‘Barbenheimer’ and Chinese Movies Speed Up Global Box Office Recovery

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Equal numbers of Chinese and Japanese titles adorn the main competition section of the Toyo International Film Festival, which was announced on Wednesday – three each. Among the Chinese films is “Snow Leopard,” the last feature by the late Pema Tseden, and “Dwelling by the West Lake,” directed by Gu Xiaogang, the surprisingly inexperienced joint recipient of this year’s Kurosawa Award. The full competition with 15 titles, set to play between Oct. 23 and Nov.

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s Agatha Christie adaptation “A Haunting in Venice” stayed atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second successive weekend with £1.4 million ($1.8 million), per numbers from Comscore. The film, directed by Kenneth Branagh, where he plays detective Hercule Poirot, now has a total of £4.9 million after two weekends in release.

While a fairly quiet frame overall, there were some significant milestones this international box office session. To wit: New Line/Warner Bros’ The Nun II topped the $200M mark worldwide and Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan became the highest-grossing Bollywood movie ever in India, overtaking the star’s earlier 2023 movie, Pathaan.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China’s remarkable box office recovery this year took a pause on a weekend with no new releases and the quietest attendance levels since January. Next week’s crop of blockbuster holiday releases will show if the latest weekend was aberration attributable to timing. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed nationwide box office worth just $25 million – from a population of 1.3 billion people and some 100,000 commercial cinema screens. The figure was the second lowest of 2023 and only fractionally higher than the second week of January, which was a time when China’s post-COVID recovery was only just gearing up and major film releases were targeting the late-January Chinese New Year festivities. Since that time, China’s box office has mostly been on a roll.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Director Clara Law (“The Goddess of 1967”) has been set as president of the jury which will discern this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards. She will be joined by Malaysia’s Yeo Yann Yann (“Ilo Ilo,” “Wet Season,” American Born Chinese”), German producer Anna Katchko (“Stepne,” “Happiness”), and Faisal Baltyuor, producer and CEO of Muvi Studios in Saudi Arabia. A separate jury for documentaries and animation will be headed by Taiwan-based Myanmar director Midi Z, India’s Rima Das and Japanese documentary maker Toda Hikaru. The APSAs will be presented at a ceremony in Gold Coast, Queensland on Nov.

As of this writing, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” has grossed more than $900 million at the global box office. That’s well above everyone’s highest expectations.

As of this writing, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” has grossed more than $900 million at the global box office. That’s well above everyone’s highest expectations.

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s Hercule Poirot film “A Haunting in Venice” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £2.1 million ($2.7 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. In its second weekend, in second place, Warner Bros.’ “The Nun II” collected £1.1 million for a total of £3.8 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alibaba Pictures, the separately-listed film investment and distribution unit of China’s tech giant Alibaba behind recent box office hit “Lost in the Stars,” is to buy Damai. The target company is a major provider of live entertainment in the country that is currently controlled by the Alibaba parent company. The transaction is valued at $167 million, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday, and will be paid for by the issue of new Alibaba Pictures shares. Damai is involved in concerts, musical festivals, live house performances, plays, sports events and exhibitions in China.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief ‘Expendables 4’ narrowly took top place at the mainland China box office on a quiet weekend preceding the National Day holiday season at the end of the month. “A Haunting in Venice” opened outside the top five. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “Expendables 4” earning $10.9 million (RMB78.6 million) over its debut weekend.

In its latest milestone, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has passed the $900M mark worldwide. The estimated total through Friday is $903M, including $586M from the international box office. With Saturday and Sunday numbers, that global cume is projected to reach $912M. This will make it the highest grossing biopic ever at the global box office, ahead of Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief That the Toronto world premiere of “The Movie Emperor” is sponsored by high-end home appliance manufacturer Dyson is deliciously and understatedly ironic. In the movie, innocuous-seeming domestic equipment — from the humble suitcase to floor sweeping robots — run quietly amok.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros.’ “The Nun II” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £1.7 million ($2.1 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. Yash Raj Films release “Jawan,” headlined by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, bowed in second place with a strong £1.3 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Dust to Dust,” a low-key crime thriller, topped the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend, despite only being released on Saturday. The film, directed by Jonathan Li, recounts how 21 years after a major armed robbery, a video of the crime resurfaces and causes the police to reopen their investigation. It had its world premiere in June, in competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival. With Da Peng, a former talk show host, required to age significantly for the lead role, the film earned $22.2 million (RMB160 million) in just two days, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “No More Bets,” the smash hit Chinese crime thriller that has earned more than half a billion dollars in its home market, is hurriedly adding new territories to release. It will release in the U.K. and Ireland from Friday through distributor Trinity Cine Asia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Entertainment, sports and brand licensing firms WildBrain CPLG and WildBrain Ltd. have brokered location-based entertainment (LBE) deals on behalf of Peanuts Worldwide for “Peanuts,” “Teletubbies” and “In the Night Garden” with China’s Max-Matching Entertainments. These are expected to lead to the opening of family entertainment centers and IP-themed hotel rooms for each brand in Beijing, in Zhongshan City, Guangdong and a third city yet to be announced.

Naman Ramachandran Sony’s “The Equalizer 3” has finally toppled the six-week reign of “Barbie” atop the U.K. and Ireland box office. Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller, headlined by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning, debuted with £2.7 million ($3.4 million), per numbers from Comscore.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites. “The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference. International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”). Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award.

Barbie has been dethroned from the top of the UK and Ireland box office after six weeks.As reported by ScreenDaily, The Equalizer 3 starring Denzel Washington took the number one spot in its opening weekend (September 1-3), taking “just shy” of £2million.Barbie fell to second place with takings of £1.6million in its seventh weekend, a 16 per cent drop from the week prior. The film has grossed £92.6million in total in the UK, beating Avengers: Endgame (£88.7million) to become the seventh highest-grossing film of all time in the territory.Others in the top five for the weekend include Oppenheimer (£960,300), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (£619,000) and Sound Of Freedom (£589,456).Barbie had a longer run at the UK box office compared to the US, where DC superhero film Blue Beetle managed to dethrone the film at the top after four weeks.Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy recently became the highest-grossing movie of the year, beating The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Oppenheimer and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Oppenheimer” landed on top of the mainland China cinema box office with an impressive score for a Hollywood movie in the current climate. More typically, gaming adaptation “Gran Turismo” failed to get far off the start line. While most films open in China on Fridays, Christopher Nolan’s nuclear opus was given a wide release from Wednesday. It scored $21.3 million (RMB154 million) over the conventional Friday to Sunday weekend and $30.7 million (RMB221 million) over its opening five days, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway.