New Indie
Michael Almereyda has tackled science (as a topic of either biopics or dramas) in a fascinating way in “Experimenter” and “Marjorie Prime,” and now he’s bringing that same energy to the inventor-biopic with “Tesla” (Shout Factory/IFC), a bold and audacious look at the life of Nikola Tesla. Ethan Hawke, in the title role, is evenly matched by Eve Hewson’s Anne Morgan, and they both nail Almereyda’s unique tone, which throws in anachronisms and green-screens to tell the story of someone who stretched the notions of what his peers imagined could be possible.
Also available: Madison Iseman plays a young girl with mental-health issues who can’t convince anyone she’s witnessed a crime in “Fear of Rain” (Lionsgate); 2012 indie “Watching TV with the Red Chinese” (Mvd Visual), co-starring Constance Wu and Gillian Jacobs, makes its U.S. DVD debut; Sienna Miller and Diego Luna...
Michael Almereyda has tackled science (as a topic of either biopics or dramas) in a fascinating way in “Experimenter” and “Marjorie Prime,” and now he’s bringing that same energy to the inventor-biopic with “Tesla” (Shout Factory/IFC), a bold and audacious look at the life of Nikola Tesla. Ethan Hawke, in the title role, is evenly matched by Eve Hewson’s Anne Morgan, and they both nail Almereyda’s unique tone, which throws in anachronisms and green-screens to tell the story of someone who stretched the notions of what his peers imagined could be possible.
Also available: Madison Iseman plays a young girl with mental-health issues who can’t convince anyone she’s witnessed a crime in “Fear of Rain” (Lionsgate); 2012 indie “Watching TV with the Red Chinese” (Mvd Visual), co-starring Constance Wu and Gillian Jacobs, makes its U.S. DVD debut; Sienna Miller and Diego Luna...
- 2/17/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
As 2021 dawned, China shot straight out of the box office gate with a new record. On Friday, the market hit a milestone for New Year’s Day.
Estimates are coming in for January 1 at about Rmb 600M ($92M), besting the same day in all previous years. The big result was generated largely by new local title A Little Red Flower which has blossomed through strong word of mouth. This all comes as China ended 2020 as the biggest box office market globally, surpassing North America for the first time. As previously noted, this was on the horizon as early as October. Comscore estimates the total Middle Kingdom 2020 box office was $2.74B, although the China Film Administration has it slightly higher at $3.12B (Rmb 20.4B). Domestic box office is estimated at $2.28B, per comScore.
China has shown strong bounce-back during the pandemic which nearly a year ago made it among the first markets to shutter cinemas,...
Estimates are coming in for January 1 at about Rmb 600M ($92M), besting the same day in all previous years. The big result was generated largely by new local title A Little Red Flower which has blossomed through strong word of mouth. This all comes as China ended 2020 as the biggest box office market globally, surpassing North America for the first time. As previously noted, this was on the horizon as early as October. Comscore estimates the total Middle Kingdom 2020 box office was $2.74B, although the China Film Administration has it slightly higher at $3.12B (Rmb 20.4B). Domestic box office is estimated at $2.28B, per comScore.
China has shown strong bounce-back during the pandemic which nearly a year ago made it among the first markets to shutter cinemas,...
- 1/3/2021
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Specialty distributor Shout! Studios has secured all North American rights to ecology-themed Chinese animated feature “The Legend Of Hei.” In a partnership with France’s Play Big, it will give the film a release in the U.S. and Canada.
“The Legend Of Hei” is a heart-warming fantasy about a cat spirit who goes on a journey of self-discovery after its forest home is destroyed by humans. It was directed by Zhang Ping (a.k.a Mtjj), who spent five years adapting the picture from a Flash animation series that he created in 2011 and published online.
The feature had a successful commercial release in China from September last year and earned $48 million at the box office. It subsequently enjoyed festival play at the Guangzhou and Beijing student festivals and at the 2020 edition of Annecy. It recently began a theatrical outing in Japan.
