↧
Bai Baihe poses for photo shoot
↧
Liu Tao poses for photo shoot
↧
↧
Yang Mi poses for photo shoot
↧
Imax China Shares Climb After Beijing Says Cinemas Can Reopen
China's State Council said Friday that entertainment and leisure facilities including cinemas, museums, tourist attractions and concert halls "may hold all types of necessary meetings and exhibition activities," provided that they follow guidelines designed to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The statement was the first centralized directive giving movie theaters, which have been closed in China since late January, the green light to resume business.
China's leading movie ticketing company, Maoyan Entertainment, saw its Hong Kong-listed shares jump as much as 9.6 percent Monday, while Alibaba Pictures Group gained as much as 9 percent. That compares to a 2.2 percent climb by the city's benchmark Hang Seng Index. In mainland China, Wanda Film Holdings, the country's largest cinema chain, jumped 3.6 percent in early trading in Shenzhen, but was hovering around even for the day later in the afternoon.
The State Council's new guidelines from Friday represents some urgently needed good news for the Chinese film sector. With the usual Lunar New Year box office bonanza a total washout this year, authorities estimate that total earnings from ticket sales will decline by at least $4.2 billion in 2020.
Several film executives contacted by THR on Monday said they were encouraged by the State Council's statement, but that they are awaiting more detailed instructions from China's Film Bureau — such as a target restart date and more fine-grained health guidelines — before moving ahead with reopening plans.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter by Patrick Brzeski
↧
Stills from Legend of Awakening
↧
↧
Ju Jingyi poses for photo shoot
↧
Wu Qian poses for photo shoot
↧
Li Qin poses for photo shoot
↧
Song Qian poses for photo shoot
↧
↧
Tencent Music Reports Moderate Revenue Growth in Q1
For the three months through March, total revenue rose 10% to 6.31 billion yuan ($891 million), according to the company’s earnings report published Monday.
Tencent Music relied heavily on its social entertainment services during the first quarter, including music-focused livestreams and online karaoke, with sales from these segments accounting for nearly 70% of total revenues. The company earned 1.21 billion yuan from music subscriptions during the period, representing a year-on-year increase of 70%.
However, monthly average revenue per paying user from the company’s social entertainment services fell 12.9% year-on-year to 111.10 yuan, which the company attributed to the coronavirus pandemic and adjustments to certain interactive features on their livestreaming platforms.
“While acknowledging the impact on our social entertainment services from the Covid-19 pandemic, we have started to see a moderate recovery recently,” Tencent Music CEO Cussion Pang said in a statement.
In the first three months of this year, net profit attributable to equity holders totaled 887 million yuan, down from 987 million yuan in the same period of last year, the earnings report said.
Paid users of the company’s online music services and social entertainment services jumped 50.4% and 18.5% to 42.7 million and 12.8 million respectively.
Source: Caixin; By Ding Yi / May 12, 2020 12:17 PM
↧
Jeffrey Tung poses for photo shoot
↧
Nana Ouyang poses for photo shoot
↧
Rainie Yang poses for photo shoot
↧
↧
Zhao Wei poses for photo shoot
↧
Documentary captures historic splendor of Dunhuang Grottoes
The documentary entitled "China's Corridor of Grottoes" has been on air on China Global Television Network (CGTN) since May 10.
It marks filmmaker Qin Chuan's 10th exploration of the caves and consists of four episodes: "The Creators of Dunhuang,""The Mural Paintings of the Grottoes,""Oriental Smiles," and "The Treasure Trove of China."
The 55-year-old filmmaker grew up in a village near Dunhuang in China's northwestern Gansu Province and recalled his childhood memories of the gorgeous grottoes.
"The grottoes have stood the test of time for more than 1,000 years. The caves were spotted on the Silk Road like rosary beads dropping from a broken string taken by the Buddha," said Qin.
"They have formed the world's largest and most enduring artistic corridor that demonstrates a collection of genres in a relatively complete sequence of China's old alternated dynasties," he said, adding that the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes have been the most scintillating block, among others.
In addition to highlighting the unparalleled value of the grottoes, the documentary has also been dedicated to those who created, developed, and protected the legacies of the Grottoes and whose contributions and sacrifices, however ambiguous and neglected, are found essential.
Known for its significant Buddhist mural paintings stored in 735 caves covering an area of 45,000 square meters, the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes suffered a loss of relics over the early phase of the last century.
However, the grottoes have been rescued with constant efforts made from late prestigious Chinese scholars, such as Chang Shuhong and Duan Wenjie, presidents of Dunhuang Research Academy, as well as the present octogenarian leader Fan Jinshi. Fan was born in Shanghai but spent most of her life on rural land and is called "the daughter of Dunhuang."
The previous nine documentaries Qin made focused on a variety of topics, including the geography, music, and calligraphies of the far-flung land along China's age-old Hexi Corridor.
According to the filmmaker, he is planning to bring a play named "The Dunhuang of Mankind," written by eminent Chinese writer Feng Jicai, on screen to show the precious land from an entirely new perspective.
"Even if I am allowed to spend ten more years to shoot stories about Dunhuang, it will never be long enough to cover everything there," he expounded.
After a temporary three-month shutdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes reopened last Saturday, the same day Qin's documentary was broadcast nationwide.
According to the local administration, the scenic spot of Dunhuang opens to all Chinese medical personnel for free until the end of this year.
Source: china.org by wu jin
↧
Stills from Legend of Awakening
↧
Zhang Jingyi poses for photo shoot
↧
↧
Xuan Lu poses for photo shoot
↧
Zhang Tianai poses for photo shoot
↧
Chinese People Can Go to the Movies Again, but They Better Not Touch Anything
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday that cinemas in regions with low risks can reopen by appointment and with reduced capacity, but those in areas with medium to high risks should remain closed.
Audiences are urged to take protective measures while going to the movies, including avoiding touching surfaces in theaters, wearing masks and going only with family members, Shi Xiaoming, head of the National Institute of Environmental Health of the CDC, said Wednesday in a press conference.
Theater operators should make sure occupied seats are at least one meter apart from each other and should clean and disinfect public facilities on a daily basis, including screening rooms, seats and 3D glasses, Shi said.
The CDC didn’t define which areas are low risk, but a document released Friday by the State Council said China is moving to reopen all public indoor entertainment facilities, including cinemas, museums, art galleries, libraries and stadiums.
Cinemas have been among the businesses hit the hardest by the epidemic as people stayed home and movie production halted.
To help theaters resume business, the China Film Group, the largest state-owned film enterprise in the country, released five movies March 17 to cinemas across the country and agreed to take no cut from box office revenue. Usually, theaters keep about 57% of ticket sales. Theaters were also urged to lower ticket prices to lure audiences back to the big screens.
China briefly attempted to restart fewer than 5% of cinemas in March in certain parts of the country. But business was dismal, with average box office revenue of less than $10 a day at each theater. The China Film Administration soon closed theaters again nationwide.
While theaters are closed, some movie producers have turned to online platforms to stream films originally scheduled to run in theaters, angering cinema operators.
Right now, there are at least eight domestic movies that haven’t jumped to online, including animated feature “Jiang Ziya” and a documentary about Chinese tennis star Li Na.
Meanwhile, with the pandemic spreading globally, many potential Hollywood blockbusters — “Wonder Woman 1984,” “Mulan” and “Black Widow” to name a few — have been pulled from initial release dates, leaving Chinese theaters no foreign movies to show even if they reopen.
Source: Caixin
↧