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Maxtime Pictures’ “Her Story,” a comedy-drama film told from a largely female perspective, topped the mainland China box office for the fourth consecutive weekend.

The box office remained sluggish despite a few new releases, with Hollywood holdover “Moana 2” dropping out of the top five and Sony’s “Kraven the Hunter” making a modest debut.

Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed “Her Story” sliding from its previous weekend’s showing by earning RMB52.1 million ($7.3 million) between Friday and Sunday. The film now has a cumulative total of $89 million in the Middle Kingdom. The film was the seventh highest grossing film internationally, according to numbers from Comscore.

“Her Story” is directed by Shao Yihui (2021’s “B For Busy”). Its fast-paced story focuses on two women – one a recently unemployed single mom, the other a new neighbor who is more troubled than she appears – who become friends. Together they face up to various relationship challenges,...

Maxtime Pictures’ “Her Story,” a comedy-drama film told from a largely female perspective, topped the mainland China box office for the third consecutive weekend. Disney’s “Moana 2,” which had debuted in second place, dropped to third.

Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed “Her Story” sliding from its previous weekend’s showing by earning RMB90.1 million ($12.7 million) between Friday and Sunday. The film now has a cumulative total of $76.3 million in the Middle Kingdom.

“Her Story” is directed by Shao Yihui (2021’s “B For Busy”). Its fast-paced story focuses on two women – one a recently unemployed single mom, the other a new neighbor who is more troubled than she appears – who become friends. Together they face up to various relationship challenges, including an abusive ex-husband and new romantic possibilities.

Dimension Films’ “Burning Stars” debuted in second place with $7 million. Directed by Xu Zhanxiong, the historical fiction action-drama follows a...

Patriotic titles continue to lead the China box office, with historical drama 1921 coming in second.

Patriotic titles continued to dominate the China box office this weekend, with Bona Film Group’s Chinese Doctors opening in pole position with $53.3m in its first three days (July 9-11), according to figures from theatrical consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Produced by Bona Film Group, the film reunites Hong Kong director Andrew Lau with the stars of his 2019 blockbuster The Captain — Zhang Hanyu and Yuan Quan — and also features Jackson Yee, who makes a special appearance in the film. The story follows a group of medical...

China’s two new propaganda films topped the box office over their first weekend in theaters, but it appears that the politically correct content may not prove popular enough to drive sales at blockbuster levels.

Most of the biggest local blockbusters set to hit China over the rest of the year are propaganda titles. Though analysts believe that China will keep its crown as the world’s largest film market this year, some question whether its annual gross may suffer from a surplus of “main melody” political films and fewer Hollywood tentpoles as the U.S. exhibition sector wobbles back on its feet post-covid.

China’s cumulative box office this weekend was just $44.9 million, down significantly from the comparable weekend of 2019, when Maoyan figures show it hit $120 million. Those heights were made possible by blockbusters “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and Herman Yau Hong Kong actioner “The White Storm 2: Drug Lords,...

Chinese propaganda film “1921” grossed $13 million on its opening day Thursday, outperforming debuts from Hollywood releases like “Cruella,” “A Quiet Place Part II” and “Peter Rabbit 2.”

Patriotic titles “1921” and “The Pioneer” kicked off China’s summer season with a nationalist splash with Thursday premieres. Both films were created as tributes to China’s ruling Communist Party on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.

Top earning “1921” is expected to be one of China’s biggest films of the year. It notched a $13 million (RMB84 million) opening day, according to Maoyan. Its cumulative box office has already reached twice that — $24.6 million (RMB159 million) — thanks to extensive preview screenings.

Its standalone opening day sales are nearly eight times that of the China debut for Disney’s “Cruella” ($1.7 million), more than 13 times that of “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” and more than three times that of “A Quiet Place Part II...

Every cinema in China must schedule and actively promote at least two screenings of propaganda films per week beginning this week until the end of the year, Chinese authorities have declared, announcing the first batch of eligible titles Friday.

Theaters that are part of the National Alliance of Arthouse Cinemas or the “People’s Cinema” circuit — a group of more than 5,000 venues with special halls dedicated to propaganda films or that employ specific strategies like subsidies to promote such content — must screen propaganda films at least five times a week.

The directive is just one of a number of stipulations issued last week by China’s National Film Administration and powerful Propaganda Department about how the country’s film and entertainment industries should participate in efforts to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party’s founding, which hits this July 1.

In an official statement, National Film Administration called...

Chinese director Guan Hu is riding high right now: Despite languishing in government censorship purgatory for over a year, his patriotic war epic “The Eight Hundred” has risen to become the highest grossing film in the world in 2020, with sales of $461 million. His next confirmed move? More jingoistic propaganda.

Guan is executive producer and “supervisor” — a sort of on-set mentor figure — for the new production “The Revolutionary,” which has just begun shooting this week. The project will be a family affair — his wife, the actress Liang Jing, is also set to executive produce alongside him. Backed by Enlight Media, it is scheduled for a high-profile July 1 debut.

The date holds a special significance this year, as it marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s ruling Communist Party (Ccp) — a time when Beijing will seek to celebrate the regime through positive media portrayals and go out of its...

"I was once told that beauty should never be shared." Shanghai Jingshu Pictures has released an official US trailer for the Chinese romantic drama titled Wild Grass, marking the feature directorial debut of director Xu Zhanxiong. The film is a love story and generational drama following the intersecting city lives of several young people in China during the 1990s. In the 1990s, the two girls and a boy who first entered the society tested the incredible destiny they experienced in the pursuit of a new life. In the flourishing 1990s, they rose up with the dream and they survived. Starring Ye Gao, Ma Sichun, Elane Zhong, Johnny Huang, and Sunny Wang. It wasn't expecting much from this, but it's ravishing trailer. I love the vibrant title cards, I love the dance sequences, the film looks passionate and intensely emotional. This might be a nice discovery. Here's the official US trailer...