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Thread: Chollywood rising

  1. #331
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    $91.5M Opening

    I really could have sworn that I started a Nezha thread, but all there is on this 2019 film is the post from our Chollywood rising thread, so I'm splitting this off for that indie Nezha thread. We have a few references across this forum but none to this new film until now.

    China Box Office: 'Nezha' Smashes Animation Records With $91.5M Opening
    4:19 AM PDT 7/29/2019 by Patrick Brzeski


    Courtesy of Horgos Coloroll
    'Nezha'

    The feature debut of Chinese filmmaker Yang Yu, 'Nezha' is well positioned to overtake Disney's 'Zootopia' ($236 million) as China's biggest animated film ever.

    Beijing Enlight's big-budget 3D animation film Nezha opened to a historic $91.5 million at China's box office over the weekend, smashing a slew of records for an animated film in the country.

    Thanks to the huge start, Nezha ranked number two at the global box office for the weekend even though it was screening only in China. Disney's The Lion King was the only film to go bigger, clawing in $142.8 million from dozens of markets around the world.

    The feature debut of Chinese director Yang Yu, Nezha's records for an animated feature include biggest opening day ($21.1 million, topping Despicable Me 3), largest single-day total ($33.3 million, beating Disney film Zootopia's $25 million) and the top opening weekend overall ($91.5 million, crushing Despicable Me 3's $64 million start in 2017).

    Nezha proved especially powerful on Imax, earning $7.7 million from 618 screens — the biggest animated Imax opening in China and the biggest ever July opening for a film of any category.

    The film's social scores are among the best ever for a Chinese film. Its user rating on Maoyan sits at 9.7/10 and its score from Douban's notoriously picky but influential users is 8.7/10. Including its roadshow preview screenings in the two weeks leading up to Friday's release, Nezha's overall total was $102.6 million Sunday.

    Given the rave word of mouth and current momentum, Zootopia's all-time China animation record of $235.6 million looks well within sight.

    The film is based on a young male character from Chinese mythology, who appears in some of the country's best known works of classic literature, such as The Investiture of the Gods and Journey to the West. In Nezha, Yang has given the story a coming-of-age spin, as the young character fights to overcome prejudice and pursue his dreams — themes that appear to be clicking with China's filmgoing youth.

    Last weekend's top title, family comedy drama Looking Up, returned to Earth with $17.3 million in its second frame. The film, about an astronaut who reflects on his father's teachings while marooned in space, has earned $106.7 million after 10 days.

    Bona Film Group's hotly anticipated firefighter hero film The Bravest scored $7.8 million in third place thanks to packed limited preview screenings. The film unfurls Aug. 1 and early word of mouth augurs a blazing debut.

    Disney's The Lion King added $5.8 million in its third weekend. The global juggernaut appears to be running out of steam in China. It has earned a healthy $114.5 million to date.

    Further down in fifth place, Beijing Culture's coming-of-age comedy Dancing Elephant opened to just $4.7 million — a pricey flop for the hit-making studio behind 2019's biggest Chinese film, The Wandering Earth ($700 million).
    Gene Ching
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  2. #332
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    Largest Export Market for European Films

    I wonder how close China is to being the Largest Export Market for U.S. films?

    AUGUST 5, 2019 4:48AM PT
    China Becomes Largest Export Market for European Films
    By STEWART CLARKE
    International Correspondent
    @varietystewart


    CREDIT: COURTESY OF STX ENTERTAINMENT

    China has replaced North America as the largest export market, by admissions, for European movies, according to Europe’s Audiovisual Observatory.

    Research results released Monday show that China accounted for 37% of all admissions to European films outside of Europe itself. At the same time, the number of tickets sold to European movies in North America dropped from 29.8 million to 27.1 million in 2017, or 28% of the total. Latin America accounted for 24% of the European export market.

    The Audiovisual Observatory said that a sizable year-on-year increase in admissions in China and ongoing decline in admissions in the U.S. were responsible for China becoming the biggest export market. Ticket sales to European films in the Middle Kingdom grew from 21.2 million in 2016 to 35.8 million in 2017.

    “This occurred despite the fact that the Chinese market remains accessible only for a highly limited number of European films, fewer than 30 first releases, and does not (yet) offer realistic market potential for the vast majority of European films,” the report’s authors noted.

    In monetary terms, North America remains the most important region for European movie exports, generating 41% of box office receipts.

    Luc Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” was the European film with the most admissions worldwide, outside Europe. Movies from France and the U.K. were the most popular, accounting for a third apiece. That was a year-on-year decrease, but still significantly ahead of the likes of Spain, which was ranked third, and Russia and Germany, which were placed fourth and fifth, respectively.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #333
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    Asia Society’s U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit conference

    ASIA NOVEMBER 2, 2019 8:29PM PT
    ‘Asians are Taking Their Rightful Place in Hollywood’ Says Janet Yang
    By PATRICK FRATER
    Asia Bureau Chief


    Janet Yang Film producer Janet Yang, head of Janet Yang Productions, speaks following a contract signing event held as part of the Beijing International Film Festival in Beijing . Chinese and foreign film producers, companies and investment firms signed movie cooperation deals worth 13.8 billion RMB ($2.3 billion) on Monday, demonstrating how foreign movie makers increasingly want a piece of the growing Chinese marketChina Beijing Film Festival Deals, Beijing, China
    CREDIT: MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

    “Borders are collapsing all around us,” says producer Janet Yang, who programs the Asia Society’s U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit conference next week in Los Angeles. “That process is being driven by changes in content and technology.”

    The summit this year has notably broadened its focus from one on U.S.-China relations to one that examines the entertainment business to a wider U.S.-Asia perspective.

    The conference’s altered angel of attack may reflect a waning American interest in China, now that Chinese firms are no longer buying up Hollywood corporate assets at inflated prices.

    And with the polarizing effects of 22 weeks of anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong, and a year-long U.S.-China trade war, a China focus might also be too sensitive. U.S. entities such as the NBA, Quentin Tarantino and “South Park” have all clashed with China in recent weeks.

    “There are too many other topics. Business goes on. The pendulum keeps swinging,” says Yang. Nevertheless, one of the summit’s highlights is expected to be the presentation by (Mandarin-speaking) Australian former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

    “Streaming increasingly means that you can make something that is authentically yours. You don’t have to try to please everyone,” says Yang, but the global reach of platforms means that creators can connect with audiences no matter how far away or scattered. “Streaming is good for diversity. A theatrical release is no longer necessarily the only option.”

