China Box Office: ‘The Last Frenzy’ Takes Top Spot on Record May Day Weekend

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Through the Lens Entertainment, the East-West film studio that made a splash at Cannes last year, is expanding into manga. It has launched Hoshi Studios, a manga development and publishing startup with outposts in Singapore and Japan. The outfit will create teams combining western film and TV talent with established Japanese manga artists to create books and other comic-book properties.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hit crime thriller “The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon” received 13 nominations for the upcoming Taipei Film Festival’s Taipei Film Awards. These include nominations for best feature, best director, best screenplay, best actor, best supporting actress, and best supporting actor.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese video streamer iQiyi reported increased profits in the first quarter of the year, derived from lower revenue. The company, which is NASDAQ-listed but majority owned by Chinese tech giant Baidu, said that net income attributable to iQiyi grew to RMB655 million ($90.8 million), compared to RMB618 million in the same period in 2023. Revenues were RMB7.9 billion ($1.1 billion), a decrease of 5% year-on-year. “We have been generating positive operating cash flow for eight consecutive quarters, and our balance sheet continued to improve,” said Wang Jun, the company’s chief financial officer. Performance transparency, however, has recently been reduced.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Female stunt performer Wiriya Caesar will step up into the lead performer role in upcoming Thai action film “The 24.” The film project is being launched this week in the Cannes Market by new international sales firm Boz Pictures. Wiriya (aka Porntip Wiriya, aka “Fan”) has previously been a stunt double for Mary-Elizabeth Winstead in “Kate” and Golshifteh Farahani in “Extraction,” and has other credits on “Thirteen Lives” and “Hidden Strike.” In “The 24” she will star as an assassin who wakes up with a time bomb strapped to her body. She has clear instructions to kill a hit list of 24 members of the Bangkok underground, with each successful hit buying her more time alive. Caesar is joined in the cast by Japan’s Sakaguchi Tak (“Re:Born,” “One Percenter,” “Versus”), Dan Chupong (“Ong Bak 1 &2,” “Born to Fight”), Sunny Pang (“The Night Comes for Us,” “Headshot” and Gareth Evans’ upcoming “Havoc”) and Simon Kook (“Ip Man 3,” “Mayhem”). The film, which will shoot in the fourth quarter of this year, is written and directed by Lee Thongkham (“The Maid,” “The Lake,” “Kitty the Killer”).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Seoul-based film sales company, Finecut has notched pre-sales for its upcoming action-comedy “The Desperate Chase, which it is launching this week at the Cannes Film Festival‘s Cannes Market,. The film is an action comedy featuring a hot-blooded detective and a swindler who is also a master of disguise who team up to combat an evil mafia. Early rights buyers include Rights Cube for Japan, Apex Success Global for Taiwan and Mockingbird Pictures for Vietnam. Screening as a rough cut in the Cannes Market, the film is the second feature by Kim Jae-hoon, known for his debut with the body-switch action thriller “Devils,” which released in South Korea last year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Asian audiences are increasingly turning to homegrown content in their streaming choices. Asian titles powering 80% of premium VOD engagement and customer acquisition, according to new research from research and consultancy firm Media Partners Asia. “The Rise of Asian Content” is based on passive tracking of 40,000 users by sister company AMPD in nine major Asian markets – Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand – over 15 months between Jan.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alex Garland’s critically-acclaimed “Civil War” has confirmed a theatrical release in mainland China. Marking the first A24 production to be released in China, it will arrive in cinemas from June 7. Huahua Media took rights to the film for China. Tech and entertainment giant Alibaba will also be partnering with Huahua throughout the release. Depicting a dystopian future America, the film’s story follows a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach Washington DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Tencent, the Chinese social media, gaming and streaming giant, enjoyed a 62% gain in profits, earned from a 6% revenue improvement in the first quarter of the year. Profits between January and March reached RMB42.6 billion ($5.92 billion). That figure also represented a 55% quarter on quarter gain.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The feature “Tales of Taipei” is a tribute to the low-pressure, culturally rich city, which has been shaped by its regional neighbors, taken in diverse peoples and distilled the multiple competing influences into a messy, happy-go-lucky morass. Produced by Bowie Tsang and Amy Ma, the film calls on 10 directors hailing from Malaysia, France, Bhutan and Hong Kong, and Taiwanese locals Yin Cheng-han and Remii Huang to contribute.“Everything is possible in Taiwan, everything exits side by side,” says Tsang, who was born in Hong Kong. “We have old Chinese myths.