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Back in 2010, Chinese actress Chen Zhixi was performing in a supporting role alongside Xu Zheng, one of China’s biggest comedy stars, in the popular period drama series Li Wei the Magistrate. The show was a hit and a significant role for her, but Chen already had grown restless with her acting work and was pondering other paths through the industry.

“Being an actor requires you to be a bit passive because you always have to just hope that you’ll get that callback,” she tells THR during a Zoom interview conducted with an interpreter. “I’m not the kind of person who likes to wait to be selected. I’d much prefer to be the one who makes the rules rather than follows them.”

In Zheng, she says she recognized a comedic visionary of still untapped potential. She suggested that they make a pact: One day, he would not...

Boonie Bears came from the lively world of Chinese animation and has gone from being a TV show to a worldwide entertainment hit since its premiere in 2011. The show that began as a cute animated movie about two naughty bears and a logger has grown into a huge series that fans all over China and the world love.

In the past ten years, Boonie Bears has made ten full-length movies that each add to the strange world of Briar and Bramble. The movie “Time Twist” celebrates ten years of adventures in the movies. It has a unique plot twist pays tribute to the franchise’s roots while also surprising viewers.

In contrast to most animation sequels, this one isn’t about the bears themselves; instead, it’s about Vick, the former logger who used to be their main enemy. Vick is suddenly the main character in a crazy time-travel story...

Fang Li couldn’t quite believe his ears when a fisherman shared the story behind what would become the Chinese filmmaker’s latest documentary, The Sinking of The Lisbon Maru.

The year was 2014 and Fang was on set in his role as a producer shooting the feature film The Continent — a Han Han-directed road-trip comedy-drama — and it was while heading out from the coast of eastern Zhejiang province towards Dongji Island that the fisherman told a tale that had, for seven decades, remained remarkably untold.

Fang heard of how on October 1, 1942 a Japanese military cargo ship laden with 1,816 British prisoners of war hidden in its hull was on its way from Hong Kong to Japan when it was torpedoed by the USS Grouper.

In the aftermath of the strike — and as the ship slowly sank — Japanese troops locked the POWs inside the cargo holds. But the POWs fought for their lives,...

One of the most surprising success stories of the film landscape this year has been the DreamWorks animated feature, The Wild Robot. Based off the book series of the same name, the film tells the story of Roz, a robot who gets shipwrecked on a deserted island. The Wild Robot boasts an excellent cast and tells a story that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming at once. Despite releasing in a busy year for animated films, The Wild Robot's rave reviews have pushed it into being a big success for DreamWorks.

The Wild Robot's success comes at an interesting time for Hollywood movies in general, where sequels, reboots, and franchise films seem to dominate all aspects of the industry. Original ideas are being shelved while studios desperately grab for any recognizable property they can try to make money off. The Wild Robot is adapted from preexisting, well-loved media, but...

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Sep 13-15)Total gross to dateWeek 1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros) £2.5m £18.2m 3 2. Speak No Evil (Universal) £813,979 £3m 2 3. Lee (Studiocanal) £555,529 £1.8m 2 4. The Substance (Mubi) £519,668 £591,322 1 5. Despicable Me 4 (Universal) £369,840 £46.7m 11

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.32

Warner Bros’ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice continued its reign at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as it crossed the £18m mark while Mubi body horror The Substance opened in fourth place.

The Beetlejuice sequel dropped 42% in its third week to bring in £2.5m and push its total up to £18.2m. It will likely enter the UK top 10 highest-grossing films of 2024 within the next week.

A busy weekend at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Prima Facie, Lee, Speak No Evil and The Critic all launch in 550+ cinemas.

National Theatre Live’s re-release of Prima Facie is in 679 locations. The theatre production starring Jodie Comer first played in cinemas in July 2022 in 662 venues, making £1.5m in a single day.

It became the highest-grossing event cinema release at the time, ending just shy of £5m and overtaken only by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which made £12m on its run.

Prima Facie opened in cinemas Thursday (September 12). The one-woman play surrounds a female...

Warner Bros.’ “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” conjured a dominating £7.3 million ($9.6 million) opening weekend in the U.K. and Ireland, easily claiming the top spot at the box office, according to numbers from Comscore.

Ahimsa Entertainment’s Tamil-language film “The Greatest Of All Time” (“Goat”), starring Vijay, debuted in second place with £768,842.

Sony’s “It Ends With Us” held strong in its fifth week, landing at number three with £668,902, pushing its total to £20.1 million. Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” continued to perform well in its seventh frame, adding £661,592 for a £55.9 million cume.

