In today’s Daily Bite, Warner Brothers open their €123m studio in the UK; PWC unveil their five-year Global Entertainment And Media Outlook forecast, and the Annecy animation festival appoints a new artistic director and a first-look at Quentin Tarantino’s first western movie.
Warner Brothers Studios Leavesden opens in England… Warner Brothers have officially opened their €123m (£100m) studio outside Watford, England, with a number of TV and film productions booked to use the sprawling facility. The facility is spread across a 200-acre site and is the only film studio in the UK to be owned and operated by a Hollywood studio. Its facilities include sound stages spanning more than a quarter of a million square feet, a heated underwater filming tank and a 100 acre back-lot.
Global spending on film will rise over next five years… Global spending on cinema tickets and DVDs will grow by about 3.1 per cent a year to nearly $100bn in 2016 according to the latest Global Entertainment And Media Outlook forecast report by PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers). They predict that box office revenues will rise 6.3 per cent a year. Overall, PwC expects worldwide spending for media and entertainment to rise 5.7 per cent a year to $2.1tn in 2016 with digital media accounting for 67 per cent of the growth.
Annecy unveils new artistic director… The 36th Annecy International Animation Festival concluded at the weekend with the news of a new artistic director. Long-time artistic director Serge Bromberg is to leave the French festival after 14 years in the role. He will be replaced by Canadian producer Marcel Jean. Jean previously headed up the youth and animation studio of the National Film Board of Canada.
If you watch one trailer today… Following last weekend's re-engagement with the works of John Ford - the master of the western genre of movies - comes the first look at Quentin Tarantino’s own take on the genre with ‘Django Unchained’.
