In the past few years we have heard it over and over, and even if there was no need for it, these last few days brought us further proof: China is cinema’s new Promised Land. Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation had its Chinese debut last week and it promptly made $86 million, which means it passed the $600 million worldwide mark and, after six weeks of release it topped the international charts – again. Minions opened in China as well and another record was broken: the $20.1 million it generated on Sunday represents the biggest single-day launch for an animated film.
 
There is more. For the first eight months of 2015, the Chinese box office has already exceeded the revenues for all of 2014, with a year-to-year growth of 48% and with projected revenues for the current year of $6.28 billion. It’s now looks to be a matter of as little as three years before the Chinese movie market will surpass the North American one, and we can safely assume Hollywood will be ever more engaged in co-productions and films with Chinese characters and locations.
In the meantime, these last few weeks suggest that American studios and producers would do well to pay attention to a segment of the U.S. population that has long felt neglected or typecast and that longs to see film where people look and act like them: African-Americans.This was supposed to be the week of The Visit, of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest comeback.
The author of The Sixth Sense has experienced several flops recently, such as The Last Airbender and After Earth. With over $25 million, his latest horror thriller did pretty well, but it was not enough to beat The Perfect Guy, which had an unexpected debut of $26.7 million. Starring Sanaa Lathan, Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut and fueled by an A-CinemaScore, The Perfect Guy had an audience 60% African-American and 70% female. And coming on the heels of three weekends dominated by Straight Outta Compton followed last week by the Christian drama War Room (now close to a total of $40 million), The Perfect Guy is further proof that studios ignore African-Americans at their own peril. That there is an audience for films that go beyond representations of the horrors of slavery and the injustice of racism and which also wants to be entertained by  commercial comedies, love stories and thrillers. Number four in the domestic market was A Walk in the Woods, starring Robert Redford
and Nick Nolte. It did $5 million, for a two week total in the $20 million range. Then, at number five, came Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation that added $4.2 million, followed by Straight Outta Compton that has reached a domestic total of $155 million and a global of $180 million.
 
This weekend marked the opening of another Christian drama, 90 Minutes in Heaven, that grossed $2.2 million. Starring Hayden Christensen and Kate Bosworth, the film is based on the story of Don Piper, who in his autobiography claims to have spent 90 minutes in heaven following a car accident. There was also the debut of Time Out of Mind, a homeless drama starring Richard Gere. It opened in just five theaters, where it managed to gross a promising one hundred thousand dollars
 
Finally, Fox decided to open Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials overseas. It grossed close to $27 million, and in each of its 21 markets it outperformed the original film of the series. A result that makes it an automatic strong contender for next week, when it will have its U.S. debut. And will have to go head-to-head against Black Mass, with Johnny Depp in the role of infamous Irish-American mobster Whitey Bulger.
Lorenzo Soria