China Box Office: ‘Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ Opens in Third Place Behind Local Duo

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Meg 2: The Trench” serves up a school of prehistoric fish that chew up the seas, a snapping pack of imaginary hybrid dinosaurs that wreak havoc on land and a surprising cinema business model — the Chinese-controlled franchise intended for a global audience. And while early reviews are predictably mixed, the film’s box office debut looks promising. In China, on Friday, it bit off a $19.5 million first day and enjoyed a 50% market share.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Theatrical cinema in July enjoyed its highest revenues since pre-pandemic times, with global box office hitting $4.54 billion during the month. “This is the single highest-grossing month since before the pandemic began.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan film festival’s Asian Project Market is set to welcome several of the region’s top auteurs either as producers or prospective directors at its next edition in October. APM organizers Thursday unveiled 30 projects to be presented during a four-day round of one-on-one meetings and pitching sessions. India’s Rima Das (“Tora’s Husband”) will pitch “Malti My Love.” Japan’s Fukada Koji (“Love Life,” “Harmonium”) will pitch “Nagi Notes.” Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak (“Autobiography”) will pitch “Watch It Burn.” Among the successful producers adding their weight to APM contenders are: Patrick Mao Huang (“Moneyboys,” “Tiger Stripes”) selling Peter Ho’s project “Appetite for Desire”; Jeremy Chua (“Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” “Autobiography”), pitching Rafael Manuel’s “Filipinana”; Ichiyama Shozo (“Ash Is Puirest White”) pitching Song Fang’s Japan-China collaboration “Full Moon”; Fran Borgia (“A Land Imagined,” “Tiger Stripes”) pitching Aakash Chhabra’s “I’ll Smile in September”; and Tan Chui Mui (“Barbarian Invasion”) pitching Jian Xiaoshuan’s “To Kill A Mongolian Horse.” The project market and the Asian Contents & Film Market are both scheduled to operate Oct.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China is proposing to restrict internet access to minors and children. The move is intended to curb internet addiction. Tech sector regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China said on Wednesday that people under 18 will not be allowed to access the internet via a mobile device between 10pm and 6am each day.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Asia Contents Awards, held as part of the Busan International Film Festival since 2019, is to join forces with the Global OTT Awards to form a wider-reaching event. The merged events are to be known under the ungainly abbreviation ACA & G.OTT Awards and will be co-hosted by South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and Busan Metropolitan City authorities. The ceremony will be held in Busan on Sunday Oct.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms,” the first part of Wuershan’s big-budget “Fengshen Trilogy,” topped the mainland China box office for the second weekend and expanded its week-on-week haul by 35%. ‘Barbie’ also showed signs of resilience in a market where it opened a week earlier in a disappointing fifth place. “Creation of the Gods I” grossed $57.6 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kris Wu, the Chinese-Canadian pop megastar who was jailed last year for rape and group sex, appeared in court in Beijing on Tuesday to appeal his convictions. The case was heard at the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief While “Barbie” was romping to box office records in North American and scoring strongly in many international territories, the pink phenomenon could muster only fifth place in China, the world’s second largest movie market, on its opening weekend. “Barbie” managed $8.2 million in its opening three days, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Local box office sources show the film trapped in that position on all three days of the weekend session, as the locally-produced titles jostled for leadership and swapped positions. Somewhat encouragingly, the daily score for “Barbie” had increased by Sunday as it was given more screening sessions by Chinese exhibitors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cineverse, the streaming and content distribution company previously known as Cinedigm, has acquired North American rights to the Chinese animated fantasy film “Warrior King.” Inspired by the legend of the hero and warrior, King Gesar, the film is directed by Lu Qi from a screenplay by Lu Wunan and Wang Yunsheng. Cineverse says that it will release the film in U.S. theaters Aug. 25, following its international theatrical debut.  The story of Gesar is considered one of Central Asia’s literary classics and was passed down in oral tradition for some 1,000 years, as well as literary, poetic and stage play versions. Its Tibetan iteration may now be the most prominent, It is certainly one of the longest, running to over 100 volumes and a million verses, according to some calculations.   

