Time Raiders

[GeneChing]

Starring Jack Tu. See our JUL+AUG 2015 issue (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1224).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4x7yI2nFBM

[GeneChing]

Didn't see that coming. Good for Jack.


China Box Office: Local Adventure 'Time Raiders' Romps to $71M, Universal's 'Pets' Nears $30M (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-local-adventure-917920)
10:45 PM PDT 8/7/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/08/time_raiders.jpg
'Time Raiders'
Le Vision

A Chinese remake of 'My Best Friend's Wedding' bombed with just a $3.5 million bow.
Delivering a much-needed jolt to the sagging Chinese summer box office, Le Vision Pictures' 3D fantasy-adventure Time Raiders launched to $71 million over the weekend.

The film scored $5.8 million in Thursday-night previews before opening Friday to $24.1 million, according to Beijing-based analyst Ent Group. It slipped slightly on Saturday, taking in $22.9 million, and on Sunday scored $18 million.


International Weekend 8/7/16
Comscore for Weekend of 8/7/16
WEEKEND CUME
1. The Secret Life of Pets $132.0M $5132.0M
2. Time Raiders $68.6M $182.6M
3. Jason Bourne $64.6M $70.0M
4. Ice Age: Collision Course $20.9M $91.9M
5. Finding Dory $11.5M $234.6M
6. Sweet Sixteen (Xia You Qiao Mu) $11.5M $396.4M
7. The Last Princess $10.0M $11.0M
8. Operation Chromite $100M $10.0M
9. The Legend of Tarzan $9.5M $33.5M

Time Raiders performed especially well on Imax, collecting $5 million from China's 309 giant-format screens. That's the largest Imax opening of the summer for a local-language film, and the third-biggest ever behind last year's Mojin — The Lost Legend ($7.5 million) and Monster Hunt ($7.2 million).

Based on the best-selling online novel series Grave Robbers’ Chronicles, Time Raiders was directed by Daniel Lee and stars Chinese heartthrobs Lu Han and Jing Boran. Written by Xu Lei, affectionately known as "Uncle Three," the books on which the film is based sold over 20 million copies in China. Whether the movie will be this summer's first Chinese-language title to cross the $150 million mark remains to be seen. Word of mouth has been somewhat tepid, with leading local reviews aggregators Douban and Mtime scoring it 4.9/10 and 5.9/10, respectively.

Illumination Entertainment and Universal's The Secret Life of Pets debuted last Tuesday to a modest $5.2 million. The movie added $15.5 million for a second-place finish over its first full weekend. After six days in China, the animation has earned $29 million, a healthy haul but one dwarfed by the film's bigger-than-expected $103.2 million debut in North America last month.

Opening a step behind Pets, Chinese-South Korean co-production Sweet Sixteen, starring Chinese talent Kris Wu, Lu Shan and Hang Geng and South Korea's Joo Won, pulled in $14.1 million in its first weekend. Also based on an internet novel, the film tells the story of three men who fall for the same woman.

China Film Group's Chinese-language remake of the Julia Roberts rom-com My Best Friend's Wedding disappointed with an opening of just $3.5 million.

Jackie Chan's breakout hit Skipetrace added $3.8 million in its third weekend, bringing its total to $127.5 million after 18 days. Further down the charts, Warner Bros.' The Legend of Tarzan is approaching the end of its run; it earned another $300,000 for a 20-day China total of $45.6 million.

[GeneChing]

We didn't take notice of Line Walker here, but this can go on our Time Raiders and Call of Heroes threads. I suppose it could go on our Suicide Squad (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68509-Suicide-Squad) and Jason Bourne (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68367-Jason-Bourne) threads too, but I'm not going to bother.


China Box Office: 'Line Walker' Leads Another Quiet Weekend (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-line-walker-919430)
9:04 PM PDT 8/14/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn4.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2016/08/line_walker.jpg
'Line Walker'
Media Asia

Universal's 'The Secret Life of Pets' added $6.6 million for a two-week total of $49 million in China.
Hong Kong crime thriller Line Walker, a big screen adaptation of a hit TV series, crept its way to the top of the Chinese box office during another downbeat late-summer weekend.

