‘Free Guy’ Heading To No. 1 Weekend Spot In China As Hollywood Movies Return

Rap artist Nicki Minaj slammed America’s cancel culture after she spoke out about her vaccine hesitancy and compared it to China's restrictions on residents and visitors from criticizing the country's leaders.

Rebecca Davis editorWhen Taiwanese actor Janine Chang was writing her masters’ thesis in industrial economics in 2010, she likely never imagined that two Chinese characters in it would become a diplomatic flashpoint and threaten to derail her lucrative acting career more than a decade later.This week, however, it has done just that.

Tony Vinciquerra, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, says a decision to release Venom: Let There Be Carnage two weeks early shows the film studio “demonstrating our confidence that people will be going to the movies, if the Delta Variant seems to be receding a bit.” He says that was the clear takeaway from Disney’s strong Labor Day weekend release of Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings.

Rebecca Davis editor“Free Guy” retained its lead of the China box office for the third weekend in a row, and has now surpassed “Tenet” in local sales.It brought in $12.4 million on a rare weekend with three non-Chinese language titles in the top five, according to Maoyan figures.China’s box office has been dismal all summer and the slump continued this week with, once again, only five films that made over $1 million.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Marvel’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings handily crossed the $250M mark globally this weekend, seeing a very good 34% drop at the international box office and maintaining No. 1s in such key markets as Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Korea, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and the UK.

Tom Cruise, now approaching age 60, has never reacted calmly to frustration. This week his carefully structured life was put on hold by delays of his two heralded mega movies: the Top Gun sequel and the seventh Mission: Impossible.

Vivienne Chow Nicholas Tse, star of the recent hit film “Raging Fire,” says he has applied to renounce his Canadian citizenship and will embrace the People’s Republic of China instead. The move comes as Chinese authorities mount crackdowns on the entertainment industry and on dual citizenship.The singer-actor-celebrity chef made the announcement during an interview on Sunday on CCTV, China’s state broadcaster.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorFrom dragon scales to the five elements of Chinese philosophy, production designer Sue Chan worked to incorporate numerous element into the set details of Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”From ancient worlds to San Francisco and a magical village protected by dragons, Chan and her team were faced with the mammoth task of striking a variety of moods as Simu Liu’s Shang Chi and the audience travel through these scenes.A monotone palette was used for

That 3-day total is second only to the $80 million opening for “Black Widow” on the list of highest post-shutdown domestic opening weekend totals and just tops the $70 million opening for “F9” earlier this summer. The 4-day total is also nearly triple the previous record for the highest Labor Day opening weekend record of $30.5 million set by “Halloween” in 2007.

Netflix asked him to change the location of his new film Hustle from China to Majorca.Sandler, who signed a new deal with Netflix at the start of 2020 to make four more original films, explained that the streaming giant changed his original concept for the new film about a basketball recruiter who travels overseas.“It was written originally that I find a player in China and somehow, Netflix is not in China,” Sandler said on The Dan Patrick Show.“So they were like, ‘Would you guys please make it

Thursday appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show,” in which he discussed his new sports comedy “Hustle.” In the flick, which is currently in the post-production phase, Sandler plays a washed-up basketball agent who attempts to save his flatlining career by recruiting a talented overseas player to the NBA.“It was written originally that I find a player in China and somehow, Netflix is not in China,” the “Happy Gilmore” star told Patrick.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Free Guy” grabbed a convincing win at the top of the China box office, marking the end of a Hollywood drought and was earned despite difficult conditions.The family-friendly comedy earned $23.8 million in three days, according to data from Artisan Gateway. That was fully 56% of the nationwide theatrical haul between Friday and Sunday.It earned $3.77 million of its total from Imax screens.

Refresh for latest…: One of the only Hollywood titles to recently be granted a China release date, Disney/20th Century Studios’ Free Guy flew into the market with a $23.9M start. This is a solid launch in the Middle Kingdom, particularly in the current climate, and helped push the Ryan Reynolds-starrer past $100M at the international box office. The full offshore weekend was $37.3M in 47 markets, a slight 23% drop from last session, and the total overseas cume is now $100.3M for $179.6M global.

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.

NCT, WayV and SuperM, has issued a personal apology following a recent cheating and gaslighting controversy.The Hong Kong-born idol took to his personal Instagram to address the situation in a handwritten letter in Traditional Chinese, alongside a Korean translation in the caption.

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.