Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communications and New Line Cinema have renewed their distribution agreement through to Dec. 31, 2005. The agreement gives Alliance Atlantis’ Motion Picture Distribution Group rights to New Line and Fine Line motion picture product in all media in Canada. The agreement with New Line, an AOL Time Warner company, was first signed in 1989 and was last renewed in June 1999. Financial details were not announced.

In March ’99, AAC announced it had renewed its other major distribution agreement, with Miramax Films, through to 2005.

AAC released the New Line blockbuster Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on Dec. 18. The highly anticipated, and much rescheduled, Miramax release Gangs of New York hits theatres Dec. 20.

AAC’s motion picture group reported record top-line revenues of $318 million in fiscal ’02.

-www.allianceatlantis.com