    Alibaba Pictures Los Angeles-based president Zhang Wei is expected to speak about the new ways in which to reach China’s massive audience. During an on-stage interview, Zhang will share details of how “Capernaum,” Nadine Labacki’s Palestine-set drama, was helped to an $12 million gross in China.

    Yang says too that Asians are finally achieving a more interesting and meaningful place in Hollywood. “The changes of the last couple of years are not just imagination,” she says.

    That topic will be explored more thoroughly by Daniel Dae Kim, the Korean star of lost who now heads his own Hollywood based production company 3AD Media in a presentation. Others speaking on the same topic will include CJ Entertainment’s Francis Chung, Tencent Pictures’ Rob Ree, “Crazy Rich Asians” associate producer Janice Chua, and Disney’s Mark Zee.

    Bringing the sessions to a climax will be the wildly-popular Chinese-American singer and actor Wang Leehom. His chosen topics are bridging cultures, and making change happen.

    Variety is a media partner of the conference.
    Wonder if there will be more news coming out of this conference...
    Gene Ching
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  4. #334
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    hate to say 'i told ya so'...

    ...okay, that's not true. i love to say 'i told ya so'. doesn't everyone?

    NOVEMBER 7, 2019 3:02AM PT
    Asia Pacific Is World’s No. 1 Box Office Region
    By REBECCA DAVIS


    CREDIT: PHOTO CREDIT: DANIEL SMITH/UNIVE

    The $16.7 billion Asia Pacific market is the world’s No. 1 box office region, commanding a 40.6% share of the global total despite trade tensions between the U.S. and China, MPA and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd said at the Asia Society’s U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles.

    “Whether you like it or not, U.S.-China relations are affecting the Asia Pacific region big-time” and will be the key factor shaping its future in 2020 both geopolitically and in terms of the entertainment industry, Rudd said. Unfortunately, that relationship is “getting to be increasingly difficult at a structural level” as the dynamic is “taking an increasingly ideological turn.”

    Nevertheless, Rudd expressed a measured optimism that, given the U.S. and China’s interdependence, “to say we are on a path towards economic decoupling is a vast overstatement of reality.”

    In Rudd’s estimation, a Phase One trade deal is “highly probable,” possibly by Thanksgiving – particularly since “Trump doesn’t want to tank the economy in an election year.” A Phase Two deal would be harder but is “still probable” next year, Rudd said. The lack of one would have “a wounding effect on global confidence.”

    Against this troubling backdrop of uncertainty and other local disputes between China and its neighbors, “the good news is that more people are going to the cinema than ever before in Asia. There’s no question about that,” said MPA president Michael Ellis.

    Based on data from Oxford Economics, Ellis said that last year, the film and TV industries made $48.4 billion in direct contributions to China’s GDP and boosted total employment by 4.7 million jobs. In Japan, those industries directly contributed $22.53 billion to Japan’s GDP and added 521,000 jobs, while in South Korea they contributed $7.53 billion and 315,400 total jobs.

    China continues to add more than two dozen new movie screens a day, but it also still sees just one average admission per head, while South Korea, a more mature market, sees four. Despite its smaller population, South Korea has more screens per head than either China or Japan, as well as the most VOD penetration per capita, at 38%, compared to just 14% in China and 13% in Japan.

    Additional data showed that South Korea exported a total of $600 million worth of film and TV products last year, about 31% of which were film products and 69% were TV products. The South Korean animation sector employs 5,600 people, accounting for 16% of direct employment within the film industry.

    The top three American films in China so far this year have been “Avengers: Endgame” ($597 million), “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” ($202 million) and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” ($199 million). The top three in Japan so far have been been a clean sweep for Disney: “Aladdin” ($97 million), “Toy Story 4” ($74 million) and “The Lion King” ($69 million).

    Last year, nine films earned more in China than the U.S. These included two superhero flicks (“Venom” and “Aquaman”), two Dwayne Johnson vehicles (“Rampage” and “Skyscraper”), sci-fi action titles “Pacific Rim: Uprising” and “Ready Player One,” actioner “Tomb Raider,” U.S.-China co-production “The Meg,” and “Johnny English Strikes Again,” on the back of Rowan Atkinson’s popularity in the mainland.

    So far this year, there have been four films that have performed better in China than stateside: “Transformers” spinoff “Bumblebee,” “Alita: Battle Angel,” “Godzilla, King of the Monsters,” and “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.”

    In meetings with Chinese officials, criticism was often leveled at Hollywood for making commercial blockbusters like those listed, rather than “more family-oriented films,” Ellis admitted. But, he said, “it’s a business, and those numbers tell the story. This is what the audience likes to see, and as long as audiences like these movies, we’ll make them.”

    Animation stood out this year as traveling well around Asia, Ellis noted.
    Gene Ching
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  5. #335
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    PRC's big box office winners

    DECEMBER 18, 2019 1:28AM PT
    China’s Box Office Total Breaks All-Time Record
    By PATRICK FRATER
    Asia Bureau Chief


    CREDIT: COURTESY OF CHINA FILM GROUP

    The Chinese box office has broken its all-time yearly record, with local films accounting for eight of the top 10 movies so far in 2019 and a few more anticipated releases yet to come. The previous record total, set last year, of RMB60.7 billion – $8.67 billion at current conversion rates – was overtaken last Friday, according to data from online ticketing agency Maoyan.

    With nearly two weeks to go until the end of the year, and a clutch of big titles to be released during the busy Christmas season, 2019’s takings could show several percentage points of growth from last year. Maoyan chose not to issue a forecast, noting that some 2019 releases remain fluid even at this late stage.

    The record-breaking haul seemed an unlikely outcome throughout the first half of the year, when the local industry was dogged by uncertainty caused by the Fan Bingbing tax scandal. That triggered a sharp slowdown in production from mid-2018, as well as financial difficulties for studios large and small.

    The crucial Chinese New Year period in early 2019 did deliver a record total and a breakthrough for Chinese sci-fi, with “The Wandering Earth” taking RMB4.66 billion ($665 million). But the total did not match the rate of cinema construction, and the season included several disappointments.

