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Golden season begins as Chinese films set records
By Zhang Rui
Poster of "Monster Hunt" [Photo: Xinhua]
The golden film season has begun as three critically acclaimed movies, "Monster Hunt," "Jian Bing Man" and "Monkey King" are setting new box office records.
"Monster Hunt," a fantasy comedy directed by Raman Hui, raked in 173 million yuan (US$27.7 million) on its debut day breaking the opening day and single day ticket sales records for a Chinese home-made movie. The record was previously held by Cheang Pou-soi's "The Monkey King" (US$20.62 million).
It is worth pointing out "The Monkey King" opened on the very national holiday of Spring Festival while "Monster Hunt" opened on a normal Thursday.
The record also put "Monster Hunt" at fourth place in the all time opening day records of China, just behind Hollywood blockbusters "Furious 7," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "Transformers: Age of Extinction."
"Monster Hunt," with star-studded cast of Jing Boran, Bai Baihe, Yao Chen, Tang Wei, Jiang Wu, Eric Tsang and Sandra Ng cost 350 million yuan (US$56.38 million) and took eight years to make. Director Raman Hui is a Hong Kong animator and film director best known for "Shrek the Third" and several short films.
At the same time, "Monkey King: Hero Is Back," an animated adaption from Chinese fantasy classic "Journey to the West," continued to set Chinese theaters on fire. By Thursday, the animation has grossed 307 million yuan (US$49.45 million) and became the highest grossing Chinese animated film ever.
Dubbed the "dark horse" for this summer’s film season, the animation opened lower than expected on July 10, losing to movies "Tiny Times 4" and "Forever Young." However, the rave reviews and buzz created by China's cartoon fans and movie lovers helped the movie back to the top of box office chart and keeps it as one of the hottest topics on social networks platforms.
Poster of "Monkey King: Hero is Back" [Photo from Internet]
"Monkey King: Hero Is Back" has already made history and will continue selling strong though facing furious competition in coming days.
On Friday, another blockbuster-to-be will debut "Jian Bing Man," is a comedy by Dong Chengpeng, a talk show host turned director and actor. A celebrity studded lineup make incredible cameos in the movie, including Belgian action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mabel Yuan, Lin Gengxin, Eric Tsang, Jordan Chan, Sandra Ng, Deng Chao, Ekin Cheng, Han Han, Liu Yan, Yue Yunpeng, Song Xiaobao and Shen He aka Xiao Shenyang.
"Jian Bing Man" has taken nearly 43 percent of national screenings for all films and has sold 80 million yuan (US$12.88 million) in tickets by noon last Friday. The nationwide screenings percentage for "Monster Hunt" was lowered to the second place (37 percent) after it made history a day ago, but it has grossed 65 million yuan (US$10.47 million) in just half day on Friday, according to online ticket booking service company Maoyan.com.
Whether Friday will witness another historic record remains to be seen, but the coming weekend will probably see a box office peak in history due to the three films' performance as China, the second largest film market in the world, has more than 26,000 screens to accommodate two top grossing blockbusters at the same time.
Observers expected "Monster Hunt" and "Jian Bing Man" to gross beyond 1 billion yuan (US$161 million) mark while "Monkey King" has already made history no matter how much it will continue to sell. Surprisingly, the three domestic films this time received very good reviews, sweeping away such complaints about the low quality of Chinese films constantly appearing before.
But as director Tian Xiaopeng humbly said in an interview, "I know my film is not that good but I'm determined to make it the best I can. The success may be due to audiences who have been depressed by many Chinese films' quality for a long time. Their unconditional support will be an encouragement and inspiration for us filmmakers to make better and better films."
Poster of "Jian Bing Man" [Photo from Internet]
By Zhang Rui
Poster of "Monster Hunt" [Photo: Xinhua]
The golden film season has begun as three critically acclaimed movies, "Monster Hunt," "Jian Bing Man" and "Monkey King" are setting new box office records.
"Monster Hunt," a fantasy comedy directed by Raman Hui, raked in 173 million yuan (US$27.7 million) on its debut day breaking the opening day and single day ticket sales records for a Chinese home-made movie. The record was previously held by Cheang Pou-soi's "The Monkey King" (US$20.62 million).
It is worth pointing out "The Monkey King" opened on the very national holiday of Spring Festival while "Monster Hunt" opened on a normal Thursday.
The record also put "Monster Hunt" at fourth place in the all time opening day records of China, just behind Hollywood blockbusters "Furious 7," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "Transformers: Age of Extinction."
"Monster Hunt," with star-studded cast of Jing Boran, Bai Baihe, Yao Chen, Tang Wei, Jiang Wu, Eric Tsang and Sandra Ng cost 350 million yuan (US$56.38 million) and took eight years to make. Director Raman Hui is a Hong Kong animator and film director best known for "Shrek the Third" and several short films.
At the same time, "Monkey King: Hero Is Back," an animated adaption from Chinese fantasy classic "Journey to the West," continued to set Chinese theaters on fire. By Thursday, the animation has grossed 307 million yuan (US$49.45 million) and became the highest grossing Chinese animated film ever.
Dubbed the "dark horse" for this summer’s film season, the animation opened lower than expected on July 10, losing to movies "Tiny Times 4" and "Forever Young." However, the rave reviews and buzz created by China's cartoon fans and movie lovers helped the movie back to the top of box office chart and keeps it as one of the hottest topics on social networks platforms.
Poster of "Monkey King: Hero is Back" [Photo from Internet]
"Monkey King: Hero Is Back" has already made history and will continue selling strong though facing furious competition in coming days.
On Friday, another blockbuster-to-be will debut "Jian Bing Man," is a comedy by Dong Chengpeng, a talk show host turned director and actor. A celebrity studded lineup make incredible cameos in the movie, including Belgian action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mabel Yuan, Lin Gengxin, Eric Tsang, Jordan Chan, Sandra Ng, Deng Chao, Ekin Cheng, Han Han, Liu Yan, Yue Yunpeng, Song Xiaobao and Shen He aka Xiao Shenyang.
"Jian Bing Man" has taken nearly 43 percent of national screenings for all films and has sold 80 million yuan (US$12.88 million) in tickets by noon last Friday. The nationwide screenings percentage for "Monster Hunt" was lowered to the second place (37 percent) after it made history a day ago, but it has grossed 65 million yuan (US$10.47 million) in just half day on Friday, according to online ticket booking service company Maoyan.com.
Whether Friday will witness another historic record remains to be seen, but the coming weekend will probably see a box office peak in history due to the three films' performance as China, the second largest film market in the world, has more than 26,000 screens to accommodate two top grossing blockbusters at the same time.
Observers expected "Monster Hunt" and "Jian Bing Man" to gross beyond 1 billion yuan (US$161 million) mark while "Monkey King" has already made history no matter how much it will continue to sell. Surprisingly, the three domestic films this time received very good reviews, sweeping away such complaints about the low quality of Chinese films constantly appearing before.
But as director Tian Xiaopeng humbly said in an interview, "I know my film is not that good but I'm determined to make it the best I can. The success may be due to audiences who have been depressed by many Chinese films' quality for a long time. Their unconditional support will be an encouragement and inspiration for us filmmakers to make better and better films."
Poster of "Jian Bing Man" [Photo from Internet]
