Hollywood and Hong Kong are slugging it out at Chinese cinemas with two
action blockbusters going head to head for the next month.
Hong Kong's latest kung fu romp, "Dragon Tiger Gate," landed the first blow
on the Mission Impossible team's latest outing when it opened on Friday, taking
in 15.6 million yuan (1.85 million U.S. dollars) on the Chinese mainland through
its first weekend, compared with 10.16 million yuan (1.27 million U.S. dollars)
for "M:I3" over the same period.
The 10-million-U.S.-dollar "Gate," directed by Hong Kong Wilson Yip and
starring kungfu star Donnie Yen and singer Nicholas Tse, grossed over 30 million
yuan (3.75 million U.S. dollars) over its opening weekend in Asia, according to
the Beijing Polybona Film Publishing Co., Ltd, the movie's distributor.
The figure also included 5 million yuan (625,000 U.S. dollars) in Hong Kong
and 11 million yuan (1.38 million U.S. dollars) in Taiwan, Singapore and
Malaysia.
The Polybona, however, has reduced its box office expectation from 80 million
yuan (10 million U.S. dollars) to 60 million yuan (7.5 million U.S. dollars)
facing its strong enemy.
"Only 'M:I3' could constitute a threat to 'Gate' this summer, but we believe
'Gate' has a good prospect," Yu Hao, spokesman of the Polybona, told Xinhua
Tuesday.
However, "M:I3" was also injured during the contest in the captivating
Chinese summer film market.
The 200-million-U.S.-dollar movie, which opened on July 20, generated 50.69
million yuan (6.3 million U.S. dollars) of ticket sales on the mainland, but it
saw its takings go down from its first weekend when it took in 20 million yuan
(2.5 million U.S. dollars) .
"I'm afraid the movie is a little hard to pick up over 100 million yuan (12.5
million U.S. dollars) as we expected because of the rainy weather across the
country and the inroad from 'Gate,' which is indeed distracting a rather large
number of audience," said Weng Li, deputy distribution manager of the China Film
Group Corporation, one of the movie's two China distributors.
He decreased the box office expectation of "M:I3" to 80 million yuan (10
million U.S. dollars).
"The two movie are contending fiercely," said Jia Yingying, spokeswoman of
the China Film Stellar Theater Chain, a powerful cinema company in China.
"In terms of market, 'M:I3' has a larger group of audience than 'Gate,' most
of whose viewers are young people, so 'M:I3' is of more advantage in the
battle," she added.
The first two installments of Mission Impossible, imported to China in 1996
and 2000, raked in a Chinese box office valued at 40 million yuan (5 million
U.S. dollars) each.
