Saban films
Skip trace, the Jackie Chan-Johnny Knoxville action comedy directed by Renny Harlin, enjoyed great success in China. Grosses just showed that it brought in $62.2 million in prize money and eliminated all competition, including Warner Bros.'s “The Legend of Tarzan,” which came in a distant second. To give an idea of how popular Skiptrace was, Tarzan's six-day domestic gross was just $27.3 million. The opening in China also gives Chan the biggest opening of a live-action film in the Middle Kingdom to date.
It didn't hurt that the $60 million production of Skiptrace starred another popular local star: Fan Bingbing. The film also premiered in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Romania and Bulgaria for a total box office of $64 million across seven markets managed by Bloom International.
In the US, the film will initially be shown exclusively on DirecTV and will then be shown in cinemas and on demand on September 2nd, courtesy of Saban Films and Lionsgate, who are responsible here. Rated PG-13, Skiptrace follows a Hong Kong detective (Chan) who must team up with an American fugitive (Knoxville) to fight Chinese villains.
The film is a Chinese-HK production and the characters speak both Chinese and English (yes, even Knoxville). It was originally supposed to be the Christmas release last year in China, but then it was changed to this summer. The Chinese press says it could be the only Chinese-language film to gross 1 billion RMB (which is equivalent to $153 million).
Beijing Talent International Media Co. is the Chinese company behind the film. The local press reports that Beijing Talent has signed a deal with Alibaba, Shanghai Hehe Films and Tianjin Lianrui Pictures covering the production budget, sales and marketing costs, and in return provided a minimum box office guarantee of RMB 1 billion. The same deal was apparently made for the box office hit The Mermaid – which ended up being China's highest-grossing film of all time.
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