Author: SD

Hsu Fu-Hsiang’s campus romance drama Lovesick opened strongly as the first local film to cross $302,000 (NT$10m) this year at Taiwan’s box office and scored a rare near day-and-date release with mainland China. The coming-of-age film follows a high school troublemaker who finds it convenient to be sick and goes to great lengths to fake it, only to realise that a fellow classmate suffers from a terminal illness. It explores first love, teenage confusion and mental health though the lens of high school life. The cast is led by Zhan Huai-Yun, Chiang Chi, Liu Hsiu-Fu and Huang Guan-Zhi. It opened…

Worldwide box office: March 24-30 RankFilm (distributor) 3-day (world)Cume (world)3-day (int’l)Cume (int’l)Territories 1 Snow White (Disney) $36.3m $143.1m $22.1m $76.3m 52 2 A Working Man (various) $30.2m $30.2m $15m $15m 64 3 L2: Empuraan (various) $12m $19.4m $10.7m $17.2m 23 4 The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 1 (Fathom) $11.4m $11.4m     1 5 Ne Zha 2 (various) $10.9m $2.2bn $10.9m $2.1bn 12 6 The Woman In The Yard (Universal) $9.4m $9.4m     1 7 Mickey 17 (Warner Bros) $7.1m $121m $5.2m …

Filming is underway on Philip Barantini’s Enola Holmes 3 in the UK for Netflix. The third instalment of the Sherlock Holmes spin-off film franchise is shooting at Shepperton Studios before moving to Malta for the final few weeks. Millie Bobby Brown stars as the titular character, Holme’s younger sister, and also produces the feature via her production company PCMA Productions.  Plot details are under wraps but it will reportedly be a darker iteration than the previous two instalments. Unconfirmed returning cast include Henry Cavill, Louis Partridge and Helena Bonham Carter. It marks Barantini’s second collaboration with Netflix following the hit…

China is to cut the number of US films allowed to enter the country.  The move was announced by the China Film Administration shortly after President Donald Trump hiked tariffs yesterday (April 9) on Chinese products to 125%. “The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability towards American films,” the China Film Administration said in a statement. “We will follow the market rules, respect the audience’s choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported.” Once the largest overseas market for US films, Hollywood films have struggled…

Film production remained buoyant in France in 2024 with a total of 309 films produced in the country, 3.7% more than in 2023, according to the annual report of the CNC, the country’s national film organisation. Total investment in French films reached €1.44bn, up 7.5% on 2023, the second best in history after 2008’s record €1.49bn. The total number of French films produced remained stable at 231, on par with 2023’s 236 films and the pre-pandemic average of 233 films per year.  The number of co-productions increased to 130 titles, 10 more than in 2023, driven by an increase in…

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning starring Tom Cruise will premiere out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie will be present at the film’s premiere on May 14 at the Grand Theatre Lumiere. It marks the third time Cruise has attended Cannes, following Ron Howard’s Far And Away in 1992 and the 2022 premiere of Top Gun: Maverick, also out of competition. Paramount is releasing the eighth, and potentially final, Mission: Impossible feature on May 23. Further cast includes Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Mariela Garriga and Angela…

UK-Ireland top five, Apr 4-6, 2025  Rank Film (origin) Distributor Apr 4-6 gross Total Week  1  A Minecraft Movie  (US)  Warner Bros  £15m  £15m  1  2   Six The Musical  (US)  Universal  £2.1m  £2.1m  1  3   Snow White  (US)  Disney  £667,761   £8m  3  4   Death Of A Unicorn  (US)  EFD  £458,031  £485,853  1  5  A Working Man  (US-UK)  Warner Bros  £330,209  £1.4m  2 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.28 Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie has breathed new life into the UK-Ireland box office with an outstanding £15m opening weekend – the biggest…

Jason Statham and Jack Quaid go head-to-head in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend as action titles A Working Man and Novocaine lead the new releases. Paramount’s Novocaine is in 549 cinemas. Quaid stars as an introverted bank employee who cannot feel physical pain and seeks revenge when his co-worker, and new love interest, is taken hostage. Quaid also starred in this year’s Companion which opened with £670,512 for Warner Bros and a £1.8m cume. Novocaine has already opened Stateside and has grossed $22m worldwide so far. Dan Berk and Robert Olsen directs the feature from a script by Lars Jacobsen.…

Worldwide box office: March 21-23 Rank Film (distributor)  3-day (world) Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) Cume (int’l) Territories 1. Snow White (Disney)  $87.3m  $87.3m  $44.3m  $44.3m 52 2.  Ne Zha 2 (various)  $15.4m  $2.10bn  $15.2m  $2.08bn 9 3.  Mickey 17 (Warner Bros)  $12m  $110.0m  $8.1m  $69.8m 70 4.  Black Bag (Universal)  $7.4m  $24.1m  $3.9m  $9.2m 43 5.  Captain America: Brave New World (Disney)  $7.2m  $400.8m  $3.1m  $208.7m 53 6.  Novocaine (Paramount)  $6.3m  $21.1m  $2.5m  $5.3m 53 7.  The Alto Knights (Warner Bros)  $5.1m  $5.1m  $1.9m  $1.9m 9 8.  Bridget…

Worldwide box office: March 14-16 RankFilm (distributor) 3-day (world)Cume (world)3-day (int’l)Cume (int’l)Territories 1. Ne Zha 2 (various)  $26.4m  $2.08bn  $26.1m  $2.05bn  8 2.  Mickey 17 (Warner Bros)  $23.1m  $90.5m  $15.6m  $57.2m 70 3.  Black Bag (Universal)  $11.8m  $11.8m  $4.3m  $4.3m 38 4.  Captain America: Brave New World (Disney)  $11.5m  $388.6m  $6m  $203.2m 53 5.  Novocaine (Paramount)  $10.5m  $10.5m  $1.8m  $1.8m 20 6.  Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (various)  $5.7m  $120.7m  $5.7m  $120.7m 76 7.  Paddington In Peru (Sony)  $5.1m  $183.9m  $2.3m  $142.6m 55 8.  The Monkey (various)  $4.8m  $59.8m …