‘Soul’ Nears $100M Overseas & Becomes No. 2 Pixar Pic Ever In China Where Pre-Sales Pop For Lunar New Year Movies – International Box Office

Rebecca Davis editorMore than 35,300 suspected links to pirated versions of Chinese New Year’s films and major holiday TV programs are available online, despite government directives to crack down on piracy, new data from China shows. Rampant piracy did not stop the seven new year’s blockbusters released on Feb.

Rebecca Davis editorChloe Zhao’s awards season frontrunner “Nomadland” has been approved for a limited release in China starting April 23 through the country’s arthouse cinema circuit, according to information published on the government-backed distributor China Film’s website.The date would put its debut just three days ahead of the Academy Awards, where the title is expected to be a top pick.

Rebecca Davis editorThe Beijing Culture-backed tear-jerking comedy “Hi, Mom” grossed $134 million this weekend to finally surpass Wanda Film’s record-breaking Chinese New Year holiday frontrunner “Detective Chinatown 3” in overall box office, having led the latter in single-day returns since Monday.It is now only the sixth film to ever have grossed more than RMB400 million ($62 million) in China, a feat achieved by “Detective Chinatown 3,” “Avengers: Endgame” and four other local titles.The

EXCLUSIVE: Eternals and American Animals star Barry Keoghan is set to lead new UK drama-thriller Sapphire, from writer-directors Daniel and Matthew Wolfe, and Small Axe and Benediction producer Mike Elliott.

Rebecca Davis editorDespite nearly six months of cinema closures due to COVID-19, China actually built nearly 6,000 more new screens in 2020, according to a new report from the country’s film authorities.The data contradicts the disastrous predictions made over the summer about the extent to which the pandemic would devastate the Chinese exhibition sector.China now boasts 75,581 screens nationwide at some 12,700 complexes, having built 5,794 more screens last year, said the National Office for

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMovie industry shares soared in Hong Kong on Tuesday in response to the bumper revenues being earned at the mainland China box office over the Chinese New Year holidays.Leading the gains were Imax China and Alibaba Pictures, both of which have direct stakes in the box office boom. Imax China stock climbed by 31% to HK$18.36 per share at the close of trading.

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 to the biggest opening weekend ever in a single market — overtaking Endgame’s North American launch of $357M from April 2019.

The new Chinese film Detective Chinatown 3 just broke the record for the biggest opening day in a single market.

Lunar New Year 2021 is today, February 12th. It’s called Lunar New Year because, as Oprah Magazine describes, “it marks the first new moon of the lunisolar calendars traditional to many East Asian countries.” 2021 is the Year of the Ox, according to the Chinese zodiac. Traditions vary depending on your family and culture.

China's Lunar New Year box office opened with a roar Friday. Wanda Pictures' Detective Chinatown 3 was leading the pack of seven new releases as expected.

China’s box office is primed for a sparkling Lunar New Year frame as new titles start rollout on Friday. As we noted this past Sunday, pre-sales had alread begun to pop, with threequel Detective Chinatown 3 in the lead. The film from Chen Sicheng as of 11:30PM local time on Thursday had hit over RMB 673M ($104M) in advance tickets for opening day Friday and more than RMB 950M ($147M) for the first week, according to Maoyan.

Long-developing plans to engineer the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a group of investors including Oracle and Walmart have been put on hold.

China's comedy tentpole Detective Chinatown 3 is already doing gangbusters business ahead of its release on Friday, the first day of the lucrative Lunar New Year holiday in the country. The wildly anticipated franchise sequel has earned $85 million (RMB 548 million) in advance ticket sales, according to Artisan Gateway, which means Avengers: Endgame's all-time China presales sales record of $95.5 million (RMB 615.3 million) is well within striking distance.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorA deal that would give Oracle and Walmart ownership stakes in TikTok is up in the air — and may not happen at all, as the Biden administration reviews Trump’s actions and policies against Chinese tech companies, according to a new report.Last summer, then-President Trump ordered Chinese internet giant ByteDance to sell TikTok, its hugely popular short-form video app, to U.S. owners, citing alleged risks to national security.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThis month’s Chinese New Year holidays will be a litmus test for the strength of China’s film industry recovery following a period of unprecedented turmoil.This time last year, China’s wrecked Spring Festival celebrations were emblematic of the coronavirus crisis that had dramatically engulfed the world’s most populous nation and was soon to become a global pandemic.

EXCLUSIVE: Grindstone Entertainment has acquired North American rights to animated fantasy movie Mosley, whose voice cast includes Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess), John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Temuera Morrison (Star Wars) and Rhys Darby (Jumanji).