Box Office

The Easter long weekend in Italy (Monday April 10th was also a national holiday) yielded a rich trove of eggs, if not a bonanza, at the Italian box-office, thanks to the animated nuttiness of the Super Mario Bros adaptation into film. Attendance and grosses increased compared to those of last week and doubled compared to those of the same period a year ago: with over 167,000 ticket payers, the USA-Japan co-production Super Mario confirmed its blockbuster status around the world, ripping up its competitors, topping N.

“Wahoo!” as the titular character likes to exclaim. Living up to its title, The Super Mario Bros.

Deadline is reporting that the US House of Representatives Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party met with Hollywood executives last week to express their concerns about the studios’ business practices with China. Among the topics raised was the way movies were edited, and sometimes self-edited, to appease Chinese censors in order to get distribution in the territory, indirectly allowing China to control the content that is made for the worldwide market.

March ended with a bang and April is off to a promising start at the box office. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Regé-Jean Page, continued the encouraging recent series of hits with $38.

Titanic will be re-released in China for its 25th anniversary in an enhanced 3D format on April 3 in time for the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday two days later. Director James Cameron addressed Chinese fans remotely at an advanced screening in Beijing, telling them that they were seeing the film “the way it was meant to be seen…When we made Titanic, we made it for the big screen.

The John Wick effect was felt at the Italian box-office for the week ending March 26: the 4th installment of the Chad Stahelski's action extravaganza with Keanu Reeves in the title role grossed € 2. 093,876, helping the domestic business to a 16% increase compared to the previous week.

Keanu Reeves and his hunted assassin alter ego accomplished what only a few succeeded to do. On its fourth and supposedly adieu installment, John Wick: Chapter 4 demolished – just like how opponents are vanquished in the film – its predecessors’ opening records and also dealt a blow to its competition.

The two highest-grossing films of 2023 are Chinese. Full River Red, the Zhang Yimou-directed historical movie earned $673 million this year, followed by The Wandering Earth 2, the sci-fi action thriller directed by Frant Gwo with $600 million in receipts, both over 64 days.

Should Hollywood start getting worried? China, the world’s second-biggest film market (North America has reclaimed the crown), has been lukewarm to Hollywood titles that have the coveted opportunity to release in that country. Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the latest U.

At the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (Filmart) which ran March 13-16, China had a prominent position with the China Film Co-Production Corporation (CFCC) presenting “multiple channels and forms such as exhibition booth, online promotion, themed videos and bilingual booklets,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. With representatives from Chinese film companies touting films completed and in production, the goal was to interest potential partners from the filmmaking community and to showcase the Chinese industry’s recent performance so as to “pave the way for domestic film institutions and relevant projects to go global,” the CFCC said in a statement.