Japanese producer Arihiro Wada and director-producer Taichi Ito have partnered with international film studio NOMA to launch CinemaAirLane, a distribution platform that will deliver foreign movies directly to U.S. theaters. The main goal of the company will be to simplify global distribution and directly connect international filmmakers with U,S. theaters, Deadline is reporting.
Streaming deals that have been made during the COVID-19 pandemic have garnered critical acclaim and box office success in North America for such Oscar-winning foreign movies as Parasite and Manari. But securing theatrical runs has traditionally been complicated for international films that don’t secure a dedicated distribution partner.
Therefore, CinemaAirLane’s system makes it possible to monetize movies that don’t have a distributor. The service will initially allow foreign-language movies with English subtitles or English-language films from around the world to be considered for release in U.S. theaters.
The platform, which is set to debut next year, will then expand to its more advanced concept. CinemaAirLane’s second phase will allow streamlined distribution between filmmakers and movie theaters in othercountries.
After is initial phase, the company will also feature functions that aid movie marketing, including press release distribution and ad campaign planning. In order to use CinemaAirLane, films must be available with English subtitles and have a poster, trailer and images that are finished and considered suitable to be released by the press.
The service’s beta version is set to debut next year. Its website is now accepting waitlist registrations for its initial launch.
Wada will act as CinemaAirLane’s CEO.
As a producer and distributor, he’s best known for such projects as Opening Night, Laughing Lucky Cats and Two Komachis. He’s also currently serving as the Managing Director of the script showcase service Green-Light, which is similar to The Black List.
Ito, who has worked on such movies as Lords of Chaos and Babel, will serve as a business partner at CinemaAirLane. He’s also serving as the CEO of EdLead, a Japanese film production company, and NOMA, which is currently producing a trilogy of features about the world of crypto.
While discussing his decision to work at CinemaAirLane, Wada said: “I’ve produced and distributed many independent films in Japan, and I feel there is a problem. As it stands, films won’t be distributed in the U.S. if you can’t find a distributor.
“CinemaAirLane changes that. It marks the digital transformation of worldwide film distribution. We are grateful to partner with NOMA, whose support means we can grow to become one of the largest distribution platforms in the world while remaining an independent company. It is a completely new structure for the Web3 era. We are looking forward to discussing CinemaAirLane at AFM,” the producer added.