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Thread: Mulan (2020)

  1. #106
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    Our newest web article

    Bring Honor to Us All. READ The Ballad of Mulan (in the Age of Coronavirus) by Gene Ching



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  2. #107
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    Bring Honor to Us All. READ The Ballad of Mulan (in the Age of Coronavirus) by Gene Ching
    Nice. I love the design of that Mulan jian with the ring handle. Wonder if there's any historic basis to it. You guys should cut a deal with Disney or Nerf to sell them. You could sell a ton of them. I'm getting tired of cutting-down Nerf swords to make them more Chinese, like this:
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  3. #108
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    Another boycott

    Mulan is cursed.

    ‘Mulan’: Disney CFO Christine McCarthy Concedes China Uproar “Has Generated A Lot Of Issues For Us”
    By Dade Hayes
    Finance Editor
    @dadehayes
    September 10, 2020 1:01pm


    Jasin Boland/Disney

    Disney CFO Christine McCarthy addressed the controversy over Mulan, which critics accuse of indirectly favoring the oppression of Uighur Muslims in China, noting the uproar has created “a lot of issues.”

    Authorities in the Xinjiang province, an area where Uighurs have been detained in mass internment camps, authorized filming in the region and a government agency is acknowledged in the film’s credits. Critics, including politicians like U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo) have attacked the film, released on Disney+ last Friday, and called for it to be pulled from the streaming service and theaters.

    Various controversies and challenges have dogged the live-action remake of Disney’s 1998 animated feature for the past year or more. The company also had to reschedule its planned theatrical release numerous times as it responded to swirling uncertainties around COVID-19.

    Mulan is slated to be released soon in China, which remains in a fierce political and economic standoff with U.S. over a range of matters, with many media and tech companies getting dragged into the fray. McCarthy, appearing at the Bank of America Virtual 2020 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, was asked if the backlash would hurt the film’s commercial potential in China.

    “I’m not a box-office prognosticator, but it has generated a lot of publicity,” she said. “Let me just put something into context. The real facts are that Mulan was primarily shot — almost in entirety — in New Zealand. In an effort to accurately depict some of the unique landscape and geography of the country of China for this period drama, we filmed scenery in 20 different locations in China. It’s common knowledge that, in order to film in China, you have to be granted permission. That permission comes from the central government.”

    McCarthy went on, noting that it is a common practice around the world “to acknowledge in a film’s credits the national and local governments that allowed you to film there. So, in our credits, it recognized both China and locations in New Zealand. I would just leave it at that, but it has generated a lot of issues for us.”

    Apart from the controversy, many of McCarthy’s comments echoed material from her appearance on Wednesday at a similar media conference organized by Citibank. She reiterated that research on moviegoers’ mixed sentiment about returning to theaters helped drive the company’s decision to put it out first as a $30 premium to Disney+ subscribers.

    Invited by moderator Jessica Reif Ehrlich to expand on the film studio’s release strategy, she said more “premier access” experiments like Mulan are possible. But she stressed that theatrical remains a key component of the company’s distribution plans and did not say the company is actively talking with exhibitors about altering standard release windows.

    “We’ve got a pretty robust slate” through 2021 and beyond, she said. “We hope theaters are open, and we hope our films are films that for the people who choose to go to movie theaters, the experience of going to a theater is very different from what you would have at home.”

    Among the other topics that surfaced during the 40-minute session was the state of negotiations with the NFL. Like ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal and Fox, Disney is talking with the league about a re-up. ESPN’s Monday Night Football rights expire sooner than the other network packages, in 2021.

    The company approaches deals in a “disciplined” manner, but is willing to consider guaranteeing that games would air on ABC rather than ESPN, if it helped Disney’s chances to lock in a renewal.
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  4. #109
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    $23M in PRC

    This feels like the last nail in the coffin. I wonder how it would've done without the pandemic. I also wonder how it will affect Chinese casting in the future.

    Box Office: 'Mulan' Malfunctions in China With $23M Opening
    1:16 PM PDT 9/13/2020 by Pamela McClintock

    The $200 million live-action epic went straight to Disney+ in the U.S. and other select territories amid the ongoing pandemic.

    Disney's Mulan malfunctioned in its China box office debut with a disheartening $23.2 million.

    The $200 million tentpole was made with both Chinese and American audiences top of mind.

    Directed by Niki Caro, the live-action adaptation of the classic animated title headlines popular Chinese-born actress Liu Yiefei as a young woman who disguises herself as a man in order to fight in the imperial army. Mulan co-stars a slew of Chinese cinema icons, including Gong Li, Jet Li, Donnie Yen and others.

