China Box Office: ‘New Gods’ Sequel Beats ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: With the exit of New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot in what has been a lucrative post Labor Day weekend pre-pandemic, Disney swooped in and booked its 20th Century Studios horror title Barbarian. That pic, directed and written by Zach Cregger, follows a woman staying at an Airbnb, who discovers that the house she has rented is not what it seems. The movie grossed $3.8M on Friday (including $850K Thursday night previews) and is poised to make around $9M, possibly double digits.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wang Xiaoshuai, director of “So Long, My Son” and “Red Amnesia,” will be the most senior mainland Chinese director to present a new film at a major Western festival this year. That may be a reflection of the growing political and economic separation between China and the West over the past couple of years — with COVID an additional irritant. But tough times can also breed innovation. Wang’s latest, “The Hotel,” a chamber piece about a small group of Chinese tourists trapped in a hotel in Thailand during the early days of the pandemic, was inspired by events that Wang personally endured in 2020. It was made in almost improvised fashion, with a hastily written screenplay and shot with available crew.

Widespread optimism months ago that domestic box office might readily return to pre-Covid levels has given way to a new sense of pragmatism about the movie business.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief For Asian media operators, the death of Queen Elizabeth II occurred in the middle of the night — Buckingham Palace made its announcement at 6.30 p.m. BST on Thursday — which meant some needed to play catch-up. That was achieved quicker by online and TV outlets than print media. In Australia, a Commonwealth country which has also lost its monarch, public radio and TV broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation newsreaders dressed in black. Programming has switched to reflect the Queen’s life and seven decades of reign. News Corp., which operates major print news brands in Australia, said it will publish souvenir issues on Saturday. These will include the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Family comedy “Table For Six” has set an opening day local record for a comedy film in Hong Kong, to the relief of producers who were forced to digest a releasing delay of six months. The Sunny Chan-directed film opened Wednesday in Hong Kong and Macau at 61 theatres, playing a total of 608 sessions. That gave it an accumulated box office of HK$1,986,701 ($255,000). “Table for Six,” which chronicles a family’s holiday gathering where food, love, friendship, jealousy and relationships are on the menu, had originally been planned as a dish to be served at Chinese New Year, in February. And producers had assembled a cast of major Hong Kong and regional talents, including Dayo Wong, Stephy Tang, Louise Cheung, Ivana Wong, Lin Min-Chen and Chan Charm Man.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Art-house title “Return to Dust” was a surprise weekend winner, topping the mainland China box office in its ninth weekend of release. The astonishing feat occurred on an otherwise depressed weekend in which China’s cinema box office dipped to a three-month low. This reflected the summer season winding to an end and anti-COVID measures once again forcing major Chinese cities into retreat. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed “Return” grossing $5.3 million (RMB36.2 million) between Friday and Sunday. Those three days accounted for nearly half of the $12.7 million (RMB87.4 million) cumulative total it has earned since release on July 8, 2022.

This was yet another soft weekend at the international box office with no major fresh titles and as summer fully closes out in Europe and beyond.

Strictly Come Dancing's four new professionals are set to be introduced to viewers in a cinematic routine filmed alongside the returning cast. European cup winner Vito Coppola, Chinese national champion Carlos Gu, former Under-21 British national champion Lauren Oakley and Latin dance champion Michelle Tsiakkas complete the show's largest-ever line-up of 20 pros this year.They join the returning Dianne Buswell, Nadiya Bychkova, Graziano Di Prima, Amy Dowden, Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Cameron Lombard, Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk, Giovanni Pernice, Jowita Przystal, Johannes Radebe, Kai Widdrington and Nancy Xu.The introductory routine will form part of the Strictly Come Dancing launch show airing on BBC One and iPlayer on 17 September.

box office, there is a near-term question mark about what will happen next: Will recovery stall due to a paucity of Hollywood tentpole movies? Or will international theatrical decouple and find new drivers to maintain the momentum? The good news is that most of the international market’s top territories are now fully open and operating without significant restrictions on seating capacity. These include the U.K. and Ireland, Japan, France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil. The smaller number of territories still laboring under restrictions nevertheless include some valuable ones: China, Turkey, Argentina, Hong Kong and Russia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian” was the top film at the mainland China box office for the second successive weekend. Unchallenged by major new releases, the film earned $13.0 (RMB88.3 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That was a drop of 34% compared with its $19.8 million opening session. Some $1.5 million of the weekend total was scored from the film’s outing on Imax screens. After ten days on release “Yang Jian” has a cumulative total of $43.7 million (RMB297 million). Of that, its Imax total is now $4 million.

