International
The Lion King rules North American box office
MUMBAI: The 3D re-release of the 1994 made The Lion King has edged out the Steven Soderbergh-directed Warner Bros. film Contagion to be on the top spot of the North American box office on its debut weekend.
The film has done much better than the studio executives had expected, earning $29.3 million from around 2,330 cinema halls in the US and Canada during the weekend.
Pixar‘s Toy Story and its 2009 3D sequel held the record earlier when it garnered $12.5 million in its opening weekend. And it so happened that being the biggest blockbuster from the stables of Disney, the film also had two made-for-video sequels, a television series and a Broadway musical.
The Lion King was reproduced in its 3D version mainly due to the existence of a huge audience in their twenties and families who account for 74 per cent of the viewing public.
The original Lion King released in 1994 maintains the record of the fifth highest grossing animated film and continues to be the highest-grossing hand drawn animation film ever made.
International
Utopai Studios unveils 4K three-minute video generation for PAI platform
New Story Agent and editing tools aim to streamline AI-led filmmaking workflows
MUMBAI: Utopai Studios has announced a major upgrade to its PAI storytelling AI platform, introducing what it claims is an industry-first capability to generate three-minute videos in 4K resolution, alongside enhancements to its Story Agent feature.
The update, rolling out from April 15, expands the platform’s capabilities across the filmmaking process, from early concept development to post-production. The company said the new features are designed to help filmmakers maintain continuity across characters, scenes and visual styles, a key challenge in AI-driven storytelling.
At the heart of the release is a next-generation model that enables more structured narrative development, allowing creators to move more seamlessly from idea to execution. With tools such as multi-shot sequencing and multi-turn editing, the platform aims to give both studios and independent creators greater control over complex storytelling workflows.
Commenting on the launch, Utopai Studios co-founder and CTO Jie Yang said, “The next phase of AI in media will not be defined by isolated tools, but by systems that can carry story, continuity and collaboration across the full creative process.” He added that the update is a step towards enabling more practical, end-to-end narrative development at a professional level.
Echoing this, Utopai Studios co-founder and chief scientific officer Zijian He said, “Generative video is opening the door to a new production model, where creative ambition is less constrained by traditional cost and complexity.” He noted that the platform combines multimodal models with iterative editing to give creators more speed, control and consistency.
The company said PAI is already being used in professional film and television productions, particularly in Hollywood, for tasks such as pre-visualisation, scene design and post-production refinements. The latest update adds features including improved voice options, character consistency, unlimited editing and more flexible asset management.
Utopai also emphasised that its models are not trained on copyrighted material, positioning the platform as a cleaner alternative for creators and rights holders navigating the evolving AI landscape.
As AI continues to reshape content creation, Utopai’s latest push signals a shift from standalone tools to integrated systems, aiming to make high-quality filmmaking faster, more flexible and increasingly accessible.
