The opening of Vietnam as a meaningful market for major studio films took another step forward Tuesday as Buena Vista International, Walt Disney Studios' overseas distribution arm, announced an arrangement to release its films in the country. The deal sees Megastar, a joint venture of leading Vietnam multiplex company Envoy Media Partners, headed by Ted Shugrue and Phuong Nam Corp., serving as BVI's distribution agent in the territory. London-based UIP, which handles the foreign distribution of Paramount, Universal and DreamWorks, entered the market last month after concluding a similar deal with Megastar, which was licensed by the Vietnamese government in 2004 to build movie complexes and organize a film distribution company.
The opening of Vietnam as a meaningful market for major studio films took another step forward Tuesday as Buena Vista International, Walt Disney Studios' overseas distribution arm, announced an arrangement to release its films in the country. The deal sees Megastar, a joint venture of leading Vietnam multiplex company Envoy Media Partners, headed by Ted Shugrue and Phuong Nam Corp., serving as BVI's distribution agent in the territory. London-based UIP, which handles the foreign distribution of Paramount, Universal and DreamWorks, entered the market last month after concluding a similar deal with Megastar, which was licensed by the Vietnamese government in 2004 to build movie complexes and organize a film distribution company.
Vietnam's gradual entry into the multiplex age is taking a meaningful step forward. Tony Manne, a former longtime second-in-command at Columbia TriStar International, has been retained to set up a distribution company to service the "first purpose-built" cinema circuit being developed in the unwinding socialist-oriented market. The call to Manne, who heads New York-based Bristol Media International, came from his former boss, J. Edward (Ted Shugrue,) who had been president of the Sony overseas distribution division. Shugrue is now the president and CEO of Envoy Media Partners, a British Virgin Islands joint venture that is an 80% owner of MegaStar Media, which was licensed by the Vietnamese government in 2004 to build movie complexes and organize a film-distribution company.
- 2/16/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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