EXCLUSIVE: STXfilms’ hit action pic Greenland has been set for a China release on November 20 via China Film Group and JL Vision. The Gerard Butler-starrer is the latest among a small handful of new import titles to see wide theatrical play in the Middle Kingdom following the COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year. It’s going
China
A lucrative period for Chinese cinemas, the National Day holiday officially got underway today with the release of Jiang Ziya: Legend Of Deification. The highly-anticipated follow-up to 2019 smash Ne Zha set a new single-day record for animation in the Middle Kingdom with an estimated RMB 359M ($53M). This beats both Ne Zha‘s July opening
The first major blockbuster of the pandemic era, The Eight Hundred this week became the No. 1-grossing movie of 2020 worldwide, jumping ahead of Bad Boys For Life ($430.3 million global, per Sony). The Guan Hu-directed war epic has through Friday amassed $434M at the Chinese box office alone, and is also now the 10th
Refresh for latest…: Disney’s Mulan ultimately settled for a $23.2M three-day opening in China, including previews. This is about where we saw it landing yesterday after downgrading projections for the Middle Kingdom launch. The movie from director Niki Caro ended up in the No. 1 spot for the session there, but was bested on Sunday
Mulan, Disney’s live-action update on its 1998 animated classic grossed an estimated RMB 52.5M ($8.26M) on its opening Friday in China. The figure includes midnights, and portends a three-day weekend around $26M. This is a disappointment for the Niki Caro-directed movie which has faced mounting controversy in recent days, and will have suffered from piracy
Refresh for latest…: Christopher Nolan’s Tenet added a further estimated $58.1M at the international box office this weekend, taking the overseas cume on the Warner Bros title to $126M after two sessions. With the time-bending film debuting in the U.S. this frame, the estimated worldwide total is $146.2M. The global weekend figure of $78.3M includes
Christopher Nolan’s Tenet launched in the Middle Kingdom on Friday grossing RMB 62.3M, which included previews, translating into a $9.2M take. Pic’s day, at $8.6M, bested local epic The Eight Hundred which is estimated to have grossed $8.2M for a running total of $323.9M. It’s not certain yet if Tenet will best Eight Hundred for the top spot at China’s weekend box
Disney’s live-action take on its 1998 Oscar-nominated animated classic Mulan has finally been set for a China release on September 11. A new poster with the date was released today on the studio’s official Weibo account with a note that said, “Looking forward to meeting you and witnessing the blooming of Mulan together!” The Niki
After pulling in $33.5M across five days of previews at the Chinese box office, local war epic The Eight Hundred overwhelmingly stormed theaters today, its first official day of release. Adding roughly $20M across the country on Friday — the biggest single-day box office since cinemas resumed operations — the Middle Kingdom cume is now
EXCLUSIVE: As the rolling process of cinema reopenings continues across various markets, IMAX has recently enjoyed strong grosses with local-language movies in Asia as well as the reissue of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar in China. This week in the Middle Kingdom, it’s set to have a particularly vibrant frame with war epic The Eight Hundred. Already,
It’s not so much mischief managed as it’s magic managed: Warner Bros’ reissue of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone has become the second film in the franchise to cross $1B worldwide. The film, originally released in 2001, counts a global cume of $1,001,260,000 after debuting in a remastered 4K 3D version in China this
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone worked some magic in China on Friday with Warner Bros’ 3D reissue conjuring $4.6M. This is by far the biggesst single-day gross since cinemas resumed operations, overtaking the opening of WB’s earlier re-release of Chirstopher Nolan’s Interstellar by 66% (though that film bowed on a Sunday). Overall, China’s fourth
Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated Tenet has been set for a September 4 release date in China. This will come on the heels of Warner Bros launching the event picture’s rollout in a host of offshore markets beginning on August 26 and in the U.S. in select cities on September 3. As international box office has
China’s third Friday back to the movies scored a slight increase on last week’s comparable day at $4.38M. It’s short of the $7.6M generated last Sunday which was boosted by Warner Bros’ reissue of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, but still a jump on last Friday, while midweeks were solid. Play today was led by DreamWorks/Amblin/Universal’s 1917
SATURDAY UPDATE: Since cinemas reopened in China’s low-risk areas on July 20, the market today had its biggest day yet. Box office was $5.74M (RMB 40M) overall for the day, according to Maoyan figures. That reps a 38% jump from Friday. After leading last weekend and the midweeks, then dropping to No. 2 on Friday,
