MIPCOM: China Named Country of Honor, Tencent’s Sun Zhonghuai Set as Keynote Speaker

A number of Greater Manchester wine bars have been named amongst the best in the UK by a national newspaper.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Trinity CineAsia has picked up U.K. and Ireland rights to Chinese hit film “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan.” The film ranked third worldwide at the box office over the latest weekend. Trinity CineAsia will give it an official release from Oct.

Refresh for latest…: Here we are with a sort of hybrid weekend at the international box office: there were fresh entries from the Hollywood studios, as well as major new titles timed to holiday play in local markets, and a holdover that’s continuing to rack up records.

Disney/Marvel’sThe Marvels has secured a China release on November 10, day-and-date with North America. The sequel to the $1B+ worldwide grossing Captain Marvel is the latest major studio tentpole to be granted access to the market since Oppenheimer went out on August 30. It’s also wasting no time in spreading the word locally, leveraging the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day/Golden Week celebrations across the next week.

EXCLUSIVE: Screamfest Horror Film Festival has unveiled the first-wave lineup for its 23rd edition, taking place at the TCL Chinese Theatre from October 10-19, announcing that it will kick off with a screening of Eddie Alcazar’s much-discussed Sundance 2023 mind-bender Divinity.

Oppenheimer is still drawing huge box office figures in China as it neared the $60million (£49million) mark last weekend.From last Friday (September 22) to Sunday (24), Christopher Nolan’s historical epic added $2.5million (£2.million) in drawings, bringing the total close to $58.1million (£47.5million), as reported by The Hollywood Reporter with data from box office tracker Artisan Gateway.The film ranked in fourth behind new Chinese crime thriller Dust to Dust, Expend4bles and Chinese blockbuster No More Bets.Oppenheimer has been a huge IMAX success in China since its release nearly one month ago, earning $740,000 (£606,000) this weekend for $17million (£13.9million) total in the format. It’s also the fourth-biggest US film release in China of 2023.The Cillian Murphy-starring drama also become the highest-grossing biopic of all time this month, surpassing previous record-holder Bohemian Rhapsody.The feature has now grossed more than $912.7million (£736million) at the global box office, overtaking the Queen biopic’s $910.8million (£734.5million) haul to make it the most successful biopic at the box office.Oppenheimer has already broken a number of box office records, recently becoming the most successful World War 2-related film ever.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Canadian investment group Letko Brousseau & Associates and Imax Corporation have clashed over July’s proposed move to take private Imax China, which currently has a separate share listing in Hong Kong. Letko, which owns some 1.7% of Imax China shares, on Friday announced that it will vote against the proposal. It argues that the offer “significantly undervalues Imax China” and “unjustifiably benefits Imax Corporation at the expense of minority investors.” Imax currently owns nearly 72% of Imax China stock and is offering HK$10 per outstanding share valuing the unit at $124 million. “The timing of the offer is opportunistic and comes as [Imax China] is beginning to emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic that has kept a significant portion of its theatres closed over extended periods of time from 2020 to 2022, said Letko.

K-pop boyband SEVENTEEN have taken down a teaser clip for their upcoming mini-album after receiving backlash from Chinese fans.Over the past few days, the 13-member group have released a series of teaser clips featuring famous landmarks in different cities around the world to promote their upcoming mini-album ‘Seventeenth Heaven’, which arrives in October.These included shots of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Times Square in New York, Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo and the Great Wall of China in Beijing, with smiling chamomile flowers – also featured in the record’s album art – floating around them.SEVENTEEN (세븐틴) 11th Mini Album 'SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN'

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China’s remarkable box office recovery this year took a pause on a weekend with no new releases and the quietest attendance levels since January. Next week’s crop of blockbuster holiday releases will show if the latest weekend was aberration attributable to timing. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed nationwide box office worth just $25 million – from a population of 1.3 billion people and some 100,000 commercial cinema screens. The figure was the second lowest of 2023 and only fractionally higher than the second week of January, which was a time when China’s post-COVID recovery was only just gearing up and major film releases were targeting the late-January Chinese New Year festivities. Since that time, China’s box office has mostly been on a roll.

EXCLUSIVE: One of the leading actresses in the Hindi film industry, Kareena Kapoor Khan is making her streaming debut in Netflix original film Suspect X, an adaptation of Japanese author Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion Of Suspect X which launches worldwide on the streaming service today (September 21). 

EXCLUSIVE: Daniel Wu (American Born Chinese, Badlands) is co-writing and developing a comic book series with veteran Marvel, DC and Valiant artist Sean Chen, with plans to adapt the property for film and TV starring Wu.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief ‘Expendables 4’ narrowly took top place at the mainland China box office on a quiet weekend preceding the National Day holiday season at the end of the month. “A Haunting in Venice” opened outside the top five. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “Expendables 4” earning $10.9 million (RMB78.6 million) over its debut weekend.

Stockport is gearing up to host its first Full Moon Festival later this week as the town comes together to host three-days of colourful celebrations.

China has been named Country Of Honour at next month’s Mipcom Cannes and Tencent VP Sun Zhonghuai is set to keynote the confab.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Dust to Dust,” a low-key crime thriller, topped the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend, despite only being released on Saturday. The film, directed by Jonathan Li, recounts how 21 years after a major armed robbery, a video of the crime resurfaces and causes the police to reopen their investigation. It had its world premiere in June, in competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival. With Da Peng, a former talk show host, required to age significantly for the lead role, the film earned $22.2 million (RMB160 million) in just two days, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway.

French filmmaker Claire Denis has been announced as the jury president for the Official Section of the 71st San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 22-30.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “No More Bets,” the smash hit Chinese crime thriller that has earned more than half a billion dollars in its home market, is hurriedly adding new territories to release. It will release in the U.K. and Ireland from Friday through distributor Trinity Cine Asia.

Creative Artists Agency has a new majority owner in French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault. After months of negotiations. Artémis, the Pinault family’s investment company, has agreed to acquire the majority stake in CAA that was previously held by global investment firm TPG.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Entertainment, sports and brand licensing firms WildBrain CPLG and WildBrain Ltd. have brokered location-based entertainment (LBE) deals on behalf of Peanuts Worldwide for “Peanuts,” “Teletubbies” and “In the Night Garden” with China’s Max-Matching Entertainments. These are expected to lead to the opening of family entertainment centers and IP-themed hotel rooms for each brand in Beijing, in Zhongshan City, Guangdong and a third city yet to be announced.

It's one of the seven wonders of the world and a historic symbol of significance. Each year, more than 10 million people from across the globe flock to explore the mammoth structure.