English Entertainment
Comic Con India & Reed Exhibitions enter joint venture
MUMBAI: Comic Con India (CCI) announced a joint venture with FTSE listed Reed Elsevier Group subsidiary Reed Exhibitions to grow the pop culture space in India and bring world class events to Indian fans.
Talking about the latest association, Comic Con India founder Jatin Varma said, “Working closely with leading publishers, we have put comics, especially Indian comics, back on the map and opened up the pop culture space even further in India. Our partnership with ReedPOP will help us scale further and create world class events that will deliver the best experiences to audiences here in India. With this JV, I hope to have our events counted among the top events in the world, within this sphere, in the coming years.”
The joint venture will capitalise on the expertise and investment brought in by Reed Exhibitions along with the ever-increasing popularity of Comic Con India’s portfolio of pop culture events that have achieved national status within a very short period of time.
“I am very delighted to work with Jatin who has created unique pop culture events in India. Reed being the organizer of leading events like New York Comic Con, Oz Comic-Con and PAX, I am fully convinced that our partnership will take Comic Con India to the next level – offering the kind of excitement found at New York Comic Con to the pop culture community in India,” said Reed Exhibitions India CEO Michael Mandl
Over the past three years, Comic Con India has created first class pop culture experiences, acting as a stage for local and international talent to showcase creativity and interact with enthusiasts. With this joint venture, Indian fans should now expect new events and better experiences in the coming years.
ReedPOP global vice president Lance Fensterman commented, “No matter what corner of the Earth they reside, fans want the same things. They want amazing experiences and access to the entertainment that they love. We have created a formula and network of partners that ensure this happens and are thrilled to bring this expertise to this exciting market. Working with Comic Con India continues our commitment to bringing the ReedPOP brand of events across the globe and reinforces our position as a world leader in the space.”
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
