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“Extinction,” the Malaysian-produced animation that is playing at the Shanghai International Film Festival, has struck its first international rights sales deals.

The film was recently picked up by All Rights Entertainment, the Paris, Hong Kong and Los Angeles-based sales agency. All Rights has subsequently licensed the title to Magic Film for the Cis region, to Dazzler Media for the U.K., to Red Cape Distribution for Israel and to Bir Film for Turkey.

Directed by Behnooud Nekooei and produced by Magic Picture Films (“Elephant King”), “Extinction” had its world premiere earlier this month at the Annecy Animation Festival in France. It enjoys its Asian premiere this week as part of the animation section of Shanghai’s Film Panorama section.

The narrative follows Mohsen, a young boy who is obsessed with superheroes. His life takes an unexpected turn when he comes across an endangered tiger while on a family picnic near the forest.

Chinese animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian” was the top film at the mainland China box office for the second successive weekend.

Unchallenged by major new releases, the film earned 13.0 (RMB88.3 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That was a drop of 34 compared with its 19.8 million opening session.

Some 1.5 million of the weekend total was scored from the film’s outing on Imax screens.

After ten days on release “Yang Jian” has a cumulative total of 43.7 million (RMB297 million). Of that, its Imax total is now 4 million.

“New Gods: Yang Jian” is a continuation of the “New Gods” franchise from Light Chaser Animation, the studio behind 2021 hit “New Gods: Nezha Reborn” and 2019’s “White Snake.” The new film revolves around Yang Jian, a mythological figure from the Ming Dynasty and who was featured in historical novel “The Investiture of the Gods.”

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Gkids has acquired North American rights to New Gods: Yang Jian, the latest feature from renowned Chinese animation studio Light Chaser Animation. The producer and distributor of award-winning animated features has slated Yang Jian for theatrical release in both its original Mandarin-language form and an all-new English language dub early next year. The deal marks the latest collaboration between Gkids and Light Chaser Animation, following the former’s local distribution of the 2019 feature White Snake.

Helmed by Ji Zhao, New Gods: Yang Jian is the second installment of the studio’s New Gods series of animated action-fantasy epics inspired by Chinese mythological figures, following the 2021 feature New Gods: Nezha Reborn, also directed by Zhao. It picks up 13 years after Yang Jian (known to some as Erlang Shen) imprisoned his sister beneath a mountain, with the once powerful god now scraping by as a penniless bounty hunter.

Animation specialists Gkids has acquired North American distribution rights for Chinese animated film “New Gods: Yang Jian,” with plans to release the film in theaters early next year.

Directed by Ji Zhao, “Yang Jian” is the second installment in his “New Gods” series of animated fantasy films adapted from Chinese mythology. The series, which began last year with “New Gods: Nezha Reborn,” is produced by Chinese animation studio Light Chaser Animation, which also produced Zhao’s directorial debut “White Snake” in 2019.

“Yang Jian” follows the titular Chinese god, also known as Erlang Shen, who was famous for his truth-seeing eye in the middle of his forehead. Thirteen years after he imprisoned his own sister beneath a mountain, the god works as a bounty hunter, and is hired by a mysterious woman to stop his nephew Chenxiang from obtaining a magical lotus lantern with incredible power. The film was released in Chinese theaters last week,...

Chinese animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian” was the top film at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend. “Minions: The Rise of Gru” opened in third place.

“New Gods: Yang Jian” earned 19.8 million (RMB134 million) on its debut between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. It places ahead of previous winner “Moon Man” which slipped from first to second place with a 17.8 million (RMB121 million) fourth weekend. “Moon Man” now has a 397 million (RMB2.70 billion) cumulative.

“New Gods: Yang Jian” is a continuation of the “New Gods” franchise from Light Chaser Animation, the studio behind 2021 hit “New Gods: Nezha Reborn” and 2019’s “White Snake.” “Nezha Reborn” earned 67.6 million (RMB456 million).

The new film revolves around Yang Jian, a mythological figure from the Ming Dynasty and who was featured in historical novel “The Investiture of the Gods.” (The same book was also mined by...

Chinese Animation firm Winsing is participating in the American Film Market this year for the first time, stepping out to present its flagship “Gg Bond” animated film series and its derivatives.