    In the days leading up to the film's Middle Kingdom opening, analysts had expected it to take in anywhere from $30 million to $40 million over the Sept. 11-13 frame. (Christopher Nolan's Tenet, after all, had launched to $30 million the previous weekend.)

    On Friday, Mulan received particularly poor social scores on China's leading ticket apps, Maoyan and Alibaba's Taopiaopiao, in a foretelling of the movie's weekend start. Ultimately, Disney's global vision of a story based on an ancient Chinese fable doesn't seem to be resonating with moviegoers in that country.

    The Disney event pic was originally set to unfurl in theaters around the globe in late March, but those plans were waylaid when the novel coronavirus struck, forcing mass cinema closures.

    Disney delayed the release date several times before ultimately deciding to send Mulan straight to Disney+ at a premium price in the U.S. and other select markets. In other territories — such as China and Russia — Mulan is getting a traditional theatrical release.

    Late last year, Mulan became the subject of controversy after Liu voiced her support for the Hong Kong police force, which was then in the midst of brutally suppressing the city's pro-democracy movement. Her comments sparked a heated online backlash under the hashtag #BoycottMulan. In recent weeks, the online campaign was revived.

    Also, in recent days, viewers watching the movie spotted a "special thanks" in the film's credits to various government entities in Xinjiang Provence, where China has been accused of gross human rights abuses against its Muslim Uighur minority population. (Roughly a minute of the movie was filmed in that provence.)

    Addressing the latest uproar last week, Walt Disney Co. chief financial officer Christine McCarthy said while Mulan was filmed almost entirely in New Zealand, scenery was filmed in 20 locations in China or order to capture the unique landscape of that country. She said it is common industry practice to "acknowledge in a film’s credits the national and local governments that allowed you to film there."

    All told, Mulan is playing on the big screen in 17 markets so far, earning an early $37.6 million to date.

    The company hasn't released any viewership numbers of those paying $29.99 to watch Caro's film on Disney+, although McCarthy told investors she was "very pleased with what we saw over the four-day weekend."


    PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
    pamela.mcclintock@thr.com
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  5. #110
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    Matchless Mulan

    Gene Ching
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  6. #111
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    A success?

    From my poem parody The Ballad of Mulan (in the age of Coronavirus):
    "When a film premieres in 2020,
    How can they tell if Mulan is a success?"


    Mulan's 2020 Box Office Explained: Was It A Success For Disney+?
    Releasing the highly anticipated live-action remake on Disney+ was a massive risk for Disney. Did Mulan’s box office make it a success?

    BY KAY MCGUIRE
    2 HOURS AGO



    Disney's latest live-action remake Mulan premiered on Disney+ to mixed reviews and a 68% increase in subscribers for the streaming service, so can it be considered a box office success? After postponing Mulan's original March 2020 release in theaters due to the coronavirus pandemic, Disney announced that Mulan would premiere exclusively on their streaming service Disney+ in September. Unlike other Disney+ exclusive releases such as Lady And The Tramp or Artemis Fowl, Mulan would only be available to subscribers who paid $29.99 for premiere access to the film.

    Although Mulan has gotten divisive reviews and calls to boycott the film, Disney reported a 68% increase in Disney+ downloads in anticipation of the movie's release. In addition, subscribers spent 193% more on the Disney+ app, largely due to the fee required to watch Mulan. Despite the subscriber increase, Mulan suffered from a lack of a traditional box office release and had a disappointing opening weekend when it premiered in China. In addition, Mulan underperformed in comparison to the other high-profile Disney+ release Hamilton, which saw a 74% increase in Disney+ subscribers ahead of its premiere.

    It's difficult to say if Mulan was a box office success for Disney or a failure, like the much maligned live-action remake Dumbo, which premiered in 2019 to a disappointing opening box office of $45 million domestically. Despite the mixed reviews and controversy surrounding the movie, Mulan seems to have been successful for Disney+, although it has one of the most disappointing box offices out of Disney's live-action remakes. While Mulan will likely not make back its $200 million+ budget, the film still did somewhat well on its opening weekend. Compared to Disney's other live-action remakes, Mulan looks like a failure on paper - but was it a success for Disney+?

    Mulan's Performance On Disney+



    After postponing Mulan's original theatrical release, Disney announced that the film would premiere exclusively on Disney+. Disney+ subscribers had to pay an additional, one-time fee of $29.99 in exchange for premiere access to watch the film, which permanently adds Mulan to their streaming library. Disney+ initially saw a 68% increase in subscriptions, and subscribers spending increased by 193% due to the premiere access fee. Mulan made a total of $35.5 million on its opening weekend from Disney+ subscribers. Since the movie wasn't released in theaters, the $35.5 million is entirely net profit for Disney, who didn't have to pay any distribution fees by hosting it on their streaming service.

