“Successor,” a comedy-drama film that has been a box office hit in China, is set to open internationally early next month.
The film rights have been acquired by CMC Pictures, the Chinese studio behind the “Megalodon” monster shark franchise. It will handle the theatrical releases in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Benelux starting August 2.
“Successor” portrays the ups and downs of a poor father and a working mother, who live in a ramshackle courtyard and have seemingly fallen behind others on the road to prosperity.
The film officially opened in Chinese theaters on Tuesday, July 16, and grossed an estimated $21 million. But it ended its first day with a cumulative gross of $89 million, thanks to massive previews that made it dominate the box office. PorcelainThe latest weekend charts from ‘s. On both Saturday and Sunday, the film enjoyed more than 140,000 screening sessions in China.
The preview nature of its Saturday release meant that “Successor” did not appear on the global or weekend box office charts compiled by Comscore. But Comscore confirmed that the film earned about $21.5 million in previews on Saturday and another $27.7 million on Sunday. Those numbers would have made “Successor” the third-highest-grossing film worldwide over the weekend, behind only “Despicable Me 4” and “Inside Out 2,” despite only playing for two days.
The film is co-directed by Yan Fei and Peng Damo (“Hello, Mr Billionaire”, “Goodbye, Mr Loser”) and stars Shen Teng, Ma Li, Shi Pengyuan, Sa Rina and Xiao Bochen. It is produced by Zhang Lebin, Ma Chi, Tian Tian and Zhang Meng.
While films mostly hit Chinese theaters on Fridays, local distributors are known to aggressively shift release dates in response to rising demand. “Box office pre-sales [in China] “It exceeded expectations, so the launch was brought forward,” said a source close to CMC. Variety“This movie is very funny. From all points of view, it is expected to be a phenomenon.”
Chinese ticketing agency Maoyan expects “Successor” to continue to be a huge hit. It has more than doubled its estimate of the film’s potential lifetime gross from RMB 1.6 billion ($220 million) to RMB 3.7 billion ($513 million).
According to an official synopsis, “Ma Chenggang and Ma Chunlan go to work on donkeys and see their son, Ma Jiye, as their only hope of changing their fate. Jiye is very promising and excels academically every year. He is tough and determined. But as Jiye grows up, he senses that the people around him are becoming increasingly strange.”
Chinese sources offer a list of production credits that includes many of the biggest names in the mainland Chinese entertainment scene, including: China Film Group, Guosi Lianrui Film, Alibaba Film Culture, Ruyi Entertainment, Kaixin Mahua Film, Maoyan Weiyin Media and Wanda Media.