Reproduce:'Journey to the West' Conquers Chinese Box Office转载：《西游.降魔篇》“降伏”中国票房

[Zanxian Wang]

Reproduce:'Journey to the West' Conquers Chinese BoxOffice

转载：《西游.降魔篇》“降伏”中国票房

    Just weeks after “Lost in Thailand” broke box-office records tobecome China’s highest-grossing movie ever, a new blockbusteris giving the low-budget comedy hit a run for its money.

    As of Tuesday, “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” pulled in 762.3 million yuan($122.1 million) since opening on Feb. 10, according to media-research firm EntGroup Inc. It stillhas a long way to go before reaching the 1.26 billion yuan earned by “Lost in Thailand,” but theHollywood Reporter predicted this week that “Journey to the West” would soon march past “Lostin Thailand” to become China’s highest-earning domestically produced movie.

  “Journey to the West” is the creation of director-writer Stephen Chow, best known for “ShaolinSoccer,” “Kung Fu Hustle” and dozens of other hits. (Mr. Chow, a popular comedic actor, doesn’tappear in “Journey to the West.”) The 3-D movie, based on the classic Ming Dynasty-era novel“Journey to the West,” follows the adventures of a young demon-catcher. Audiences haveresponded enthusiastically to Mr. Chow’s potent mix of action, comedy, terror, romance, and atrio of popular stars: Shu Qi, Wen Zhang and Huang Bo.

    The movie has already set some records. Its opening-day take was 81.7 million yuan, breaking the 70-million-yuan record of “Painted Skin: The Resurrection” for a domestic movie. The Hollywood blockbuster “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” remains the opening-day champ with 102 million yuan. But last week “Journey to the West” claimed the title of largest single-day gross (on Feb. 14) of 123 million yuan for all films ─ domestic and foreign ─ surpassing the previous one-day record of 114 million yuan set in 2011 for the third installment of the “Transformers” franchise.

    All the clamoring for box-office supremacy begs the question: Is China entering a new era where records are broken every few months? Consider this: The top-four highest-grossing domestically produced movies have all been released just within the past eight months.

    On Tuesday, “Journey to the West” surpassed the fantasy-action movie “Painted Skin: The Resurrection,” which was released last June and went on to earn 726.5 million yuan, to become the third-highest grossing domestic film in China. It was only a few months ago that “Painted Skin: The Resurrection” was the top-grossing Chinese production. It has now slipped to fourth, overtaken by “Journey to the West” and the December releases of “Lost in Thailand” ─ the only Chinese movie to earn more than a billion yuan at the domestic box office and Jackie Chan’s “CZ12,” an action-comedy that he directed, wrote and stars in; it earned 879 million yuan, according to EntGroup. (“Avatar” still holds the record for the top-grossing movie ever in China at roughly 1.4 billion yuan, but that title looks increasingly vulnerable.)

  《人再囧途之泰囧》(Lost in Thailand)打破票房纪录成为中国有史以来票房最高的国产影片后才没几周，一部新上映的大片正在给《泰囧》这部人气颇高的低成本喜剧片带来挑战。   

       据媒体研究机构艺恩咨询(EntGroup Inc.)的数据，截至周二，《西游•降魔篇》(Journey to theWest: Conquering the Demons)自2月10日上映以来票房累计达人民币7.623亿元（合1.221亿美元）。该片票房仍远远不及《泰囧》的12.6亿元票房，但Hollywood Reporter本周预测说，《西游•降魔篇》将很快超越《泰囧》，成为中国票房最高的国产影片。

    《西游•降魔篇》由周星驰导演和编剧。周星驰最为人熟知的影片包括《少林足球》(Shaolin Soccer)、《功夫》(Kung Fu Hustle)等数十部热门影片。（周星驰是一位人气颇高的喜剧演员，他没有出演《西游•降魔篇》。）这部3D影片取材于明朝经典小说《西游记》，讲述了一位年轻降魔者的冒险经历。观众对该片反响热烈，周星驰在片中融合了动作片、喜剧片、恐怖片和爱情片的元素，影片的三位主演也是颇受欢迎的影星：舒淇、文章和黄渤。

       该片已经创下了一些纪录。影片上映首日票房达8,170万元，打破了《画皮2》(Painted Skin: The Resurrection)创下的7,000万元的国产影片纪录。好莱坞大片《变形金刚3：月黑之时》(Transformers: Dark of the Moon)仍以1.02亿元保持着上映首日票房的最高纪录。但《西游•降魔篇》上周摘得了单日最高票房的桂冠（既包括国产影片，也包括进口影片），在2月14日创下1.23亿元的票房纪录，打破了2011年《变形金刚3》创下的1.14亿元的单日票房纪录。

       围绕票房纪录的喧嚣提出了这样一个问题：中国是否正在进入一个票房纪录每隔几个月就会被打破的新时代？想想这个：票房最高的四部国产影片都是在过去八个月内刚刚上映的。

       周二，《西游•降魔篇》超过了奇幻动作影片《画皮2》，成为总票房第三的国产影片。《画皮2》于去年6月上映，总票房达7.265亿元。几个月前，《画皮2》还是票房最高的国产影片。如今它却跌至了第四位，被《西游•降魔篇》和去年12月上映的《泰囧》及成龙的《十二生肖》(CZ12)所超越。《泰囧》是唯一一部国内票房超过10亿元的华语片。《十二生肖》是由成龙导演、编剧并出演的一部动作喜剧片。据艺恩咨询的数据，《十二生肖》的票房为8.79亿元。（《阿凡达》(Avatar)仍以约14亿元的总票房在中国保持著有史以来最高票房的纪录，但它的地位似乎越来越岌岌可危。

[David Emmerson Nicholson]

Big fan of Stephen Chow, especially Kung Fu Hustle.  Will check this out when i can.