Mr Wolf and the Royal Opera House have announced an exclusive long-term agreement to distribute Royal Opera House operas and ballets to cinemas worldwide, beginning this autumn with the 2013-14 Season. Mr Wolf will be ROH Cinema’s exclusive overall partner on a global basis and will work with its sister company, Arts Alliance Media, to handle worldwide sales and distribution, live transmission of the events from London, and global marketing services. More2Screen will continue to handle sales for UK independent cinemas and selected overseas territories.
The 2013/14 Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season comprises five live operas and five live ballets; the Season opens with Turandot on September 17 and the first live ballet is a new production of Don Quixote, choreographed by Carlos Acosta on October 16. Other highlights of the Season include new opera productions of Les Vêpres siciliennes in November, Parsifal in December, and Don Giovanni in February 2014, and The Winter’s Tale, a new full-length ballet by Christopher Wheeldon to be staged in April 2014.
Each performance will be streamed live to more than 1,000 cinemas worldwide and will provide a significant uplift to the Royal Opera House’s footprint and presence in cinemas worldwide.
Alfred Chubb, CEO of Mr Wolf said, “The Royal Opera House is one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world. Our aim is to help the ROH Live Cinema Season to continue to grow in stature and to bring the pick of its greatest productions to opera and ballet fans all over the world.”
Alastair Roberts, managing director of Royal Opera House Enterprises said, “We have seen a real increase in demand for The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet in cinemas over the past couple of years and so we are really excited to be working with Mr Wolf, Arts Alliance Media and More2Screen who will help us reach even larger audiences in the UK and around the world through this new partnership.”
Howard Kiediasch, CEO of Arts Alliance Media said, “AAM has a long relationship with the Royal Opera House, and we’re delighted to be able to work with them this year to bring ten incredible live experiences to audiences around the world.”
From offices in London and Los Angeles, Mr Wolf produces, co-produces, finances and manages distribution of live events and music-based feature films.
Mr Wolf launched with the release of Andrea Bocelli: Love in Portofino, produced by PBS, Universal Music and Sugar Entertainment, on Valentine's Day and Mother's Day in 56 territories. Mr Wolf’s next release will be Springsteen & I, the Ridley Scott Agency-produced Bruce Springsteen feature, which will debut in July 2013.
Mr Wolf is led by Alfred Chubb, formerly of Paramount Pictures and HTC. The team includes Yogita Puri, film finance, production and distribution executive who joined from Revolver Entertainment, Barry Clark-Ewers who opened new doors for alternative content at Universal before joining the production and distribution team at Red Bull and Benjamin Cooley, formerly producer at Shine America and partner at Jack Black's production company, Electric Dynamite, who will be working on US acquisitions and production from Los Angeles.
Mr Wolf’s Head of Classical, Ross Fitzsimons is a non-executive director of Curzon World with extensive experience of the entertainment industry and is also an Adjunct Professor at Imperial College London Business School.
Arts Alliance Media www.artsalliancemedia.com