For the North American release, Shout! and Play...
“The Legend Of Hei” is a heart-warming fantasy about a cat spirit who goes on a journey of self-discovery after its forest home is destroyed by humans. It was directed by Zhang Ping (a.k.a Mtjj), who spent five years adapting the picture from a Flash animation series that he created in 2011 and published online.
The feature had a successful commercial release in China from September last year and earned $48 million at the box office. It subsequently enjoyed festival play at the Guangzhou and Beijing student festivals and at the 2020 edition of Annecy. It recently began a theatrical outing in Japan.
For the North American release, Shout! and Play...
- 12/15/2020
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The biggest film of 2020 won’t be Tenet.
Christopher Nolan’s time-traveling tentpole might have been the only major release from a U.S. studio since the coronavirus pandemic, but its $350 million box office take pales beside The Eight Hundred. The patriotic war film from China’s Huayi Brothers has grossed $460 million to date, making it the biggest movie worldwide of 2020.
Within China, Tenet took $65.5 million, a fraction of the $415 million Beijing Culture’s patriotic ensemble film My People, My Homeland, or the $240 million Beijing Enlight’s 3D animation Jiang Ziya: Legend Of Deification earned in the territory....
Christopher Nolan’s time-traveling tentpole might have been the only major release from a U.S. studio since the coronavirus pandemic, but its $350 million box office take pales beside The Eight Hundred. The patriotic war film from China’s Huayi Brothers has grossed $460 million to date, making it the biggest movie worldwide of 2020.
Within China, Tenet took $65.5 million, a fraction of the $415 million Beijing Culture’s patriotic ensemble film My People, My Homeland, or the $240 million Beijing Enlight’s 3D animation Jiang Ziya: Legend Of Deification earned in the territory....
- 11/13/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The biggest film of 2020 won’t be Tenet.
Christopher Nolan’s time-traveling tentpole might have been the only major release from a U.S. studio since the coronavirus pandemic, but its $350 million box office take pales beside The Eight Hundred. The patriotic war film from China’s Huayi Brothers has grossed $460 million to date, making it the biggest movie worldwide of 2020.
Within China, Tenet took $65.5 million, a fraction of the $415 million Beijing Culture’s patriotic ensemble film My People, My Homeland, or the $240 million Beijing Enlight’s 3D animation Jiang Ziya: Legend Of Deification earned in the territory....
Christopher Nolan’s time-traveling tentpole might have been the only major release from a U.S. studio since the coronavirus pandemic, but its $350 million box office take pales beside The Eight Hundred. The patriotic war film from China’s Huayi Brothers has grossed $460 million to date, making it the biggest movie worldwide of 2020.
Within China, Tenet took $65.5 million, a fraction of the $415 million Beijing Culture’s patriotic ensemble film My People, My Homeland, or the $240 million Beijing Enlight’s 3D animation Jiang Ziya: Legend Of Deification earned in the territory....
- 11/13/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
China’s year-to-date box office came within a whisker of $2 billion on Sunday, with the latest weekend adding $46.4 million to the running total. That was enough for China to take the 2020 global crown.
While the latest theatrical weekend total represented a 32% decline compared with the previous session, and lacked a notable new release, the incremental addition was enough to make China’s box office the biggest in the world this year.
The 2020 China aggregate stands at $1.99 billion, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway, compared with $1.94 billion for the North American market.
The year-to-date total is 75.5% adrift of where the Chinese box office was last year, but after prolonged pain, continued recovery looks to be on the cards. China Monday reported an acceleration of its third quarter Gdp recovery, and cinemas are now on a similar track.
The coronavirus outbreak kept mainland Chinese movie theaters closed for nearly six months. But most have now reopened.
While the latest theatrical weekend total represented a 32% decline compared with the previous session, and lacked a notable new release, the incremental addition was enough to make China’s box office the biggest in the world this year.