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Exports of K-pop albums increased by 17% year on year to reach an all-time record of $133 million in the first six months of the year. The U.S. is now the second biggest overseas market for Korean music worth $25 million, having overtaken China, but still trailing Japan ($48 million), according to data from the Korea Customs Service. The next largest were Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, the U.K. and France.The record was achieved despite the absence of BTS as a group (though BTS members Jimin, and Suga put out solo efforts) and saw Stray Kids, Tomorrow X Together, Seventeen, Ateez and Twice all make an international impact.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Movie stars Zhou Xun and Jelly Lin head the cast of “Imperfect Victim,” a new mainland Chinese drama series that focuses on workplace sexual harassment and leads to a rape trial. Zhou (“Cloud Atlas,” “The Silent War,” “Painted Skin”) plays a lawyer who steps in to represent the character played by Lin (“The Mermaid”), who alleges assault by her boss at work. He is portrayed by TV veteran Liu Yijun (“Nirvana in Fire,” “The Pretender”). The case becomes complicated and Zhou’s character is forced to question her own ethics. The show is highly topical, given the slowly building #MeToo movement in China. This is being fuelled by numerous instances of sexual discrimination, sexual assault and outright violence towards women, many instances of which have gone viral on Chinese social media before being deleted by censors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Tom Cruise has become a regular visitor to South Korea and, while his latest visit was more than a week ago, the impact of his efforts appeared to endure. His ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ got off to the second strongest start at the Korean box office of any Hollywood movie released this year. The film grossed $9.75 million between Friday and Sunday, according to Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a 60% market share, earned from some 2,400 screens. In its full opening five days (plus previews), it earned $14.2 million.

SATURDAY PM UPDATE: Facts are facts, and Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One set a 5-day opening domestic record for the franchise with $80M, we hear.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Specialty distributor, Trinity CineAsia is releasing China’s summer blockbuster “Lost in the Stars” in the U.K and Ireland on some 30 screens from Friday. “I was fortunate to watch the film when it opened in China and once I saw it I just knew we had to have it,” said Cedric Behrel “‘Lost In The Stars’ is a very clever, uncanny thrill of a ride that harks back to classic Hitchcock and any noteworthy thriller since – the master himself had in fact once optioned the rights to the same story. We organized the fastest turnaround premiere known to man and we’ve been delighted by the reactions to the early previews. It epitomizes the best of what new Chinese cinema can bring to audiences.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sakamoto Ryuichi, the Japanese film composer and music supervisor who died in March, has been posthumously named as the recipient of the Jecheon Film Music Award at the 19th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival (Aug. 10-15). Sakamoto won Academy Awards and Golden Globes for his score for “The Last Emperor” and has other credits including “The Sheltering Sky,” “Railroad Man,” “The Revenant,” “Call Me By Your Name” and “The Fortress.”Abrai Joji from Commons the music label established jointly with Sakamoto, and Yutaka Toyama from Promax, which had produced Sakamoto’s concerts since 1986, will visit the festival. Additionally, a tribute concert will be held on Aug. 12 at the Jecheon Stadium.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wanda Investment, a subsidiary of the privately-owned Chinese property giant Dalian Wanda, has sold an 8.3% stake in Wanda Film Holding for RMB2.2 billion ($306 million). Wanda Film, which is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, operates China’s largest circuit of multiplexes and retains a stake in Hollywood producer Legendary Entertainment (“Dune”). The buyer is Lu Lili, the wife of Shen Jun, the controller of East Money Information, a financial data platform, Wanda Film said in a regulatory filing this week. The share sale appears to be a move to raise finance for Dalian Wanda and Wang Jianlin, the politically-connected former army officer who built one of China’s largest property empires and from 2012 mounted a seven-year campaign to own a large chunk of Hollywood.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” has been allowed a commercial release in the Philippines, following a review by the country’s film censors. However, the scene that shows a controversial map may have to be blurred. The film was last week banned in Vietnam over its inclusion of a scene with a map alleged to show the ‘nine dash line’ by which China lays claim to nearly all of the South China Sea as its own territory. Vietnam says that China’s claims violate its sovereignty and that films and TV shows must not show the illegal map. On Monday, Vietnam banned Chinese series “Flight to You” for showing the map in multiple episodes.

Naman Ramachandran Disney releases “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” were locked in a near dead heat at the U.K. and Ireland box office, with the animated elements edging out the veteran archaeologist. “Elemental” debuted with £3.049 million ($3.876 million), according to numbers from Comscore. In its second weekend, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” whipped up £3.046 million ($3.873 million) for a close second and now has a total of £13.1 million. If looking at weekend numbers alone, Harrison Ford’s last adventure as the man in the hat won the race as the “Elemental” numbers include “limited secret sneak previews from across the market,” according to Disney.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Smash hit Japanese animation feature “The First Slam Dunk” is set to be the first film theatrically released by newly-launched Australian distribution and New Zealand licensing firm Sugoi Co. The company is headed by Tim Anderson, founder and former CEO of Madman Entertainment, the Australian indie with a strong leaning for Japanese content, and Sylvester “Sly” Ip. The pair made an announcement on Twitter and conducted a soft launch at the recent Anime Expo in Los Angeles. “The First Slam Dunk. Coming soon to cinemas across Australia. Follow us for full release and ticket info,” said Sugoi Co on Twitter.