Top grossing Chinese films all through years
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, February 19, 2016
2, "Monster Hunt"
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"Monster Hunt" [Photo/youth.cn] |
Box office gross: 2.439 billion yuan
Release date: July 16, 2015
The film held the record for: 7 months
Box office total gross of all films in China that year: 44.069 billion yuan
Before "Monster Hunt" surpassed "Lost in Thailand," various Chinese films tried to break through the ceiling record in the past two years. Though they failed, they all joined the one billion yuan club, including Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" in 2013, which grossed 1.246 billion yuan, Ning Hao's "Breakup Buddies" in 2014, which grossed 1.169 billion yuan and Cheang Pou-Soi's "The Monkey King," grossing 1.046 billion yuan.
But as China has become the second largest film market in the world, foreign films have also provided stunning performances. Not long after "Transformers: Age of Extinction" became the highest grossing film ever screened in China with 1.979 billion yuan in 2014, "Furious 7" broke the record with 2.424 billion yuan in April 2015. In May and June, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and "Jurassic World" took in 1.465 billion yuan and 1.42 billion yuan respectively.
"Monster Hunt," directed by Raman Hui, eventually grossed 2.439 billion yuan（US$374 million）and raised the standard to the whole new level for Chinese home-made films.
However, the film's box office accomplishments became embroiled in controversy in its final phase. The film got the green light for a rare two-month run in theaters when other films, including all foreign films, only get one month. On final screening days, there was still distance to surpass the record of "Furious 7," however, plenty of "ghost" screenings were arranged mysteriously, normally at midnight and seats were claimed to have been sold out.
However, when curious fans bought one or two tickets to investigate, there was no one in the theater, and multiple showings of the film on the same theater screen were scheduled less than 30 minutes apart. Yet, the box office income for the empty seats was also counted.
The film studio Edko said they knew nothing about particular theaters' operations and said they just kindly arranged many charity free showings for young children, seniors, key workers, police, teachers and the disabled (though free, the movie tickets were actually paid for by the film's marketing team and will be included in the total tally) but empty theaters were still reported for the so-called "public welfare screening."
With this weird and controversial push, "Monster Hunt" earned another 40.42 million yuan from "free tickets" of charity and "ghost" screenings during the final 15 days of release and surpassed "Furious 7," while Edko issued a statement on Chinese social media site Weibo, saying it had "instituted serious criticism" to those responsible for the suspect screenings. Until today, many are still unconvinced.
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