The 2020 China aggregate stands at $1.99 billion, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway, compared with $1.94 billion for the North American market.
The year-to-date total is 75.5% adrift of where the Chinese box office was last year, but after prolonged pain, continued recovery looks to be on the cards. China Monday reported an acceleration of its third quarter Gdp recovery, and cinemas are now on a similar track.
The coronavirus outbreak kept mainland Chinese movie theaters closed for nearly six months. But most have now reopened.
- 10/19/2020
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The China box office bounced back this weekend to its pre-pandemic levels, figures from its National Day holiday weekend show — proving that the right mix of competitive new local titles can entice viewers in, what this year is very much on track to be, the world’s largest movie market.
The news comes as other major markets flounder, with Regal Cinemas owner Cineworld Group announcing the temporary suspension of its U.S. and U.K. operations due to an insufficient pipeline of Hollywood studio tentpoles, causing its shares to plummet more than 40% on Monday.
China’s week-long vacation period to celebrate the Oct. 1 founding of the People’s Republic is one of its busiest moviegoing periods of the year. That is particularly true this year, after Covid-19 shut down cinemas and wiped out the prospects of the strong Lunar New Year release window. Three of the top five titles this...
The news comes as other major markets flounder, with Regal Cinemas owner Cineworld Group announcing the temporary suspension of its U.S. and U.K. operations due to an insufficient pipeline of Hollywood studio tentpoles, causing its shares to plummet more than 40% on Monday.
China’s week-long vacation period to celebrate the Oct. 1 founding of the People’s Republic is one of its busiest moviegoing periods of the year. That is particularly true this year, after Covid-19 shut down cinemas and wiped out the prospects of the strong Lunar New Year release window. Three of the top five titles this...
- 10/5/2020
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
As Regal Theaters in the U.S. and U.K. parent Cineworld weigh closing their cinemas, this weekend’s box office offered little encouragement as this weekend’s top 10 came to about $8.2 million, and could be $10 million-$11 million for all films. That’s down from $9.6 million for last weekend’s top 10, which saw about $12 million overall. By comparison: This weekend in 2019, with the opening of “Joker,” brought in $150 million overall.
“Tenet,” by far the biggest contributor to domestic returns since it opened a month ago ,held well again, down 21 percent with $2.7 million. It has reached $45.1 million domestic so far, for $307 million worldwide.
The only country that is not reliant on “Tenet” is China, where local titles have driven the grossed to over $1 billion in the last six weeks. This weekend (a holiday there) showed two titles both gross over $150 million with “My People My Homeland” and the animated “Jiang Ziya.
“Tenet,” by far the biggest contributor to domestic returns since it opened a month ago ,held well again, down 21 percent with $2.7 million. It has reached $45.1 million domestic so far, for $307 million worldwide.
The only country that is not reliant on “Tenet” is China, where local titles have driven the grossed to over $1 billion in the last six weeks. This weekend (a holiday there) showed two titles both gross over $150 million with “My People My Homeland” and the animated “Jiang Ziya.
- 10/4/2020
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Saturday Update: Patriotic pic My People, My Homeland edged up to the No. 1 spot in China on Saturday, overtaking Jiang Ziya: Legend Of Deification which had led since opening on National Day this past Thursday (see below). An anthology sequel to last year’s My People, My Country, Homeland did an estimated Rmb 281.9M ($41.5M) on Saturday to take its three-day cume to $122M.
Jiang Ziya, with a through-Saturday estimated cume of Rmb 885.6M ($130.4M), and My People, My Homeland have today overtaken The Eight Hundred‘s launch ($117M including previews) on the list of biggest openers worldwide this year. The Top 3 slots on the global 2020 opening chart now belong to Chinese movies in just the home market where capacity restrictions were only recently eased up to 75%.
Total China box office on Saturday is estimated at Rmb 593.5M ($87.4M), a 12% dip from Friday. Regardless, compare those numbers to last weekend...
