China Box Office: With Hollywood Tentpoles Still on Ice, ‘Raging Fire’ Reigns

After a two-month blackout period in China for Hollywood movies, Disney/20th Century Studios’ Free Guy is looking to lead all pics in the country at the weekend B.O. with a $18M+, possibly $20M take. That’s a promising start for one of the first big movies from Hollywood after a long-hiatus, besting the $15M opening weekend of A Quiet Place Part II, and the $7.8M first weekend of Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChina announced further steps to control celebrity fan culture, which regulators say has become “chaotic.” The moves came as one of China’s most prominent stars Vicki Zhao Wei was scrubbed from the internet and another star, female actor Zheng Shuang was embroiled in a tax scandal.The Cyberspace Administration of China on Friday issued a pair of connected notices.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefHollywood film franchises such as “xXx,” “Warcraft” and “Resident Evil” used to be largely sustained by their box office performance in China, which significantly exceeded their North American hauls and drove global grosses. Frequently, Hollywood titles would dominate the Chinese box office charts during most weeks.But in recent years, that tide has been turning.

Music Business Worldwide (MBW), the country’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has announced that from October 1 any music that breaches a fresh set of government rules will be scrapped from karaoke bars.Among the contraventions include music that “violates the state’s religious policies or promotes cults and superstitions,” “insults or defames others” or “endangers national security or harms national honour or interests”.A Reddit user posted a direct translation of the new government rules in

Rebecca Davis editorDisney’s “Luca” is the first Hollywood picture to get a release in China in weeks, but its opening figures didn’t make that big of a splash — at least, not close to enough to douse the continued reign of Donnie Yen action film “Raging Fire.”The animation directed and co-written by Enrico Casarosa swam to a $5.1 million China opening weekend, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Disney’s 20th Century Studios’ Ryan Reynolds movie Free Guy is getting a China release date of Aug. 27.

Rebecca Davis editorMarvel Studios president Kevin Feige addressed Chinese fans’ most pressing concerns about the upcoming “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” in a recent interview.Feige held an exclusive 14-minute-long interview in English with the well-regarded veteran Chinese film critic Raymond Zhou on the day of the film’s U.S. red carpet premiere (it’s out widely on Sept.

Rebecca Davis editorThe toppling of powerful men by #MeToo accusations in Hollywood and beyond has be­­come a familiar phenomenon to Americans in the post-Harvey Weinstein era, but in China, such reckonings remain rare.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMartin Lau, president and executive director of China’s tech and entertainment industry leader Tencent, on Wednesday explained the positive outcome from the maelstrom of new regulation that the Chinese government is currently imposing on the internet.In less than a year, regulators from multiple departments and ministries have besieged the country’s leading private sector companies.

Rebecca Davis editorThe Chinese government has taken a stake and one of three board seats in a key subsidiary of TikTok owner ByteDance, reports said Tuesday, reviving debate about whether the popular short-form video app poses a national security threat.Chinese authorities now own a 1% stake in Beijing ByteDance Company, a firm that owns key licenses to operate Chinese platforms Douyin, the country’s version of TikTok, and the popular news app Toutiao.

Last week, it was revealed that The Criterion Collection would add a new disc format to its release schedule, announcing its first batch of 4K UHD titles. And in November, the first wave of those titles, as well as a highly-anticipated box set, aim to lighten your wallets.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefUniversal Music Greater China, part of Universal Music Group, has unveiled plans to significantly expand its recorded music activities in the Middle Kingdom.

Rebecca Davis editorChina is readying a blacklist for karaoke songs in order to ban tracks featuring “illegal” content, its Ministry of Culture and Tourism said.Such content includes anything that harms national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity, endangers national security or harms national honor, incites ethnic hatred or undermines ethnic unity, violates religious policies, promotes illegal activities like gambling or drugs, or runs “contrary to public morality,” it stated in vague

Rebecca Davis editorChinese censors have approved the next feature from Tibetan director Pema Tseden, a Venice International Film Festival regular and one of the most influential filmmakers working in the Tibetan language.The film’s Chinese name translates to “Stranger.” It is an adaptation of a short story he wrote of the same name, which he has publicly said as far back as 2013 that he hoped one day to adapt into a film.Authorities have approved the script Tseden wrote for the project,

Donnie Yen stars in Raging Fire, the Hong Kong/Chinese actioner that’s hitting domestic cinemas on Friday (via Well Go USA) as it nears $100M at the China box office. Directed by the late Benny Chan, it introduces us to Yen’s character, Shan, as a principled cop who’s protective of his pregnant wife (who rarely speaks).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefiQiyi, China’s second largest generalist subscription video platform, weighed in with net losses of RMB1.40 billion ($216 million) in the second quarter of 2021, compared with losses of RMB1.44 billion ($222 million) in the April to June period in 2020.Revenues also improved fractionally, from RMB7.41 billion last time to RMB7.61 billion ($1.17 billion).