Film reintroduces Freddie Mercury, Queen to China

Sun Xianghui, alliance chief and director of the China Film Archive, says the film held 600 test screenings in 128 cities around China on March 16 and 17, making it the largest release of an arthouse film distributed by the alliance yet. On March 22, the film's official release was upped to 3,100 member theaters.

Starring American actor Rami Malek in an uncanny performance as Freddie Mercury, the film charts the extraordinary story of the singer and the band－from their roots as bright London college students to the dazzling heights of international stardom. The flamboyant singer, whose birth name was Farrokh Bulsara, was born in colonial Africa to Parsi parents from India.

Spanning 15 minutes toward the end of the film, one standout scene re-creates Queen's legendary 1985 performance at Live Aid, a concert watched by 1.9 billion people globally and raised funds for a famine in Ethiopia. Even for Chinese audiences, who have limited knowledge of the singer or the band, most say they were touched by the film's storyline.