Two Chinese companies are not just helping Paramount and Revolution Studios market the action movie “xXx: Return of Xander Cage” to China. Huahua Media and Shanghai Film Group also made an investment into the film as a joint venture.
It is not the first collaboration between Huahua and Paramount since the two partnered to market “Star Trek Beyond” in China in September 2016 which earned $66 million. They also jointly marketed “Transformers: Age of Extinction” in 2014 which was the first foreign movie to gross over $300 million in China.
Dedicated Fan Bases
Because the lead stars of the movie Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Kris Wu and Nina Dobrev have dedicated fan bases in China, Paramount President of Worldwide Distribution and Marketing Megan Colligan believes “xXx: Return of Xander Cage” would perform well in China. She also cited the movie’s incredible action and great entertainment as factors that could draw Chinese audience to the film which breaks away from Hollywood grip by having an international cast.
The film opened in China on Thursday, Jan. 19. Shanghai Film Group supports the movie by showing it in some of its more than 2,000 cinema screens across China.
Pandora’s Box
The movie’s plot revolves around the Pandora’s Box, a device that terrorists are using to crash satellites down to Earth. The box is stolen by a group of highly trained mercenaries which leave the NSA and CIA to tap Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) to deal with the villains. Xander recruits some of his friends to help get back the Pandora’s Box from the hands of the mercenaries.
In its review of the film, Movieweb cites the diversity of the cast as the movie’s strength since given good roles are Chinese actor Donnie Yen and Thai actor Tony Jaa who even gave Vin Diesel “a run for the money” as the film’s main attraction. The review added that the movie is tailor-made for IMAX 3D since the action scenes look tremendous using that medium.