Regal Cinemas and Chinese films (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

It's been a couple years since I've been to or thought about going to the movie theater, but I've started looking at the weekly slate again and am surprised to see consistent offerings of Chinese films. In the last few weeks, it's been Ip Man 3, The Monkey King, and now Stephen Chow's Mei Ren Yu (The Mermaid). I do live in a college town with a strong Chinese exchange student presence, so this at once makes sense and is a pleasant surprise. But I'm also curious whether this is specific to my locale, or if Chinese or other international fare is getting more play in general.

What have others been seeing?

 

[Edwin-S]

I don't see much in the way of Chinese or other foreign films getting play where I live; however, I live in West Podunk when it comes to the availability of foreign films in the theatre around here. There are several animated films being distributed by GKIDS that I would like to see, but that is only going to happen if I buy them online.

 

[TravisR]

One of the Regals and one of the AMCs in my area play Chinese and Indian movies. I assume the decision to play them is based on the population in the area.

 

[bujaki]

These same titles have been playing in the DFW area. The Mermaid even played in its original 3D format. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch it. We do get a lot of Chinese and Hindu films. We also have one of the 6 nation-wide dedicated Disney Screens showings all of the Disney product on a rotating basis.

 

[Elizabeth S]

We get some Asian films, but often at Consolidated Theaters, not the Regal chain. And there is usually a Filipino film every week at one venue. It's not surprising with the makeup of our islands. When we lost our Consolidated "arthouse" theater near the university, their theaters some miles away took over. They play mainstream on several screens but have a nice selection of foreign/arthouse in the other smaller auditoriums. Not the best venue -- small screens and no stadium seating (I've seen arguments when people sit in front of others).

And as I've mentioned before, our Hawaii International Film Festival skews so Asian it may as well be renamed.

 

[Bob Cashill]

The AMC in Times Square has played a number of Asian films over the last few years. MERMAID has expanded from there into other Manhattan theaters, and into New Jersey, too. IP MAN 3 and MERMAID have each grossed about $2.7 million in the US, and are still out there--that may not seem like much, but it's not far from the total of last year's highest-grossing foreign-language film, PHOENIX ($3.2m). The theatrical market for foreign-language releases has really tanked in the US, and I think the distributors of these more popular entertainments should consider going wider. They're fun movies--IP MAN 3 is old school widescreen, and while I didn't see MERMAID in 3D it looked to have the more aggressive pop-out that I miss in domestic releases.