Line Walker opened to $8.9 million Thursday, before slipping slightly to $7.1 million Friday, as a wave of other local new releases joined the fray. It went on to win the weekend with a solid but unexceptional $27.1 million, taking its four-day total to $36 million, according to Beijing-based box office tracker Ent Group.

Starring Nick Cheung and Louis Koo, the film is an official China-Hong Kong co-production, made by Shaw Brothers Pictures, Media Asia, TVB and several mainland Chinese partners.

Coming in second, youth romance Love O2O cashed in on Qixi, or Chinese Valentine's Day, which landed on Tuesday (Aug. 9). The movie proved the date-night picture of choice for many, earning $18.2 million from Friday to Sunday. Referring to the tech-world buzzword "online-to-offline" in its title, the film follows two young people, played by stars of the moment Angelababy and Jing Boran, who meet and fall in love through an online role-playing game.

Hong Kong martial arts flick Call of Heroes landed in third place with a weekend debut of $13.6 million. The film is set in 1914 following the collapse of the Qing dynasty, and tells the story of a group of villagers standing up to a cruel young warlord. Starring Sean Lau, Louis Koo (again) and Eddie Peng, it was produced and financed by Universe Entertainment, Bona Film Group and iQiyi Motion Pictures, among others.


International Weekend 8/14/16
Comscore for Weekend of 8/14/16
WEEKEND CUME
1. Suicide Squad $58.7M $242.5M
2. The Secret Life of Pets $40.0M $256.7M
3. Line Walker $26.0M $35.0M
4. Jason Bourne $18.6M $119.4M
5. Love O2O $17.5M $17.5M
6. Tunnel $15.1M $15.2M
7. Call Of Heroes $12.7M $12.9M
8. Time Raiders $12.3M $121.0M
9. Finding Dory $8.1M $420.6M
10. The Last Princess $7.8M $25.0M

Last weekend's winner Time Raiders fell to fourth, taking $13.1 million from Friday to Sunday after opening to $71 million the weekend prior. Young fans had come out in force for the film's stars, idols Lu Han and Jing Boran, but poor word-of-mouth about the film's quality quickly caught up with it.

Hollywood holdover Secret Life of Pets added $6.6 million for a 13-day cume of $49 million in China.

Hong Kong rom-com I Love That Crazy Little Thing pitched itself to the Qiyi date crowd with lesser success, opening to $4.32 million.

Disney nature's co-production with Shanghai Media Group, Born in China opened to just $2.3 million. An ode to the natural wonders and rare animals of the Middle Kingdom, the doc was directed by leading Chinese filmmaker Lu Chuan (City of Life and Death; the upcoming River Town). Disney plans to give the film a limited North American release next year.

Hollywood's next releases in China will be Jason Bourne and Ice Age: Collision Course, both on Aug. 23.

[GeneChing]

Time Raiders (https://www.amctheatres.com/movies/time-raiders)

https://cdn.amctheatres.com/m/Posters/234254H1.jpg

Synopsis

It is based on the online novel series, 'Daomu Biji' written by Xu Lei. It tells the story of explorers searching for the secrets of immortality in ancient tombs.

Running Time 2 hr 3 min
Genre Adventure
Director Daniel Lee
Cast Boran Jing, Lu Han, Sichun Ma
Release Date
August 26, 2016

Date
Tomorrow, August 20, 2016

08/20/2016

English Subtitle, Mandarin
10:25AM 4:05PM 9:55PM
English Subtitle, Mandarin
1:10PM 7:00PM


Weird - the AMC Asian Pacific Cinema link (https://www.amctheatres.com/programs/independent/asian-pacific-cinema) shows local times for tomorrow (in REAL D 3D even) despite that it's not supposed to open until next weekend.

[GeneChing]

This does open in the U.S. tomorrow through AMC's Asian-Pacific Cinema (https://www.amctheatres.com/movies/line-walker#nearby-theatres). Here in the Bay Area, it'll be at Metreon and Cupertino Square.

I'll see it tomorrow. It's Jack Tu and he's an old friend.