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Veteran Asian executive Buddy Marini has been appointed GM of Warner Bros. Discovery in Japan.The role covers all operations in Japan including home entertainment, digital & TV licensing, consumer products, anime production, franchise and pay-TV networks, but excluding theatrical and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo: The Making of Harry Potter business. Marini joins WBD with 25+ years’ experience in leadership across media and technology companies in Japan, China and the U.S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Tencent Music Entertainment, China’s largest online music corporation, got smaller but more profitable in the first quarter of 2024. That continued a trend seen previously in the company’s 2023 accounts. Revenues in the January to March quarter weighed in at $937 million (RMB6.77 billion), a 3% decrease compared with the same quarter last year. But profits after tax increased 28% to $212 million (RMB1.53 billion). Monthly active users across its free and paid for tiers decreased by 2% to 592 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” debuted on top of the mainland China box office with an opening weekend score of $11.4 million (RMB81.1 million). That was only the fourth weekend this year that a Hollywood film has topped the China charts and the third time in 2024 that a Hollywood title has opened on top. “Apes” was also the top film this weekend in North America and international markets. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed that the film accounted for some 30% of the theatrical total on a weekend where theaters earned a combined $38.2 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” opened in second place at the South Korean weekend box office, a distance behind local holdover title “The Roundup: Punishment.” “Punishment,” the fourth part of Don Lee’s “Roundup” action franchise, dominated proceedings for the third weekend in succession. It earned $5.53 million and advanced its cumulative total to $67.7 million, according to Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Jack Dunn “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” “Rustin” and “Red White & Royal Blue” earned top prizes at the New York GLAAD Media Awards, which this year celebrates the 35th year of the annual awards show. Awards were presented Saturday night at the Hilton Midtown in New York City.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amsterdam- and Beijing-based Fortissimo Films is to pre-sell Chinese crime drama “Family at large,” kicking off at the Cannes Market. The film had previously been announced with sales handled jointly by Fortissimo and Rediance. Now, Fortissimo alone is representing rights worldwide, ex-China. Directed by Kang Bo, the film is set in the chilly far north of the country.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Skyline Media, a leading Vietnamese studio, is getting ready for Cannes with a string of sales on its local and Southeast Asian film sales slate. Since appearing at FilMart in Hong Kong in March, Skyine has licensed Cambodian horror title “The Night Curse of Reatrei” to Taiwan’s Cai Chang International and to Exponenta Film for the CIS region.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Concert documentary, “Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus,” directed by Neo Sora, will open in mainland Chinese cinemas on May 31. The film had its world premiere in official selection at the Venice festival last year. That was followed by an acclaimed run at the New York, London and Camerimage festivals. Japanese composer Sakamoto, who was awarded an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy and two Golden Globes, had a four-decade career that stretched from techno-pop to Oscar winning scores on films including “Merry Christmas, Mr.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s “The Fall Guy” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £3.5 million ($4.5 million), according to numbers from Comscore. But the force was strong with Disney’s 25th anniversary rerelease of “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,” as it debuted in second place with £1.1 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China- and Netherlands-based sales firm Fortissimo Films has picked up the international rights to new Chinese sports feature film “Wild Punch.” It will launch the film in territories outside mainland China next week at the Cannes Market. Co-directed by well-established director Yu Lik-wai and Wang Jing (“The Best Is Yet to Come”), “Wild Punch is a sports and action drama about a top mixed martial arts athlete who has passed the peak of his career and faces competition from his young and gifted trainee. Both with something to prove, the two will have to face each other in the ring. Yu has directed four feature films, including Cannes competition title “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Venice title “Plastic City.” He is also well-established as a cinematographer who has worked on films including “Still Life,” “A Touch of Sin,” and “Mountains May Depart” by Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye’s “Love and Bruises” and Ann Hui’s “A Simple Life.” “Wild Punch” is produced by Momo Pictures, the subsidiary of the NASDAQ-listed Zhiwen Group, which is best-known for its Momo instant messaging mobile application.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Takano Tofu” claimed double honors on the closing night of the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. It won the Golden Mulberry audience award and the MyMovies Purple Mulberry award. Directed by Mihara Mitsuhiro, “Takano Tofu” is a melodrama about an elderly tofu-making craftsman, who is stuck in his ways but is also experimental and who is kindly, but whose stubbornness brings suffering on those around him.