Gkids has acquired North American rights to New Gods: Yang Jian, the latest feature from renowned Chinese animation studio Light Chaser Animation (White Snake, New Gods: Nezha Reborn). The producer and distributor of award-winning animated features has slated Yang Jian for theatrical release in both its original Mandarin-language form and an all-new English language dub early next year. The deal marks the latest collaboration between Gkids and Light Chaser Animation, following the former’s local distribution of the 2019 feature White Snake.

Wilson Chapman editor Animation specialists GKIDS has acquired North American distribution rights for Chinese animated film “New Gods: Yang Jian,” with plans to release the film in theaters early next year. Directed by Ji Zhao, “Yang Jian” is the second installment in his “New Gods” series of animated fantasy films adapted from Chinese mythology. The series, which began last year with “New Gods: Nezha Reborn,” is produced by Chinese animation studio Light Chaser Animation, which also produced Zhao’s directorial debut “White Snake” in 2019. “Yang Jian” follows the titular Chinese god, also known as Erlang Shen, who was famous for his truth-seeing eye in the middle of his forehead. Thirteen years after he imprisoned his own sister beneath a mountain, the god works as a bounty hunter, and is hired by a mysterious woman to stop his nephew Chenxiang from obtaining a magical lotus lantern with incredible power. The film was released in Chinese theaters last week, where it beat “Minions: Rise of Gru” to top the box office with a $19.8 million opening weekend.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter After a crackling summer season, movie theater owners have been sounding the alarm on the disturbingly light release schedule this fall. And yet, three new films will open in theaters nationwide over the weekend. Perhaps the bigger issue, in the case of this weekend’s crop of newcomers, is that hardly anyone is making plans to go to the cinema. Of the trio of fresh offerings — Sony’s eerie thriller “The Invitation,” director George Miller’s dark fantasy “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and the John Boyega-led heist drama “Breaking” — not one is poised to make a splash at the box office. Based on projections, it’ll be a close race between “The Invitation” and last weekend’s champion “‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” to claim the No. 1 spot in North America, with each release on track to bring in around $7 million. And to the victor goes…some pretty anemic bragging rights. Barring a miracle, it’ll be the saddest first-place finish in over a year.

Joseph Kosinski is exceptionally humble about “Top Gun: Maverick.” Paramount’s action-packed blockbuster, featuring Tom Cruise’s return to the skies 36 years after the original film, has become an unexpected sensation, bringing audiences young and old back to the big screen at a time when theaters are in desperate need of a win. In the process, “Maverick” has racked up an eye-popping $1.4 billion globally to stand as the highest-grossing movie of the year. Nobody has been more surprised by its success than Kosinski. “I don’t know if I’ve wrapped my head around it. I’m amazed every day that it continues to play,” he says. The film, available on home entertainment on Aug. 23 at a premium price, has remained in the top five on domestic box office charts for 12 of its 13 weeks of release.

Wise men say only fools predict that adult films don’t work at the pandemic box office, however, older moviegoers kept falling in love with Warner Bros.’ Elvis this summer to the point where it’s now director Baz Luhrmann’s highest grossing movie ever of his career in U.S./Canada with $144.851M, beating the original run of his 2013 title, The Great Gatsby, which made $144.84M.

With no new wide Hollywood tentpole releases until October, we’re in a period of holdovers, and local titles excelling in their home markets (and beyond), while Top Gun: Maverick continues to soar and there’s a will it or won’t it question mark over Jurassic World Dominion‘s shot at getting to $1B global.

The Picturehouse release of National Geographic Documentary Films  The Territory grossed a solid $26.4K in six markets (eight screens) for a PSA of $3,308 with its climate change message attracting a broader than typical age range for a theatrical doc, especially lately, according to Picturehouse CEO Bob Berney.

Continuing its hypersonic run, Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick has, in its 13th weekend of release, crossed the $1.4B mark worldwide, lifting the cume to a touch over $1.403B through today.

Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk meet on Saturday night in a repeat of their heavyweight world title clash from September 2021.

Two wide studio releases will hopefully prevent this summer from reaching another low at the box office after last weekend’s $67.3M. If there’s one movie that’s going to pull ahead, sources are betting on Crunchyroll’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. That distributor has proven in a short amount of time that they can draw a great deal of anime fans in a Friday through Sunday span. The Tetsuro Kodama directed animation movie is looking at anywhere from $12M-$15M, ahead of Universal’s genre lion-stalking film, Beast, starring Idris Elba; that pic hoping for at least double digits.