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Merger to bring more Asian Cinema to U.S.
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
April 30, 2008 at 7:40 am
ImaginAsian and Adlabs are partnering for an expansion of their interests in the U.S.
Reliance ADAG’s Adlabs Films Ltd, through its US subsidiary Adlabs Films USA, has signed a partnership deal with ImaginAsian Entertainment, Inc, a player in promoting Asian Pacific American culture to mainstream America.
Adlabs will operate a 240-screen movie theatre chain in the US from the second quarter of 2008. As part of its US strategy, Adlabs will show Hollywood films as well as cinema from South Asia and East Asia. ImaginAsian, with its marketing and distributing of Asian Pacific content, will supplement, support and provide content related to South Asia and East Asia.
Read more at Indiantelevision.com.
Comments (3)
This is a smart move.
Asian Cinema, particularly Bollywood, is undervalued for potential in the U.S. and is still being wrongly treated as ghetto product for Indian owned independent theatres. Asian audiences from all walks of life would see them in droves at a modern multiplex as they do in Europe.
I agree with you. The only Asian cinema that most movie goers know is badly dubbed kung fu films, Japanese anime aimed at kids and adults, and Oscar-nominated movies. Directors such as Ang Lee, Mira Nair, John Woo, the Shaw Brothers, and Wong Kar-Wai are famous directors that brought casual moviegoers into watching these films. This merger is more fascinating than the AMC-Loews one, since it will put a challenge against the big guys that show an Asian flick once in awhile.
The state that I live in has almost no exhibition of Bollywood titles. Kansas City runs a few, St. Louis runs most of them but for only two days and the times never appear in the paper (Saawariya was an exception because Sony distributed it) and Springfield is so xenophobic that you can forget about it. Hopefully they build a Indian theatre in Kansas City or St. Louis or start distributing titles wider and for longer. Maybe even some decent video distribution (as in, video stores actually carry them) will happen.