World Health Organisation coronavirus experts visit Wuhan research centre in China

No North American movie company is more closely linked to the Chinese film industry’s fortunes than Imax Corp. The Ontario-based giant-screen exhibitor has more than 700 Imax theaters in China — nearly half its global total of 1,500 — and the company has said it plans to add as many as 400 new theaters there over the next three years.

On Wednesday, Chinese New Year box office achieved yet another new milestone with grosses for the holiday period growing to an estimated RMB 7.78B ($1.2B). This beats the previous all-time high set during the comparable 2019 holiday (RMB 5.9B). China often outdoes itself, but the fact that 2021’s Lunar New Year frame came with Covid capacity restrictions makes the performance even more staggering.

Refresh for latest…: Chinese moviegoers ushered in the Year of the Ox with the colossal three-day debut of Detective Chinatown 3 grossing an estimated RMB 2.56B ($397M). This tops Avengers: Endgame’s 2019 five-day China bow of RMB 2.22B to make DC3 not only the biggest opener in Chinese history, but also giving it bragging rights to the biggest opening weekend ever in a single market — overtaking Endgame’s North American launch of $357M from April 2019.

Rebecca Davis editorChina made history this weekend with record sales of nearly $775 million (RMB50 billion) within the first three days of the Chinese New Year holiday, led by an incredible $424 million (RMB2.74 billion) debut from “Detective Chinatown 3.”This marked the first time the country’s national box office has ever broken RMB1 billion ($155 million) a day for three consecutive days, a feat achieved despite caps on max theater capacity at 75% in most of the country and 50% in areas

Lunar New Year 2021 is today, February 12th. It’s called Lunar New Year because, as Oprah Magazine describes, “it marks the first new moon of the lunisolar calendars traditional to many East Asian countries.” 2021 is the Year of the Ox, according to the Chinese zodiac. Traditions vary depending on your family and culture.

A television broadcasting war has broken out between the UK and China. Just days after the UK revoked the broadcasting license of Chinese state-backed network CGTN, Beijing has today retaliated by banning BBC World News.

Rebecca Davis editorChina’s top broadcasting regulator said Thursday that it will ban BBC World News from the country, according to the official Xinhua news agency.The National Radio and TV Administration (NRTA) said that BBC World News was found to have “undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity” because of its China-related reports that “went against the requirements that news reporting must be true and impartial,” Xinhua said.In its own statement, the NRTA wrote: “As the

Long-developing plans to engineer the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a group of investors including Oracle and Walmart have been put on hold.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMore than 80% of movie tickets in China are sold online or via mobile device, one of the world’s highest penetration rates.

vaccine  dose now stood at 839,226 alongside a clapping hands emoji. The Government has faced claims of sluggishness over the vaccine rollout in relation to other parts of the UK.Ministers were also hit by claims last week that unused vaccines were being dumped,However, the numbers have increased substantially in recent days.

Cinemas in Beijing were ordered Thursday to limit seating capacity to 50 percent during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. The decision adds to local industry worries that recent flareups of COVID-19 cases could dampen earnings during what is usually the biggest period for China’s box office by far.

direct to your inboxA World Health Organisation (WHO) team looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic have visited one of the largest wet markets in Wuhan, Associated Press reports.Members were seen walking through sections of the Baishazhou market surrounded by a large entourage of Chinese officials and representatives.The experts in veterinary, virology, food safety and epidemiology have so far visited two hospitals at the centre of the early outbreak: Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and

Lunar New Year is one of the biggest international holidays with over 1.5 billion people across the globe celebrating new beginnings. Although the holiday is commonly known as Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year is celebrated by various Asian countries, regions and cultures with different traditions and customs.  The start of the holiday is determined by the lunar calendar — the cycles of the moon's phases -- and takes place on the new moon between Jan.