"King Kong" challenges film box office record in China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-02-28 20:16

Big budget epic "King Kong" has generated 100.3 million yuan (about 12.5 million U.S. dollars) on the Chinese mainland, becoming the box office king among imported films in the past five years.

Peter Jackson's remake of the great-ape adventure took in over one million yuan last weekend, which brought its total box office to 100.3 million yuan since its release in the Chinese mainland on January 12, a source with the film's distributor in China, the Huaxia Film Distribution Co., Ltd, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"However, it's a little hard to catch up with 'Pearl Harbor', which was released in China in 2001 and earned 105 million yuan (about 13 million U.S. dollars) here," the source said.

"King Kong," with a 207 million U.S. dollars budget and 540 million U.S. dollars in global box office revenues, has received four 2006 Oscar's nominees -- Art Direction, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects.

Four imported films' box office has each exceeded 100 million yuan since China began importing films, "The Fugitive," in 1994 -- "True Lies," "Titanic," "Pearl Harbor" and "King Kong."

"Titanic" still holds the record of China's box office with 320 million yuan (some 40 million U.S. dollars).

Liu Shusen, vice president of the Huaxia, said they imported "King Kong" for its high artistic quality and production level and it can benefit home-made films. The overseas box office result was also a factor, he said.

"'King Kong' holds the common interest of all people, so I believe it can strike the chord with Chinese audiences likewise, " Liu said.