Huayi Brothers CEO Wang Zhongjun Reflects on The Company’s Profit Loss
2018 is undoubtedly a difficult year for Chinese movie studio Huayi Brothers. As the company that more or less created the Chinese new year cinematic season many years ago, Huayi Brothers didn’t have any releases during the 2019 Chinese new year. More over, several credit-rating agencies added Huayi Brothers to their watchlist at the end of 2018. In response to the company’s first ever profit loss in 9 years, Huayi Brothers CEO Wang Zhongjun recently reflected upon the mistakes the company made as well as future plans for the company’s revival. He pointed out that the company’s misjudgment and poor project execution had led to some box office bombs in 2018. In addition, the company faced serious reputation crisis and cash flow issues last year. Moving forward, he plans to rejoin the company’s “green-light committee” to oversee project development and execution. Wang also expressed his confidence in the studio’s ability to make great films and revealed that several exciting films were in the making, including two films by Feng Xiaogang and one war epic by Guan Hu. Read more on Mtime
‘The Wandering Earth’ Overtook ‘Dying To Survive’ as the Fifth Highest-grossing Movie in China
On February 14, Valentine’s Day, sci-fi movie The Wandering Earth continued to top the daily box office charts with RMB351 million (US$51.8 M) in ticket sales. This also made the film surpass Dying to Survive, the box office winner last summer, to become the fifth highest-grossing film of all time. Crazy Alien took the second place on the charts yesterday with RMB103 million (US$15.2 M), reaching RMB1.81 billion (US$267 M) in total. Fall in Love at First Kiss, a romantic drama based on the popular Japanese manga series Itazura na Kiss, debuted yesterday with RMB91.5 million (US$13.5 M), which makes it the best performing romantic movie on Valentine’s Day since 2015. Read more on Mtime
British-German Animated Film ‘Happy Family’ May Get China Release
Happy Family (original title: La Familia Monster), a 2017 British-German animated film, may get a theatrical release in China this year, according to sources familiar with the matter. Two Chinese posters of the film were released recently. The film follows the family of Emma Wishbone that fights to an evil witch, who transforms them into monsters in a Halloween costume party. Directed by Holger Tappe, the film stars Emily Watson, Jason Isaacs, and other famous actors. Read more on Mtime
