- Universal’s Fifth ‘Bourne’ franchise film will release just under a month after U.S. premiere
- Matt Damon well known in China for The Martian, which grossed $88M in late 2015
- Only previous ‘Bourne’ film to hit China, in 2012, did not star Damon, grossed $32M in China
Universal’s Jason Bourne, will open in China on August 23, a Tuesday, just under a month after its North American debut, the studio said via one of its Chinese language social media accounts on Tuesday, ending weeks of speculation.
“Sorry for making you wait so long!” read a post from Universal’s Weibo account. Various earlier reports had the action thriller hitting Chinese cinema screens on September 1-2.
The release follows Universal Pictures’ The Secret Life of Pets which will be released to China on August 2.
Chinese Jason Bourne fans had been aware that the film was confirmed to show in mainland cinemas for weeks with Chinese language posters, trailers, and other marketing materials released in recent weeks.
Jason Bourne is the fifth installment in the famous franchise, and the fourth with Matt Damon, who is reuniting with director Paul Greengrass who directed the 2004 release The Bourne Supremacy.
Damon, who plays the titular role, is well known to Chinese audiences having most recently graced screens in The Martian in late November 2015. That film grossed U.S. $87.8 million at the Chinese box office.
But the only other Bourne movie to be released in China was the 2012 release The Bourne Legacy, the franchise’s fourth installment, in which Damon did not appear. His absence didn’t stop the film from grossing RMB 215 million (U.S. $32.2 million) on the mainland.
Damon also is set to star in Universal’s The Great Wall, a Chinese-American co-production directed by Zhang Yimou. That film’s U.S. release has been pushed back three months to 2017. Its China release date is still unclear.