    Immediately after Mulan was released on Disney+, it became the number one movie on the site and had a 15% viewer share among all titles streamed that weekend across every streaming service. In plain English, that means that 15% of people who watched a new release over Labor Day Weekend were watching Mulan, narrowly edging out the 9.6% who watched the Charlie Kaufman film I'm Thinking Of Ending Things (via IndieWire). Early numbers indicate that Mulan was watched by a total of 1.12 million households on its opening weekend. While Hamilton outperformed Mulan with 2.7 million households on its first weekend, Hamilton didn't require any addition cost to access the musical, making Mulan's performance even more impressive.

    Mulan's Box Office Performance



    While Disney hoped that Mulan's release in China would make up for the distribution issues in the U.S. market, the film had a disappointing opening weekend and only made $23.2 million at the Chinese box office. Compared to Disney's other live-action remakes, Mulan was a significant failure internationally; Beauty and the Beast made $85 million in its opening weekend in China, followed by Jungle Book with $55 million. Disney made several changes to make Mulan more faithful to the original poem "The Ballad of Mulan" and appeal more to Chinese audiences, but those efforts seem to have been in vain.

    Mulan's international failure can be attributed to the disconnect between casting a mostly Chinese cast with an all-white creative team, as well as an out of touch marketing campaign that failed to connect with Chinese audiences. Mulan doesn't have the worst Chinese box office out of Disney's live-action remakes - Dumbo only made $11 million its opening weekend - but it's a spectacular failure considering Disney's aggressive marketing campaign in China. Unlike the U.S. where movie theaters continue to be shutdown, Chinese audiences had a choice between several other movie options including Tenet, which overtook Mulan with a $50 million opening weekend.

    Was Mulan A Success For Disney+?

    Although Hamilton saw a bigger increase in Disney+ downloads prior to the musical's release, Mulan grossed a much higher profit due to the additional cost required to watch the movie. Mulan was not a success by traditional box office metrics, with the lowest opening box office of any Disney live-action remake, and the film is like not going to make back its $200 million+ budget. It was also a failure overseas, with a disappointing international box office and Mulan's failure to do well in the Chinese market, where Disney was aggressively marketing the film to make up for itsdomestic failures.

    Despite that, Mulan was a success for Disney+, significantly increasing the number of subscribers and proving that almost 100,000 people would pay an additional $30 to access the film. While Mulan suffered from calls to boycott the film following Liu Yifei's comments about the Hong Kong protests, alienated Chinese audiences with its all-white production team, and dissuaded American audiences by cutting the songs and characters that made the animated Mulan so beloved, it still managed to bring in $35.5 million from streaming alone. If Mulan had premiered in theaters with the same opening weekend box office, it would have been a massive commercial failure and the lowest-performing live-action Disney remake, tying with Maleficient: Mistress of Evil. Because Mulan premiered only on Disney+, the total gross is a victory and a sign that future releases that premiere on streaming can still be successful.

    Mulan was not the first high-profile movie to have its theatrical release moved to Disney+, but it was the first one that required an additional fee. Although Mulan will be available for free in December 2020, it still made the studio $35.5 million in net profits. While the disappointing Chinese box office was another hit to Mulan, its success on Disney+ proved that Disney was right to shift the premiere to the streaming service. Mulan's success could be a disaster for cinemas if more studios will follow suit, foregoing the traditional theatrical distribution model in favor of releasing films exclusively on streaming. While it didn't do as well as the Disney remakes with a proper theatrical release, Disney+ still had a massive success with Mulan.
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  7. #112
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    Kung Fu Mulan

    #Showbiz: China to release its own animated 'Kung Fu Mulan'
    Dennis Chua 10 hrs ago

    Provided by New Straits Times Kung Fu Mulan poster
    KUALA LUMPUR: Recently, Disney's live-action remake of Mulan came under fire for working with the authorities in the Xinjiang province, where ethnic Uighurs have faced human rights abuses from the Chinese government.

    Soon after, China banned its media outlets from reporting on the new movie, which has been a box office flop in the country.

    Entertainment portal JayneStars reported on Monday that China had come up with its own "answer" to the Disney movie, Kung Fu Mulan which will premiere on Oct 3 to mark the People's Republic's National Day.