Rounding out the top five, Disney’s “Alien: Romulus” scared up another £570,708 in its fourth weekend, bringing its total to £12.1 million.

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” showed staying power in sixth place, collecting £543,555 in its ninth week for a £45.7 million total. Warner Bros.’ “Blink Twice” landed in seventh with £331,425 in its third weekend, accumulating £2.62 million overall.

Disney’s “Inside Out 2” took the eighth spot,...

After a flying start in theaters, Despicable Me 4 continues to hit milestones, having just passed an impressive $250 million at the global box office. Currently sitting on $255,669,731, a day-winning $15 million on July 9 has pushed the movie beyond a major target. $250 million is no mean feat at a volatile modern Box Office, with the film now teetering on the edge of entering the top 10 worldwide earners this year, with just $20 million separating it and Boonie Bears: Time Twist. Following Despicable Me 4's current trend, that entry into the top 10 should happen as soon as the next couple of days, with the family-friendly banana-loving franchise proving just as popular as ever.

“A Place Called Silence,” a remake of a crime thriller that debuted at the Busan film festival in 2022, kicked off its commercial career in mainland China with a $50 million theatrical debut.

The new film is directed by the same filmmaker, Sam Quah, but with a different cast from his 2022 effort. It earned RMB290 million ($40.9 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. It was given an early start on Wednesday and over its full-five day opening run amassed $52.8 million.

The film is structured as a thriller about a masked killer targeting the students of a girls’ high school.

Quah previously directed “Sheep Without a Shepherd,” an official remake of India’s “Drishyam,” which previously opened on top of the Chinese box office in late 2019.

Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” climbed up a couple of places, into second position. It earned $6.9 million in its third week...

China’s box office totalled $3.4bn (Rmb 23.9bn) in the first six months of 2024, down 9% year-on-year despite a strong start at Chinese New Year, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Ticket sales from the first half of the year were also the lowest since 2016, according to additional figures from Maoyan Research Institute, a subsidiary of service provider Maoyan Entertainment. This excludes 2020 and 2022 when cinemas were closed for lengthy periods due to the Covid pandemic.

Artisan Gateway highlighted that cinema admissions dipped 8.9% year-on-year to 550 million, while the average ticket price stands at just over $6 (RMB43.4), which has remained relatively stable for the last three years.

Censoring Streamers

Malaysia’s Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has said that he plans to hold meetings with the Communications Ministry with a view to extending the remit of the country’s Film Censorship Board (Lpf) to video streamers. Currently, the Lpf has jurisdiction over theatrical releases, but not content carried on the internet.

Malaysia has been notable in demanding cuts – sometimes refused by rights holders – to imported and local films, especially where they touch on religion or homosexuality, even tangentially. Hollywood films “Thor” and “Lightyear” were both banned. Last year, local director Amanda Nell Eu denounced the censored cut of her prize-winning film “Tiger Stripes.”

Speaking in parliament, Saifuddin said “the Lpf will not approve the screening of any films that promote LGBTQ, communism, Islamophobia, and those conflicting Islamic beliefs.”

VFX Investment

Japanese broadcaster TBS Holdings has announced “a significant capital investment” in Megalis a Tokyo-based VFX production company...

Taiwanese-produced crime action film “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon” opened on top of the mainland China box office over the weekend, ahead of a quartet of holdover titles from Lunar New Year. Sony’s ‘Madame Web’ and a rereleased “Dune” also opened, but they failed to penetrate the top five.

“The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon” earned $16.2 million (RMB115 million), according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Other than the Lunar New Year titles, that represented the highest opening by any new film in China this year. But it was not entirely a convincing performance. It came in only narrowly ahead of “Article 20,” the Zhang Yimou-directed crime comedy drama that has been in cinemas for four weeks now.

Directed by Hong Kong’s Wong Ching-po and starring Ethan Juan, the films tells the story of a gangster who discovers, first that he has cancer and...

Worldwide box office February 23-25 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world)Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) Cume (int’l) Territories 1. Article 20 (various) $39.2m $288.6m $39.2m $288.6m 4 2. Pegasus 2 (various) $34.9m $433.2m $34.7m $431.6m 4 3. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba - To The Hashira Training (various) $28.5m $41.7m $17m $30.1m 57 4. Bob Marley: One Love (Paramount) $28.5m $120.5m $15m $49.4m 60 5. Yolo (various) $24.7m $463.2m $24.7m $463.2m 1 6. Boonie Bears: Time Twist (various) $21.9m $256.9m $21.9m $256.9m 1 7. Exhuma (Showbox) $16.7m $16.7m $16.7m $16.7m 1 8. Madame Web (Sony) $16.5m $77.4m $10.5m $42m 65 9. Migration (Universal) $7.8m $268.7m $4.8m $148.3m 80 10. Wonka (Paramount) $7.7m $617.2m $5.2m $402.7m 72 Worldwide...

