Donnie Yen Lauds Hong Kong’s Return to China as He Starts New Films ‘Sleeping Dogs,’ ‘Golden Empire’

Tom Grater International Film ReporterIMAX China has issued a profit warning to the Hong Kong stock exchange with the company having taken a beating from the COVID-19 shutdown this year.The large-format exhibitor said it was forecasting a net loss of $34M-36M for the six months to Jun 30, 2020, in contrast with a net profit of $24M for the same period in 2019.The contributing factors will be no surprise to anyone – the operator was forced to shutdown all of its 700 IMAX theaters in China from

Rebecca Davis editorImax China, the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Imax, has warned that it expects a net loss between $34 and $36 million for the first half of the year, as cinema closures in the country due to COVID-19 have slammed exhibition firms. The 2020 figures stand in contrast to a net profit of $24 million in the same period last year.

It’s true. After months of lockdown and at least one failed reopening attempt, some cinemas in China are expected to reopen later this month.

Hong Kong cinemas, along with the Walt Disney Co.'s Hong Kong theme park, have shut their doors again amid a local flareup of novel coronavirus infections. Across the border in the vastly larger mainland Chinese market, rumors that movie theaters would get the official green light to reopen in late July have yet to materialize.

Hong Kong’s controversial new national security law taking force on July 1, scenes once unimaginable in the financial hub have nightmarishly come true: a 15-year-old girl arrested for waving an independence flag; books potentially offensive to China’s Communist Party removed from public libraries; protesters, fearing life imprisonment for wielding slogans, holding up blank sheets of paper — but getting detained anyway.By imposing the law, Beijing is forcibly and abruptly moving its Great

The Walt Disney Co. on Monday announced it would again close Hong Kong Disneyland due to a rise in coronavirus cases in China.

The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it would close its Hong Kong theme park again amid a rising number of novel coronavirus cases in China.

https://t.co/BrCnYsymZH pic.twitter.com/Tn51AXpkFg— Emmy the Great (@emmy_the_great) July 7, 2020In less than a week Hong Kong’s atmosphere has changed dramatically since the national security law passed in Beijing and enacted in Hong Kong on July 1.She concluded: “To witness your birth city in its greatest moment of need is a powerful, humbling event, and I know I watched Hong Kong’s destiny shift into something turbulent and uncertain.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterEXCLUSIVE: Chinese megastar Donnie Yen is set to star in and produce crime thriller Golden Empire, in which he will play a notorious drug kingpin who hits the top of the most wanted list for both the U.S. and Mexican governments.Yen will also produce the movie alongside Peter Luo, CEO at Starlight Media, which is lead financing alongside SA Inc.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefHong Kong’s new National Security Law gives the city’s police enhanced powers and greater reach into cyberspace.The Special Administrative Region’s government put into effect Article 43 of the new law on Monday night when it gazetted a range of new measures.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterPopular social media platform TikTok will exit Hong Kong imminently following the introduction of China’s new national security law in the semi-autonomous territory.Though the platform was founded in China by developer ByteDance, the app, which is now run by former Disney exec Kevin Mayer, is only available outside of the Middle Kingdom.

said in a statement provided to Axios.The new law, enacted last week an hour before the 23rd anniversary of the city’s handover from British to Chinese control, effectively ends the special legal status the city has enjoyed since 1997 under the “one country, two systems” policy. Among other things, it criminalizes activities broadly defined as secessionist, subversive or terrorism that include advocating for democracy or criticizing the authoritarian government in Bejing.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMassively popular video sharing app TikTok may pull out of Hong Kong within a matter of days.“In light of recent events, we’ve decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,” a company spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

Rebecca Davis editorFacebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Google said Monday they have “paused” their processing of requests for user data from Hong Kong law enforcement agencies, days after Beijing’s controversial new national security law came into force in the territory. WhatsApp is “pausing” reviews “pending further assessment of the impact of the National Security Law, including formal human-rights due diligence and consultations with human-rights experts,” a WhatsApp spokeswoman said.

Bradley Whitford is holding the NBA accountable amid the continuing civil unrest in Hong Kong. Last fall, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey expressed support for protesters in Hong Kong who were demonstrating opposition to a proposed law that could see citizens extradited to mainland China despite maintaining a degree of autonomy from the country at large.