    Kung Fu Mulan, an animated film, has been touted as "the most realistic portrayal of China and Mulan" and this powerful statement has been printed on its promotional poster which shows a back view of the legendary woman warrior Fa Mulan as she faces off an army of Mongolian invaders.

    The poster, which also carries the slogan "Real China, Real Mulan" displays the Chinese production team's confidence in conveying the true spirit of Mulan and alluded to Disney's poor job on the Mulan remake.

    The animated film which has been in the works for the past five years is specially catered to Chinese audiences.

    It seeks to deliver a profound message on the importance of three Confucian virtues, loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness.

    Knowing that viewers want more than just a tale of a woman who disguises as a man, Kung Fu Mulan's sentimental storytelling of love and sacrifice evokes patriotism during China's main national holiday.

    Mulan's personality is different from the Disney adaptations. She is a more multi-dimensional character, but no less brave, smart and heroic than her Disney versions.

    Disney's first Mulan, an animated film was screened in 1998, and the heroine was voiced by Ming-Na Wen of Agents of SHIELD fame. It earned a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film.

    Disney's second Mulan, a live action film loosely based on the 1998 film, premiered on Sept 4.

    Directed by Niki Caro, it stars Crystal Liu Yifei as Mulan, with Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Gong Li and Jet Li as major characters.

    Mulan is based on the legend of a female warrior who lived during the Northern and Southern Dynasties era from the 4th to 6th centuries AD.

    She took her father's place in the army by disguising herself as a man and proved to be a brave and brilliant military strategist.
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  8. #113
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    800 ftw

    Sep 20, 2020 12:50pm PT
    China Box Office: ‘Mulan’ Defeated Yet Again by ‘The Eight Hundred’


    By Rebecca Davis


    Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

    Disney’s “Mulan” made only $6.47 million over its second weekend in China, allowing it to be handily defeated once again by the local war epic “The Eight Hundred,” according to data from industry tracker Maoyan.

    As of Sunday evening, the Disney title has earned a cumulative $36.5 million (RMB 247 million) in the key territory. But “The Eight Hundred” led the Chinese box office by more than tripling those earnings, despite already being a month into its theatrical run.

    “The Eight Hundred” has now earned a total of $425 million (RMB 2.88 billion) since is Aug. 21 debut, making it China’s highest grossing film of the year so far. It is projected to continue on to a total box office of $446 million (RMB 3.02 billion), according to Maoyan estimates.

    In contrast, “Mulan” is currently projected to earn just $41 million (RMB 278 million) — less than a tenth of that tally. The film accounted for about 1 in 5 screenings in China over the weekend and only around 16% of total ticket sales.

    Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” trailed “Mulan” quite closely to come in third this weekend with earnings of $5.6 million, bringing its Sunday evening cume up to $61.4 million (RMB 415 million). “Tenet” opened in China the week before Disney’s live-action remake.

    Despite the fact that Disney went out of its way to make a film that it thought would appeal to Chinese audiences, Nolan’s sci-fi thriller has received better viewer ratings across all platforms and is currently projected by Maoyan to earn $66.9 million (RMB 453 million)— significantly more than “Mulan.”

    In fourth place this weekend was an unexpected contender: the 2018 Italian crime thriller “The Invisible Witness (Il Testimone invisible).” Directed and co-written by Stefano Mordini, the film is a remake of the 2016 Spanish thriller “The Invisible Guest,” a title helmed by Barcelona-born Oriol Paulo, which grossed $25 million in China in 2017.

    In three days in China, the film earned $2.52 million — nearly half of its entire global box office to date. Prior to its China debut, the film had earned $5.3 million worldwide from just four territories: Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and New Zealand. In China, it has likely benefited from the strong word-of-mouth and positive impressions audiences had of Paulo’s prior film.

    In fifth place was Hong Kong film “I’m Livin’ It,” a drama about homeless people who live out of a 24-hour fast food restaurant in the expensive metropolis, starring Aaron Kwok as an out-of-work banker and Miriam Yeung as a struggling singer. It grossed $1.45 million in its opening weekend. Directed by Wong Hing-fan, it won nine nominations and one supporting actor win for Cheung Tat-ming at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards.

    “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” the Tom Hanks biopic of children’s TV presenter Fred Rogers, saw its China premiere this weekend, but it had low sales, making just $212,000 in its debut. This put it below the opening weekend of U.K. animated title “Trouble” (which came in sixth with a $940,000 debut) and other titles including “Onward” ($544,000) and “The Blue Defensive Line,” a jingoistic documentary about Chinese UN peacekeeping mission in Africa, which debuted to sales of $483,000.
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  9. #114
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    Tenet v Mulan

    Tenet Vs. Mulan: Which Was The Bigger Box Office Success
    While Tenet pushed ahead with its theatrical release, Mulan was moved to premium VOD on Disney+. Here's how the two movies compared at the box office.

