BEIJING -- 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, taking in 15.6 million yuan
(US$1.85 million) on the Chinese mainland on its first weekend, compared with
10.16 million yuan (US$1.27 million) for "M:I3" over the same period.
The US$10-million"Dragon Tiger Gate", directed by Hong Kong's Wilson Yip and
starring Donnie Yen and singer Nicholas Tse, opened across Asia on Friday and
grossed over 30 million yuan (US$3.75 million) over the weekend, according to
the Beijing Polybona Film Publishing Co., Ltd, the movie's distributor.
The figure also included five million yuan (US$625,000) in Hong Kong and 11
million yuan (US$1.38 million) in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
Polybona, however, has reduced its box office expectations from 80 million
yuan (US$10 million) to 60 million yuan (US$7.5 million) because of its
Hollywood rival.
"Only M:I3 could constitute a threat to 'Gate' this summer, but we believe
'Gate' has good prospects," Polybona spokesman Yu Hao told Xinhua on Monday.
However, "M:I3" also suffered a blow in the competition for China's summer
film market.
The US$200-million movie, which opened on July 20, has generated 50.69
million yuan (US$6.3 million) of ticket sales since it opened on the mainland on
July 20, but it saw its takings go down from its first weekend when it took in
20 million yuan (US$2.5 million) .
"I'm afraid it will be difficult for the movie to pick up more than 100
million yuan (US$12.5 million) as we expected because of the rainy weather
across the country and the challenge from 'Gate', which is taking a rather large
section of our prospective audience," said Weng Li, deputy distribution manager
of the China Film Group Corporation, one of the movie's two China distributors.
Box office expectations for "M:I3" had been lowered to 80 million yuan (US$10
million).
"The two movies are contending fiercely," said Jia Yingying, spokeswoman of
the China Film Stellar Theater Chain, a leading Chinese cinema company.
"In terms of market, 'M:I3' has a larger prospective audience than 'Gate',
because most of the viewers are young people," she added.
The first two installments of Mission Impossible, shown in China in 1996 and
2000, raked in 40 million yuan (US$5 million) each at the box office.
The two blockbusters have received mixed reviews in the Chinese media.
The Dalian Evening News said Chinese audiences were unfazed by the M:I3scenes
shot in China and what they most wanted to see was Tom Cruise's performance and
the stunning visual effects of a Hollywood blockbuster.
"'M:I3' contains many classic scenes similar in the first two installments,
but the scenes of an escape under a cartwheel and gliding among high buildings
were too similar to those in 'Spiderman' and bored the audience," the newspaper
said.
"In addition, Cruise's hard performance in Shanghai also failed to resonate
with Chinese viewers, who consider it a promotional stunt."
Some scenes were cut from the version of "M:I3" released on the Chinese
mainland, including "a car chase and shootings on the streets of Shanghai" and
"laundry hanging from balconies", which were said to compromise the image of
Shanghai.
"Dragon Tiger Gate" attracted attention for its strong cast and kung fu
action, but the plot was too simple, the review said.
"The storyline of justice defeating evil was hackneyed. Hardly had the
characters failed to reach an agreement when they began to fight, which
constrains performances and story development," it said.
An online review on Jiaodong.net said the M:I3 love angle with Cruise as a
husband was moving, while the hip-hop action of Donnie Yen in "Gate" was fresh.
"Tom Cruise fails to make a deep impression with the Chinese audience except
for his good looks and action, whereas Philip Hoffman's performance as a villain
is impressive and chilling," a review in the Zibo Daily newspaper
said.