    Summer was rescued by the unexpected performance of Chinese animated film “Nezha,” which achieved RMB4.97 billion ($710 million), making it China’s second-highest-grossing film ever. And the early autumn, which included a clutch of patriotic movies with releases intended to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, turned into blockbuster season. Winners were “My People, My Country” and “The Captain” (previously known as “The Chinese Pilot”). It also threw up the unlikely breakthrough of oft-delayed “Better Days,” a local film that got yanked at the last minute from the Berlin Film Festival because of Chinese censors.

    Among foreign titles, the only two to figure in the year’s current top 10 are “Avengers: Endgame” and “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.”

    Maoyan noted that this year has seen a marked polarization of the Chinese box office. “Nezha” and “Wandering Earth” together account for nearly one sixth of the entire annual total. “China needs more high-quality movies to drive the steady growth of the box office,” it said in an announcement. It highlighted “Song of Youth,” “The Legend of Hei” and “White Snake” as examples of low- and mid-budget successes.
    THREADS
    Chollywood rising
    Avengers: Endgame
    Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
    The Wandering Earth
    Nezha
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  6. #336
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    More on that shift...

    It's not like this should surprise anyone. It's been the point of this here thread, and my former column, for years now. And if I could see it coming from over a decade ago, how hard could it have been to predict?

    DECEMBER 24, 2019 5:06AM PT
    China’s Box Office Went Its Own Way in 2019, to Hollywood’s Detriment
    By PATRICK FRATER
    Asia Bureau Chief


    CREDIT: NETFLIX

    It wasn’t just “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” — with its dismal $12 million opening weekend — that was a Middle Kingdom misfire for Hollywood in 2019. When year-end figures for the China box office are confirmed next week, it’s likely that only two Hollywood titles will be among the 10 top-grossing titles of 2019, compared to five out of 10 last year and overwhelming market domination not so long before that.

    “This has to be the worst performance for Hollywood in China since 2008,” said Chris Fenton, previously China-based head of motion pictures at DMG and now senior advisor to IDW Media Holdings and a trustee of the U.S.-Asia Institute. As recently as 2012 and 2013, Fenton recalls, there were weekends “when 90% of the box office in China was from foreign films… China used to tax its exhibitors if they generated more than 50% box office from foreign films. That’s not needed anymore.”

    Instead, locally produced blockbusters such as sci-fi epic “The Wandering Earth” and animated hit “Nezha” are luring far more moviegoers into Chinese theaters than foreign-made films.

    Whether Hollywood will actually record a net decrease in earnings from China for the first time in possibly a decade is still unclear. The overall year-on-year growth of the Chinese box office has often masked the softening appeal of Hollywood movies. But that expansion has slowed to a single-digit percentage, and the Chinese yuan has weakened against the U.S. greenback, shrinking Hollywood’s earnings in dollars.

    Exhibition and distribution consultancy Artisan Gateway is forecasting that the overall Chinese market will reach RMB63.5 billion ($9.06 billion) this year, a gain of 4.1% in local currency terms. But that is likely to be more than offset by the 6% fall of the yuan from RMB6.58 to the dollar a year ago, to RMB7.01 today.

    Artisan Gateway data already show the market share of Chinese films rising from 62% in 2018 to 65% in 2019. That has come largely at the expense of Hollywood titles, which are down to 31% so far this year, compared to 34% last year. The figure could drop below 30% in the final calculation.

    The tumble is even more discouraging given that 2019 was actually supposed to offer an opportunity for Hollywood to make up the lost ground. The Fan Bingbing tax scandal had led to a production slowdown from mid-2018, and caused severe financial difficulties for many Chinese movie studios.

    In the end, however, only “Avengers: Endgame” and “Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw” made this year’s top 10 list. China can no longer be expected to lap up American duds and act as a box-office safety net for tired franchises, which had been the case in recent years. Raymond Zhou, a China-based industry consultant, describes that as a “growing maturity of Chinese audiences.”

    Both Zhou and Artisan Gateway chief Rance Pow say that Chinese box office is particularly top heavy, or hit-driven. “Only about 3% of titles gross RMB1 billion or more, an observation we’ve made since 2017,” said Pow. “Those titles grossing RMB1 billion are also accounting for an increasing share of China’s annual box office: 43% in 2017; 54% in 2018; and an estimated 55% in 2019.”

    The locally made hits are now coming in a variety of genres, in a reflection of growing Chinese creativity.

    “Forecasts at the beginning of 2019 did not take into account the dark horses such as ‘Nezha,’ which is arguably the best Chinese animation film ever; ‘The Wandering Earth,’ which is a milestone for Chinese sci-fi; ‘Better Days,’ the best teenage movie in a long, long time; and even ‘My People, My Country,’ the best anthology film and a government-encouraged [patriotic] film that most resonated with the public,” says Zhou. “There is not a single Chinese franchise movie in the year’s top 10 box-office list.”

    Another structural change is likely to make it hard for Hollywood to quickly reverse its declining market share: a shift in audience demographics thanks to China’s cinema-building spree. According to Artisan Gateway, nearly 20,000 new screens opened in China this year, pushing the total to about 80,000. The majority of the new screens are in small towns and rural areas, often described as Tier 4 or Tier 5 cities, where audiences are less well-traveled, less affluent and more attuned to local rather than foreign content.

    “The more screens China builds, the more the public taste will be skewed towards domestic fare, percentage-wise,” says Zhou.

    The only upside for Hollywood in that scenario is that Chinese authorities may feel less need to shore up local market share by excluding U.S. films through import quotas. “As Chinese-language films generally over-index in rural markets, pressure limiting foreign-title importation could relax,” says Pow.

    However, Hollywood titles are not necessarily the only beneficiaries of that scenario. In 2018, Indian films made notable inroads in China. In 2019, it was the turn of Japanese films (with a 2.9% share) and Italian ones.

    “China could probably do away with the quotas,” said Fenton. “More Hollywood movies in the market would probably still generate roughly the same box office result. The extra films would probably just cannibalize each other.”

    He added: “In a way, it seems like the Communist Party’s master plan – of using protectionist policies to develop their homegrown product for their own film industry – worked out pretty well.”
    Gene Ching
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  7. #337
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    68,000 Movie Screens

    China Now Has Over 68,000 Movie Screens
    BY CHINAFILMINSIDER DEC 23, 2019



    China Now Has Over 68,000 Movie Screens

    As of December 23, China has 68,922 movie screens nationwide including 8843 screens newly built in 2019, according to the data from the National Committee of Film Development Fund. In addition, China’s total box office earnings has reached RMB 62.7 billion with 63% of earnings generated by domestic films. 15 films, including 10 domestic films, crossed the RMB 1 billion mark. At the beginning of this year, China already overtook North America to own the largest number of movie screens in the world.
    As was foretold...