Jiang Ziya, with a through-Saturday estimated cume of Rmb 885.6M ($130.4M), and My People, My Homeland have today overtaken The Eight Hundred‘s launch ($117M including previews) on the list of biggest openers worldwide this year. The Top 3 slots on the global 2020 opening chart now belong to Chinese movies in just the home market where capacity restrictions were only recently eased up to 75%.
Total China box office on Saturday is estimated at Rmb 593.5M ($87.4M), a 12% dip from Friday. Regardless, compare those numbers to last weekend...
- 10/3/2020
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Like “Ne Zha” — 2019’s monumental computer-animated box office hit — similarly spectacular CG epic “Jiang Ziya” concludes with nearly 10 minutes of credits: a dense scroll of names amounting to a virtual army of animators, punctuated by extra scenes and teasers for upcoming projects from Chinese distributor Beijing Enlight Pictures. That’s how fans first learned of this film’s existence: Adopting a strategy that has served Marvel well at the movies, “Ne Zha” touted the arrival of “Jiang Ziya” in its last few minutes, sparking a wave of excitement among fans, and now in turn, this follow-up wraps with promises that there’s a greater “Fengshen Cinematic Universe” afoot.
Playing fast and loose with classic Chinese literature, both films draw their lead characters from the 16th-century novel “Fengshen Yanyi” (aka “Investiture of the Gods”) and concern the meddling by immortals and demons in the affairs of men more than a thousand years B.
Playing fast and loose with classic Chinese literature, both films draw their lead characters from the 16th-century novel “Fengshen Yanyi” (aka “Investiture of the Gods”) and concern the meddling by immortals and demons in the affairs of men more than a thousand years B.
- 10/1/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Tuesday Update, with actuals: Christopher Nolan’s Tenet again came in slightly higher in Warner Bros’ weekend actuals versus Sunday’s estimates with $16.2M on 19,764 screens in 56 overseas markets. That’s a -35% hold (-25% excluding China). The international box office through Sunday is $243.7M for $284.9M worldwide. As key areas of the U.S. remain closed, offshore is powering Tenet at 86% of the global gross.
The Japan hold at No. 1 is a confirmed -30% to track 41% ahead of Dunkirk which finaled at $14.8M at 2017 rates. Elsewhere, holds were better than estimated in Germany (+15%), Holland (+9%), France (-8%) and UK (-19%).
The Top 5 through Sunday are China ($64.3M), UK ($19.7M), France ($18.6M), Germany ($14.7M) and Korea ($13.1M). Maoyan is projecting an Rmb 444.6M ($65.2M) finish in China which will be flooded with local pics from this week for the National Day holiday. Already, China‘s Leap scored a $25M opening this...
The Japan hold at No. 1 is a confirmed -30% to track 41% ahead of Dunkirk which finaled at $14.8M at 2017 rates. Elsewhere, holds were better than estimated in Germany (+15%), Holland (+9%), France (-8%) and UK (-19%).
The Top 5 through Sunday are China ($64.3M), UK ($19.7M), France ($18.6M), Germany ($14.7M) and Korea ($13.1M). Maoyan is projecting an Rmb 444.6M ($65.2M) finish in China which will be flooded with local pics from this week for the National Day holiday. Already, China‘s Leap scored a $25M opening this...
- 9/29/2020
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
The first major blockbuster of the pandemic era, The Eight Hundred this week became the No. 1-grossing movie of 2020 worldwide, jumping ahead of Bad Boys For Life. The Guan Hu-directed war epic has through Friday amassed $434M at the Chinese box office alone, and is also now the 10th biggest movie ever in the Middle Kingdom.
Since the official release on August 21 (more than a year after its original date was derailed), The Eight Hundred has relinquished the No. 1 slot on only four days, demonstrating its dominance even in the face of major Hollywood movies. The reported $80M production is expected to wind down when the National Holiday releases begin on October 1. One of those titles, Leap — which was originally slated for the Lunar New Year — got a jump on the holiday with previews starting today, and led the day at Rmb 56M ($8.2M), putting The Eight Hundred into second place.
