Mainland blockbuster Ne Zha 2 to hit Hong Kong, Macau screens on Saturday
Shopping centres get in on the action by offering tickets to showings of record-breaking fantasy
Mainland Chinese box-office smash Ne Zha 2 will hit Hong Kong cinema screens on Saturday following a delay caused by a dispute among distributors, with some shopping centres rolling out perks to attract visitors.
The Hong Kong premiere of Ne Zha: Demon Child Conquers the Sea was held at CineArt House in Causeway Bay on Tuesday night and was attended by Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui and Peter Lam Kin-ngok, whose return as Tourism Board chairman was announced on Wednesday morning.
Lam’s Lai Sun Development is the parent company of filmmaker Media Asia Entertainment Group.
In a speech at the premiere, Law highlighted the film’s “remarkable” performance on the mainland over the Lunar New Year period as box office takings exceeded 12 billion yuan.
“This provides a very good example for us in Hong Kong to learn from,” she said.
“The chief executive’s 2024 policy address proposed using the Film Development Fund to subsidise the film industry in producing films that promote traditional Chinese culture.”
The animated film, a fantasy adventure based on Chinese mythology, is a sequel to the first Ne Zha movie released in 2019. It has amassed box-office receipts of 12.3 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) worldwide, including on the mainland, making it the highest grossing animated film globally, surpassing Pixar’s Inside Out 2.