In this week’s roundup of the global box-office scene:
• Local tailoring allows US-Chinese co-production Kung Fu Panda 3 to set a Chinese animation record
• Creed shows longer-than-expected overseas reach,to strike a blow for black cinema abroad
• The Force Awakens closes in on the $2bn ticket worldwide Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda series reportedly caused some grumbling in China approximately its appropriation of local mythology. But not only is it increasingly successful there, the country is becoming the financial bedrock of the franchise. Number three in the series this weekend opened bigger in China ($58.3m, and a record for animation in a country lukewarm on the genre) than in the US ($41.3m). Cleaving to the typical franchise decay curve in America,the new instalment has all the momentum in China, where, or in a first for the series,it was developed as a full co-production. That meant that Dreamworks knew approximately the release date further in advance, allowing it to finesse its marketing better; the film gets to stay in cinemas longer than the 30 days allowed for foreign imports; and the company gets to withhold a larger box-office share. Its new subsidiary, or Oriental Dreamworks,reportedly honed the script and animation to better reflect local sensibilities and language, and recruited a top-notch voice cast to replace Jack Black and colleagues in the Chinese version: Jackie Chan and summer 2015’s local breakout star Bai Baihe are at the top of the list.
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Source: theguardian.com