China has added a pair of Sony movies to the release calendar with Columbia Pictures’ Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway set for June 11 — one week before its domestic bow — and Sony Pictures Classics’ Oscar winner The Father due on June 18. The Will Gluck-directed Peter Rabbit sequel opened early in Australia and
China
Refresh for latest…: Fuel-injecting some mega muscle into the international box office landscape, Universal’s F9 is revving up for a May 21 release date in China, a full five weeks before domestic. But China won’t be the only overseas market to release early, as I hear several other key hubs are also going throughout the
With a confirmed, and late-breaking, re-release date, Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring has been scheduled to hit China’s movie theaters tomorrow (April 16). The second film, The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, will follow next Friday, April 23. The Oscar-winning New Line trilogy will play in
Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/Legendary’s Godzilla Vs Kong thrashed off to an estimated $21.5M (RMB 140M) start in China today, good for the best opening day of a Hollywood title in the market since Covid began and portending a weekend in the high $60Ms. The film positively dominated the Middle Kingdom with an 88% share and played
Chloe Zhao recently became the first Asian woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Director and now has a shot to repeat that at the Oscars with her awards-season darling Nomadland garnering six nominations today for Best Picture, Director, Editing, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Actress. Still, despite the accolades, questions remain: Will Nomadland ever see
Refresh for latest…: As we first reported yesterday, James Cameron’s Avatar is again king of the all-time worldwide box office, having snapped the title back from Avengers: Endgame thanks to a very robust China reissue this session. The full three-day frame in the Middle Kingdom is estimated at $21.1M, also giving the sci-fi epic bragging
As has been expected over the past few days, James Cameron’s Avatar has swapped places with Avengers: Endgame, reclaiming the title of highest-grossing movie ever worldwide. The China reissue of the 2009 3D sci-fi phenomenon had taken an estimated RMB 58M ($8.9M) through 5PM local time on Saturday after re-releasing on Friday in the market.
Long-rumored for a China re-release, James Cameron’s Avatar suddenly popped onto the calendar this week. The erstwhile highest-grossing film of all time worldwide will hit Middle Kingdom cinemas on Friday, March 12. In so doing, it has a chance to jockey back up to the No. 1 spot globally, after Avengers: Endgame overtook it in
On Wednesday, Chinese New Year box office achieved yet another new milestone with grosses for the holiday period growing to an estimated RMB 7.78B ($1.2B). This beats the previous all-time high set during the comparable 2019 holiday (RMB 5.9B). China often outdoes itself, but the fact that 2021’s Lunar New Year frame came with Covid
Refresh for latest…: Chinese moviegoers ushered in the Year of the Ox with the colossal three-day debut of Detective Chinatown 3 grossing an estimated RMB 2.56B ($397M). This tops Avengers: Endgame’s 2019 five-day China bow of RMB 2.22B to make DC3 not only the biggest opener in Chinese history, but also giving it bragging rights
Disney/Pixar’s Soul continues to shine overseas with a $96.2M cume after seven frames. In 11 markets this session, the Pete Docter-helmed original added $6.9M to its international box office kitty with No. 1s again in Russia and Korea. In China, it has surpassed Incredibles 2 to become the market’s 2nd highest-grossing Pixar title ever. China
Authorities in China have warned that a video showing people waddling “like penguins” after purportedly undergoing an anal swab for COVID-19 is fake. (Envato Elements) Officials in China have tried to reassure the public that they won’t end up waddling “like penguins” if they receive an anal swab for COVID-19. A small number of people
As 2021 dawned, China shot straight out of the box office gate with a new record. On Friday, the market hit a milestone for New Year’s Day. Estimates are coming in for January 1 at about RMB 600M ($92M), besting the same day in all previous years. The big result was generated largely by new
The poster for Forbidden Love in Heaven. (Ran Yinxiao_ A simple film about a gay couple who adopt a homeless child, Forbidden Love in Heaven has become something almost unthinkable for LGBT+ filmmakers and moviegoers in China: a hit. In a nation where acceptance of same-sex couples is progressing at a less-than-glacial rate, Chinese filmmakers have
A man holds a rainbow flag after taking part in the Pride Run in Shanghai on June 17, 2017. (STR/AFP/Getty) Transgender people in China are buying hormones on the “grey market” because of the difficulties of obtaining them legally. In China, being transgender is classed as a mental illness, and trans people must be diagnosed
Warner Bros/DC’s Wonder Woman 1984, as expected, landed at No. 2 in its China debut on Friday, coming in behind local actioner The Rescue. The Patty Jenkins-helmed sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman grossed an estimated RMB 44.2M ($7M, including sneaks). This portends a weekend in the mid $20M range for the Middle Kingdom, lower than
Monster Hunter director Paul W.S. Anderson has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the film, which was pulled from Chinese cinemas during its opening weekend amid backlash over a line of dialogue that has been perceived as racist by local audiences. In a statement provided to Deadline, Anderson says he is “devastated” and “mortified” that
Germany’s Constantin Film has issued an apology over dialogue in its feature game adaptation Monster Hunter which led to an online backlash in China this weekend, and subsequently resulted in the movie being pulled from Middle Kingdom cinemas. Constantin says it “sincerely apologizes to Chinese audiences for a line of dialogue contained in an early
An online backlash that swirled in China on Friday over a scene in Monster Hunter has resulted in the movie being pulled from the country’s cinemas. The Paul WS Anderson-directed feature game adaptation had been eyeing the market as one of its biggest plays, but a short exchange in the film has been perceived as
More news on the Monster Hunter and Wonder Woman 1984 fronts with China dates now set for both films. The former, starring Milla Jovovich, has landed a December 4 release in the Middle Kingdom while Warner Bros/DC’s Gal Gadot sequel is due on December 18. Contrary to the situation domestically, where Deadline recently reported the
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
Thursday marked the end of the Chinese National Day holiday with the world’s second largest box office market significantly tightening the gap between its turnstiles and those of North America. Takings for the period are estimated at RMB 3.95B ($589M). That does not include play of some of the releases that got a jump on
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
The controversy surrounding Disney’s live-action update on 1998 animated classic Mulan is heating up just as the film is about to be released in China. In recent days, backlash outside the Middle Kingdom has increased over a line in the movie’s credits roll that reportedly thanks the Xinjiang authorities, including one entity that is on
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