The company is also seeking to introduce its subsidiary Iron Fan Studio, a CG animation studio established under Winsing in 2019 that specializes in outsourced animation production services, including work in Ar and VR. With around 50 employees, the studio was involved in the production of well-known Chinese animated features including the recent “New Gods: Nezha Reborn,” which grossed $56 million in February, and “White Snake 2: Green Snake,” which grossed $8.17 million in July.

“AFM remains an important market, and although we couldn’t go abroad due to Covid-19, we’ve chosen to take virtual meetings… [even if] online meetings don’t have the same effect as offline face-to-face ones,” said Winsing representative Chrinco Mai.

The Gg Bond IP centers on the titular character,...

Some say he’s a demon. Others say he’s a trickster. Still others say he’s a hero. Ne-zha — a conflicted figure of Ming legend — lives again in Chinese animation, reincarnating into different forms each time. His first debut in Chinese animation came with Shanghai Animation’s exquisitely drawn “Nezha Conquers the Dragon King” (1979). Here, the lotus-born warrior is elegant and self-sacrificial; each valorous feat may be misinterpreted, but is noble to the end. Forty years later, the more recent Chinese blockbuster hit “Ne Zha” (2019) recalls a similarly sympathetic spin. The divine infant regularly terrorizes the citizens of Chentang Pass, but ultimately saves them out of the goodness of his heart. Now, Ji Zhao’s “New Gods: Nezha Reborn” (2021) tells a tale of the god’s rebirth in the early 20th century. Ne-zha the person is no more; instead, Ne-zha the consciousness pervades.

In “New Gods,” Ji Zhao constructs a steampunk,...

Netflix has added to its roster of Chinese titles, acquiring upcoming feature fantasy drama Super Me. The streamer has taken exclusive global rights outside mainland China, former Yugoslavia and the Indian region.

From director Zhang Chong, the film originally premiered at Sitges in 2019 and went on to further festival play. It had a China premiere last Friday and officially releases theatrically on April 9. It’s currently ranked third for pre-sales on that day.

Darren Wang, Song Jia and Cao Bingkun star with Wu Gang also featuring.

Super Me, which is the director’s second film after 2019 drama The Fourth Wall, sees reality, dreams, desires and fantasies combine with a rags-to-riches story. It centers on Sang Yu (Darren Wang), who has has always dreamt of becoming a successful screenwriter. He writes non-stop, as he stresses out to finish a script he’s been paid by his friend, San Ge (Cao Bingkun), to complete.

Netflix is the king of the streaming world until proven otherwise. But in recent months the streamer’s lists of new releases have looked relatively sparse as competing media conglomerates remove their titles from Netflix’s library. With its list of new releases for April 2021, however, Netflix appears to have its original production machine operating at high capacity once again.

There are plenty of intriguing Netflix original series and films this month. The one that appears to have the highest blockbuster potential though is the series Shadow and Bone on April 23. Shadow and Bone is adapted from Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha-verse trilogy and should bring another compelling sci-fi/fantasy universe to the streaming world.

Read more TV How Will Shadow and Bone Incorporate Six of Crows? By Kayti Burt TV Shadow and Bone: Why Netflix Cast Its Fantasy Adaptation With Relative Unknowns By Kayti Burt

Other worthwhile original series...

Despite its emphasis on Asian representation and Southeast Asian themes, Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” failed to soar in China, coming in third with just $8.4 million, according to Maoyan data. While the sum might look respectable in other pandemic-stricken locales, it falls short in China’s recovered movie market, which has set box office world records already in 2021.

Although it was the only new title of note to premiere this weekend, “Raya” made less in its three-day China opening than Warner Bros.’ hybrid live-action animation “Tom and Jerry” did last weekend, when earnings of $12.4 million allowed it to squeak in a narrow fifth place debut. “Raya’s” China performance was roughly comparable to its sales in North America, where it debuted first this weekend with $8.6 million from 2,045 screens. China has 75,581 screens.

Among the debuts for Disney titles released in the world’s largest film market since the start of the pandemic,...

Hong Kong- and Paris-based sales company All Rights Entertainment has teamed up with the Reface face-swapping app to launch high-profile indie animation “Gulliver Returns” at the European Film Market.

The English-language film was initially launched for pre-sales at the American Film Market in November 2019. It was completed last month at the Animation Studio 95 in Ukraine and will make its debut as a finished movie at the EFM, with a market screening on Tuesday.

