[2013.01.03] LOST IN THAILAND BREAKS 10 BILLION RMB

Wang Baoqiang, Xu Zheng, Huang Bo

courtesy of mingpao.com

The Mainland film LOST IN THAILAND broke the 1 billion yuan RMB mark on New Year's Day and created the Chinese film box office record; stars Xu Zheng and Wang Baoqiang happily celebrated online. Reportedly the highest grossing film box office record in China was AVATAR with 1.38 million yuan.

LOST IN THAILAND accomplished the over 1 billion yuan RMB box office mission for a Chinese film. After 21 days in release, over 30 million people have seen the film. Wang Baoqiang online said that it was good news on the first day of 2013. "I really am 'Thai' happy, thank you everyone for supporting national films! As the first Chinese film to break the mark, good omen has started with more to come." Xu Zheng also posted, "Despite being always calm, I actually still have a strand of joy. On the first day of this year, I hope everyone would share this joy with me. The real miracle belongs to China film viewers."

LOST IN THAILAND is Xu Zheng directed and starred, the production cost was around 30 million RMB. The success was quite a pleasant surprise for investors; with the current momentum, its box office will conceivably reach new heights. Xu Zheng was asked about his income. He said, "I only got salary for the film. At first when I discussed the contract with investors I would be a bonus for a certain box office mark but not profit sharing. Thus how much I get would depend on how much the investing bosses get; Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo's rewards also await the bosses' red pockets." He revealed that he might discuss box office profit sharing with the investors for the next film. Huang Bo joked that he felt regret when he saw the box office kept on rising. He was too kind at the start and did not ask for much.

The Mainland fight again piracy probably helped the box office. According to Mainland media reports, Beijing law enforcement after seizing holiday film counterfeit videos on December 21, on the 27th it again received tips and seized more pirated disks that included LOST IN THAILAND and 1942.