    Number of U.S. Movie Screens
    Year Indoor Drive-In Total
    2019 40,613 559 41,172
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  8. #338
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    Meanwhile, back here in Hollywood...

    Not Even ‘Star Wars’ Can Save This Year’s Box Office
    In 2019, Hollywood put out a whopping 58 franchise films, including “The Rise of Skywalker,” released this weekend. Still, ticket sales dropped.


    Daisy Ridley as Rey in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which arrived to $175.5 million in domestic ticket sales over the weekend.Credit...Lucasfilm/Disney

    By Brooks Barnes and Nicole Sperling
    Published Dec. 22, 2019
    Updated Dec. 24, 2019

    LOS ANGELES — Cue the sad trombone: Movie ticket sales in the United States and Canada will total roughly $11.45 billion for the year, a 4 percent decrease from 2018.

    That preliminary estimate, released by Comscore on Sunday, took into account the $175.5 million collected by “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” (Disney) over the weekend. “Rise of Skywalker” got off to a soft start compared to “The Last Jedi,” which took in $220 million over its first few days in domestic theaters in 2017.

    Hollywood’s 2019 lineup included one behemoth fantasy after another, including “Frozen II” (Disney), “The Lion King” (Disney), “Toy Story 4” (Disney), “Aladdin” (Disney), “Captain Marvel” (Disney) and “Avengers: Endgame” (Disney), which broke attendance records.

    But moviegoers also rejected an astounding amount of what Hollywood served up.

    Tom Hooper’s critically reviled “Cats” collapsed over the weekend, collecting $6.5 million at North American theaters after costing roughly $100 million to make, not including marketing expenses. At Hooper’s request, Universal sent theaters a version of “Cats” with slight special effects improvements over the weekend. Ticket buyers gave “Cats” a C-plus grade in CinemaScore exit polls.

    Misfires from earlier in the year included “Dark Phoenix,” the latest in the threadbare “X-Men” series; Ang Lee’s ill-advised “Gemini Man,” starring Will Smith; “UglyDolls,” an animated clunker based on a toy line; and a pop-feminist reboot of “Charlie’s Angels,” with Kristen Stewart.

    Ty Burr

    @tyburr
    There are moments in CATS I would gladly pay to unsee, including baby mice with the faces of human girls and a chorus line of cockroach Rockettes. Anyone who takes small children to this movie is setting them up for winged-monkey levels of night terrors.https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/12/18/arts/claws-out/



    ‘Oh God, my eyes’: Read Ty Burr’s scathing review of ‘Cats’ - The Boston Globe
    A triumph of vulgar, wrongheaded “showmanship.”

    bostonglobe.com
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    Nine movies from Warner Bros. stumbled out of the gate, including “The Goldfinch,” “The Kitchen,” “Shaft,” “Motherless Brooklyn” and “Richard Jewell,” which gave Clint Eastwood his worst opening weekend as a filmmaker in four decades.

    “It’s hard to know if this is a secular, permanent phenomenon related to audience viewing habits or movie title-specific,” said David Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a film consultancy.

    The movie business is cyclical, and ending the year a few hundred million dollars behind 2018 is hardly a catastrophe — not when theaters are competing with a fast-growing array of streaming services. One of the most discussed films of the year, Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” largely bypassed theaters, playing instead on Netflix. “The Irishman” and two other Netflix films, “Marriage Story” and “The Two Popes” were showered with Golden Globe nominations. Those three films are also seen as major Oscar contenders.

    Just four percent down? At a time when the “Star Wars” franchise expanded into live-action television for the first time with “The Mandalorian” on Disney Plus?

    “Hallelujah,” you can almost hear film executives saying.


    “Knives Out,” with a starry ensemble cast, was one of the few non-franchise films to do well at the box office. Credit...Claire Folger/Lionsgate

    Joe Drake, the chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said the competition for intellectual property and talent “is more heated than ever, but we doubled our box office this year and increased our market share.”

    Lionsgate found success by deploying Keanu Reeves in “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum,” Gerard Butler in “Angel Has Fallen,” Tyler Perry in “A Madea Family Funeral” and a bevy of stars in “Knives Out.” (Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron couldn’t save the Lionsgate comedy “Long Shot” from living up to its title, however.)

    To compete in theaters, non-franchise films have to be definitive — what Drake called “great stories well told that announce themselves.” “Knives Out,” starring Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas, did not bring anything particularly new — it’s an old-fashioned whodunit — but it was a perfectly executed example of the genre.

    “We genuinely believe that there is a false narrative about midrange movies,” Drake said. “They are not going extinct.”

    But if a movie has flaws, there is no longer a floor. No amount of marketing hocus-pocus could convince people that “The Sun Is Also a Star,” a middling romantic comedy starring Yara Shahidi (“grown-ish”), was worth the hassle and expense of trekking to a theater.
    continued next post
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    Continued from previous post


    “Us” was a hit for Universal, earning $255 million worldwide. Credit...Claudette Barius/Universal Pictures

    Every studio ended the year with a few hits, including Warner, which struck a cultural nerve with “Joker” ($1.1 billion worldwide). Jennifer Lopez and her savvy stripper friends (“Hustlers,” $157 million) propped up STX. “Rocketman” ($195 million) helped Paramount return to annual profitability for the first time in memory. Jordan Peele’s cerebral horror film “Us” ($255 million), Danny Boyle’s Beatles-oriented “Yesterday” ($151 million) and the “Fast and Furious” spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw” ($759 million) kept Universal competitive.

    When all ticket sales are counted, Sony Pictures is expected to be the only studio — aside from Disney — to land two movies in the top 10. “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” riding on “Avengers” coattails, collected $391 million in North America and $1.13 billion worldwide. “Jumanji: The Next Level,” released on Dec. 13, is performing like “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” which earned $404 million at domestic theaters in 2017. Sony also struck gold with Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” ($372 million worldwide).

    “This year was dominated by major franchises, but we’ve also seen the hunger for original content,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst for BoxOffice.com, citing Tarantino’s comedic drama as an example.

    Even so, calling the film business healthy would be a stretch.

    The box office is increasingly divided into haves — franchises, mostly aging ones — and have-nots (everything else). Studios churned out a whopping 58 franchise films this year, which consumed 82 percent of the worldwide Hollywood box office, according to Gross’s film consultancy. Eighty-one non-franchise films got the scraps.

    Some franchises declined sharply. “The Secret Life of Pets 2” was down 51 percent from its series predecessor. “Terminator: Dark Fate” fell 41 percent.

    “Story lines need to move forward, and worlds need to expand,” Gross said. “New characters and conflicts need to emerge.”


    “Harriet,” starring Cynthia Erivo in the title role, did well for Focus Features.Credit...Glen Wilson/Focus Features

    Because moviemaking relies on personal judgment calls, studios try to reduce risk by adhering to rules of thumb. But few choices seem safe anymore.

    Original animation used to be a relatively sure bet. This year, mythical creatures (“Missing Link”), an amusement park run by talking animals (“Wonder Park”) and a fox named Swifty (“Arctic Dogs”) got the cold shoulder.

    Stephen King sequels are hot (“It: Chapter 2”). Until they’re not (“Doctor Sleep”).

    “The market is still very dynamic, but what works is more unpredictable,” said Stephen Gilula, the co-chairman of Fox Searchlight. “The costs have gone up, and the success rate has gone down.”

    Searchlight, the Disney-owned art film studio, scored with the summertime horror flick “Ready or Not” ($29 million). Taika Waititi’s “JoJo Rabbit,” a Nazi satire, has earned $20 million and could generate another $5 million to $10 million based on its awards fate. But Searchlight had a very quiet year over all. “Lucy in the Sky” ($320,000), starring Natalie Portman, was an outright flop. Frequent contributors like Wes Anderson were between films.

    Between January and Aug. 25, combined ticket sales for the 20 largest art film distributors — Fox Searchlight, Magnolia and the like — fell 45 percent from the same period last year, according to Box Office Mojo data.

    A handful of art house offerings ultimately managed to get noticed, including Lulu Wang’s China-set family drama “The Farewell” ($18 million), the elevated A24 horror film “Midsommar” ($27 million), the quirky Huck Finn-style tale “The Peanut Butter Falcon” ($21 million) and Bong Joon Ho’s genre-defying “Parasite” ($21 million).

    For the third year running, Focus Features topped the specialty box office. The Universal Pictures subsidiary saw films like “Downton Abbey” ($97 million) and “Harriet” ($42 million) over-perform in ways that seemed to startle even the studio.

    “We always thought there would be an excited core audience for ‘Harriet,’ those who have a natural interest in an American icon who shockingly had never had her life story told onscreen,” said Peter Kujawski, the chairman of Focus Features. “But it crossed well past that core audience and broke into the broader culture.”

    “Harriet,” directed by Kasi Lemmons, may also figure into the coming Oscar race. Cynthia Erivo, who stars in the film as Harriet Tubman, is a favorite for a best actress nomination.


    Correction: Dec. 24, 2019
    An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the director of "The Farewell." It is Lulu Wang, not Lulu Wong.

    Brooks Barnes is a media and entertainment reporter, covering all things Hollywood. He joined The Times in 2007 as a business reporter focused primarily on the Walt Disney Company. He previously worked for The Wall Street Journal. @brooksbarnesNYT

    Nicole Sperling is a media and entertainment reporter, covering Hollywood and the burgeoning streaming business. She joined The Times in 2019. She previously worked for Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times. @nicsperling
    The U.S. is still ahead: $11.45 B to PRC's $9.06 B.
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  10. #340
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    Just $2+ B to go...

    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    The U.S. is still ahead: $11.45 B to PRC's $9.06 B.
    Now this is the last bastion of Hollywood global dominence. Will it survive the 2020 assault?

    ASIA JANUARY 2, 2020 7:35PM PT
    China’s Box Office Hit New Heights in 2019, as Hollywood’s Share Shrank
    By REBECCA DAVIS


    CREDIT: NETFLIX

    Hollywood films had a historically unsuccessful year at the China box office in 2019, data from Chinese authorities and online ticketing platform Maoyan show, although the country’s theatrical revenues rose to a new all-time high.

    American titles accounted for just two of the country’s top ten grossers last year, with “Avengers: Endgame” placing third and “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” placing tenth. Meanwhile, nine out of China’s top ten highest grossing films of all time are now Chinese, four of which came out in 2019. “Avengers: Endgame” is the only foreign title to remain on the list.

    Yet even without Hollywood, the Chinese market continued to grow. Box office revenue rose 5.4% to a new record of $9.2 billion (RMB64.3 billion) in 2019 — albeit at a slower rate of growth than its 9% rise last year.

    Chinese animation “Ne Zha,” Chinese new year sci-fi blockbuster “The Wandering Earth,” and “Avengers” were the top three films of the year, followed by patriotic so-called “main melody” films “My People, My Country” and “The Captain.” Bona Film Group backed four out of year’s top ten grossers.

    As of the end of 2019, China now has 69,787 cinema screens, up 9,708 from 2018, according to the Communist party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, which added that more than 1.7 billion tickets were sold. The propagandistic publication went so far as to deem the current moment a “golden age” for the Chinese film industry’s development, as “the market bubble fades… and Chinese films continue to steadily improve.”

    One reason is that over the past three years, foreign films have accounted for a shrinking slice of the box office, with Chinese films performing proportionally better. In 2019, Chinese films accounted for 64% of the total box office, or $5.9 million (RMB41.2 billion) in ticket sales — up from 62% in 2018 and 53.8% in 2017. This rise occurred despite there being la smaller percentage difference between the number of films imported in 2019 and the year before, with foreign films making up 22% of 2019’s total number of screened titles.

    Other than a few exceptions, including “Avengers: Endgame” and “Frozen 2,” the latest instalments of Hollywood franchises didn’t perform as well their predecessors did in China, indicating audiences eager for something fresh. These included “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” “Jumanji: The Next Level,” “X-Men: Dark Phoenix,” and most recently, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”

    “Local films are catching up to Hollywood on many indicators like IP, story, special effects and genre, while Hollywood films are caught in a bottleneck period of self-repetition and a lack of originality. [Chinese] audiences’ preference for it will naturally decrease,” wrote Chinese website Mirror Entertainment. Chinese viewers in the past year have also started to favor smaller, realistic imports in the vein of “Green Book,” Lebanon’s “Capernaum” and India’s “Andhadhun,” rather than just big U.S. blockbusters, it noted.

