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On Screen China: Taiwan’s ‘Our Times’ Overcomes Flame Wars, Vanquishes ‘Hunger Games’

Nov 23, 2015 / Box Office /

Faced with a glut of poorly received Hollywood imports this past weekend, Chinese moviegoers instead chose Our Times (我的少女时代 Wǒ de shǎo nǚ shídài), a Taiwanese “youthfulness film” (青春片qīngchūn piàn) which earned $17.1 million since its debut on Thursday, Nov. 19. In just four days since its release, Our Times has become the highest-grossing Taiwanese Read More

On Screen China: Gauging the Chinese Appetite for ‘The Hunger Games’

Nov 19, 2015 / Box Office /

After Spectre’s $49 million debut last weekend, bolstered by Sony’s marketing bonanza, another major Hollywood release, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2, opens in Chinese cinemas on Friday, the latest in a wave of revenue-sharing imports to land in China in what netizens are jokingly calling “Hollywood’s unofficial protection period.” Both Spectre and Liongate's Mockingjay will not screen unchallenged, going up against Our Times an import from Taiwan that’s generating considerable buzz. Read More

On Screen China: Sony’s Marketing Caper Wins at Box Office for 007

Nov 17, 2015 / Box Office /

Bond-mania swept over China this past weekend, much to the delight of Sony, which has struggled with underperforming releases this year in the world’s second-biggest film market. Spectre, the 24th installment in the enduring spy series, pulled in nearly $49 million from Chinese moviegoers in its first three days. Spectre’s $15 million opening day on Read More

Protecting Copyright Online in China: Takedown Regulations

Nov 16, 2015 / Legal /

China has a pretty good system for taking down copyrighted subject matter illegally stored or posted online without the approval of the copyright owner. This is the first in a series of posts looking at online takedowns. In this post we provide a general summary of the regulations that establish the takedown procedures for copyrighted Read More

Chinese Stars Promise to Behave, Or Else

Nov 13, 2015 / News /

The latest twist in Xi Jinping’s vision of wholesome Chinese culture involves Chinese celebrities pledging their adherence to morally upstanding conduct. It would be difficult to imagine a similar scene in Hollywood, with, say, Jennifer Lawrence and Warner Brothers CEO Kenji Tsujihara proclaiming their intention to behave according to government directives. Yet that is exactly Read More

China Film Revenue: Who Watches the Watchers?

Nov 11, 2015 / Legal /

As reported last week, the Motion Picture Association of America has signed an agreement with China Film Group Corporation that will allow US rights owners to realize more money from film exhibition in China. Read More

China’s Film Industry Promotion Law: The New Draft

Nov 10, 2015 / Legal /

China’s National People’s Congress issued a draft of the Film Industry Promotion Law for public comment on November 6, 2015. The law is to apply to “film activities” such as film development, production, distribution and release within the PRC. The published annotations indicate the law is intended to simplify the regulation of screenplays, film productions and Read More

Chinese Filmmakers Zhang Yimou and Zhang Zhao Honored in Hollywood

Nov 6, 2015 / News /

Over 20 years ago, Zhang Zhao was a bicycle delivery man working his way through film school at New York University. One day, the Shanghai native bought a ticket to Farewell My Concubine, his countryman Chen Kaige’s 1993 epic movie about Beijing Opera players caught up in mid-century political turmoil. “[The movie] made me cry Read More

Wang Jianlin’s Open Lecture at Harvard Gets Partial Shutdown at Home

Nov 5, 2015 / News /

Dalian Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianlin (a.k.a. China’s richest man) is perhaps the leading representative for the realization of the “Chinese Dream,” a vision of a revitalized national greatness that takes global soft power as a central theme. Yet even as Wang’s empire reaches around the globe, his words are being curtailed back home. Last week, Read More

Zhang Yimou: ‘Even Though Our Market Is Growing Fast, We’re Still Not Satisfied’

Nov 4, 2015 / People /

Zhang Yimou's next film, "The Great Wall," due out in November 2016, is an unlikely departure for him and for China—a mega-budget English-language picture co-produced by Le Vision Pictures and China Film Group in China with Legendary and Universal in Hollywood, and starring Matt Damon, a big Chinese monster, and the most Chinese of landmarks. Read More

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