Headlines from China: Tao Piao Piao to Further Integrate With Alibaba’s E-commerce Platforms

Tao Piao Piao to Further Integrate With Alibaba’s E-commerce Platforms

On November 14, Alibaba’s online ticketing platform Tao Piao Piao announced the company’s plan to further integrate its ticketing services with its e-commerce platforms. According to Li Jie, President of Tao Piao Piao and SVP of Alibaba Pictures, the company will invest at least 1 billion yuan ($ 144 million) in this project, adding Tao Piao Piao’s ticketing features to Taobao and Alipay to enable millions of users on these two platforms to more easily buy movie tickets. This will also allow Alibaba to better collect user data and use the data to facilitate film promotion. The plan aims to increase the number of moviegoers and Tao Piao Piao’s market share, and eventually, to give a boost to the Chinese film market. Read more on Sina

‘Venom’ to Cross the RMB One-Billion Mark in China

Driven by Sony Picture’s Venom, China Box Office saw a rebound this week. The superhero movie has grossed 950 million yuan ($136 million) and is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan ($144 million) by the end of this week. Tuesday’s total box office was 9.2 million yuan and 7.6 million of it was generated by Venom. Last Letter and Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer, which took the second and third place on the daily box office charts, only earned 6.1 million yuan and 5.3 million yuan, respectively. However, the total grosses of the two movies are not too shabby. Cumulatively, Last Letter is earning close to 55 million yuan, and Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer is approaching 100 million yuan. Read more on Mtime

10 Mainland Chinese Films to Release in Taiwan Next Year

On November 14, Taiwan announced the 2019 selection of mainland Chinese films to be theatrically released in Taiwan. This year, 10 films are selected from 71 submissions through the quota lottery system. Selected films include Detective Chinatown 2, Reborn, To My 19-Year-Old, Wild Goose Lake, The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang, The Golden Monk, The Whistleblower,  Ala Changso, and A Storm-Less Winter. None of this year’s Goldern Horse nominations from the mainland are selected. However, if a film wins the Best Film or Best Director at the Golden Horse, the film will automatically receive the permission for theatrical release in Taiwan. Zhang Yimou’s Shadow won the lottery last year and has been set to release in Taiwan at the end of the year. Read more on Liberty Times Net