China Box Office: Japanese Animation ‘The First Slam Dunk’ Bounces to $13 Million Opening Day

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Bruce Berman, a senior executive who was previously chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Village Roadshow Pictures, has come out of retirement to board the recently-founded film studio Through the Lens Entertainment. The company, founded by producer Aditya Chand, is headquartered in Singapore with operations in the U.S. and Japan. It aims to combine the opportunities of the East and the power and experience of the studio systems in the West, “to offer a new studio ecosystem out of Asia, that is built for the digital age.” Two film projects are already underway and a third with “Slumdog Millionaire” star Frieda Pinto is in development.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Pema Tseden, the Tibetan art house film director known for “Jinpa” and “Balloon,” has died. He was 53. It is understood that he was in Tibet when he died suddenly of an unspecified illness. Some unconfirmed Chinese-language media said that he had a heart attack. The news was reported by the China Academy of Art, where he taught as a professor. “Pema Tseden, a famous Tibetan director, screenwriter and professor at the Film School of the China Academy of Art, died in Tibet in the early hours of May 8 due to an acute illness. Due to the sudden incident, the school will work with Mr Tseden’s family to deal with the follow up matters. The relevant information will be announced in due course,” the Academy said in a statement.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made $28 million of gross box office on its opening weekend in mainland China. That was a solid result in present circumstances, rather than an overwhelming one. The film easily displaced two of the weaker Chinese titles that had been released a week earlier to take advantage of the five-day May Day holiday season. “Born to Fly,” a patriotic action adventure about Chinese test pilots, nose-dived by 75% as it fell from a $40 million first place debut to a $11.2 million third-placed second flap. Its cumulative after two weekends is $77.3 million, according to weekend data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” gave the South Korean box office its biggest weekend of the year, with a $10.3 million start. The film played on more than 1,800 screens and enjoyed a 46% share of the overall market between Friday and Sunday, according to data supplied by Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. After a year of struggle for the theatrical business in Korea, the opening by “Guardians” was twice that of “The Super Mario Bros Movie” and nearly four times bigger than the next biggest individual title debut of 2023 (“The First Slam Dunk” in the first week of January scored $2.61 million). Over its opening five days, “Guardians” managed $13.2 million, making it the seventh highest grossing film of the year at the end of its first weekend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Argentina-Chile coproduction “The Punishment,” directed by Matias Bize, was named best feature over the weekend at the close of the Beijing International Film Festival. Mexico’s Lila Avilés won the Tiantan Award for best director for her film “Totem.” Antonia Zegers and Line Renaud shared the best actress award for “The Punishment” and “Driving Madeleine,” respectively. The best actor award went to Xin Baiqing for Chinese movie “The Shadowless Tower.” The film, which premiered in February in Berlin, was the numerical winner. With the best screenplay, music, cinematography and artistic contribution awards, it won a total of five prizes.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Born to Fly,” an action movie about the prowess of the Chinese air force and the bravery of its aviators, topped the China box office chart over a weekend that led into the nearly week-long May Day holiday. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway shows the film earned $44 million (RMB279 million) between Friday and Sunday. The weekend as a whole brought in $121 million of turnstile revenue, the fourth highest weekend of the year and weaker only than the three “revenge spending” weekends that drove the Chinese New Year period in January and early February.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Super Mario Bros Movie” and a local sports movie “Dream” gave the South Korean box office some bounce on their first weekend on release. Opening in Korea on Wednesday, some three weeks after the beginning of its international and North American campaigns, “Super Mario” earned $4.67 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). The film has a cumulative of $5.76 million over its opening five days, plus previews. The film’s weekend numbers are the second highest opening tally recorded by any film this year in Korea. And its weekend score represented a comfortable 40% market share.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Toho, Japan’s most powerful movie studio, is launching a production services offshoot intended to assist and grow foreign film and TV shoots in the country.Toho Tombo Pictures is a joint venture with Japan-based producer Georgina Pope, who has worked with the top entertainment companies around the globe for more than 30 years. The new company will be headed by Shimada Mitsuru, who currently serves as president of Toho Studios, as representative director of Toho Tombo Pictures. Pope, Ueda Koji and Toho Studios executive Sudo Tetsushi will serve as directors. Ueda is GM of international business of Toho and VP of U.S. subsidiary, Toho International, Inc.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Director Stanley Tong (“Rumble in the Bronx”) is to team up with Jackie Chan for the tenth time on “The Legend.” State media in China report that Chan, who recently reached the top spot in the mainland Chinese box office with aged stuntman comedy “Ride On,” will play an archaeologist on a quest through time and space. With production by Bona Film Group, “The Legend” is pitched as being in the same vein as Tong and Chan’s 2005 effort “The Myth,” which was a fantasy love story. Tong and Chan have worked together on other titles including “Police Story 3,” “Supercop” and “Vanguard.” India’s Jio Studios is backing “Khashaba,” a Marathi-language film on the life of India’s first Olympic medalist Khasaba Dadasaheb. After delivering the sleeper hit Sairat and Fandry, the new film will be directed by Nagraj Manjule. The title is considered as part of Jio Studio’s ambition to deliver more than 100 stories this year. With production to begin shortly, the film will be mounted on a large scale. “Along with entertaining the audience, this film will also introduce the audience to a brave and exceptional athlete who made India proud all over the world,” said Manjule. “Khashaba” will be presented by JioStudios and produced by Aatpat Production, Jyoti Deshpande and Manjule.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The highly-anticipated Japanese animated feature film “The First Slam Dunk” dominated the mainland China cinema box office in its opening weekend. It broke multiple records as it did so. The film scored $38.5 million (RMB266 million) over the Friday to Sunday weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. However, it opened on Thursday, a day earlier than is the norm in China, and has accumulated $55.2 million over the opening four-day frame. The film is based on IP that is well-known to a generation of comic book fans and TV audiences in China (early middle-aged men were reported to have been particularly interested) and has already proved a hit in other parts of Asia. (Comscore estimates that the film has grossed $211 million worldwide.)

