Wanda Unit Sells $300 Million Stake in Its Chinese Cinema Chain

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Asia Contents Awards, held as part of the Busan International Film Festival since 2019, is to join forces with the Global OTT Awards to form a wider-reaching event. The merged events are to be known under the ungainly abbreviation ACA & G.OTT Awards and will be co-hosted by South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and Busan Metropolitan City authorities. The ceremony will be held in Busan on Sunday Oct.

Naman Ramachandran The twin releases of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” has broken records for cinema chain Vue International. COO Claire Arksey described the “Barbenheimer” box office performance as the chain’s “best week ever” and the period following the films’ release as a “record-breaking week,” which beat Vue’s International’s previous overall weekly admissions record by 40% across eight European markets. Arksey said that in Poland, Vue cinemas had their best week on record and in the Netherlands, their cinemas had beaten their previous admissions record set during the “Lion King” opening week in 2019.

International cinema chain Vue says it has recorded its “best ever week” in large part due to the Barbie and Oppenheimer releases ten days ago.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms,” the first part of Wuershan’s big-budget “Fengshen Trilogy,” topped the mainland China box office for the second weekend and expanded its week-on-week haul by 35%. ‘Barbie’ also showed signs of resilience in a market where it opened a week earlier in a disappointing fifth place. “Creation of the Gods I” grossed $57.6 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sound of Freedom, the indie action-drama film that has already earned over $125 million at the North American box office, will begin to move into international distribution from next month.Angel Studios, the crowd-funded, Utah-based production and distribution firm behind the picture, says it has set releases in territories including the U.K., Australia and Latin America. The company explained that it has arranged direct-to-theater distribution deals in Latin America, the U.K, and Ireland. In other territories it will take the more conventional route of partnering with distributors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kris Wu, the Chinese-Canadian pop megastar who was jailed last year for rape and group sex, appeared in court in Beijing on Tuesday to appeal his convictions. The case was heard at the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court.

United Utilities has announced a move to end grouse hunting on its moorlands.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief While “Barbie” was romping to box office records in North American and scoring strongly in many international territories, the pink phenomenon could muster only fifth place in China, the world’s second largest movie market, on its opening weekend. “Barbie” managed $8.2 million in its opening three days, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Local box office sources show the film trapped in that position on all three days of the weekend session, as the locally-produced titles jostled for leadership and swapped positions. Somewhat encouragingly, the daily score for “Barbie” had increased by Sunday as it was given more screening sessions by Chinese exhibitors.

Dalian Wanda Group is selling a 49% stake in its investment arm to local film and TV producer China Ruyi Holdings in an on-going effort to reduce debt. 

A huge applause of appreciation rang round Murrayfield on Wednesday when a 35-year-old Manchester United defender challenged a spritely Lyon attacker with 20 minutes of the friendly remaining.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cineverse, the streaming and content distribution company previously known as Cinedigm, has acquired North American rights to the Chinese animated fantasy film “Warrior King.” Inspired by the legend of the hero and warrior, King Gesar, the film is directed by Lu Qi from a screenplay by Lu Wunan and Wang Yunsheng. Cineverse says that it will release the film in U.S. theaters Aug. 25, following its international theatrical debut.  The story of Gesar is considered one of Central Asia’s literary classics and was passed down in oral tradition for some 1,000 years, as well as literary, poetic and stage play versions. Its Tibetan iteration may now be the most prominent, It is certainly one of the longest, running to over 100 volumes and a million verses, according to some calculations.   

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag will have another look at his squad when the Reds face Ligue 1 side Lyon at Edinburgh's Murrayfield on Wednesday.

Thania Garcia Dead and Company’s sold-out “Final Tour” has raised $2 million dollars for charity thanks to the band’s specially curated memorabilia auctions. The funds go towards benefitting the voter registration non-profit HeadCount, along with environmental group Reverb and numerous other organizations. The summer trek, which kicked off earlier this May in Los Angeles, features original members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart along with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane and officially concluded on July 16 with a sold-out show at San Fransisco’s Oracle Park. According to HeadCount, the show raised over $700,000 — $275,000 of that sum coming from the sale of the official tour guitar and over $150,000 coming from Hart’s fine art sale.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Movie stars Zhou Xun and Jelly Lin head the cast of “Imperfect Victim,” a new mainland Chinese drama series that focuses on workplace sexual harassment and leads to a rape trial. Zhou (“Cloud Atlas,” “The Silent War,” “Painted Skin”) plays a lawyer who steps in to represent the character played by Lin (“The Mermaid”), who alleges assault by her boss at work. He is portrayed by TV veteran Liu Yijun (“Nirvana in Fire,” “The Pretender”). The case becomes complicated and Zhou’s character is forced to question her own ethics. The show is highly topical, given the slowly building #MeToo movement in China. This is being fuelled by numerous instances of sexual discrimination, sexual assault and outright violence towards women, many instances of which have gone viral on Chinese social media before being deleted by censors.

Here are your Manchester United morning headlines for Sunday, July 16.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Specialty distributor, Trinity CineAsia is releasing China’s summer blockbuster “Lost in the Stars” in the U.K and Ireland on some 30 screens from Friday. “I was fortunate to watch the film when it opened in China and once I saw it I just knew we had to have it,” said Cedric Behrel “‘Lost In The Stars’ is a very clever, uncanny thrill of a ride that harks back to classic Hitchcock and any noteworthy thriller since – the master himself had in fact once optioned the rights to the same story. We organized the fastest turnaround premiere known to man and we’ve been delighted by the reactions to the early previews. It epitomizes the best of what new Chinese cinema can bring to audiences.”

Manchester United have begun their pre-season fixture schedule in positive fashion with victory over rivals Leeds United and two players in particular caught the eye of club legends Henning Berg and Ronny Johnsen.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” has been allowed a commercial release in the Philippines, following a review by the country’s film censors. However, the scene that shows a controversial map may have to be blurred. The film was last week banned in Vietnam over its inclusion of a scene with a map alleged to show the ‘nine dash line’ by which China lays claim to nearly all of the South China Sea as its own territory. Vietnam says that China’s claims violate its sovereignty and that films and TV shows must not show the illegal map. On Monday, Vietnam banned Chinese series “Flight to You” for showing the map in multiple episodes.

Manchester United are set to play rivals Leeds United on Wednesday as their pre-season campaign kicks off in Oslo. Among those who will be motivated to make a statement during the game is Matej Kovar, a young goalkeeper looking to become the first backup option for the 2023/24 season.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief