In BG Cinemas from April 15

Писък 4 / Scream 4 - The few of you who are regular visitors to my humble blog know that I'm not among the biggest admirers of the slasher genre. So, you should not be surprised that deliberately I skipped the screening of Scream 4. As a good blogger though I sent a spy in the cinema hall who said that the movie is worth it. It has surprised him, and believe me he is a seasoned movie fan, and even the script and the dialogue were great. Of course, the film was never going to surpass the quality of the first movie but at least it builds on #2 and #3. Some critics abroad seem to disagree but nevertheless I'm gonna recommend it to all horror fans out there - go and scream for more! (Forum Film) *** 1/2

Trailer 

Адел и проклятието на пирамидите / The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sac - France - More than five years after his last proper movie, Luc Besson has, at least for now, ceased pouring over the innocent viewers his awful Arthur movies and has returned to what he does best. And surprisingly Adele is a real return to form. The film, based on a popular French comic, is fresh and funny and for a change has a true heroine in its heart. Yes, Adele is not Lara Croft but she has the wit of Indiana Jones and the spirit of a young girl. And she rides a pterodactyl! Eat this Mr. Ford! Seek it, but don't take it too seriously. (A+) *** 

Trailer 

Ако искам да свиря, аз свиря / Eu cand vreau sa fluier, fluier - Romania (Limited) - If you have watched the brilliant 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, you'll know what to expect - a small movie but with a huge impact. Once you enter the cinema, you should forget all Hollywood (or even French) glory as the brutality of Romania's real life hits you with a strong punch. The story of a prisoner somewhere near Braila, who is desperate to protect his younger brother from having the same fate as his, is so frustratingly human that you'd only root for the characters. It gives you no easy answers, even no full explanation on the protagonist's past, but you will not care. Fans of European cinema are for a real treat with this one. (Art Fest) ****

Trailer

MISSED OPPORTUNITY - The Conspirator - A controversial director and a controversial subject - do you expect any of our movie distributors to buy this? Oh, you do! Look closely then, it's after all a period drama and this is not Jason Statham with a wig and beard. No chance to see it here apart from one of the pretentious art festivals. (Responsible - Every distributor you can think of)

Trailer 

The ratings:

***** Perfect

**** Unmissable

*** Fun

** So-so

* Stay away

Austria's top economic news - April 13

Verbund, Austria's largest utility, will continue focusing on renewable energy in the future, CEO Wolfgang Anzengruber said at the company's shareholders' meeting. During the meeting, opponents to imports of electricity generated by nuclear power plants demonstrated in front of Austria Center where Verbund's shareholders met. Verbund's power generation activities are mainly concentrated on hydropower. The shareholders voted in favour of a cut in dividend to EUR 0.55 per share for 2010 from EUR 1.25 last year. For 2011 the CEO expects stable results for Verbund, including a slight improvement in net and operating profit. 
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Builder Strabag said it has fully taken over German hydraulic engineering company Ludwig Voss. The acquired company generates annual revenues of about EUR 20m. The purchase price remained undisclosed.
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Russian Sberbank said it was in talks for buying stakes in Austrian banks. The bank did not disclose concrete names but it is no secret that it is interested in VBI, the eastern European holding of OeVAG.
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Aluminium group AMAG, which launched IPO last week, said after the move CP Group 3 B.V. holds 34.1% in it. Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich controls 11.5% and Oberbank owns 5%. The company's employee foundation holds 11.1% and the remainder is in free float.
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The executive board of Raiffeisen International Bank (RBI) has received a total payment of EUR 8.2m for 2010, up 178% in annual terms.
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Real estate company Sparkassen Immobilien AG (s Immo) said its gross revenues grew to EUR 174.9m for 2010, from EUR 153.6m for 2009. s Immo returned to an EBIT of EUR 60.5m, after a loss of EUR 53.1m. The net profit came in at EUR 1.8m, compared to a loss of EUR 78.6m. The company sees a clear recovery in 2011 as well as considerable growth in the results in 2012/13.
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Abu Dhabi's investment company IPIC may raise its 20% stake in OMV by the end of the year, managing director Khadem Qubaisi told Reuters. The company also does not exclude taking the 36% stake of OMV in plastics maker Borealis. OMV however denied current talks with IPIC on the matter.

Austria's top economic news - April 12

Vienna Airport served 1.565m passengers in March 2011, up by 4.9% on the year. The results were influenced by the unrest in North Africa and the natural disasters in Japan. The number of passengers towards eastern Europe grew 3.6%. The number of passengers rose 5.5% to 4.106m in the first quarter of the year.
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Atrium European Real Estate Limited plans to buy back bonds worth up to EUR 30m and issued between 2003 and 2005. The company aims to save costs related to interest rates and also to find more favourable ways of financing.
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Criminal investigators made on Tuesday further house raids related to the scandal over the Skylink terminal expansion at Vienna Airport and its ever-swelling costs. The raids were related to the buy of a stake of Vienna Airport in Flughafen Friedrichshafen GesmbH.
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Abu Dhabi's fund IPIC may buy out the stake of OMV in plastics company Borealis, Bloomberg reported. Currently there are no discussions on the matter, an OMV spokesperson, however, said. OMV owns 36% in Borealis, while IPIC controls the remainder.
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Telekom Austria will have now time until May 3 to improve its offer for 51% in Telekom Srbija. As a sole bidder, the Austrian company is offering up to EUR 950m, while the Serbian government is demanding at least EUR 1.4bn.

