China Box Office Thread | Oppenheimer-August 30

[TigerPaw]

10 minutes ago, The GOAT said:

How long til the movie is on Youtube? 👀.   

I've always loved Donnie Yen

Where are you located? It will be released in North American theaters on 13th August and later August in the UK

 

It won't be on Youtube anytime soon. China has good piracy protection now vs. before COVID.

[Gavin Feng]

56 minutes ago, The GOAT said:

How long til the movie is on Youtube? 👀.   

I've always loved Donnie Yen

 

as soon as the end of Aug? Local movies usually have one month window.

 

[TigerPaw]

30 minutes ago, Gavin Feng said:

 

as soon as the end of Aug? Local movies usually have one month window.

 

Don't think so. Cause this is by Emperor and rights sold to many countries which has later release date.

 

Shockwave 2 for example was out like only 3 or 4 months later.

[TigerPaw]

On 8/2/2021 at 12:07 PM, charlie Jatinder said:

wait, is there any COVID return in China?

Situation is getting worse daily. Not the COVID situation but the cinema closures.

Many provinces, cities barely have like 10 cases but yet cinemas are shut down in totality in some of these provinces.

 

I think the COVID situation is well under control but it takes time - and an estimated 10-15% of cinemas are closed now, with more provinces announcing lockdown and closure daily..

 

Raging Fire is hanging on by its teeth and mainly due to great WoM - helmed as the best Hong Kong movie made in the last 2 decades but continual cinemas closure is making the CNY billion dollar mark seem quite bleak. If it was released 2 weeks earlier in the place of Chinese Doctors; might have done more than 1.5bn yuan..

 

I think Battle of ChangJin might move away from 12th August, I heard from locals that the distributor is telling cinemas to halt the presales..

[poweranimals]

If COVID numbers are that low, why are they closing cinemas?

[TigerPaw]

On 7/29/2021 at 1:23 PM, lorddemaxus said:

Raging Fire looked like Donnie Yen's best film in ages, so it's great to see people loving it.

I mean it is one of his best films in ages that is right; but he has consistently produced great work so this has become really subjective. I am assuming you are quite familiar with his works and Chinese films.

His last 3 local films which were released in theatres - Chasing the Dragon (2017), Big Brother (2018) and Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019) had Maoyan score of 9.0 / 8.6 / 9.4 respectively; Raging Fire is 9.5 so barely above but yes word of mouth have been incredible.

I would say that Andy Lau and Donnie Yen are the two actors who has consistently made very solid films in China / HK.

Jackie Chan and Aaron Kwok have hits and misses while Tony Leung haven’t had a good film in the last 20 yrs.

 

[TigerPaw]

1 hour ago, poweranimals said:

If COVID numbers are that low, why are they closing cinemas?

It is the opposite of US, in the states you can have 100,000 cases per day and no one wears mask or blinks an eye.

 

In China, you just need to have a handful of confirmed cases in a province, you see mass swab test for the whole province and lockdown / closure of entertainment outlets. China government is very strict in controlling the virus. Even if cinemas are not close in some places but the news of Delta consistently trending on Weibo is not encouraging to potential moviegoers.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by TigerPaw

[TigerPaw]

As more cities and provinces in China report cinema closure each day, Battle of Lake ChangJin which has an estimated budget of 1.3bn yuan has announced it will be moving away from its 12th August release date.

 

Donnie Yen’s Raging Fire is expected to lead the daily charts for the next 2 weeks at least with ChangJin moving away; however Raging Fire also faces the pressure of loss of theaters and screens every single day.

 

 

Also no sign of Hollywood movies being imported soon; any films coming in will face the wrath of Delta variant in any case.

Edited August 5, 2021 by TigerPaw

[john2000]

3 minutes ago, TigerPaw said:

As more cities and provinces in China report cinema closure each day, Battle of Lake ChangJin which has an estimated budget of 1.3bn yuan has announced it will be moving away from its 12th August release date.

 

Donnie Yen’s Raging Fire is expected to lead the daily charts for the next 2 weeks at least with ChangJin moving away; however Raging Fire also faces the pressure of loss of theaters and screens every single day.

 

 

Also no sign of Hollywood movies being imported soon; any films coming in will face the wrath of Delta variant in any case.

no they will face the stupid plan of zero covid , which is an unrealistic plan to begin with

[TigerPaw]

15 minutes ago, john2000 said:

no they will face the stupid plan of zero covid , which is an unrealistic plan to begin with

To be fair the delta variant has impact mood of moviegoers too..

[john2000]

33 minutes ago, TigerPaw said:

To be fair the delta variant has impact mood of moviegoers too..

