. It’s just not a thought process that crosses people’s minds. Even movies like Ratatouille which are packed with delectable and lovely-smelling food aren’t going to inspire wishes for odors to get blasted into theatrical screenings of that Brad Bird directorial effort. Part of the fun of movies like Ratatouille is that the images are so evocative that they can conjure up thoughts of aromas in your mind. It’s so much more fun to have that personalized experience of what you think a film’s world must smell like. No soul that would prefer something like Smell-O-Vision to reveal all the funky odors intrusively and definitively from a fictional realm. These technologies pioneered a pattern of movie theaters, movie studios, and technology companies getting behind systems and “advancements” that didn’t cater to the customer’s demands. Something like AromaRama just sounded good and exciting to a marketing team. Some of these technologies began to fade off as the 1970s began. This was an era when motion pictures, freed from the recently dissolved Hays Code, could tackle provocative material again, which proved even more alluring to general moviegoers than any AromaVision presentation could be. However, some of the action-heavy movies of the 1970s did play in certain locations with Sensurround, a system meant to offer up a more immersive and louder sound experience. A very rough precursor to the kind of sound set-ups that are now common in IMAX auditoriums, this technology would get phased out by the end of the 1970s. (Courtesy Douglas Laman)...

Dance movies once dominated theaters. While dance is still prominent in movies and television with shows like Dance Moms and World of Dance, the iconic “dance movie” genre has barely seen anything new since the 2000s. Step Up and Honey are the closest to achieving the same magical timelessness, but even these franchises first came out over 15 years ago. With the normalization of commercial dance in shows like Dance Moms and the evolution of TikTok dance trends as a cultural movement, the novelty and romanticism of dance as a movie device are fading, leaving us with nothing but nostalgia. (Courtesy Kate Szambecki)...

It's one of the most memorable scenes in movie history: Al Pacino, as Michael Corleone grabs his brother Fredo's face, gives him a long kiss on the lips and says, "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!" Fredo then stares at his brother, terrified, and runs away into the crowd. The kiss is known as "Il bacio della morte," meaning "the kiss of death." In this instance, it was to signify to Fredo that he was marked for death for betraying his brother to Hyman Roth and his right-hand man Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II. According to The Godfather's 50th Anniversary introduction, written by Coppola, "Mario was dubious about the idea that it was Fredo who betrayed Michael; he didn't think it was plausible. But he was absolutely against Michael ordering his own brother to be killed." Coppola later explained that while Puzo added his thoughts for what the novel's characters may do, Coppola's input was contingent upon what a film director would do....

CGR Cinemas developed, implemented and began exporting its ICE model – an in-house design that outfits a row of LED panels on both sides of an auditorium and fills them with bespoke visuals extending the action onscreen (“It’s like surround sound but for light,” is how an ICE exec describes it). Today, the CGR director divides his tasks, expanding ICE Theaters’ global footprint on one front while consolidating and improving the company’s domestic holdings on another. Towards those international goals, ICE Theaters will build on a partnership with India’s PVR Cinemas, with plans to open seven premium venues in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai by this December. The French chain has also built an annex to its La Rochelle post-production bunker in order to format 20 Bollywood productions each year, and is open to building a third wing in order to treat blockbuster productions from other major film territories...

Films made in the four southern Indian languages – Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam – together account for more than 50% of production and revenues in India. Telugu-language “RRR” was the biggest hit of 2022 with $153 million, closely followed by Kannada-language “K.G.F: Chapter 2” with $152 million, and Tamil-language films “Ponniyin Selvan: 1” and “Vikram” occupying the third and fourth positions with $61 million and $60 million respectively. Kannada-language “Kantara” was sixth with $54 million and Tamil-language “Beast” ninth with $42 million...