Slash says he anticipates new Guns N’ Roses music in 2021

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefTencent Music Entertainment, which is already China’s biggest online music platform, is planning on getting bigger through the proposed acquisition of Lazy Audio.Among the current owners are financial investors, the company’s management and fellow Tencent group company China Literature.

China finally usurped North America as the world’s biggest box office territory in 2020, generating an estimated $3 billion in ticket sales compared with about $2.28 billion stateside. All it took was a global pandemic.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentAnticipating that the Japanese government may again call for movie theaters to temporarily close in Greater Tokyo due to an upsurge of coronavirus cases, Toho Cinemas and other leading exhibitors are halting sales of advance tickets for cinemas in the areas.

Rebecca Davis editorAlibaba Group announced Tuesday that it will close down its streaming platform Xiami Music on Feb. 5, as it struggles to keep up with competitors Tencent Music and NetEase in China’s competitive digital music sector.Xiami Music will cease operations due to “business development-related adjustments,” pivoting to become more of a music industry service provider, the company said in an official statement posted to social media, thanking its fans.

Refresh for latest…: China was the big international box office winner this weekend with three local movies at the top of the chart and a New Year’s Day record set on Friday. That came just as it was confirmed the market led global box office for 2020, surpassing North America for the first time.

As 2021 dawned, China shot straight out of the box office gate with a new record. On Friday, the market hit a milestone for New Year’s Day.

Gordon Chang says the U.S. "absolutely" should have a stronger policy to push back on China amid unconfirmed intelligence the country put a bounty on American troops in Afghanistan.

China is looking to new, modern methods in its campaign of patriotic education, according to reports.

Rebecca Davis editorChinese director Guan Hu is riding high right now: Despite languishing in government censorship purgatory for over a year, his patriotic war epic “The Eight Hundred” has risen to become the highest grossing film in the world in 2020, with sales of $461 million. His next confirmed move? More jingoistic propaganda.

Like many couples, Oliver Callan and John Lannin’s 2020 wedding plans were scuppered by the pandemic and they chose to postpone to 2021.

Refresh for latest…: There was a bit more varied action at the international box office this weekend, including the continued rollout of Warner Bros/DC’s Wonder Woman 1984, a sizable start for China’s Shock Wave 2, the debut of Disney/Pixar’s Soul, The Croods: A New Age nearing $100M global, and a brand new milestone for Japan’s Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train which, according to estimates, has overtaken Spirited Away to become the highest-grossing film ever in the market.

President Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 Wednesday, calling it a "gift" to U.S. adversaries China and Russia and making good on a promise to veto if it did not repeal a law that shields certain Big Tech companies from liabilities.