    Data from Maoyan for the top 20 performing films of the year showed that Chinese films were rated higher by users, both overall as well as separately for story and special effects.

    The most successful new genres in China in 2019 were, in order of year-on-year box office earnings, disaster films (e.g. “The Bravest,” which set a box office new record for genre, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters), biographies (“Chinese Pilot,” which also set a genre record, “Green Book”), fantasy (“Ne Zha,” also a record-setter, “Avengers: Endgame”), sci-fi (“Wandering Earth,” also a genre record high) and animation, according to Maoyan. “Box office success is no longer limited by subject or genre — it’s all about the content,” the ticketing firm said.

    Last year, movie-going during the four major holiday periods — Chinese New Year, summer, National Day and the calendar new year — accounted for nearly 50% of the total annual number of trips to the cinema, Maoyan said.

    Chinese fare took larger market share last year not because of a sudden bonanza of strong local titles, but because a small handful of hits took the lion’s share. Maoyan showed that over the past three years, the market share of big blockbusters grossing more than RMB2 billion ($287 million) in China has steadily increased from 18.5% of the total box office in 2017 to 29.9% in 2018 and 36.9% last year — on the back of just six films. This rise has come at the expense of mid-level films grossing RMB10 million to RMB2 billion, whose market share has fallen over the same period from 80.5% to 62.3%.

    Ten out of the 15 films that made over RMB1 billion ($144 million) last year were Chinese, as were 47 out of the 88 films that made more than RMB100 million ($14.4 million).

    Last year, China produced a total of 1,037 films, including 850 narrative feature films, 51 animated films, 74 science and educational titles, 47 documentaries, and 15 specialized movies, according to the National Film Bureau. This is down from the 1,082 films put out in 2018, likely due to production slowdowns brought on by new regulations and tax schemes.

    The deeply political nature and implications of success in the world’s second-largest film market was highlighted in official Chinese reports on the 2019 statistics, which took care to single out and emphasize how the “main melody,” jingoistic films from the National Day holiday period were a great success.

    A spokesperson for the film bureau told the Chinese press that in 2020, the “vast majority” of people working in film should “thoroughly study and implement the important guiding spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping” so as to advance the film industry.
    Gene Ching
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  11. #341
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    Chollywood falls ill

    JANUARY 23, 2020 11:13AM PT
    How the Wuhan Coronavirus Infected the Chinese Film Industry
    By REBECCA DAVIS and PATRICK FRATER


    CREDIT: YONHAP/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

    Just days ago, no one would have predicted that China’s most lucrative film-going season was about to be derailed by the escalating epidemic of a novel coronavirus that is now rapidly spreading through the country and beyond.

    Variety takes a look at how the box office in the world’s second largest film market has been overturned by a public health crisis that has made gathering in enclosed cinema spaces a health risk.

    Pre-Sales and Promotion

    Earlier this week, it seemed to be business as usual for the Spring Festival holiday release window. Production teams collectively spent a reported $144 million (RMB1 billion) on publicity for the seven blockbusters scheduled to release this Friday and Saturday, the eve and New Year’s Day of the new lunar year of the rat. The holiday is a time for family gatherings, when millions who’ve saved up all year take one of their few vacations, and head back to their hometowns. It is the largest annual human migration in the world.

    It seemed that the biggest setback would be a marketing blow to Peter Chan’s volleyball drama “Leap,” which suddenly changed its Chinese title from “Chinese Women’s Volleyball” to “Win the Championship” the day before pre-sales began.

    The new name, unknown to viewers bombarded with posters and materials for the other, is the same as the short made by rival director Xu Zheng that was included in the widely viewed propaganda film “My People, My Country,” and has caused confusion. Chan’s title change decision appears to have been a way to avoid fallout from dissatisfaction within the sports community of how the women’s team is portrayed, rather than government censorship.

    Pre-sales for the seven films had already reached a reported $67.5 million (RMB468 million) by Thursday morning. “Detective Chinatown 3” had pulled ahead as the front-runner, setting a new pre-sale record by selling more than $14 million (RMB100 million) worth of tickets in just 23 hours.

    Monday: Concern Mounts

    By Jan. 20, concerns ramp up about the spread of the coronavirus due to mass travel ahead of Chinese New Year, as the death toll and infection tally mounts. Chinese authorities report three deaths and more than 200 cases in the country and confirm that the disease can in fact spread through human-to-human transmission. Since the first case outside of China was discovered on Jan. 13, the virus has spread to Thailand, Japan and South Korea. On Jan. 21, the first reported case is found in the U.S., in Seattle.

    Ticket sales in Wuhan were mounting swimmingly before Sunday (Jan. 19), accounting for around 2% of the national box office, on average. But from Sunday onwards, ticket sales rapidly declined, dropping from 2.2% of the national total to 0.5% in the space of three days. From Monday, film company shares begin to fall, including those for Wanda Film and China Film.

    On Wednesday (Jan. 22), China’s major ticketing platforms Maoyan and Tao Piaopiao put out official statements announcing unconditional refunds for any tickets bought in Wuhan.

    The same day, Chinese authorities announce a quarantine for the entire city of Wuhan and its 11 million residents, effective from the next day. Travel restrictions are planned to shut down public transit out of the city. Chaos ensues as residents fight to get out of the metropolis before lock down sets in Thursday morning at 10AM local time, with Chinese reports estimating that some 300,000 fled.

    Thursday: Box Office Meltdown

    By Thursday (Jan. 23) morning, the hashtag “Why don’t the spring festival films change their release dates?” is a top trending item on Weibo, China’s Twitter-equivalent. Production teams are faced with a lose-lose decision: risk angering the public by keeping their film in the line-up, or pull out and lose millions in P&A.

    Official film Weibo accounts start to slash promotional material and instead boost posts cheering for “frontline medical workers.” Then, in quick succession, all seven issue statements that they are formally withdrawing their titles. No future release dates have been announced.

    Animations “Boonie Bears: The Wild Life” and “Jiang Ziya” pulled out first. “Now that the epidemic is happening, we must stand impregnably united, and focus on the disease prevention and saving lives,” the “Jiang Ziya” promo site said. “We salute those working on the front lines of the epidemic and apologize to theater workers nationwide.”