This doesnt change the fact that their policy is wrong at the same time the mood of moviegoers depends also from the policy the goverments have.For example in european countries where people now know that in case the cases rise again at high level the goverment will take some tough restrictions but not lockdown and thats it then that has as a result that people will have more of a mindset  that we should learn to live with the covid.On the other hand when you have a goverment that its willing to have lockdown for 70 or so cases or even less then of course that will lead to fear of covid and decrease in confidence every time the cases increase

Edited August 5, 2021 by john2000

[McQuade]

Does anyone know if there are some professional reviews of Raging Fire out there? 

[TigerPaw]

42 minutes ago, McQuade said:

Does anyone know if there are some professional reviews of Raging Fire out there? 

Not in English, mainly in mandarin because it released in China first before the rest of the world (US on the 13th, Hong Kong and  Singapore comes on 19th August)

 

I know from some friends that WellGoUSA (US distributor) had provided screeners to critics so some professional reviewers should chime in soon.

 

Here is one English review - not sure whether you consider it professional. 

 

https://filmcombatsyndicate.com/nyaff-xx-review-benny-chans-raging-fire-a-white-knuckle-cop-thriller-with-posthumous-deference/

 

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by TigerPaw

[Mau]

12 hours ago, TigerPaw said:

Also no sign of Hollywood movies being imported soon; any films coming in will face the wrath of Delta variant in any case.

So hollywood movies maybe till september? 

[TigerPaw]

On 8/5/2021 at 9:40 PM, McQuade said:

Does anyone know if there are some professional reviews of Raging Fire out there? 

Just spoke to a friend, review embargo in the US will be lifted on 9th August.

[DeeCee]

Is anyone in a Chinese city with a delta outbreak and a lockdown?

 

Delta outbreak in Sydney has gone over 300 cases in a day now. We’ve been in lockdown since late June. 

[Gavin Feng]

9 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

Is anyone in a Chinese city with a delta outbreak and a lockdown?

 

Delta outbreak in Sydney has gone over 300 cases in a day now. We’ve been in lockdown since late June. 

 

 

Some second or third tier cities have lockdown. For first tier cities, Nanjing pull through the crisis in recent days, while Zhengzhou government ask local communities to execute close-loop management. A lockdown for big city is unlikely in near future, but audience's mood get huge effect. Weakest summer holidays for years(if not count 2020).

[DeeCee]

4 hours ago, Gavin Feng said:

 

 

Some second or third tier cities have lockdown. For first tier cities, Nanjing pull through the crisis in recent days, while Zhengzhou government ask local communities to execute close-loop management. A lockdown for big city is unlikely in near future, but audience's mood get huge effect. Weakest summer holidays for years(if not count 2020).

Current lockdown goes through to the end of August. 
 

Cinemas will be shut in Sydney until at least the end of August and probably into September. They might open for fully vaccinated in September. 

 

Big vaccination surge in NSW right now. NSW is likely to leap ahead of other states and be 80%+ fully vaccinate by the end of October. It’s about 50:50 Pfizer:AZ. The AZ is made in Australia and the Pfizer is imported. 

[john2000]

5 hours ago, Gavin Feng said:

 

 

Some second or third tier cities have lockdown. For first tier cities, Nanjing pull through the crisis in recent days, while Zhengzhou government ask local communities to execute close-loop management. A lockdown for big city is unlikely in near future, but audience's mood get huge effect. Weakest summer holidays for years(if not count 2020).

so probably china will have the outbreak under control by end of aug ?

[Gavin Feng]

If situation don't go worse in the next two weeks, I guess everything will be fine as soon as the end of the Aug.

 

However, the key of box office recovery is whether any good movie could bring audience back to theaters. Safety has never been a problem in the past year, but the interest of theater experience is decreasing due to the soaring costs:

 

a) Blockbusters are too bad to bring people back to cinema. Audience always want to see blockbusters, but studios keep giving them bad work like Detective Chinatown 3, F9. Even Marvel missed the mark with Black Widow and gained very mixed WOM after piracy came out. Theater experience just become less and less attractive in recent time.

 

b) Ticket price is higher this year. Since audience are not allowed to take masks off in theater, snacks couldn't be sold well. Theater owners could do nothing but raising ticket price for avoiding big loss. Who want to see worse movie with higher price, especially considering Disney & Warner are showing their pic to local audience for free? 

 

c) Young People have more entertainment options. Short video like Tik Tok can feed their time more easily and quickly. Online movies and TV series from Netflix and other streaming companies are not that bad compared to those in theater at this point. There are countless reasons for people to stay at home. And only one can bring them back to theaters: Good movie.

 

I couldn't see the potential of making audience think theater experience is very special from any of upcoming titles, and that sense is very important at this point. The solution of saving cinema or theme park or stadium is more than just killing delta virus.