Mubi U.S. Distribution Chief

[Mubi’s] German-language, post-WWII drama [Great Freedom] grossed a solid $8,814 at NYC’s Film Forum this weekend, the latest in a string of foreign films to open well and with younger demos previously atypical of the genre. Austria’s shortlisted Oscar submission for Best International Feature was also Mubi’s pick of the week for its [Mubi Go] program that’s been available to NYC streaming subscribers since October. It offers one free ticket a week to a prestige pic (from diverse distributors) and is set to roll out to LA and other U.S. markets this spring.

“We are firm believers that the more people that see films in theaters the better. We are about the theatrical experience and a healthier film culture. Generally, it doesn’t exist just on screen or just in theaters. It’s a rising tide. People are more apt to watch something in a cinema if they are fervent and obsessive movie fans,” says Mubi’s director of U.S. distribution, Chris Mason Wells. He said Mubi Go NYC has been “hugely popular. We are buying hundreds of tickets to foreign language and documentary films from all distributors at arthouses across New York every week.” He said the program’s demo skews young with 80% under age 44. “We are encouraging them to take a chance on movies like Great Freedom [and] trying to create a ritual movie-going habit” that was lost during Covid. Previous Mubi Go selections include The Power of The Dog, Drive My Car, The Hand of God, A Hero, The Lost Daughter and Playground. Mubi also adds one new film each day to its streaming lineup. It doesn’t release subscriber data but Wells said subs have doubled every year for the last three years. It’s global and growing, recently acquiring European indie sales giant [The Match Factory]. Mubi Go already operates in about 160 theaters in the UK.

On Great Freedom, Wells said its opening is one he would have been happy with pre-pandemic. There’s been some strength in foreign films led by Neon’s Oslo-set The Worst Person In The World (which opened at four NY/LA theaters in early Feb. to whopping $33,768 PSA); to the distrib’s Danish animated documentary Flee; to Sideshow/Janus Films’ Drive My Car; and Sony Pictures Classics’ Parallel Mothers. The reasons are partly film-specific. But younger people may be building the habit by watching more foreign content on streaming. Giant TikTok often superimposes text on images, Wells said. “People are used to watching images and reading something simultaneously.” Great Freedom, directed by Sebastian Meise (a former student of Michael Haneke) won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes. It stars Franz Rogowski (Transit) as Hans, who is found guilty of being gay under an archaic provision of the penal cold in post WW2 Germany. Over decades, he is spied on and repeatedly jailed, developing an ever-closer relationship with his cellmate Viktor (Georg Friedrich), a convicted murderer serving a life sentence. It adds Laemmle’s Royal, Monica, and Pasadena in LA next weekend and expands nationally to major markets through March and April. Wells said the film – 96% Certified Fresh — “attracted a large queer audience opening weekend, but reached many others beyond that core demographic. This is a universal story of love and resilience.”

Here I will inform you of the films that have just been released and can be watched in streaming for free. Please choose the film you like below:

>> Belfast
>> Cyrano
>> Death on the Nile
>> Ennio

Films released for Italy complete with Italian language or audio, especially for you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Return of the Weird Blockbuster

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness raises the question: Is Sam Raimi the best director to ever be attached to a Marvel movie? He doesn’t have an Oscar like Chloé Zhao or Taika Waititi, the sorts of filmmakers who, if nothing else, win Oscars (their movies really make you think). He doesn’t typically do prestige, and he avoids serious subject matter. But Raimi is also a singularly kinetic visual storyteller—a true showman—and, in his way, a transformational figure in the recent history of American cinema. When Raimi directed the first (and arguably best) Spider-Man in 2002, comic-book properties were a volatile prospect, if not an all-out gamble. The Joel Schumacher Batman movies were a pop-culture punch line, and R-rated Bayhem was all the rage. That Spider-Man surpassed even the most optimistic box-office expectations is only part of the story, however. The fact that a major studio would entrust such a valuable title to a guy like Raimi—whose most famous movie to that point f
Read more

Batman Beyond Settles Tony Stark vs Bruce Wayne

Since both characters are billionaires without inherent superpowers who use their wealth to develop a method to fight evil in their respective worlds, the debate over who is better between Batman and Iron Man has raged for decades—but an issue of Batman Beyond proves that Iron Man is superior. Tony Stark first became Iron Man after he was captured as a prisoner of war and developed a suit that could keep him alive following a nearly fatal injury. Since then, he continuously created better versions of his original design until he was successful in developing an entire army of his suits that he can control remotely in what's known as the Iron Legion. Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, refined his body and mind rather than just his suit upon his entrance into the superhero world. Bruce trained with the greatest masters of basically every kind of martial art to make himself the pinnacle of what human beings are capable of. However, in the neo-tech future of Batman Beyond, Bruce is a lot o
Read more

Release and Streaming Play Set Firm Day Theatrical to Italy

A move that will transform Italy’s relationship with Netflix, the Italian government has set a firm three-month time window between a movie’s theatrical release and when it can drop on a streaming platform. The announcement was made by Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini during a Rome confab on the state of the country’s film industry held by the country’s motion picture association ANICA. The minister said he has signed a law that will extend the existing 90-day theatrical window for Italian films that had benefitted from government subsidies to now include all films, regardless of where they are produced or how they are financed. Due to its having a more flexible windowing policy than France, Italy in recent years has been an interesting testing ground for the theatrical releases of Netflix titles, largely because the Venice Film Festival is a frequent launching pad for the platform’s original films. Here I will inform you of the films that have just been released and can be
Read more