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The South Korean cinema box office fell to its lowest level of the year over the latest weekend. Nationwide theatrical earnings in a territory which before COVID was the world’s fourth largest were barely over $6 million. “John Wick: Chapter 4” lead the weekend chart from Japanese anime “Suzume” and Korean sports drama “Rebound” in a top three repeat from a week earlier. “John Wick 4” earned $2.51 million in its second weekend of release, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That was a 38% week-on-week decline and represented a 41% share of the total Korean box office market. It also gave the film a cumulative total of $9.73 million since release on April 12.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Global cinema box office recovered strongly in the first three months of the year, driven by the performance of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in many territories and a bumper Chinese New Year season in mainland China. The upbeat news was delivered on the eve of CinemaCon Las Vegas by specialist research firm Gower Street Analytics, which has now increased its forecast of the cinema industry’s full year. The firm now projects that 2023 gross revenues will reach $32 billion, a 10% increase on its earlier estimate of $29 billion. “A $32 billion global box office in 2023 would represent an approximate +23% improvement on 2022. It remains 20% behind an average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019), but it shows how post-pandemic recovery of our business continues to improve,” said Gower Street.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Rights to ‘Man in Black,” one of two documentary films by China’s Wang Bing to appear in Official Selection at Cannes this year, have been picked up by specialty sales agency Asian Shadows. The 60-minute film, which will debut as a special screening, is a portrait of 86-year-old Wang Xilin, one of China’s most important modern classical composers and is now lives in exile in Germany. It was made in close collaboration with French cinematographer Caroline Champetier, whose credits include Leos Carax’s “Holy Motors,” Amos Gitai’s “Promised Land” and Andre Techine’s “Alice and Martin.” During the 1960s, when China’s Cultural Revolution forced intellectuals into the fields and stripped the middle classes of their wealth, Wang Xilin was the was the target of severe persecution, including beatings, imprisonment and torture. The film examines the body and soul of a man scarred by a life of suffering, who is yet still capable of deep and sincere compassion.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Trinity CineAsia has acquired rights to Chinese tentpole action movie “Born to Fly,” and will release the film in cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading indie sales agent Finecut has picked up international rights to “In Our Day” by idiosyncratic South Korean director Hong Sang-soo. The film is set as the closing title of the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar of the Cannes festival. Hong, who works on low budgets, controls much of the production process and makes repeated use of a small pool of actors, is one of the most prolific feature directors in the world. This is already his second feature this year. His earlier, “In Water” played in the Encounters section at Berlin in February His films are known for their minimalist style, a focus on female characters, serial chance encounters and oblique references to the media industry. On paper, “In Our Day” fits exactly in that groove.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Television Broadcasts, Hong Kong’s leading free-to-air broadcaster, has said that it is considering legal action against a group of shareholder activists. The shareholder group, seemingly led by Chow Ngai Keung and publishing its critiques on Facebook, has made a series of complaints about TVB. These include the allegation that TVB is operating a streaming app Maiduidui in Mainland China without the proper authorization and that TVB has misled shareholders over the official name of the company that ultimately holds executive control. The minority shareholders have also criticized TVB for investments in Mainland Chinese firm SMI and State Reserve Energy Bonds, which have cost the company HK$1 billion ($128 million) of losses, and for its 2021 acquisition of e-commerce platform Ztore.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Jackie Chan-starring nostalgic stuntman comedy film “Ride On” trotted to a second weekend atop the mainland Chinese box office. “The Super Mario” Bros. Movie” remained in fourth place. “Ride On” earned $6.0 million (RMB41.5 million) between Friday and Sunday, a 48% week-on week drop, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That took it to a $22.6 million total since release on April 7. Below it, Japanese animation “Suzume” and Chinese shaggy dog story “Hachiko” swapped places. “Hachiko,” on its third weekend outing, earned $4.9 million, for a cumulative of $35.1 million. “Suzume” earned $4.5 million in its fourth weekend on release in China, giving it a $109 million cumulative.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “John Wick: Chapter 4” easily outgunned Japanese animation film Suzume to claim top spot at the South Korean box office over the latest weekend. The American action title earned $4.05 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a nearly 50% market share, continuing a polarization or clustering around a single title that has become familiar of late in Korea, a market that formerly had greater diversity and width. Over the five days since its Wednesday opening, “John Wick 4” earned $5.87 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Is it time for South Korea’s TV drama series to move over and make way for Korean unscripted entertainment — namely game shows and reality shows? While 2003 drama series “Jewel in the Palace,” or the more recent “Crash Landing on You,” “Memories of the Alhambra,” “Mr. Queen,” “Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce)” and “Descendants of the Sun” have for years successfully tugged at emotional heartstrings across Asia, the unscripted category has equally long been a staple of Korean domestic TV. Korean variety shows have been a catch-all with multi-generational appeal. Talent contests have worked well in the home market, but often were too quirky — too much dialogue, or distracting titles flashing across the screen — which meant that they were best exported as formats rather than finished shows.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese electronics giant, Sony has opened a virtual production studio in Shanghai, China, that it says can be used for shooting film, TV and commercials. The studio opened last month and is jointly operated with Gwantsi, one of China’s largest commercials production companies. Virtual production involves the use of high-resolution screens that create a backdrop in front of which actors perform. This can reduce the need for location travel, cut set-up times, shorten post-production and provide a more life-like environment for performers than traditional green-screen environments. VP studios are also well adapted to motion capture production.