    BY HANNAH SHAW-WILLIAMS
    4 DAYS AGO

    n
    UPDATE: An earlier version of this article cited reports that Mulan had grossed an estimated $261 million in its first 12 days of premium VOD sales. Those reports have since been flagged as misleading by the analytics company that provided the data, with an updated estimate of $62-93 million in Mulan's first 12 days of release. The article has been updated to reflect this.

    Tenet and Mulan were both early fall movie releases that both tried to make the best of a very bad situation. Whereas Tenet determinedly pushed for a theatrical-only release, with the marketing urging audiences to see it on the big screen, Mulan skipped theaters in the U.S. and went straight to Disney+ for a premium VOD price of $29.99.

    This week has seen another reshuffle of the Disney release slate, with Black Widow - the last Marvel Studios movie that was still hoping for a 2020 release date - pushed back to May 2021. Other releases, like Warner Bros.' superhero blockbuster Wonder Woman 1984 and Universal's horror sequel Candyman, were also delayed in the wake of Tenet disappointing at the box office. Instead of saving the cinematic experience as intended, Nolan's film inadvertently became a canary down the coal mine. The resulting exodus has left the theatrical release schedule almost completely deserted for the next two months.

    Obviously the biggest problem for Tenet was releasing in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, when many theaters in the U.S. were still closed and audiences were reluctant to risk sitting in a room sharing poorly circulated air with a group of strangers for over two hours. But Mulan faced its own challenge in convincing Disney+ subscribers to shell out a steep $29.99 just to watch the movie in their own homes. So, which movie was the bigger box office success.

    Tenet's Box Office And Mulan's PVOD Sales

    Though they're obviously very different movies with different target audiences, Mulan and Tenet had similar production budgets of around $200 million, and both released on the same weekend in the United States (Tenet released a week earlier in some international markets). Warner Bros. initially reported that Tenet had grossed $20.2 million in its opening weekend, but it was later revealed that this number included previews and the extended Labor Day weekend. Dissecting the reported box office numbers, Collider estimated that the true opening weekend was around $9.5 million. The international ticket sales have been more robust, with Tenet pushing past $250 million worldwide after a month in theaters.

    Disney+ sales of Mulan have been kept under wraps by the studio, making it difficult to get a concrete idea of how much money Niki Caro's live-action remake has made. An early report caimed that Mulan has grossed $261 million in sales within the first 12 days of release, but this was later corrected to an estimate of $63-92 million. The release of the film did lead to a spike in Disney+ downloads, suggesting that its exclusive availability on Disney's own streaming platform also brought new subscribers onboard. Factoring in the reduced distribution costs of Mulan's Disney+ release, since theaters aren't taking a cut of box office, Forbes estimates that the higher estimate of $93 million would be equivalent to around $186 million at the box office. Since the data is based on U.S. Disney+ subscribers, Mulan has undoubtedly surpassed Tenet's domestic box office, which as of this week was still only at $36 million. Worldwide, however, it's likely that Tenet has the edge.

    Why Tenet Struggled At The Box Office (Even By Current Standards)

    With a quarter of U.S. theaters still closed, and the majority of those in the key markets of New York and California, Tenet was never going to make a huge splash at the box office. Under normal circumstances it would have been targeting a similar performance to Nolan's last trippy sci-fi film, Interstellar, which grossed $693.4 million with a $47.5 million opening weekend. While the coronavirus pandemic was undoubtedly a huge handicap, it did give Tenet a couple of slight advantages to go with all the downsides.

    Along with the long-delayed Fox movie The New Mutants, Tenet was the first new exclusively theatrical release in the U.S. since Onward's short run all the way back in March, and its promise of big-screen spectacle was tempting for moviegoers who had been cooped up all summer. With New Mutants and other releases offering little in the way of competition, Tenet also had a clear run at the box office for many weeks after its release. Warner Bros. was likely counting on the movie having strong legs rather than packing screens full in its opening weekend (which wouldn't be possible anyway, with current social distancing measures).

    As an original sci-fi movie, Tenet wasn't as safe a box office bet as a live-action Disney remake like Mulan. The film was relying on the prestige of Nolan as a director and upon enticingly cryptic trailers to draw audiences in. But unlike Inception, which had a fairly straightforward hook (a heist movie about breaking into people's dreams) as well as rave reviews from critics and strong word of mouth, Tenet's time-inversion premise was harder for general audiences to wrap their heads around, and the trailers were deliberately coy about the actual story. Upon release its critical reception was more mixed, and audience complaints ranged from the sound mix drowning out the dialogue to the plot being incomprehensible on a first viewing. To beat the odds Tenet would have needed to be 2020's must-see film, and the general consensus is that it wasn't.