The film is supervised by animation director Tony Bonilla. The English-language film, directed by Ilya Maksimov, and written by Emmy-nominated Michael Ryan.

Reface, an A.I.-powered face-swapping app previously know as Doublicat, was recently among the top three most shares apps on Apple’s AppStore behind TikTok and Instagram. It has been downloaded close to 50 million times.

The EFM’s new director was among the first to try it out. “It is an innovative tool to...

“Tom and Jerry” squeaked in a narrow fifth in China with a $12.4 million debut, failing to capture viewers still flocking to local Chinese New Year holdover titles over the Lantern Festival holiday weekend.

The Warner Bros. hybrid animated live-actioner skittered into the world’s largest film market with just $8,000 less than its closest competitor, the fourth place local fantasy adventure “A Writer’s Odyssey,” which earned around $12.4 million as well.

It fell, however, further behind the Chinese New Year frontrunners “Hi, Mom,” “Detective Chinatown 3” and “Endgame,” which came in first through third with $53.3 million, $19.7 million and $14.5 million, respectively.

China sales for “Tom and Jerry” were just a hair below the film’s $13.7 million North American debut. That opener marked one of the biggest domestic debut weekends for a film since the pandemic began, since no other film in the past 10 months has hit above the $10 million-mark Stateside.

Yet while $13.7 million...

The Beijing Culture-backed tear-jerking comedy “Hi, Mom” grossed $134 million this weekend to finally surpass Wanda Film’s record-breaking Chinese New Year holiday frontrunner “Detective Chinatown 3” in overall box office, having led the latter in single-day returns since Monday.

It is now only the sixth film to ever have grossed more than RMB400 million ($62 million) in China, a feat achieved by “Detective Chinatown 3,” “Avengers: Endgame” and four other local titles.

The upset shows just how important strong word of mouth is these days in the world’s largest film market. With its 2020 debut delayed due to Covid-19, “Detective Chinatown 3” had a year-long head start over its competitors. While its aggressive promotional campaigns and the strength of its franchise pulled in audiences initially to generate a world record-breaking debut weekend, they have proven no match for the grassroots support that has emerged for the comedy that has organically captured hearts across the country.

The Chinese New Year box office achieved yet another milestone Wednesday, with grosses for the holiday period growing to an estimated Rmb 7.78 billion ($1.2 billion). This beats the previous all-time high set during the comparable 2019 holiday (Rmb 5.9B). China often outdoes itself, but the fact that 2021’s Lunar New Year frame came with Covid capacity restrictions makes the performance even more staggering.

Factors working in the session’s favor included a diverse slate of seven new local titles (including two powerhouses at the top), as well as increased ticket prices in some areas, additional screens versus 2019 and a reduction in travel which made moviegoing the first-choice activity for people who were not journeying to see family as would normally be the case during the holiday.

After setting new records for opening day and opening weekend in a single market (February 12-14), Wanda Pictures’ Detective Chinatown 3 has grossed Rmb 3.56B ($551 million) through Wednesday.

Global streaming platform Netflix has picked up international rights to mainland Chinese animated feature “New Gods: Nezha Reborn.” The Light Chaser Animation Studios title was one of the seven major titles to release last week in Chinese cinemas over the peak Lunar New Year holiday period.

The platform has exclusive worldwide streaming rights outside mainland China. It did not confirm a date for international availability.

Gross box office in mainland China reached RMB235 million ($36.4 million) after six days on release. Ticketing and data service Maoyan forecasts that it will eventually finish with a RMB407 million ($63 million) total.

“Nezha Reborn” is the third high profile commercial title picked up by Netflix in the past couple of months. Earlier, the platform licensed “The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity,” a period fantasy action film by Guo Jingming which released on Dec. 25. It followed that with another of the Chinese New Year releases, “The Yin Yang Master,...

After acquiring Chinese New Year title The Yin Yang Master last week, Netflix is adding animated fantasy New Gods: Nezha Reborn to its roster. The film, based on the classic mythology The Romance Of The Gods, debuted theatrically in China for Lunar New Year on February 12 and grossed $21.3M through the weekend. To date, it has made over $36M in the market. Netflix has taken exclusive global streaming rights outside China.

The reimagined world of New Gods: Nezha Reborn was created by the original crew of White Snake: Origin, over a four-year period. It’s directed by Zhao Ji and features the voices of Yang Tianxiang, Xuan Xiaoming, Ling Zhenhe, Zhu Ke’er and Li Shimeng.