    The other titles swiftly follow. “Movies are just a part of life; life and safety are more important, since ‘movies are short and life is long,'” said the team behind “Leap.” It said it was pulling out after “careful consideration of the risk of disease transmission in a confined space.”

    Lam’s “The Rescue” was on-brand and adopting the most rousing tone, writing: “At the moment, many medical and rescue personnel are sticking to their posts, stepping forward bravely at the key moment of danger and disaster! The movie ‘The Rescue’ is about exactly this kind of spirit. Let us as millions, all of one mind, with unshakeably unity, win the battle of preventing an epidemic!”

    “Lost in Russia” director Xu Zheng wrote a post expressing his gratitude to Hengdian Film, his producer Huanxi Media, and the marketing team, whose early work has been washed away. “All this is less important than eliminating the hidden dangers of the disease!”

    Ticketing platforms Maoyan and Tao Piaopiao now promise to refund all tickets without question, a process that may take up to a week. Cinema chains say they have been overwhelmed with calls from patrons asking for refunds.

    Cinemas in Wuhan and other nearby locked-down cities have been entirely shut down, and authorities have issued a mandatory face mask policy there for public spaces. Cinemas elsewhere remain operational for the moment, advertising that they have boosted disinfection measures and ventilation for theaters.

    Large-scale cultural activities like temple fairs have been cancelled, and cultural institutions such as museums have slashed activities to reduce visitor tallies. The Forbidden City in Beijing will be shuttered from Saturday.

    Over the course of the day, China has locked down some 20 million people in Wuhan and neighboring cities by indefinitely banning planes and trains. The death toll has risen to at least 17, with some 517 affected. The virus has now been detected in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and the U.S. and U.K. The WHO is currently mulling whether to declare the epidemic a global health emergency.

    On Thursday – the last chance for business before a recess of five full trading days for the spring festival holiday – shares of a number of major film companies plummeted. Wanda Film closed almost 7% lower after falling 20% over the previous five trading days, and China Film closed nearly 5% lower, down 17% over the past five trading days.
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  12. #342
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    Well crap

    Did NOT see this one coming...

    ASIA FEBRUARY 3, 2020 9:54AM PT
    China Indefinitely Halts Film and TV Production Nationwide As Virus Deaths Surpass SARS
    By REBECCA DAVIS


    CREDIT: EYEPRESS NEWS/SIPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

    China has officially ordered an indefinite halt to all film production in the country as it seeks to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus that has swept the nation.

    The death toll in China stands at 361 – higher now than that of SARS, which killed 349. China has confirmed 17,205 cases as of Sunday, with numbers rapidly rising, and as of Monday, there are 11 confirmed cases in the U.S.

    Over the weekend, the producers’ and actors’ associations of the China Federation of Radio and TV Associations co-issued a notice declaring that all film and TV production companies, crews and actors are to suspend film and TV drama shoots until the unspecified time when the period of heightened virus prevention has passed. Those who don’t stop production will be held “responsible,” it said, without providing further detail.

    Film industry professionals have the right to refuse to participate in shoots during the epidemic period, and can report shoots that continue unabated to the local authorities and industry associations.

    “This is a necessary move given the current special situation,” the producers’ association’s secretary-general Li Gang told the People’s Daily newspaper.

    The notice comes after a number of productions and facilities voluntarily shut themselves down, including the mega studio at Hengdian, which announced last Monday that all productions there would halt, and at the giant Qingdao studios.

    Chinese citizens nationwide remain isolated in self-imposed quarantine in their homes, and more than a dozen major metropolises have been under lockdown measures restricting travel. In more than half the country, businesses have been ordered to extend their Chinese new year holiday and not resume working until at least Feb. 10, bringing the economy to a standstill.

    Chinese reports predicted a definite decline in the number of films and TV shows produced this year, particularly as the epidemic stretches into the spring, a key period for production. “This and next year, there may be a ‘content shortage’ phenomenon,” assessed a local newspaper from Wuhan, the city at the disease’s epicenter.
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  13. #343
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    I get that the studio lost a lot of money, but this seems imprudent

    ASIAFEBRUARY 13, 2020 6:19AM PT
    Chinese Shoots to Resume Despite Virus Threat, While Beijing Throws Industry a Lifeline

    By REBECCA DAVIS


    CREDIT: BAO KANGXUAN/AP

    Hengdian World Studios, one of China’s largest, cautiously reopened for business today after it shut down all production in recent weeks to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

    The move comes a day after Chinese authorities released an official statement pledging government support for the struggling entertainment sector.

    Huge portions of the world’s second largest economy have been at a standstill since the virus swept the country. Though work officially began again Monday after an extended holiday for the Chinese new year, many are still working remotely as China continues intensive measures such as travel restrictions to keep a lid on the disease’s spread.

    Hengdian had closed off to all tourists on Jan. 25 before shutting down all production on Jan. 27, at a time when Chinese reports estimate 20 crews were filming and 11 preparing to begin.

    It will now resume work in stages, the studio said in work guidelines posted Monday night. Those set to resume shooting will be film and TV crews who stayed on-site throughout the Spring Festival period and have had no contact with people from highly infectious areas, as well as production firms “with adequate prevention and control measures in place,” although their eligibility well pend review. Employees in highly infectious areas have been advised to postpone their return.

    The next stage of operations will be “determined according to the circumstances of epidemic prevention and control,” it said.

    A spokesman for local government in charge of Hengdian’s district told Chinese news outlet Sina Entertainment that though many applications to resume shooting have been filed since Feb. 3, so far, none have been approved. “Resumption of work will have to wait until Zhejiang Province lifts its Grade I [high-level public health emergency] response.”

    Given that actors will be unable to wear masks, Chinese reports said shooting teams have been advised to stay small, limiting to 20 people when possible.

    On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, TV actress Zhang Lingzhi wrote that when she heard the news of Hengdian re-opening for shoots, she was very concerned for her husband, actor Johnny Chen (“The Climbers”), who has remained confined to his hotel room while his shoot there was halted for the past 15 days.

    “Is it really possible to resume work now?” she asked. “[Feeling] so worried, so sad, so helpless.”