    Mulan's Disney+ Release Made It An Easier Sell

    In contrast to the unprecedented circumstances of Tenet's release, Disney had the benefit of seeing how other movies had performed with a premium VOD release. An early success story for family audiences was Universal's Trolls World Tour, which was made available to rent for $19.99. VOD sales are harder to pin down than box office ticket sales, but Trolls World Tour grossed an estimated $100 million in rentals within the first three weeks of its release. Though the price tag was calculated to be the approximate cost of two or three people seeing the movie in theaters, there was backlash to the idea of paying $20 for only 48 hours access to the movie.

    Taking cues from both the success of Trolls World Tour and the criticisms of its release, Disney moved Mulan to Disney+ with a higher price point of $29.99, but no time limit on availability and no limit on many times it could be watched. This added rewatch value, something that's a cornerstone of Disney movies (as parents who have heard Frozen's "Let It Go" a hundred times can attest). Though technically Disney+ subscribers who pay the premium fee are still only renting Mulan rather than buying it, since discontinuing the base subscription means losing access, it was effectively set up to feel more like a purchase than a rental.

    Neither Mulan Nor Tenet Were True Box Office Successes



    Neither Mulan nor Tenet proved to be an outright success or failure. These were two films with massive budgets that were suddenly faced with one of the biggest financial crises in the history of cinema. Ten-figure hits like last year's Avengers: Endgame and Joker were never going to happen under the current circumstances. The new best case scenario for Warner Bros. and Disney was to lose as little money as possible, with turning an actual profit as a stretch goal.

    Putting aside the question of whether or not Warner Bros. was irresponsible to push forward with Tenet's theatrical release as COVID-19 cases were rising in the U.S., the film is looking to end its theatrical run with between $325 and $350 million, per Forbes. The studio will lose money and it would certainly be a major flop under normal conditions, but realistically even great reviews and word of mouth wouldn't have been enough to push it past the break-even point. Mulan is arguably the bigger flop, particularly when it comes to its theatrical release. Despite Disney targeting the lucrative market of China, Mulan is set to make less than half of 2019's The Lion King at the Chinese box office.

    The performance of both Tenet and Mulan will already have been put under a microscope by studio analysts, as the film industry fights to adapt to a pandemic-stricken world. So far the main reaction has been to push key releases down the road in the hope that things will get back to normal in 2021. But if the closure of theaters is prolonged by a second wave of coronavirus infections, it's likely that we'll see more movies join Mulan in the move to PVOD.

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  10. #115
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    Wu Movies?

    Wu Assassins star says season 2 will be two movies on Netflix
    "They're changing the format."

    BY JESS LEE
    05/09/2020

    Wu Assassins premiered more than one year ago (in August 2019), but there has been no official word on whether Netflix has renewed or cancelled the series.

    During an interview with Digital Spy, Tzi Ma – who played Kai's neighbour Mr Young in the first season – said that there are plans for more Wu Assassins, although it will look a little different.

    "They're changing the format," he shared. "I think they're going to do two kind of movies of the week instead of a series."


    DANIEL POWER / NETFLIX
    Tzi, currently in Vancouver for The CW's Kung Fu reboot series, added that he won't be returning for these movies before explaining that the idea is that each of the two movies will take place in a different location.

    "I can't be a part of it because I'm committed to another series," he said. "But I think that's what they're going to do. They're going to do two movies of the week where Iko [Uwais]'s character moves from Thailand and South Africa. But COVID hit.

    "I think they were going to shoot in Thailand for one movie, and then shoot in South Africa for the other."

    Digital Spy has reached out to Netflix for comment.



    Right now, Tzi can be seen in the live-action Mulan remake as Mulan's father Zhou. The film launched on Disney+ yesterday (September 4).

    "I'm relieved that finally the world is going to get an opportunity to see it. It's really, really an amazing piece of work," he said.

    "The film is a celebration. A celebration of culture, a celebration of family, a celebration of women's contributions to our world."

    Wu Assassins season 1 is available on Netflix.

    Mulan is available exclusively to Disney+ subscribers in selected countries. Premier Access to the movie is priced at £19.99 in the UK and $29.99 in the US.
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  11. #116
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    Mulan (2020)

    China Announces It’s Making New ‘Fight Mulan’ Film After Disney’s Flop

    BY RYAN GENERAL
    DECEMBER 17, 2020
    1 MINUTE READ

    A new Mulan film is currently in the works in China and it’s already getting fans excited online.


