FAMED CHINESE DIRECTOR TO MAKE FILMS FOR THEATERS, INTERNET

Chinese director Zhang Yimou, who staged the opening and closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and whose films include Raise the Red Lantern, Red Sorghum and Hero, has signed a deal to make movies for theaters and the Internet with Beijing-based Le Vision Pictures. The company is a unit of LeTV, a video […]

CHINA FILM EXPERT: DEADLINE DEAD WRONG ABOUT LOOPER‘S BOX OFFICE

Robert Cain, a consultant to the entertainment industry on China, has dismissed reports by Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com about the supposedly record Chinese debut of Sony’s Looper last weekend. Finke, citing unnamed sources, originally reported that the film earned $23-25 million over the weekend, topping the $21 million that it earned domestically. If that figure held, […]

BATMAN AND SPIDEY SQUARE OFF IN CHINA

Following a nearly two-month period in which only locally produced movies were allowed to be shown in China, Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man and Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight Rises made their debut in the country, going head to head. The results were unimpressive. The Amazing Spider-Man grossed $5.46 million while the Dark Knight Rises took […]

HOW TO SUCCEED IN CHINA IF YOU’RE A FILMMAKER

Although China accounts for about 5 percent of worldwide ticket sales, certain types of movies generate far more than that, according to a study by Robert Cain, a producer and veteran studio consultant on China. In an article for his China Film Biz blog, Cain observes that in 2011, the Chinese box office accounted for […]