Since the official release on August 21 (more than a year after its original date was derailed), The Eight Hundred has relinquished the No. 1 slot on only four days, demonstrating its dominance even in the face of major Hollywood movies. The reported $80M production is expected to wind down when the National Holiday releases begin on October 1. One of those titles, Leap — which was originally slated for the Lunar New Year — got a jump on the holiday with previews starting today, and led the day at Rmb 56M ($8.2M), putting The Eight Hundred into second place.
- 9/25/2020
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Peter Chan’s hotly anticipated biographical sports drama “Leap” is set to hit China on Sept. 30, becoming the first of the Chinese New Year blockbusters canceled due to Covid-19 to set a theatrical outing.
Local animation “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification,” which was also originally scheduled to premiere over the lunar new year, will premiere the day after. They will both hit theaters over the China’s patriotic National Day holiday that begins Oct. 1, typically one of the busiest movie-going weeks of the year.
They will compete against the patriotic anthology film “My People, My Homeland,” a sequel to last National Day’s “My People, My Country,” and Chinese comedy “Coffee or Tea?,” as well as a local animated take on the classic “Mulan” legend.
The fact that major new local blockbusters are now willing to set release dates is a signal of renewed confidence in China’s box office,...
Local animation “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification,” which was also originally scheduled to premiere over the lunar new year, will premiere the day after. They will both hit theaters over the China’s patriotic National Day holiday that begins Oct. 1, typically one of the busiest movie-going weeks of the year.
They will compete against the patriotic anthology film “My People, My Homeland,” a sequel to last National Day’s “My People, My Country,” and Chinese comedy “Coffee or Tea?,” as well as a local animated take on the classic “Mulan” legend.
The fact that major new local blockbusters are now willing to set release dates is a signal of renewed confidence in China’s box office,...
- 8/17/2020
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Seven major blockbusters were set for release during the holiday.
All films set for release during the Chinese Lunar New Year period have been pulled due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus in what is a major blow to the Chinese film industry.
At least seven major blockbusters were due to open during the holiday, which kicks off this weekend and is the most lucrative time of the year at the Chinese box office.
The titles are Lost In Russia, Leap, Vanguard, Detective Chinatown 3, Boonie Bears: The Wild Life, The Rescue, and Legend Of Deification, from the studio behind smash-hit animation Ne Zha.
All films set for release during the Chinese Lunar New Year period have been pulled due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus in what is a major blow to the Chinese film industry.
At least seven major blockbusters were due to open during the holiday, which kicks off this weekend and is the most lucrative time of the year at the Chinese box office.
The titles are Lost In Russia, Leap, Vanguard, Detective Chinatown 3, Boonie Bears: The Wild Life, The Rescue, and Legend Of Deification, from the studio behind smash-hit animation Ne Zha.
- 1/23/2020
- by 1101184¦Orlando Parfitt¦38¦
- ScreenDaily
Updated with more detail: Amid the escalating outbreak of the deadly coronavirus — and in an unprecedented move — Chinese producers and distributors have cancelled the local release of all films set for the Lunar New Year period that begins this weekend. There were seven potential blockbusters due to hit Middle Kingdom theaters, kicking off what is annually a highly lucrative session at local turnstiles, but the government has warned people not to congregate in crowded areas and producers are understood to have made the decision to delay releases given the potential risk of spreading the disease. It is estimated that over $77M worth of tickets had already been pre-sold for the coming week.
Chinese health authorities announced today that 571 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the virus had been reported in 25 provincial-level regions, while 17 people have died. This morning, the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, was placed on lockdown...
Chinese health authorities announced today that 571 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the virus had been reported in 25 provincial-level regions, while 17 people have died. This morning, the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, was placed on lockdown...
- 1/23/2020
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
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