The four strongest Chinese titles that launched over the Lunar New Year holidays continued to dominate the mainland China and global office charts for a third successive weekend, albeit with a change of order that put Zhang Yimou’s “Article 20” in top spot.

Global box office tracking service ComScore showed “Article 20,” “Pegasus 2,” “Yolo” and “Boonie Bears: Time Twist” as ranking first, second, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the world over the latest weekend.

Within mainland China, the quartet’s numbers were sufficiently solid that the year-to-date aggregate is now closely comparable to 2023’s. And, even in their third week, the four were many miles ahead of the top newcomer, “Argylle.”

China data, provided by consultancy Artisan Gateway, showed “Article 20” earned $40.1 million (RMB285 million) between Friday and Sunday. Having placed fourth on opening and third in its second weekend, the latest weekend win means that the gaps between the cumulative...

Andy Lau starrer The Movie Emperor and romantic drama Viva La Vida have had their releases cut short in China amid stiff competition, while Yolo and Pegasus 2 are among four local breakout hits that contributed to a record-breaking $1.1bn box office over Chinese New Year.

Satirical comedy The Movie Emperor earned just $11.1m (RMB80m) after one week following its release on the first day of Chinese New Year (February 10), which also saw the opening of a string of hot local titles.

Chinese producer Huanxi Media issued a statement on social media to say it would be pulled from...

Four Chinese films dominated the mainland China and global box office charts over the latest weekend. “Yolo,” a comedy drama about weight loss and self-discovery, was crowned as the top earning film worldwide for a second weekend running.

“Yolo” took $86.5 million (RMB614 million) between Friday and Sunday, giving it a 9-day cumulative total of $402 million (RMB2.85 million), according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway.

The second film by Jia Ling, who previously directed 2021 Lunar New Year smash hit “Hi, Mom”, “Yolo” released on Saturday, Feb. 10 and has retained the number one position since the second day of the Chinese New Year holidays, staying narrowly ahead of racing comedy “Pegasus 2.”

Over the latest weekend “Pegasus 2” earned $80.6 million, giving it a running total of $356 million.

“Article 20,” the Zhang Yimou-directed legal comedy, improved significantly. It climbed up one place to third in the Chinese and global weekend charts and earned $70.2 million over the weekend.

Worldwide box office February 2-4 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world) Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) Cume (int’l) Territories 1. Yolo (various) $110.4m $110.4m $110.4m $110.4m 1 2. Pegasus 2 (various) $104.6m $104.6m $104.6m $104.6m 3 3. Boonie Bears: Time Twist (various) $60.8m $60.8m $60.8m $60.8m 1 4. Article 20 (various)

$46.6m $46.6m $46.6m $46.6m 1 5. Argylle (Universal) $15.9m $60.1m $9.4m $31.3m 82 6. Anyone But You (Sony) $12.4m $170.1m $9.7m $90m 51 7. Wonka (Warner Bros) 11.6m $587.5m $8.5m $382.3m 75 8. Migration (Universal) $9.7m $235.2m $6.7m $125.0m 80 9. The Movie Emperor (various) $7.9m $7.9m $7.9m $7.9m 6 10. Poor Things (Disney) $7.7m $81.2m $6.6m $50.9m 44

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

China wins top four spots in...

Four Chinese films dominated the global box office charts over the weekend, with combined takings of $350 million earned over just two days.

And, as North America watched the Super Bowl instead, the weekend’s top Hollywood title, “Argylle” earned just $15.9 million worldwide.

Chinese titles eschewed their usual Friday release pattern and opened on Saturday, the first official day of the Lunar New Year holiday period in China and much of Asia.

Female-directed comedy drama “Yolo,” earned $113 million (RMB802 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was narrowly ahead of car-racing comedy “Pegasus 2,” which earned RMB758 million or $107 million and was the bigger title on Saturday. “Yolo” is poised to release in international markets in the future, having recently been acquired by Sony.

In third place, both in China and worldwide, Chinese animation film “Boonie Bears: Time Twist” earned a stunning RMB443 million or $62.4 million. “Article 20,” a Zhang Yimou...