DAILY BRIEF: Apr 19, 2017

NEWS YOU SHOULDN’T MISS

• 1

  How Hollywood Blockbusters Could Rescue the Chinese Box Office

  The Middle Kingdom looks to star-driven tentpoles like "The Fate of the Furious" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" to drive profits after a disappointing year of low market growth. The Hollywood Reporter

• 2

  Whitewashing Hollywood Movies Isn't Just Offensive — It's Also Bad Business

  According to Quartz's survey of a half-century of major-studio films that have cast white actors in roles originally imagined as characters of color, the phenomenon is strongly associated with box-office disaster. Quartz

• 3

  Dearth of Chinese Technology, Media and Telecoms Mega Deals Loom in 2017

  The total value of mergers and acquisitions in mainland China’s combined technology, media and telecommunications sector shrunk by 50 percent in the first quarter, which could augur badly for deal-making in the industry for the rest of this year. South China Morning Post

• 4

  Richard Gere's Studio Exile: Why His Hollywood Career Took an Indie Turn

  From '"American Gigolo" through "Pretty Woman," the actor was at the top of studio A-lists, but speaking up passionately in defense of Tibet has taken him down the indie road that has led to two new films and the best reviews of his career. The Hollywood Reporter

• 5

  12 of the Most Influential Chinese Film Directors

  From '"American Gigolo" through "Pretty Woman," the actor was at the top of studio A-lists, but speaking up passionately in defense of Tibet has taken him down the indie road that has led to two new films and the best reviews of his career.  The Culture Trip