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‘Harbin’ To Be Present At Christmas

Poised to be one of the biggest blockbusters of an uneven year for Korean cinema, “Harbin” is finally confirmed to release on Christmas Day (Dec. 25). The movie had its premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival but its distributor and financier Cj Enm chose to hold back the commercial release in its native Korea until the busy end-of-year season.

The period action film follows Korean independence activists who launch a daring attack against the Japanese occupying forces in Manchuria (modern-day China).

It is directed by Woo Min-ho and stars Hyun Bin (“Crash Landing on You”), Park Jeong-min (“Decision to Leave”) and Jeon Yeo-been (“Cobweb”), who were all in action at a press launch event Monday in Seoul.

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Netflix has unveiled a trailer for Australian-produced “Apple Cider Vinegar,” a limited series which it will upload in 2025. The six-part drama chronicles the...

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” took second place at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend, leading off a season of re-releases that will encompass the full “Harry Potter” franchise.

The weekend’s top-ranked film was “The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death” which took RMB77.4 million ($10.9 million) in its second full weekend in Chinese theaters, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Since releasing on Sept. 30, in time to capture the full National Day holiday period, the Chen Kaige-directed film has earned $139 million. The film is the second part of a three-film set that kicked off this time last year with “The Volunteers: To the War.”

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” earned $6.6 million. Warner Bros. Pictures, the studio behind the franchise, said that the films will pay in some 3,400 theaters across 295 cities in China and that they will be available in standard...

Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon opened on $44m worldwide.

Worldwide box office October 20-22 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world) Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) 3-day (int’l) Territories 1. Killers Of The Flower Moon (Paramount)

$44m $44m $21m $21m 64 2. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (various) $41.5m $164.8m $10.5m $35m 36 3. Leo: Bloody Sweet (various) $31.2m $48.5m $29.1m $43.9m 29 4. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (Paramount) $16.2m $148.4m $11.7m $92.3m 67 5. Trolls Band Together (Universal) $14.3m $16.0m $14.3m $16.0m 26 6. The Exorcist: Believer (Universal) $13.8m $107.6m $8.2m $53.4m 81 7. Only The River Flows (various) $12.5m $12.5m $12.5m $12.5m 1 8. Under The Light (various) $6.9m $173.1m...

“Only the River Flows,” a pitch-black crime noir from auteur Wei Shujun, comfortably topped the mainland China box office on a quietish weekend.

The film, ostensibly a murder mystery, but one concerned more with atmosphere than linear plotting, earned $12.6 million (RMB90.8 million) in its opening three days, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, or close to a third of the market.

The film had its premiere in Cannes where Variety gave it a rave review, calling it an “inventive riff on Asian-noir” and making comparisons with films by Park Chan-wook and Diao Yinan.

“Only the River Flows” has since played at a succession of festivals ever since, including New Zealand, BFI London, Vancouver, Adelaide and last week’s Pingyao event in China.

Falling to second place at the box office after three weeks on top was Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light,” which earned $6.9 million for a four-weekend cumulative of $176 million.

A dearth of new release films allowed Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light” to retain a comfortable lead at the China box office over the weekend, in its third week of release.

The contemporary crime drama film earned $13.5 million (RMB97.2 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. Since releasing on Sept. 28, it has accumulated gross revenues of $163 million (RMB1.17 billion).

Zhang will be feted with a lifetime achievement award in Japan next week, where the Tokyo International Film Festival will play his February record breaker “Full River Red,” but not “Under the Light.”

“The Volunteers: To the War,” a 1950s-set propaganda film directed by Chen Kaige, earned $9.6 million (RMB69.2 million) and rose from third to second place. It now has a cumulative of $93.2 million. Chinese comedy franchise film “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan” took $8.8 million in its third week of release, advancing its cumulative to $123 million.

The Zhang Yimou-directed contemporary drama film “Under the Light” retained its top spot at the mainland China box office for a second weekend, but with numbers that dropped steeply, as macro-economic weakening led to a Golden Week of across the board disappointment.

