Two Chinese popular films "The Warlords" and "The Assembly" ranked first and second, respectively, in the box office achievement, according to the report of Beijing News Thursday.
Released nationwide on Dec. 13, 2007, "The Warlords" reaped 192million yuan (US$26 million) by Jan. 1. Its overseas box office was 245 million yuan (US$33.6 million), said the newspaper.
One week later in the release schedule, "The Warlords"'s evenly matched rival ---"The Assembly", directed by director Feng Xiaogang, got 180 million yuan (US$25 million) at the end of last year.
"The Warlords", directed by Hong Kong director Peter Chan, based on a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) story, follows the struggle of three blood brothers and their love entanglements with a woman during a time of war and political upheaval, while "The Assembly" focused mostly on a period of China's liberation war and soldiers' sacrifice and honor in the war.
According to the statistics collected by the newspaper, there were 10 blockbusters whose box office exceeded 30 million yuan (US$4 million) by the end of 2007. They are "The Warlords","The Assembly", Ann lee's "Lust, Caution", Hong Kong based movie "The protege", Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" etc. The box office of the top three exceeded 100 million yuan.
"The Warlords" was featured with Chinese action star Jet Li, Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau, heart-throb actor Takeshi Kaneshiro and Beijing-based actress Xu Jinglei, while "The Assembly" chose Zhang Hanyu, an unknown male actor to be the leading actor.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2008)
