Headlines from China: Nadine Labaki’s ‘Capernaum’ to Release in China

Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum to Release in China

Lebanese film Capernaum, which is directed by female filmmaker Nadine Labaki, has been confirmed to release in China. Titled as “何以为家” in Chinese, which means “where is home,” the film follows the journey of a 12-year-old boy Zain who was born in a poor family at the bottom of the Lebanese society. The film is the winner of the 71st Cannes Jury Prize and a nominee for Best Foreign Language film at the 91st Academy Awards. The film has also been receiving positive word of month in China. On China’s movie review site Douban, Capernaum has earned a rating of 8.7/10. Read more on Sohu

First Overseas ‘Naruto’ Indoor Theme Park to Open in Shanghai

“Naruto’s World,” a theme park featuring characters from Japanese hit manga franchise Naruto, will land in Shanghai. This was announced at a press conference held on March 2 by the production committee of Naruto, “Naruto’s World” will be located on  the 11th floor of the Shanghai New World Mall and will cover approximately 7,000 square meters. The theme park is eying a launch day as soon as in the second half of this year. Read more on The Paper

Can Ticketing Giant Maoyan Continue to Grow?

On March 25, Chinese online ticketing platform Maoyan released its 2018 performance report. The company saw its revenue went up by 47% to RMB3.755 billion during the reporting period. According to WeChat media account D-entertainment, the growth in earnings was mainly driven by the company’s increasing revenues from its online ticketing business, including movie ticketing and live performance ticketing. However, the report also shows that the company spent heavily on ticket subsidy and user acquisition. So far, Maoyan is still not profitable. Maoyan seems to have realized the risks of solely relying on ticketing to generate revenues, which is indicated by the fact that Maoyan has largely increased their investments in content production and distribution recently. Read more on D-entertainment