China Is Now Doing Anal Swabs to Test for COVID-19

Rebecca Davis editorTony Leung Chiu-Wai and Andy Lau will team up in a new major action movie titled “Goldfinger,” local reports said Friday.The two beloved Hong Kong-born A-listers haven’t worked together since the end of the “Internal Affairs” trilogy 18 years ago.The reunion will be written and directed by Felix Chong, the screenwriter for the “Internal Affairs” series.

Rebecca Davis editorChina’s Lunar New Year holiday brought in a record $1.2 billion (RMB7.8 billion) in ticket sales, making a tenth of the global 2020 box office in just six days.It marked the first time in Chinese film history that the country’s single-day box office exceeded RMB1 billion ($155 million) for five consecutive days.

After acquiring Chinese New Year title The Yin Yang Master last week, Netflix is adding animated fantasy New Gods: Nezha Reborn to its roster. The film, based on the classic mythology The Romance Of The Gods, debuted theatrically in China for Lunar New Year on February 12 and grossed $21.3M through the weekend. To date, it has made over $36M in the market. Netflix has taken exclusive global streaming rights outside China.

A year after Covid raged in China, the country’s box office is all sewn up and back together with Detective Chinatown 3 besting Avengers: Endgame‘s U.S./Canada all-time opening with a $394M weekend. But here in the states, we’re still trying to get the pandemic under control, and winter storms which impacted 100 million Americans according to the National Weather Service didn’t help over a four-day Valentine’s Day/Presidents’ Day weekend which is historically a lucrative time.

Lunar New Year 2021 is today, February 12th. It’s called Lunar New Year because, as Oprah Magazine describes, “it marks the first new moon of the lunisolar calendars traditional to many East Asian countries.” 2021 is the Year of the Ox, according to the Chinese zodiac. Traditions vary depending on your family and culture.

Rebecca Davis editorThe world’s largest film market is living up to its title with world-record-setting sales.

China's Lunar New Year box office opened with a roar Friday. Wanda Pictures' Detective Chinatown 3 was leading the pack of seven new releases as expected.

marked by a different animal.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThis month’s Chinese New Year holidays will be a litmus test for the strength of China’s film industry recovery following a period of unprecedented turmoil.This time last year, China’s wrecked Spring Festival celebrations were emblematic of the coronavirus crisis that had dramatically engulfed the world’s most populous nation and was soon to become a global pandemic.

China's multiplexes were mostly silent over the weekend as the country—and its film industry—continued to gear up for the lucrative Lunar New Year holiday. Total ticket sales were just $22.9 million, the lowest of any weekend so far in 2021.

Rebecca Davis editorIn China’s second quiet weekend in a row with no notable new releases, Disney/Pixar’s “Soul” continued to hold its own, managing a sixth place finish after 45 days in theaters as local consumers looked ahead to the blockbuster bonanza of the upcoming Chinese New Year.The key week-long holiday, which runs from Feb. 12 to 17 this year, typically accounts for nearly 10% of China’s annual national box office.

Disney/Pixar’s Soul continues to shine overseas with a $96.2M cume after seven frames. In 11 markets this session, the Pete Docter-helmed original added $6.9M to its international box office kitty with No. 1s again in Russia and Korea. In China, it has surpassed Incredibles 2 to become the market’s 2nd highest-grossing Pixar title ever.