BG Boxoffice Update

It's a great view from the top of the BG boxoffice

Surprisingly, or not so, having in mind the success of the Ice Age series here, Rio takes the top spot in the latest Bulgarian boxoffice. Thus last week's champion Love.net retreats to #2. Although the latter did not manage to stay atop for two consecutive weeks as Tilt (the other Bulgarian title released two months ago) did, it still falls by a mere 17%, which shows a potential for great legs in the weeks ahead.

We can also expect a big long-term potential for Rio, which flies at the top with almost 200,000 leva in its cage. This once again shows that Bulgarians love animation, especially when it is in 3D and when it is not called Toy Story. The prospects before the Blue Sky vehicle look more than rosy as strong word-of-mouth and the lack of real competition will keep the cash coming in at least until Pirates 4 arrives (yes, really until then).

The other two new entries of the week come hand in hand at #3 and #4. The two "serious" new proposals, The Rite and Source Code manage to make around 33,000 leva each, with The Rite taking a slight lead (it also has a total of 52,000, including previews).

As just the previous weekend, Limitless and Just Go With It show a great staying power, easing by 31% and 22%, respectively. For a movie with Bob de Niro this is not a surprise, though I do not remember Adam Sandler to be so liked in Bulgaria.

Hit by the parrot, Rango falls this weekend by 45%, while Mars Needs Moms crashes with a decrease of 78%.

Compared to my projections, Rio came in considerably higher than my 130,000 forecast, while Source Code and The Rite were more or less spot-on, with the Hopkins-flick a little undervalued by me. I really should have taken into account that Mr. Lecter is quite a drawing power here, which of course will be once again tested at the end of the month.

Next weekend's projections:

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adelle Blanc-Sac - 15,000 leva

Scream 4 - 40,000 leva

(1 BGN = USD 0.74 = EUR 0.51)

Austria's top economic news - April 11

The shares of vaccines maker Intercell collapsed on Monday by above 30.44% after a news that the enrollment for the clinical trial for an investigational vaccine for the prevention of the Staphylococcus aureus infection should be suspended. According to market observers, investors have reacted too hastily on the news.
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Erste Bank will take further 56.2% in factoring specialist Intermarket from Polish BRE Bank. Erste currently owns 22.4% in Intermarket. The Polish and Czech units of Intermarket will be transferred to BRE in the future.
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Volksbank AG (ÖVAG) plans to return only the stipulated by the contract with the state amount of state aid by June 2011. In detail, the troubled bank will pay back some EUR 300m of the EUR 1bn in state support.
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Boosted by its activities in life insurance, Generali's premium income grew 2.5% to EUR 2.479bn in Austria in 2010. Life insurance rose 3.7%, indemnity - 0.7% and health - 3.7%.
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Michael Spallart, CEO of Mayr-Melnhof Holz, will target EUR 1bn sales for the company in the next years. However, currently the firm is on a consolidation path, he told WirtschaftsBlatt. The timber specialist sees 10% rise in sales for 2011. Mayr-Melnhof Holz envisages growth both organically and via acquisitions.
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Austrian Airlines (AUA) said the number of passengers fell 2.4% to 797,500 in March 2011, due to the unrest in North Africa and the natural disasters in Japan. For the first quarter, the Lufthansa subsidiary serviced 2.1m passengers, down 1% on the year. The seat-load factor stood at 70.6% in March.
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The number of new vehicles registered in Austria rose 15.4% to 109,586 in the first three months of 2011. Passenger cars registrations went up 15.7% to 87,865, Statistik Austria said. The number of new vehicles registered in March rose 6.9% to 48,080.

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Austria's top economic news - April 8

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said it booked a net profit of EUR 1.087bn for 2010, compared to EUR 450m on a pro-forma basis for 2009. The bank was established after the merger of RZB and Raiffeisen International Holding last year. RBI also said its risk provisions almost halved to EUR 1.194bn for 2010. The bank will propose a dividend of EUR 1.05 per share. In addition, RBI said the new bank tax in Austria and Hungary will burden it with EUR 130m for 2011. The bank also projects the non-performing loan situation to ease towards the end of the current year. RBI forecasts the recently announced acquisition of 70% in Polish Polbank to be closed at the end of 2011 or at the start of 2012. The management projects annual synergies of EUR 60m from the transaction. CEO Herbert Stepic declined to confirm that the bank will launch a capital increase in 2011, as expected by many market observers. He also praised the current capital situation at the bank. Furthermore, RBI announced that last year only its Hungarian unit booked losses for the year end.
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Aluminium group AMAG started trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange with a discount of 10.5% to the issue price of EUR 19 apiece. About 500,000 company's shares changed hands in the first hours of the trade. This has been the first IPO on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 2007.
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Ernst Malleg and Gerhard Brandl, the insolvency administrator of AvW, have disposed of a 15.86% stake in German IT company Realtech for EUR 6.8m. Thus the proceeds from the divestment of AvW's assets grew to EUR 101.5m.
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Österreichische Volksbanken AG (ÖVAG) will be examined under the current Europe-wide bank stress tests. The bank will be checked together with Austria's major sector players - Raiffeisen International Bank (RBI) and Erste Group.
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Rudolf Knünz has reduced his stake in holding company UIAG to 4.45% from 5.92% before. His managing partner, Stefan Pierer, currently controls 5.03% in the company.
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Austria's total imports stood at EUR 9.23bn for January 2011, up 27.3% year-on-year. The company's exports grew 26.3% to EUR 8.67bn. This resulted in a foreign trade deficit of EUR 560m, Statistik Austria said.