Advanced Digital Studios, New York, has been relaunched as Spark Plug! with a new team. The company aims to attract creative commercial, broadcast and long-form projects.
A remaining player is senior editor Nick Kopp, whose spot clients include Mobil, Colgate/ Palmolive and BMW. Joining him is senior editor Steven Lifshey, who comes from RG Video, New York, where his work included promotional assignments for Polo Ralph Lauren, CNN, Showtime and Estee Lauder.
The privately held company is now run by Bill Stricklin, manager of marketing and development; and Kate P. Carty, manager of sales and development.
Stricklin comes from New York-based Betelgeuse Productions, where he spent the past five years as a sales rep. Carty was most recently a sales rep at New York-based Chelsea Post. The two met during prior stints at National Video, New York.
The team is rounded out by senior audio engineer Plamen Georgiev, who comes from UVT, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Stricklin said the shop aims to "create a creative environment with flexibility of talent." Spark Plug! expects to work closely with select freelancers.
Since Spark Plug!’s launch, Kopp’s work includes spots for Siboney USA/New York: "Sport" for Mennen Speed Stick and "Total" for Colgate. Lifshey’s assignments include Showtime promos.
Spark Plug! is equipped with three Avid Media Composers, Softimage|DS and a ProTools suite.
“Smile 2” Tops Weekend Box Office; “Anora” Glitters In Limited Release
Horror movies topped the domestic box office charts and an Oscar contender got off to a sparkling start this weekend. "Smile 2," in its first weekend, and "Terrifier 3" in its second proved to be the big draws for general movie audiences in North America, while the Palme d'Or winner"Anora" got the best per-theater average in over a year.
"Smile 2" was the big newcomer, taking first place with a better than expected $23 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Parker Finn returned to write and direct the sequel to the supernatural horror "Smile," his debut. Originally intended for streaming, Paramount pivoted and sent the movie to theaters in the fall of 2022. "Smile" became a sleeper hit at the box office, earning some $217 million against a $17 million budget.
The sequel, starring Naomi Scott as a pop star, was rewarded with a bit of a bigger budget, and a theatrical commitment from the start. Playing on 3,619 screens, it opened slightly higher than the first's $22 million.
Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks Animation's "The Wild Robot" in its fourth weekend with $10.1 million, bumping it past $100 million in North America. Family films often have long lives in theaters, particularly ones as well reviewed as "The Wild Robot," and some have speculated that it got a bump this weekend from teenagers buying tickets for the PG-rated family film and then sneaking into "Terrifier 3," which is not rated, instead. Either way, Damien Leone's demon clown movie, which cost only $2 million to produce, is doing more than fine with legitimate ticket buyers. It added an estimated $9.3 million, bringing its total to $36.2 million.
"Rumors like that are PR gold," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "There's... Read More