RUSSIAN FILM MAKES IMPRESSIVE DEBUT IN CHINA

The Russian blockbuster Stalingrad is repeating its success in China. The movie, the first Russian film to be presented in IMAX 3D, earned $8.65 million over the weekend, according to Xinhua, the state-owned news service. When the film opened in Russia last month, it set a box-office record with $22 million in its first week. With a backdrop of the bloodiest battle of World War II, the film tells of the romance between a Russian woman and a Nazi officer. It has sparked considerable controversy in Russia, where an online petition has been launched demanding that the film be banned. “The film has attracted middle-aged and elderly Chinese moviegoers, who had been influenced by imported Soviet Union movies after the founding of new China in 1949,” Xinhua observed on Wednesday. It quoted one 55-year-old moviegoer as saying, “I was greatly impressed by the authentic, horrifying, touching scenes in the film. … The love story added a human interest element to the movie.”