China’s Pingyao Film Festival Kicks off Fifth Edition

Chris Pratt has signed on to voice the title character in a new animated Garfield film from Alcon Entertainment, Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson announced today.

Fortnite looks like it’s closing down in China, as servers in the region are taking steps to shut down the battle royale from today.As PC Gamer reports, yesterday (October 31) the official Fortnite website in China announced a seemingly-permanent “suspension” to the game. While users will no longer be able to sign up or download the game from today (November 1), the game servers will shut down entirely on November 15.As per the website:“The test of “Fortress Night” has come to an end.

Rebecca Davis editorUnfortunately for “No Time to Die’s” China debut, government authorities have decided that it’s currently no time for citizens to risk dying of COVID-19 at the movies and are taking extra precautions to suspend cinema operations across the country this weekend as new outbreaks occur.Hollywood is catching a tough break in China this month.

Rebecca Davis editorOn Friday, China’s Korean War epic “The Battle at Lake Changjin” became the highest-grossing film in the world for 2021, surpassing the Chinese New Year breakout comedy hit “Hi, Mom.”The gritty war film co-directed by Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam has grossed $845 million (RMB5.41 billion) in 29 days, marching past “Hi, Mom,” which earned $821 million at the beginning of the year over a 90-day period.

EXCLUSIVE: A bountiful AFM Market just got even better. Buyers are buzzing about Silent Night, the first U.S. action film in decades to be directed by the iconic Chinese filmmaker John Woo. Joel Kinnaman will star in an film that will tell a loud action tale, without a word of dialogue.

MGM/Eon/Universal’s No Time To Die brought James Bond to China today, with an RMB 52M ($8.1M) No. 1 opening (including a smattering of Thursday midnights). This is the third biggest Hollywood opening day of 2021 in the market and is ahead of the launch days of the most recent comps Dune (+33%) and Free Guy (+53%). With a great social score, No Time To Die is now looking at a China bow in the $30M range.

China has dated a trio of studio movies for the early part of November, just as MGM/Eon/Universal’s No Time To Die bows today and with Warner Bros/Legendary’s Dune having opened last weekend. Notably, Disney’s Jungle Cruise will sail into the massive market on November 12. Before that, Paramount’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins rolls in on November 5 along with Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo. The studios’ official Weibo accounts shared the dates.

Two years after Hong Kong cracked down on pro-Democracy demonstrators, the local legislature passed a new film censorship law, according to multiple reports. As part of the measure, Hong Kong’s powerful Chief Secretary can now revoke a film’s license if it conflicts with China’s national security interests.

the Daily Mail via a 30-second clip announcing his new role.For the uninitiated, the controversial biopic is based on allegations by The Post and other outlets made against the Biden clan ahead of the 2020 election. The Post ran a story about emails allegedly retrieved from a laptop belonging to the younger Biden, which reportedly disclosed the family’s business dealings with both China and Ukraine.

Last Week Tonight.Cena came under fire in May after calling Taiwan a country during an interview. The actor, who was promoting Fast And Furious 9, said that Taiwan, an island separated from mainland China by the Taiwan Strait, would be the first “country” able to watch the film.“I made one mistake,” Cena said afterwards on Chinese social media network Weibo (as per South China Morning Post). “I love and respect China and Chinese people.

On Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight,” host John Oliver used awkward apologies given to China by actor John Cena and clothing company The Gap to highlight just how intense the country’s government feels about its claim of ownership of Taiwan. “China insists that Taiwan, an independently operating entity, with its own democratically elected leaders, armed forces and constitution is actually part of China, and in no way a separate country,” Oliver said.

Rebecca Davis editorThe initial excitement and relief among Chinese fans that “Dune” passed government censorship was soon tempered by outrage that the initial release plan didn’t include an Imax 2D version of Denis Villeneuve’s keenly anticipated sci-fi thriller.Hundreds flooded the comments section of Imax’s official Weibo and online message boards last month to vent their frustration, while a few dozen took part in an email campaign to the company.Some said that if there was no Imax 2D

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver tackled the topic of Taiwan on Sunday night which made for the perfect opportunity to mock John Cena.

Rebecca Davis editor“Dune” didn’t quite manage to spice up its China open after a middling $6 million first day in the country on Friday. The film grossed just $21.6 million in its debut three-day weekend, according to studio estimates.The result is more or less in the ballpark of its $41 million weekend tally in North America, where it released day-and-date simultaneously on HBO Max.

Rebecca Davis editor“Dune” was unable to surpass Chinese propaganda war movie “The Battle at Lake Changjin” to take the top spot on its China opening day Friday, coming in second with just $6.45 million (RMB41.2 million) according to Maoyan data, despite a protracted charm offensive to raise awareness about the film in the increasingly sci-fi hungry country.As of the early hours of Saturday local time, the Maoyan platform now estimates that it will mine a total of just $30.9 million (RMB197

Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic Dune hit China today with an estimated RMB 42M ($6.5M) on 28,274 screens and a 34.3% share of the market. While we do not yet have a social score, Friday’s estimate would portend a weekend in the $20M+ neighborhood as we noted coming into the session.