[GeneChing]

This was the most packed theater I've seen for an AMC Asian-Pacific Cinema showing, maybe 50+ people in the audience, including our the Oh's (Gigi & Thomas), our copy editor and me. But the rest were Chinese (no surprise) It is amusing to go with an audience that understands the language because they laugh at puns and double entendre that don't translate into subtitles. Note that there was a lot on English in this film too, oddly enough. But a Chinese audience is so rude - I haven't heard so much chatter in a movie in a long time, and I've never seen so many cell lights. It was kind of nostalgic for me.

The film has great 3D, especially the first part. It would probably suffer in 2D because it's another CGI extravaganza. It's really reminiscent of Mojin: The Lost Legend (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69126-Mojin-The-Lost-Legend) in plot (which I didn't really care for despite having a good cast and a director that I like). Mallika Sherawat (remember her from The Myth (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=658)?) was another CGI-tentacled demoness yet not as alluring as Fan in League or Gods (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68635-League-of-Gods-aka-Feng-Shen-Bang-aka-Fengshen-Yanyi) surprisingly. It's a very derivative film - crypt bugs ala The Mummy, fanged wyrms ala Alien, and of course, tomb raiding from Tomb Raider (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69467-Tomb-Raider-remake). It's a lot of superhero swordfights with wacky anime swords. There is gratuitous gears and some great puppets. It needed more Jack Tu - he had a good opening fight scene and then was relegated to henchman status. He did well though - it was just such a boisterous overdone film that it lost track of many of its characters as it got closer to the finale. I did find it more engaging than some of the recent PRC blockbusters of late. There was a lot of action and a lot of visuals. But it was like a park-your-brain-outside comic book movie so it didn't move me beyond some pleasant distraction.

[GeneChing]

Interesting development for Monkey King 2 & Time Raiders.


AFM: CMC Pictures Makes Market Debut With Slate of Chinese Hits (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/cmc-pictures-market-debut-chinese-hits-1201910903/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

http://i2.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/time-raiders.jpg?crop=91px%2C93px%2C982px%2C546px&resize=670%2C377&ssl=1
COURTESY OF LE VISION PICTURES
NOVEMBER 5, 2016 | 07:54PM PT

“Someone to Talk to,” a Chinese relationship drama in which a man discovers his wife’s extra-marital affairs and considers killing her, is prominent among the debut American Film Market slate of CMC Pictures. It enjoyed a wide release in Chinese theaters this weekend.

Founded earlier this year, the company is the rights sales arm of the China Media Capital group, a powerhouse fund group. Under the chairmanship of former Shanghai Media Group boss Li Ruigang, CMC has some 80 media investments and is weaving together an integrated conglomerate that stretches from film production and distribution, through sports ownership to VR and smart TV technology.

Among CMC’s highest profile holdings is Flagship Entertainment, a joint venture with Warner Bros. to make Chinese movies.

CMC Pictures expects to handle the smaller-budget movies flowing from the CMC portfolio companies including Flagship, Gravity Pictures, vfx and production firm BaseFX, and Infinity Pictures, a production outfit headed by former Weinstein Co. and Sony executive Dede Nickerson.

One of the first such Flagship titles to be handled by CMC Pictures is “When Larry Met Mary,” a relationship comedy directed by Zhang Wen that was released in July for a gross of $40 million. (IM Global is handling the larger-budget Flagship picture “the Adventurers” at the AFM.)

CMC is also handling Aaron Kwok- and Gong Li-starring “Monkey King 2” from Hong Kong’s Filmko, which grossed $185 million in Chinese theaters; and “Time Raiders,” from Le Vision Pictures, which grossed $150 million.

Currently unreleased CMC titles include: “Suddenly Seventeen,” a body swap comedy that marks the feature directing debut of Zhang Mo, Zhang Yimou’s daughter; and “Buddies in India,” a film about a nobody and his surreal experiences abroad is directed, stars and is co-produced by Wang Bao-Qiang, the star of smash hits “Lost in Thailand” and “Detective Chinatown.” Enlight Pictures is the film’s other producer, and, with a prime Dec. 23 release date, expectations are high that it will be one of the biggest movies of the year.

“China has very few film sales companies. We are here for the long-term and expect to attend all of the major markets from now on, including FilMart and Cannes,” said Wei Jingyi, a veteran executive with previous positions including National Geographic Channel and Bloomberg.