Saturday, March 04, 2006

Kong's Chinese Box Office


Hey Kids! More Kong art © Pete Von Sholly!

From Sina English:

Big budget epic "King Kong" has generated 100.3 million yuan (about 12.5 million U.S. dollars) on the Chinese mainland, becoming the box office king among imported films in the past five years.

Peter Jackson's remake of the great-ape adventure took in over one million yuan last weekend, which brought its total box office to 100.3 million yuan since its release in the Chinese mainland on Jan. 12, a source with the film's distributor in China, the Huaxia Film Distribution Co., Ltd said on Tuesday.

" King Kong," with a 207 million US budget and 540 million US in global box office revenues, has received four 2006 Oscar's nominees-- Art Direction, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects.

"Titanic" still holds the record of China's box office with 320 million yuan(some 40 million U.S. dollars).

Liu Shusen, vice president of the Huaxia, said they imported "King Kong" for its high artistic quality and production level and it can benefit home-made films. The overseas box office result was also a factor, he said.

"King Kong" holds the common interest of all people, so I believe it can strike the chord with Chinese audiences likewise," Liu said.