China’s second Friday with cinemas back to business in low-risk areas rang up another $4M at local turnstiles, a 39% increase versus the same day last week. About 60% of movie theaters are now operating, with capacity limits and social distancing still in place, so all numbers are to be taken with a grain of
On their first Friday back to operations, Chinese cinemas did roughly $2.92M worth of box office business — more than tripling Thursday’s figures and making a sizable jump from Monday when theaters opened to about $501K in low-risk areas across the country. There was growth throughout the midweeks which is encouraging since less than 40%
EXCLUSIVE: Lots of movement on the international box office front this past weekend, and into the beginning of the week. Korean zombie sequel Peninsula, as we reported Sunday, made a meal of five overseas markets with a $21M Wednesday-Sunday frame. That’s the best start we’ve seen since March when Onward opened to $28M in 47
As expected, Chinese authorities have given the go-ahead for cinemas in Beijing to reopen this coming Friday. That’s also when the first new Hollywood titles will hit the market, including Dolittle and Bloodshot. Only cinemas in the capital’s low-risk areas will be able to resume operations — and with strict sanitary measures in place, state
EXCLUSIVE: Wasting no time as cinemas prepare to reopen beginning next week in most of China, a first batch of titles due for release has been identified. Universal’s Dolittle has been granted a July 24 date while we understand that Sony’s Bloodshot, handled locally by Bona Film, will also go out that same day. This
In the wake of the China Film Administration announcing yesterday the reopening of cinemas on July 20, there’s been several questions as to what China is determining to be a low or high risk COVID-19 area. We heard from a number of industry sources today that the majority of the country’s exhibitors can reopen except
BREAKING: Those theaters in low risk areas in China “can resume business in an orderly manner” as early as Monday, July 20, the China Film Administration announced in a recent notice. There were rumblings in foreign distribution that China would start reopening on this date, however, sources weren’t so sure whether that meant simply that
EXCLUSIVE: While many offshore markets are showing increasing signs of life as cinemas return, there are still several question marks surrounding when the majority of the world gets back to the theatrical business – chief among them for the international box office is China. There has been some chatter that Middle Kingdom movie theaters may
A pair of China-focused panels at the Cannes Virtual Market this morning provided some insight into what’s happening in the Middle Kingdom as Beijing deals with a recent reemergence of coronavirus cases and movie theaters remain shuttered. The news wasn’t terribly positive. Jerry Ye, Chairman of Huaying Tianxia (Tianjin) Film Development said there is “no
Chinese authorities will allow further leisure venues, including cinemas, to gradually re-open now that the coronavirus pandemic has largely been controlled in the country, the top administrative body said on Friday. This comes after movie theaters were shuttered nationwide in January, ultimately dealing a $2.5B+ loss to the box office in just the first quarter.
From Saturday, a first batch of 205 cinemas will re-open for business in Shanghai. This follows last weekend’s opening of 500+ theaters in other China provinces, though Shanghai becomes the first tier one city to turn the lights back on as the coronavirus reportedly abates in the Middle Kingdom. The Shanghai municipal government made the
As the coronavirus reportedly continues to abate in China, film authorities are taking an everything old is new again approach. As of last count there were about 500 movie theaters open in the world’s second biggest box office hub. And as this expands, some of them may soon be playing such favorites as the Avengers
As the number of new cases of the coronavirus shows signs of abating in China, a smattering of cinemas re-opened in a handful of provinces across the country this weekend. On Friday, there were 486 movie theaters back at work, while Saturday the total was upped to 507, local reports say. This reps just 4.5%
As China looks to re-open its cinemas, possibly by the end of this month, Warner Bros today announced on its official Weibo account that Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone is to return to the market, though no date has been set. This follows our report yesterday that Hollywood studios have been approached to bring
We are hearing from U.S. industry sources as well as those on the ground in the PRC that the offices of China Film Group in Shanghai and those of China’s Film Bureau are re-opened for business, a sign that the country’s exhibition is on its way to a gradual recovery after being shuttered since the