    Battle ready: The movie, titled “Fight Mulan” (战斗吧木兰), features Chinese actress Yang Ning playing the iconic female warrior, reports Mothership.



    “Fight Mulan” started filming on Aug. 31 and is scheduled for release on Oct. 5, 2021.
    Not much else is known about the movie but it already has fans talking after a poster and stills from the film emerged on social media.



    Many users expressed hope that the upcoming film would do the character and her story better justice than the most recent release from Disney.
    Others pointed to another Chinese-made Mulan film released in 2009, which starred popular actress Zhao Wei.
    Disney’s flop: Made with a $200 million budget, the live-action version Disney released in September failed to connect with the global audience, barely making $67 million worldwide.

    In China, where the film made over $40 million, it was heavily criticized for its acting, plot and inaccuracies.
    The film was at least a success for Disney+, which attracted new subscribers, with some 100,000 people paying an additional $30 to access the film.
    A Chinese-made animated film about Mulan titled “Kung Fu Mulan” also failed to impress viewers in China and was pulled from theaters just three days after release, as NextShark previously reported.
    Feature Image via Channel Fight and Lady Metro
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  12. #117
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    Revolution of Our Times


    Cannes Screens Bombshell Hong Kong Protest Doc as Late Addition to Official Program

    The festival's inclusion of 'Revolution of Our Times,' a hard-hitting chronicle of police brutality during Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests in 2019, is certain attract the ire of China's ruling Communist Party.

    BY PATRICK BRZESKI, ALEX RITMAN
    JULY 15, 2021 5:00AM

    Umbrella-wielding student protestors clash with police on the streets of Hong Kong. DEAR BROS
    The Cannes Film Festival made a bombshell, last-minute addition to its lineup this week, inviting select members of the international press to attend a “confidential” screening of Revolution of Our Times, a gripping, politically powerful documentary initially described only as being “about the protests in Hong Kong.” Until its unveiling in Cannes, the film’s existence was not publicly known.

    Revolution of Our Times has been scheduled to receive just one official special screening in Cannes, at 11 a.m. on Friday. The semi-secretive manner in which the film’s inclusion was announced initially aroused more curiosity in Cannes than its origins and subject matter.

    On late Wednesday, the festival sent an email to the international press stating that a “surprise documentary” had been added to the program. Earlier in the day, however, a small number of film reporters were invited to attend a “confidential” screening in the Palais’ Salle Soixantieme. The Hollywood Reporter‘s correspondent was among the approximately 10 people present at the discreet afternoon showing. The festival requested at the time that no news about the film be released until Thursday afternoon, Cannes time.

    As it turns out, the sensitivity surrounding the film appears warranted. Revolution of Our Times is a forensic and hard-hitting chronicle of the mass street protests that erupted in Hong Kong in the second half of 2019 — protests that were met with a brutal police crackdown, hundreds of arrests of activists and pro-democracy advocates, and the eventual imposition of near-total Chinese Communist Party control over the once-semidemocratic former colony. Thanks to Hong Kong’s expansive new National Security Law, imposed by Beijing in 2020, those involved in the new documentary could be subject to arrest and charges of subversion.
    continued next post
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  13. #118
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    Continued from previous post


    A group of protestors, wearing raincoats to protect against tear gas, march down one of Hong Kong’s main thoroughfares during the 2019 pro-democracy protests. DEAR BROS
    Revolution of Our Times is directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Kiwi Chow, 42, best known as one of the directors who contributed to Hong Kong’s 2015 indie hit Ten Years, a sci-fi dystopian anthology film that gathered five shorts, each exploring different ways that Hong Kong might change under Communist Party rule by the year 2025. Chow’s contribution, titled Self-Immolator, was among the politically starkest of the collection, telling the story of an elderly Hong Kong woman who sets herself on fire in protest after witnessing a Hong Kong pro-independence protestor being brutally beaten by police. The segment was considered extreme at the time of its release, but the reality in Hong Kong quickly caught up with Chow’s vision.

    Revolution of Our Times uses extensive footage taken from the tumultuous events on the ground in Hong Kong in 2019, as well as interviews with a number of the activists involved (mostly done anonymously and with their faces disguised), to chart the growth of the pro-democracy movement. It simultaneously documents the sharp increase in police brutality as Hong Kong became engulfed in deadly street battles, including the 12-day siege of the Polytechnic University in November 2019. In one of the film’s most shocking moments, a body is seen being pushed out of a high-rise window, with Hong Kong authorities accused of kidnapping and murdering several of the movement’s central figures. The film is said to have been put together entirely in secret.

