André Rieu in Cinema's Down Under!

André Rieu Goes To The Cinema Down Under

Billboard Lars Brandle March 30, 2009 ~ Dutch classical crossover superstar Andre Rieu will take the cinecasting route to set up his "You'll Never Walk Alone" CD release Down Under, due May 1.

Sydney's Hoyts' Cinema in Moore Park, Sydney, will host a red carpet premiere of Rieu's blockbuster "Live In Australia" DVD on May 10 ~ Mother's Day, Down Under. The show will then be beamed live via satellite into cinemas in the Sydney Hoyts Entertainment Quarter, and in Melbourne, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide.

Rieu will attend the screening and will introduce the film in each of the four participating cinemas at the Sydney Hoyts multiplex. Hoyts Australia and New Zealand owns and operates 45 cinemas with more than 400 screens and in excess of 75,000 seats. Ticket-buyers for the show will also receive a copy of the "The Andre Experience" CD and a souvenir program. VIP tickets offering the opportunity for a "meet and greet" with the artist will also be sold.

Caroline Karsten, Hoyts' digital content manager, tells Billboard.biz that the Rieu experiment is a taste of more music cinecasting projects to come. "The goal of this is to take it the next step and broadcast live events across our chain," she says.

Rieu is nothing short of a phenomenon in Australia. Sales of his CDs and DVDs are approaching 2.5 million -- a major achievement in a market of only 21 million people. His "Live In Australia" DVD through Universal Music Australia went 12-times platinum in just two weeks of its 2008 release and has been certified at 21-times platinum (more than 322,000 units shipped to date). The DVD remains at No. 1 on the ARIA Music DVD chart, with two other Rieu titles also in the Top 5.