Hong Kong Box Office Down Only 4% at Easter

Rebecca Davis editor“Better Days” is Hong Kong’s first Oscar submission to be nominated for best international feature film since 1993, but its nod has only inflamed political tensions at home.

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/Legendary’s Godzilla Vs Kong has reached a new global benchmark, crossing $400M with a cume through Sunday of $406.6M worldwide. Of that, $320M comes from the international box office in 41 markets. The monster mash, already the biggest Hollywood movie of the pandemic era, continues to track above its Monsterverse predecessors. It is the highest-grossing of the films in China, Russia, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mexico.

Hong Kong has cultivated a reputation for punching above its weight. Once producing 300 films a year, the small territory hatched global martial arts superstars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen.

Rebecca Davis editorReporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked China fourth to last out of 180 countries on its 2021 World Press Freedom Index on Tuesday, while warning that Hong Kong journalism is also now under “grave threat.”China ranked 177th in 2019, 2020 and 2021, down from a period at 176th from 2015 to 2018.

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival is launching a new industry event focusing on Africa. The Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy, hosted in collaboration with the Realness Institute of Africa, will take place online from 26 September to 2 October 2021 and will welcome 10-12 participants from all over the African continent.

Christopher Vourlias Dogwoof has acquired world sales rights to “Faceless,” the directorial debut of Jennifer Ngo, ahead of its world premiere at the Hot Docs film festival, Variety has learned exclusively.“Faceless” is a behind-the-headlines story of the 2019 Hong Kong demonstrations, seen through the eyes of four young protestors seeking to protect their way of life. Directed by Ngo and produced by Lorraine Ma, it’s a Dissonant Productions film in association with XTR and Flat-Out Films.

On a weekend where the film industry is still grappling with the closure of Pacific Theaters and ArcLight Cinemas, the box office slowed down again as the theaters that have reopened await new releases. For now, fellow Warner title “Godzilla vs.

Rebecca Davis editorA Hong Kong court sentenced the pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai to 14 months in prison Friday, after finding him guilty of “unauthorized assembly” during pro-democracy protests in 2019.A new, additional charge was also lobbed at him Friday: two counts of “colluding with foreign forces,” which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.Nine other of the city’s top pro-democracy campaigners were also sentenced alongside Lai Friday to up to 18 months in prison for their

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese media group CMC Inc. is being readied for a share listing in Hong Kong.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment's Godzilla Vs.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMainland China youth drama “The Day is Over” was named the best Chinese-language film in the Firebird Young Cinema competition at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThe box office success of “Godzilla vs. Kong” lifted exhibition industry stocks on Monday, reinvigorating the share prices of leading theater companies such as AMC, Imax and Cinemark.The monster mano a mano grossed a mighty $48.5 million in its first five days in theaters, setting a record for the pandemic era and signaling that after a punishing year the movie business may be poised for a post-COVID comeback.

It has been months since we’ve really been able to give good news regarding the box office, but thanks to Adam Wingard’s MonsterVerse extravaganza, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” North American theaters are finally starting to show some signs of life.

For his Oscar-nominated short documentary Do Not Split, director Anders Hammer spent a year in Hong Kong’s streets, capturing the drama and chaos as China cracked down on pro-democracy protests. The work came with inherent danger.

Godzilla vs Kong seems to have put theatres back in business and has become that film which is successfully boosting the confidence for theatre owners and studios who have been plagued with worries owing to the pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis put a hold on the theatre business and the Adam Wingard film seems to have come as a saviour.

Godzilla vs. Kong continued to roar Thursday at the domestic box office, earning $6.7 million from 2,409 reopened theaters for a two-day total of $16.3 million as the pic stomps into Easter weekend.

NEW YORK -- Once again, mayhem and mass destruction is back at the box office. It’s almost like old times.“Godzilla vs.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNorwegian director Anders Hammer did not set out to make another war film when he traveled to Hong Kong in 2019 to document the political protests that had brought an estimated two million people to the streets of self-proclaimed Asia’s World City.Hammer has previously chronicled real, hot war situations in Kabul and Iraq. There, bullets and rockets were flying daily, and more lives were in imminent danger.

TheHong Kong International Film Festivalhas scrapped its opening-night world premiere of Where the Wind Blows, a widely anticipated crime thriller directed by local industry veteran Philip Yung.