Produced by Alibaba Pictures and with animation from Light Chaser Animation Studios, the film is set the mythical Donghai City, a melting pot where gods and people from different cultures co-exist. Nezha is reborn as Li Yunxiang,...

Netflix has acquired worldwide streaming rights to Chinese animated film New Gods: Nezha Reborn, which opened theatrically in China last weekend at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The film is produced by pioneering Beijing-based studio Light Chaser Animation. The movie is based on the oft-adapted classical Chinese novel The Investiture of the Gods, but Light Chaser has given the material a vivid pop-culture spin in a bid to generate excitement among Chinese youth.

Those efforts have yielded a modest success at China’s booming box office. Among the seven Chinese New Year titles that released last Friday, Nezha Reborn currently ranks ...

Netflix has acquired worldwide streaming rights to Chinese animated film New Gods: Nezha Reborn, which opened theatrically in China last weekend at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The film is produced by pioneering Beijing-based studio Light Chaser Animation. The movie is based on the oft-adapted classical Chinese novel The Investiture of the Gods, but Light Chaser has given the material a vivid pop-culture spin in a bid to generate excitement among Chinese youth.

Those efforts have yielded a modest success at China’s booming box office. Among the seven Chinese New Year titles that released last Friday, Nezha Reborn currently ranks ...

Movie industry shares soared in Hong Kong on Tuesday in response to the bumper revenues being earned at the mainland China box office over the Chinese New Year holidays.

Leading the gains were Imax China and Alibaba Pictures, both of which have direct stakes in the box office boom. Imax China stock climbed by 31% to Hk$18.36 per share at the close of trading. Alibaba Pictures managed an even greater 35% jump to Hk$1.44 per share.

Mainland China stock markets remain closed until Thursday due to the continuing holiday period. That means there was no trade in the stocks of other companies involved in the box office scramble: Huayi Brothers (“Yin Yang Master”), Enlight Media (“Endgame”), Wanda Film (China’s largest exhibition chain and producer of “Detective Chinatown”) and exhibitor and distributor China Film Group.

With last Friday the biggest grossing single day in Chinese box office history, worth RMB1.45 billion ($245 million...

The third ‘Detective Chinatown’ film took $397m in China.

Detective Chinatown 3 stuns with $397m China debut

Wanda Pictures’ Detective Chinatown 3 has delivered the biggest ever opening weekend number in a single territory thanks to its $397m debut in China over the new year holiday weekend. That beats the Avengers: Endgame’s $357m North America launch in April 2019 – previously the biggest opening in a single market.

Detective Chinatown 3 has already overtaken the total box office for the first film in the series ($122m in 2015) and is well on the way to passing Detective Chinatown 2’s total haul...

Chinese moviegoers ushered in the Year of the Ox with the colossal three-day debut of Detective Chinatown 3 grossing an estimated Rmb 2.57B ($398M). This tops Avengers: Endgame’s 2019 five-day China bow of Rmb 2.22B to make DC3 not only the biggest opener in Chinese history, but also giving it bragging rights to the biggest opening weekend ever in a single market — overtaking Endgame’s North American launch of $357M from April 2019.

DC3 also set new IMAX records. From Wanda Pictures, the Chen Sicheng-directed buddy comedy was entirety shot with IMAX Certified Cameras and grossed Rmb 152M ($23.5M) in the format in China this session, making it the best IMAX opening weekend ever for a Chinese movie. It is also the top Fss run of admissions ever for IMAX in China, with 2.1M tickets sold versus Endgame’s 1.94M. Cumulatively, IMAX saw three Cny movies bring in an estimated $25M.

China made history this weekend with record ticket sales of nearly $775 million (RMB5.0 billion) within the first three days of the Chinese New Year holiday, led by an incredible $424 million (RMB2.74 billion) debut from “Detective Chinatown 3.”

This marked the first time the country’s national box office has ever broken RMB1 billion ($155 million) a day for three consecutive days, a feat achieved despite caps on max theater capacity at 75% in most of the country and 50% in areas particularly at risk for Covid-19, such as the Beijing-adjacent Hebei province.