    The production shutdown has delayed the output of new dramas and put severe financial pressure on firms. With daily actor fees accruing and the possibility of selling completed product postponed, smaller companies with fewer reserves have been particularly hard-hit, as reported by Variety earlier this week.

    Beijing breaks silence on entertainment

    To address such problems, Beijing’s film bureau said Wednesday that it will provide financial support to production companies and cinemas hard hit by recent cinema closures and production stoppages. It did not, however, provide details as to how or when.

    Beijing’s municipal government recently issued two documents outlining measures to support businesses — particularly small and mid-sized enterprises — as they deal with the impact of the capital going into effective lockdown.

    Though vague on detail, the Beijing Film Bureau’s statement on Wednesday indicated that it was working to ensure entertainment firms “are connected to these policies and receive practical benefits.”

    To protect hard-hit companies, the bureau said it would soon issue “relevant policies to increase support for film and TV cultural enterprises” and subsidize the operating costs of production firms and cinemas “to help companies overcome their difficulties.”

    The bureau will also intervene in actual production.

    “In order to meet the expectations of audiences across the country, and ensure that there will be adequate theatrical content after the epidemic is over, there is a plan to open a ‘green-light channel’ for the key films of this year and next, and key projects that have been severely affected by the epidemic this year,” it said.

    For such films, it promised “financial assistance, creative guidance, filming support, and so on to ensure that important projects will not have to stop, be aborted or lower their standards.”

    The bureau also expressed plans to “very proactively solicit film and TV works that reflect achievements in fighting the epidemic and offer subsidies to support them.”

    To help streamline censorship and other film approvals and reviews, it said paperwork can now be initiated via an online submission only, and physical documents either delivered in-person at a later date or mailed in. A fast-track for approvals of “special projects” will also be established. The statement noted that its normal review and approval mechanisms hadn’t stalled during the quarantine period.
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  14. #344
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    Not sure who Chang Kai is...

    ...I did a cursory search on IMDB and HKMDB and turned up nothing. It's making me ponder the overall effect of COVID-19 on the Chinese film industry.

    ASIAFEBRUARY 17, 2020 2:04AM PT
    Virus Kills Chinese Film Director and Family in Wuhan
    By VIVIENNE CHOW


    CREDIT: CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

    A Chinese film director and his entire family have died from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

    Chang Kai, a film director and an external communications officer at a Hubei Film Studio subsidiary, died in hospital on Feb. 14 from the virus now called COVID-19, according to a statement from the studio. He was 55.

    But Chang’s death was not the first in his family—the Chinese media reported that Chang’s father and mother were infected and died one after the other. Chang and his sister, who looked after their parents at home, were both infected with the virus as a result. His sister died just hours later. Chang’s wife is also infected, still alive, and is still battling the virus in an intensive care unit.

    A note written by Chang, said to be his last words, has gone viral on the Chinese Internet. Chang wrote that his father succumbed to the illness on the first day of the Lunar New Year (January 25). “My father had a fever, cough and trouble breathing. [We] tried to send him to the hospital but none of the hospitals we visited took him, because they had no more beds,” he wrote.

    Instead, Chang brought his father home where ha died a few days later, having passed on the virus to the other family members. Chang’s note said that he and his wife were denied the opportunity to be treated early. Wuhan built a new hospital in six days, but capacity to handle the virus remains strained. Chang bade farewell to his family, friends and his son, who is reportedly studying in the U.K.

    Popular on Variety
    Chang enrolled in Wuhan University’s journalism school to study photography in 1989, and joined Hubei Film Studio upon graduation. The studio praised Chang for his contribution to the studio’s development, saying that he was a well-respected colleague and his death was a painful loss.

    As of Feb. 17, the virus has infected 71,330 —70,548 in mainland China—and claimed 1,775 lives (1,770 in mainland China), surpassing the death toll of SARS in 2003.


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    PRC film loses $125 M after CNY to COVID-19

    ASIA MARCH 2, 2020 5:14AM PT
    China’s Box Office Loses Up to $214 Million in Two Months Due to Coronavirus
    By VIVIENNE CHOW



    View of a closed cinema after the Chinese government discouraged public gatherings due to a virus outbreak, in Beijing, China, 27 January 2020. China warned that the coronavirus outbreak is accelerating further, deepening fears about an epidemic that has affected more than 2,700 people worldwide and killed at least 80 people in the country.China coronavirus outbreak accelerating further, Beijing - 27 Jan 2020
    CREDIT: WU HONG/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
    China’s box office might have lost as much as RMB 1.5 billion ($214 million) in the first two months of this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, but a nationwide resumption of movie theaters and production is unlikely to happen any time soon.

    “Judging from the current situation, the film industry is not equipped to resume business yet, and we have not approved industry’s demands to resume business as of now,” said Chen Bei, deputy secretary general of the Beijing municipal government.

    Local data company Ent Group has estimated that box-office receipts in January and February have totaled only RMB 220 million ($31.3 million), compared to RMB 1.45 billion ($217 million) in the same period in 2019 and RMB 1.51 billion ($241.6 million) in 2018.

    Ent Group estimated the decline in box office could be as high as RMB 1.5 billion ($214 million) due to the fact that the Lunar New Year holiday season started on Jan. 25, much earlier compared with the usual beginning of or mid-February. “An early holiday season should’ve given more time for the box office to grow,” the report said.

    But cinemas were forced to shut down just before the Lunar New Year holiday and Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province were locked down on Jan. 23.

    The estimated figures came after the release of a joint directive from Beijing Center for Diseases Prevention and Control, and Beijing Municipal Film Bureau on Feb. 26, which stipulates strict guidelines for cinema operators and film crews if they wish to resume business.

    Cinema operators must seek approval from the authorities to re-open movie theaters and adopt stringent measures such as selling tickets on alternate rows, requiring movie-goers to register with their real names and personal details, and auditoriums to be thoroughly disinfected after each screening.

    Film crews with less than 50 people can resume filming in Beijing if they are approved, but only if their body temperature does not exceed 37.3 degree celsius. All film crew members must wear masks throughout the production, except for performers.

    But film crews with more than 50 people will not be allowed to resume filming in Beijing until the plague is gone. Crew members travelling from affected areas such as Hubei province are not allowed to take part in any production in the city.

    Ent Group added in the report that cinemas in China are not likely to re-open in March. As of March 2, Covid-19 has already infected more than 80,000 in mainland China and killed 2,914 people.
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