China’s Tencent Grinds Out Profits Increase in Second Quarter, as Local Games and Economy Slow

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites. “The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference. International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”). Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award.

McKinley Franklin editor More than a decade after its 2007 debut, Will Smith’s post-apocalyptic horror “I Am Legend” is receiving a sequel. After signing a multi-year deal with Warner Bros, “I Am Legend” writer Avika Goldsman confirmed that “I Am Legend 2” is in the works. The original film grossed $585 million worldwide, serving as an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel of the same name.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Oppenheimer” landed on top of the mainland China cinema box office with an impressive score for a Hollywood movie in the current climate. More typically, gaming adaptation “Gran Turismo” failed to get far off the start line. While most films open in China on Fridays, Christopher Nolan’s nuclear opus was given a wide release from Wednesday. It scored $21.3 million (RMB154 million) over the conventional Friday to Sunday weekend and $30.7 million (RMB221 million) over its opening five days, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway.

Tapestry of Love” (literally — in a notebook) after beginning her writing career at an Amish newspaper.The second novel in her “New Directions” romance series chronicles the romance between two traditional Amish youngsters in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and has sold close to a million copies, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.But Byler has gotten blowback from some community elders who claim the success of her tome is fueling sexual abuse, she told the outlet.“They are very tame books,” Byler said, dismissing comparisons to the sadomasochistic “Fifty Shades of Grey” novels, which shocked and titillated readers just over a decade ago.“There’s nothing unclean in them. There is some touching, my publisher said it would have to be discreet, and a little bit of a kiss,” she said, adding there was no sex in the book.Byler began newspaper reporting when her husband went bankrupt and later transitioned to publishing books for children before writing about the amorous side of Amish culture, where premarital sex — not to mention divorce, cars, electricity and cellphones — are verboten.Her books have increasingly become popular in the conservative US Bible Belt and other Christian communities, and Byler said she has earned a lifetime of money for her and her husband.However, she claims she is being unfairly blamed for recent publicized cases of sex abuse in the Amish community.“In the last 10 years or so, romance novels have become wrong in the community,” Byler told the Daily Mail.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong-based, Mainland China-born auteur Yonfan has scandalized and enthralled Chinese-speaking parts of Asia in a career that has spanned fine-art photography, filmmaking and journalism. Further afield, he has become a regular on the Lido. His 1995 feature “Bugis Street,” which has been restored and is screening in the Venice Classics section, achieved notoriety at the time of its debut. It is set in the red-light area of Singapore, at a time shortly after the country had achieved independence and before it earned its buttoned-up, conservative reputation. Loosely structured, the film follows a 16-year-old woman (played by Hiep Thi Le), who’s an employee at the appropriately named Sin Sin Hotel.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer With one strike already underway, SAG-AFTRA announced Friday that it will seek authorization for a second strike against the major video game companies. The union said that talks on a new video game contract have reached a “stalemate,” and that the strike authorization vote is needed as leverage to win wage increases and protection from artificial intelligence. SAG-AFTRA declared a strike on July 13 against the major TV and film companies, shutting down productions around the globe.

Hollyoaks legend Nicole Barber-Lane has revealed that she's set to join Coronation Street - and viewers will see her on-screen in just a matter of weeks. Soap fans will best know the actress for playing Myra McQueen on the Channel 4 soap.

Move over, Ted Lasso. There’s a new Apple TV+ series making its way onto the Nielsen streaming charts.

The Venice Film Festival is now underway, albeit without a lot of actors on the Lido thanks to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. But Variety reports that “Ferrari” star Adam Driver is at the festival to support Michael Mann‘s latest film (as it’s not part of the AMPTP), and he didn’t hold back about certain companies refusing to meet guild demands.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief CAA China has teamed up with the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society to unveil a joint initiative that will foster Chinese-language genre film projects. The HGC initiative will operate an open call for projects from Monday until the end of October.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The main competition section of the Busan International Film Festival is set to showcase two new features from Bangladeshi directors, the feature debut of Japanese documentary maker Mori Tatsuya and ruminations on Hong Kong by mainland Chinese director Choi Ji. The festival on Wednesday unveiled its New Currents competition section, reserved for films by directors making their first or second works of fiction, as well as its Jiseok section, a showcase for somewhat more established Asian auteurs. In addition to the Bangladesh duo, New Currents includes two films from Japan, two from Korea and one each from China, Thailand, Malaysia and India. From Bangladesh, Iqbal H. Chowdhury’s “The Wrestler” sees an old fisherman challenge a wrestling champion to combat, and in “The Stranger” Biplob Sarkar tells a coming-of-age, gender-identity tale. From Japan, Mori recounts the events of the Great Kanto earthquake in “September 1923,” while Yamamoto Akira delves into profound and shocking love in “After the Fever.” New Currents’ Korean contributions come from Lee Jong-su, whose “Heritage” tracks a man who opts out of military service and his supervisor, and Sohn Hyun-lok, whose “That Summer’s Lie” blurs truth and fiction in memories of a past romance. India’s Rajesh S.

ESPN is enlarging college football’s presence in movie theaters, setting a distribution agreement with Theater Sports Network for dozens of Atlantic Coast Conference games this season.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese crime action film “No More Bets” headed the mainland China box office for the fourth consecutive weekend, cementing its place as one of the biggest films in the world this year. Between Friday and Sunday, it earned $33.5 million (RMB241 million), according to data from specialist consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Global data provider Comscore ranked that as the third highest performance of the weekend anywhere in the world, narrowly behind “Barbie’s” $35.3 million. The latest increment advanced “No More Bets’” cumulative score to $469 million (RMB3.37 billion). “Papa,” a comedy about parental efforts to improve their son’s education, held an unchanged second place in its second week.

An urgent warning has been issued about a chilled Tesco product that 'may contain plastic and metal'. The retailer has warned that specific batches of a number of pastry products may now be unsafe to eat.

Sophia Scorziello editor As Hurricane Hilary nears landfall in Los Angeles, weekend events from concerts to sports games are being postponed until further notice. The L.A. Galaxy vs.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The box office in mainland China reached an all-time high in the summer season, according to figures from ticketing agency Maoyan Entertainment. The record was achieved with minimal input from Hollywood.

Kendall Jenner tends to keep her private life on the down low, but she spoke a little about her approach to romance in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The number of paying streaming subscribers at China’s Tencent Music Entertainment hit 100 million in the June, the company said Tuesday as it revealed its second quarter financials. Subscriber numbers increased by 20% year on year and by 5 million quarter on quarter, to hit 99.4 million, the company said. That increase helped quarterly revenues from music subscriptions to rise by 37% year-on-year to RMB2.89 billion ($399 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese crime action movie “No More Bets,” not “Barbie,” was the best performing film in the world this weekend. Comscore calculates that “No More Bets,” earned $88 million between Friday and Sunday in China alone. That figure is greater than the $33.7 million that “Barbie” earned in its fourth weekend of release in North America and the $45.1 million that it earned in international territories (for a global, weekend total of $78.8 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Box office hit “Lost in the Stars” was a contributor to the April to June profits recorded by Chinese tech giant Alibaba’s digital media and entertainment division. The division, which spans streaming, ticketing, film production and distribution and web browser, recorded earnings before interest, taxation and amortization (EBITA) of $9 million (RMB63 million). That follows many years of losses, including $126 million (RMB907 million) of EBITA losses in the equivalent quarter last year.