Financial media Monday reported that consumers travelled less and spent less on leisure than had been forecast, likely reflecting general economic belt tightening, high unemployment and property sector worries.

Before the holidays, cinema ticketing firm Maoyan had forecast that the first three days would throw up box office of RMB1.5 billion (208 million) and that “Under the Light” alone would reach RMB2 billion ($278 million) by the end of the eight-day holiday season (Sept. 29-Oct. 6). Those estimates proved to be highly over-optimistic.

The company now reports that the eight-day total box office amounted to Rmb 2.734 billion from ticket sales of 65.1 million.

The positive spin is that box office was...

A clutch of Chinese movies released for the end of September holiday season dominated the global box office over the latest weekend. Mainland Chinese-produced films took first, third and fifth places across the planet, according to U.S.-based data service Comscore.

Comscore shows “Under the Light,” which released only in mainland China, grossing an estimated $54 million between Friday and Sunday. That put it ahead of Paramount’s “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” which earned an estimated $23.0 million in the North America (aka ‘domestic’) market and a further $23.1 million in the rest of the world, for a weekend total of $46.1 million.

In third place globally was another Chinese film “The Ex-Files 4: The Marriage Plan,” which released in China and five other territories for a weekend total of $41.4 million. “The Creator” earned $32.3 million across the planet, comprising an $18.3 million international score and $14 million from North America. Fifth, planetwide, was Chinese...

It’s turning into the year of Zhang Yimou at China’s box office. The venerable 73-year-old director’s 26th feature, crime drama Under the Light, topped ticket sales during China’s Mid-Autumn Festival holiday over the past four days, opening to $62.6 million, according to data from Artisan Gateway. This comes after Zhang’s previous feature, the historical mystery thriller Full River Red (2023), dominated China’s previous big holiday release window, the Lunar New Year in January, with a whopping $673 million tally — the country’s biggest haul this year and sixth-biggest of all time. Local ticketing app Maoyan currently forecasts Under the Light to earn between $250 million and $300 million before its run is complete, which would put Zhang close to the $1 billion mark for total ticket sales in 2023.

The Mid-Autumn Festival weekend wasn’t without some spirited competition, however. Huayi Brothers Media’s comedy franchise sequel The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan...

Disney/Marvel’s The Marvels has secured a China release on November 10, day-and-date with North America. The sequel to the $1 billion+ worldwide grossing Captain Marvel is the latest major studio tentpole to be granted access to the market since Oppenheimer went out August 30. It’s also wasting no time in spreading the word locally, leveraging the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day/Golden Week celebrations across the next week.

Marvel titles, as with many Hollywood movies in the post-pandemic era, have seen soft returns in the once highly lucrative market as the local industry has bulked up and audience tastes turned more inward. What’s more, films with Marvel characters were also unofficially banned for a three-and-a-half year period until Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was granted a release in February, months after its rollout elsewhere. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania followed (in step with the rest of international rollout), grossing a little over $39M,...

Upcoming titles handled by Embankment, Protagonist, Goodfellas and Studiocanal to receive a share of production funding.

Screen Australia is to allocate more than Aud$10m ($6.4m) of production funding to a raft of upcoming film and TV projects.

The national screen body will support six features including Sophie Hyde’s An Ideal Woman, starring Emilia Clarke; Dario Russo’s The Fox, starring Jai Courtney and from the producers of horror hit Talk to Me; and Charles Williams’ Inside, starring Guy Pearce. Further films to receive a share of the funding include David Vincent Smith drama He Ain’t Heavy, John Sheedy...

The latest film from the director of ‘Farewell My Concubine’ will be released in China in late September.

Fortissimo Films has secured international rights to Chinese war epic The Volunteers: To The War by Chen Kaige, the acclaimed director of Farewell My Concubine and The Battle At Lake Changjin.

The Amsterdam and Beijing-based sales company will launch sales on the feature at the Asian Contents and Film Market in Busan next month, following its release in China on September 28. The international sales agreement excludes North America, Australia and New Zealand.

The film, previously known as The Great War, is the...