Wanda Pictures’ ‘Detective Chinatown 3’ Lands UK Release For Chinese New Year

Tom Grater

EXCLUSIVE: Detective Chinatown 3, the latest installment in the hugely successful Chinese action-comedy franchise, has scored UK and Ireland distribution after producer Wanda Pictures struck a deal with Brit outfit Trinity Cineasia.

The film is set to be released in China by Wanda on January 25, which is Chinese New Year, typically one of the country’s biggest-grossing days at the box office. In 2019, the holiday set a single-day record for box office in the territory, with China’s cinemas collecting $216m in grosses.

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Warner Bros is releasing the film in China on the same date, and Trinity will now day-and-date release the film in the UK concurrently.

Between them, the first two Detective Chinatown films grossed more than $660m in China alone, with the second film responsible for more than $540m of that total in 2018. Results abroad have been less remarkable, though Detective Chinatown 2 did take close to $2m in North America (also via Warner Bros) and $203,284 in the UK (also via Trinity).

The threequel, again written and directed by Sicheng Chen, sees the detectives head to Tokyo to take on a case.

“We’ll be working hard with our cinema partners to reach as far as we can so everyone in the four corners of the UK and Ireland has a chance to join for the celebration, with some new sites where no Chinese film has ever played before,” commented Trinity Cineasia co-founder and director Cedric Behrel.

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