More than 55 million individual tickets were purchased at an average price of $7.74 (RMB50) for director Chen Sicheng’s long-awaited third installment to the “Detective Chinatown” franchise — with ticket prices much higher than the average $5.40 (RMB35) seen at other times of year reflecting the high demand. It accounted for an average of 42% of all screenings in the country over the weekend.

To...

The world’s largest film market is living up to its title with world-record-setting sales. “Detective Chinatown 3” shot past strong competition, as predicted, on its Chinese New Year opening day on Friday, notching a record-breaking $163 million (RMB1.05 billion) in sales despite poor word of mouth.

The sum marks the highest ever opening day tally for a film in a single market, beating out former title-holder “Avengers: Endgame,” which grossed $157 million in North America on its first day in 2019.

“Detective Chinatown” sales on Friday accounted for more than 60% of China’s total new year’s day box office nationwide, which surpassed that of 2019 at $268 million (RMB1.73 billion).

The massive commercial success of director Chen Sicheng’s comedic mystery also propelled Imax to new heights. As of Friday evening local time, the firm “very confidently” projected full-day China earnings of $7.7 million from three films, 18% more than on Chinese New Year’s...

China’s box office is primed for a sparkling Lunar New Year frame as new titles start rollout on Friday. As we noted this past Sunday, pre-sales had alread begun to pop, with threequel Detective Chinatown 3 in the lead. The film from Chen Sicheng as of 11:30Pm local time on Thursday had hit over Rmb 673M ($104M) in advance tickets for opening day Friday and more than Rmb 950M ($147M) for the first week, according to Maoyan.

Those figures exceed the advance sales performance of Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame which itself was a record-breaker in April 2019. Endgame debuted on a Wednesday in China and its ultimate day-one gross, including midnights, was Rmb 725M ($107.8M at historical rates/$112.3M today) — the biggest opening day ever in the market. Stripping out the midnights on Endgame, its first day was Rmb 538M. For reference, Monster Hunt 2 kicked off the Lunar...

More than 80% of movie tickets in China are sold online or via mobile device, one of the world’s highest penetration rates. That gives the country’s ticketing agencies unusually accurate insight into audience behavior and film tracking.

After the early part of last year was wiped out by the coronavirus, how strong is the theatrical industry’s recovery?

Liu Zhenfei, analyst at leading ticketing agency Maoyan ran his slide rule over the upcoming Chinese New Year peak season and shared his analysis with Variety.

Variety: What is Maoyan’s overall forecast for the Chinese New Year week’s box office? Higher or lower than in 2019?

Liu: The data from Maoyan “Want to Watch” reflects audience expectations for the upcoming films during the week-long Chinese New Year holiday. And it is encouraging. “Want to Watch” numbers for “Detective Chinatown 3” exceeded 4 million. No other film has generated more than 2 million “Want to Watch” clicks before.

This month’s Chinese New Year holidays will be a litmus test for the strength of China’s film industry recovery following a period of unprecedented turmoil.

This time last year, China’s wrecked Spring Festival celebrations were emblematic of the coronavirus crisis that had dramatically engulfed the world’s most populous nation and was soon to become a global pandemic. Emergency hospitals were being hastily erected in Wuhan, lockdowns had spread nationwide and businesses had little idea when they would reopen.

For China’s cinemas, the annual 10-day holiday — which shifts between January and February depending on the year — is usually an unparalleled boom time that accounts for 10%-15% of annual gross revenues. Holiday box office in 2019 hit record levels of RMB5.8 billion ($892 million), according to ticketing agency Maoyan. But in 2020, it was zero.

Since January, China’s state media has been carefully managing expectations downward, with reports quoting...

Disney/Pixar’s Soul continues to shine overseas with a $96.2M cume after seven frames. In 11 markets this session, the Pete Docter-helmed original added $6.9M to its international box office kitty with No. 1s again in Russia and Korea. In China, it has surpassed Incredibles 2 to become the market’s 2nd highest-grossing Pixar title ever.

China in general had a soft session as the market looks forward to the Lunar New Year releases which begin rollout on February 12. Detective Chinatown 3 will storm the box office there next weekend, having hit over Rmb 350M ($54M) in overall pre-sales, per Maoyan. Pre-sales for the full roster of this year’s New Year titles through opening day February 12 are estimated at over Rmb 400M ($62M).

China last year missed out on the Lunar New Year period owing to Covid closures (and this year will face 50% capacity restrictions in Beijing across the...