    “Over the past fifty years, Hongkongers have fought for freedom and democracy but have yet to succeed,” reads the synopsis for Revolution of Our Times. “In 2019, the Extradition Bill to China opened Pandora’s box, turning Hong Kong into a battlefield against the Chinese authoritarian rule.”

    Chow, it says, made this documentary to tell the story of the movement, “both with a macro view of its historical context and up close and personal on the front lines.”

    Aside from Chow, the film states that the majority of those involved in the making of Revolution of Our Times — understandably — use pseudonyms in the credits, with the producer going by “Dear Bros.” Ahead of the credits, it declares that Revolution of Our Times was made “By Hongkongers.”

    So far, Cannes organizers have offered no official explanation for the secretive and last-minute nature of Revolution of Our Times‘ addition to the festival program. But sources close to the festival have suggested that precautions were taken to protect the filmmakers.

    Industry attendees also have been quick to surmise that the screening of the film — however discreet — is all but certain to upset China’s ruling Communist Party, and could risk the attendance of Chinese films and filmmakers at future editions of the festival.

    Chow himself offered a statement of appreciation to the festival, writing: “I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Cannes. It is our honor to have the World Premiere of “Revolution of Our Times”, a film documenting the struggle of Hongkongers, at Cannes; and receive great attention. Hong Kong has been losing far more than anyone has expected, this good news will be a comfort to many Hongkongers who live in fear; it also shows that whoever fights for justice and freedom around the world, ARE with us! And Hongkongers are staying strong!”

    Cannes has frequently stood with filmmakers facing political persecution in their home countries, such as Iranian director Jafar Panahi (This Is Not a Film) and Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov (Petrov’s Flu), both of whom were under house arrest and unable to attend the festival when their films were screened.

    But Hong Kong’s protest movement has found precious few allies over the past two years, as Beijing has leveraged China’s outsize economic clout to attempt to punish any companies or individuals who dare throw their support behind democracy in Hong Kong.

    In October 2019, the NBA — the most popular and profitable U.S. sporting league in China by far — was banned from broadcast in the country for a full year after the Houston Rockets general manager at the time, Daryl Morey, put out a single, seven-word tweet voicing support for Hong Kong’s movement. (“Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”)

    In August that same year, Chinese actress Crystal Liu, star of Disney’s China-set action tentpole Mulan, created an international backlash when she voiced her support for the Hong Kong police force’s crackdown on protestors. The activist movement in Hong Kong called for a boycott of Mulan, but Disney, an ardent supporter of social movements in the U.S., such as Black Lives Matter, remained completely mum on the topic of democracy in Hong Kong. Many analysts pointed out at the time that the entertainment conglomerate would very likely see its multibillion-dollar Shanghai Disneyland theme park shuttered by Beijing if it were to speak out on the issue.

    Hong Kong politics also are believed to have resulted in the 2021 Oscars ceremony being totally blocked from broadcast in mainland China and Hong Kong earlier this year. Broadcasters and regulators never supplied a reason for the mysterious suspension of the awards show in Greater China, but many connected to the industry believe it was intended as retribution for the Academy’s nomination of the Hong Kong protest film Do Not Split in the best short documentary category (past critical comments made by Oscar best director winner Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) about her home country also irked the authorities).

    Beijing has moved with alarming swiftness to crush the Hong Kong movement featured in Revolution of Our Times. The repressive National Security Law put in place in the territory last year has resulted in the arrest of over 100 activists and opposition politicians. The crackdown also has had the intended effect of driving protestors overseas or into a state of self-censorship, as a chill has swept through the city’s creative community and civil society as a whole. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong school curriculum has been rewritten to teach fealty to the Chinese Communist Party, books have been banned, and pro-democracy journalists arrested at their jobs.

    In July, The Apple Daily, a popular Hong Kong newspaper that had allied itself with the pro-democracy cause, was forced to close after its offices were raided by Hong Kong police and five of its editors and executives arrested. The CCP said in a statement that the publication had abused “so-called freedom of the press.” The Apple Daily‘s outspoken founder, Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, was arrested last year and remains in prison facing charges of national security offenses that carry a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

    A recent rewriting of the censorship rules governing Hong Kong’s film industry, once a bastion of cinematic vitality — and the home to Bruce Lee, Wong Kar Wai, Stephen Chow, Jackie Chan, Johnnie To and scores more — will ensure that Revolution of Our Times can never be screened freely in the city.
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