Shanghai International Film Festival to Run in Late July (EXCLUSIVE)

Nancy Tartaglione International Box Office Editor/Senior ContributorEXCLUSIVE: Lots of movement on the international box office front this past weekend, and into the beginning of the week. Korean zombie sequel Peninsula, as we reported Sunday, made a meal of five overseas markets with a $21M Wednesday-Sunday frame.

Rebecca Davis editorParamount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog” will finally debut on the big screen in China on July 31, becoming the headliner for the second weekend of business for newly reopened cinemas.The film will compete for audience attention with two other animated titles now set to hit screens July 31: a re-release of the 2014 Disney animated film “Big Hero 6,” which grossed $83.8 million in Chinese cinemas in 2015, and new local animation “Mr.

Nancy Tartaglione International Box Office Editor/Senior ContributorEXCLUSIVE: Wasting no time as cinemas prepare to reopen beginning next week in most of China, a first batch of titles due for release has been identified. Universal’s Dolittle has been granted a July 24 date while we understand that Sony’s Bloodshot, handled locally by Bona Film, will also go out that same day.

Netflix has acquired Paramount and Nickelodeon's The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Runfor international markets, excluding China where the streaming giant has no presence. Domestically, the film is bypassing a theatrical release and will instead debut on premium VOD in early 2021 before soaking up an exclusive spot on CBS All Access, ViacomCBS previously said.

The Shanghai International Film Festival, China's longest-running major cinema event, will take place in-person beginning July 25. The 2020 edition of the festival, now scheduled to kick off in just over one week, will take a condensed form and be mostly a Chinese affair, staffers for the event told The Hollywood Reporter Thursday.

hereRussia has recorded just five more deaths than the UK.Elsewhere, the countries with the highest numbers of health worker deaths are USA (507), Brazil (351), Mexico (248), Italy (188), Egypt (111), Iran (91), Ecuador (82) and Spain (63).The figures were revealed as Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed to an 'independent inquiry' into the handling of the pandemic. The Prime Minister told MPs he does not believe now is the right time for such an investigation but it would 'certainly' happen

Rebecca Davis editorThe Shanghai International Film Festival will take place July 25 to Aug. 2, after Chinese authorities announced Thursday that cinemas will reopen at long last, beginning next Monday in low-risk regions.The Shanghai International TV Festival has also set its dates.

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorBREAKING: Those theaters in low risk areas in China “can resume business in an orderly manner” as early as Monday, July 20, the China Film Administration announced in a recent notice.There were rumblings in foreign distribution that China would start reopening on this date, however, sources weren’t so sure whether that meant simply that the Shanghai Film Festival would take place at this time (and thus, movie theaters would reopen).

Netflix has acquired the international distribution rights for the latest “SpongeBob” film, insiders familiar with the deal told Variety.The streaming giant picked up the foreign rights for the twice-delayed Paramount Animation title from Viacom. The film is one of many theatrical releases thwarted by the coronavirus pandemic this year.The deal excludes China, where Netflix has no presence, one source said.

China's largest cinema chain operator Wanda Film said it expects to lose $214 to $228 million (RMB 1.5 to 1.6 billion) in the first half of 2020 thanks to over five months on continual cinema shutdowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The decline represents a stark reversal of fortunes from the $75 million profit the Chinese exhibition giant reported during the same period in 2019.

Rebecca Davis editorChina’s largest cinema chain operator Wanda Film said Tuesday that it anticipates reporting a net loss of between $214 and $228 million (RMB 1.5 to 1.6 billion) in the first half of the year, after cinemas were shut for almost that entire time due to COVID-19. In contrast, the firm saw a net profit of $75 million (RMB 524 million) during the same period last year.

Dino-Ray Ramos Associate Editor/ReporterEXCLUSIVE: The Kourosh Ahari-directed psychological thriller The Night has landed a license for theatrical release in Iran.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” is set as the opening movie of the Melbourne International Film Festival. The event was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, before being revived online under the label MIFF 68 ½.

Also Read: 'First Cow' Director Kelly Reichardt Wins $50,000 Spirit Awards Filmmaker GrantAfter a brief, contemporary prologue that haunts every frame to follow, we find ourselves in the Oregon Territory around 1820.

Cinemas in China's commercial capital of Shanghai are set to receive $2.5 million (18 million yuan) in government stimulus funds. The modest lifeline comes amid persistent reports that thousands of movie theaters in China are in danger of permanent closure.

Hong Kong director Derek Tsang'sBetter Dayswon the top prizes at the first—and perhaps only—virtual edition of Italy's Far East Film Festival (FEFF). Tsang's romantic crime drama, starringZhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee, took the overall audience award, the Golden Mulberry, as well as the Black Mulberry, voted on by the Shogun pass holders.

Richard Kuipers There’s a bit of everything and most of it works in “Chasing Dream,” the first feature directed by Hong Kong ace Johnnie To since “Three” in 2016.

The Shanghai International Film Festival is expected to take place in-person in late July, several reputable Chinese media outlets have reported. The festival, China's oldest and most prestigious international cinema event, typically is held in mid-June, but it was indefinitely postponed this year in response to the pandemic.

Rebecca Davis editorThe FIRST International Film Festival this week announced that it will occur with in-person screenings from July 26 to August 3 in China’s Qinghai province — implying that cinemas will be open in at least parts of the country by the end of the month. This would make it among the first festivals in the world to occur since the novel coronavirus, and one of few that has not had to cancel or change its originally planned dates.

Australian auteur George Miller is getting into business with Beijing-based real estate giant Sunac China. The Chinese property developer has closed a deal to co-finance Miller's forthcoming "epic love story" Three Thousand Years of Longing, co-staring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton.