Chinese movie go-ers

The latest Star Wars movie has raked in more than $175 million in its opening weekend in North America, putting it on course to be one of the top-grossing films of the year. But in China, the blockbuster performed poorly, taking in only $12 million, a fraction of what other Disney franchises, such as the Avengers and Frozen, brought in. This is not the first time Star Wars tanked in the world’s second-biggest film market. When Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, the prequel to this year's movie, opened in China, it had a disappointing first weekend.  The last four Star Wars movies made $250 million in China, which is only a bit better than the $200 million Spider-Man: Far From Home made

The animated film Abominable, the first Hollywood cartoon to feature a modern Chinese family, has conquered the US box office in its opening weekend, taking in more than $20 million, according to Box Office Mojo. But in order to recoup its reported $75 million production budget and related marketing costs, it’ll have to do better than that. Film watchers say it’ll have to be a global hit, particularly in China, the world’s second-largest box office. Luckily, Abominable is a co-production between DreamWorks Animation and Shanghai-based Pearl Studio. That means the family film, set in China and starring a fluffy white Yeti called Everest, is not subject to quotas that the country imposes on fo

A martial arts movie depicting a group of Chinese swordsmen battling the Japanese army in 1933 has become the latest film to be canceled amid growing censorship in China’s entertainment industry.  The producer of The Hidden Sword cited “market reasons” for its cancelation, a euphemism that industry insiders say refers to censorship.  The pulled film is the latest example of an expanding censorship drive in the entertainment industry, during a year with many political anniversaries.  The Hidden Sword is about a group of outgunned soldiers from the Chinese Nationalist Party who resort to using swords, handguns and hand grenades in a key battle against Japanese troops equipped with ample heavy

Animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 film Spirited Away had a record opening weekend for a Japanese film in China, and has taken more than twice as much as another big animated film, Pixar’s Toy Story 4, which hit cinemas the same day. As of the afternoon of June 25, Spirited Away had box office takings of more than $33 million in China, compared with less than $16 million for Toy Story 4. Spirited Away took more than $18 million from Friday to Sunday, performing even better than the first Miyazaki film to enjoy a wide cinematic release in China, My Neighbor Totoro, which opened in December last year. Miyazaki’s whimsical films have enchanted audiences worldwide for decades, but they had

Are heroes still heroes if they belong to the wrong side? That’s the question after a war epic hailed as China’s Dunkirk was pulled abruptly from a Shanghai film festival where it was set to debut, sparking claims of censorship. The Eight Hundred, which depicts a key battle in the Second Sino-Japanese War, was set to open the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival on June 15, but was scrubbed from the schedule just a day before. The film producer cited “technical reasons” for the removal – a euphemism often used to refer to censorship. But just five days before the movie was due to premiere, the Chinese Red Culture Research Association, a Chinese Communist Party cultural advocacy group,

For millions of filmgoers in China, the ending couldn’t come soon enough. A week before Avengers: Endgame hits theaters around the world, the film has broken the record for pre-release ticket sales in China. Cinemas across China have sold more than 600 million yuan ($90 million) worth of tickets by Tuesday, according to the Chinese ticketing company Maoyan, breaking the record set by The Fate of Furious 8. About one-fifth of the money went to midnight premieres on April 24, two days ahead of the film’s North America release. For the superheroes in the universe created by Marvel Studios, Endgame is where they, in the words of the Iron Man, “pull off one last one.” But for Marvel Studios, Endg