A Still from the box office champion ‘Operation Red Sea’
A Look at Top 50 Local Films in First Half of 2018
This year between January 1 and June 30, 271 local films were released in theater, earning 32 billion yuan in total. WeChat media account yiqipaidianying took a look at the profitability of box office top 50 and found that only 12 of them made a profit, 6 broke even while the remaining 32 lost money. Among the box office top 10, which include Operation Red Sea, Detective Chinatown 2, Monster Hunt 2, Us and Them, How Long Will I Love You, Forever Young, The Monkey King 3, Boonie Bear: The Big Shrink, Animal World, and Amazing China, Monkey King 3 and Animal World are the only two that didn’t make a profit. Read more on yiqipaidianying
Douyin to Receive Alibaba’s Investment as an Independent Entity?
According to unnamed sources, Chinese media giant Jinri Toutiao will separate short-video platform Douyin from itself in the company’s next round of fundraising. Yunfeng Capital, which is co-founded by Alibaba’s Jack Ma, will invest in Jinri Toutiao, while Alibaba will directly invest in Douyin. Local media outlet The Beijing News previously reported on Jinri Toutiao’s plan to separate Douyin with Toutiao being evaluated at $35 billion and Douyin at $8-$10 billion. Although Jinri Toutiao denied this news back then, media’s speculation continues. Read more on entgroup.cn
Chinese Documentary on WWII Sex Slaves to be Released in South Korea
Twenty Two, a Chinese documentary on World War II sex slaves, has scored an August 14 release date for South Korea. The film was released in China last year on August 14, the anniversary of the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women. It then went on to make 170 billion yuan ($25.1 million), over 60 times the amount of its production budget. According to South Korean media, Twenty Two was co-produced by a South Korean production company, which also produced a drama film about comfort women in 2015. Read more on Mtime
