Headlines from China: ‘Jurassic World’ Sequel Continues to Top China Box Office Despite Competition from World Cup

 

‘Jurassic World’ Sequel Continues to Top China Box Office Despite Competition from World Cup

American science fiction film ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ has been demonstrating strong momentum in the middle kingdom. With an impressive presale box office, the film opened in Chinese theaters on June 15 and went on to make over $100 million on its opening weekend. This week, it continues to top box office charts and has made over 1 billion yuan ($154 M) as of now, despite the distraction from the World Cup. Currently, the film’s screen share is 54.7%, the highest compared to that of other releases in this season. Read more on Mtime

Recommended ReadingChina Film: Quota? What Quota?By Matthew Dresden
thumbnail

Yang Mi’s New Show Copies ‘Harry Potter?’ 

Chinese drama series Legend of Fu Yao, which stars Yang Mi and Ethan Juan, started being aired on Zhejiang TV on June 18 and has stirred various discussions among audiences. Among all the comments the show has received so far, some point out that the plots of the show greatly resemble the plots of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. The production team of the show hasn’t responded to such accusations. Meanwhile, a fan group of Harry Potter released a statement, saying that they do identify some resemblance and will closely monitor the plots in the Legend of Fu Yao‘s following episode. Read more on Mtime

This Year’s Most Expensive Summer Film

When it comes to this year’s summer films in China, although Chinese audiences have been abuzz with Jiang Wen’s Hidden Man, Guo Jingming’s L.O.R.D: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties, and Xu Ke’s action movie Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings, the most expensive summer film is another one: Yang Zhenjian’s Asura. This film reportedly costs 750 million yuan ($115.5 million). Based on the current revenue-sharing model in China, it has to make at least 2.3 billion yuan ($350 million) in order to breakeven. In a recent interview with WeChat media outlet D-entertainment, the film’s director Yang Zhenjian explained that a big portion of the budget was allocated to hiring international technicians and visual effect teams. In addition, the film was made by a huge crew within a long period of time. Read more on D-entertainment