Entertainment | ‘From Vegas to Macau III’ rebuffed by critics, wins box office battle

Chow Yun Fat (center) in From Vegas To Macau

From Vegas to Macau III” grossed 85 million yuan in China on Valentine’s Day, making it the third top-grossing film in the country.
When taken against estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), the movie ranked fourth (see table).
Compared with Valentine’s Day 2015, sales at the box office increased overall by more than 150 percent. Valentine’s Day box office sales hit 580 million yuan, a new high in comparison to previous years, Xinhua reported.
The increase in sales at the box office on this day has been attributed to the fact that the date  so closely follows the Spring Festival holiday.
While “From Vegas to Macau III” is finding commercial success across China and other parts of the world, critics are rebuffing it. A Hollywood Reporter review criticized the movie starring Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung.
“The level of inanity and utter lack of narrative glue in FVTMIII is astounding, and writer-director Wong has stooped to new levels of desperation in building a coherent story (he fails),” reads the review.
“Combine a Godfather-­style opening wedding, a baffling robot romance, bomb threats, Michael Bay-levels of product placement, fat jokes, storm-troopers (maybe?) and cheap stunt casting (“Gangnam Style” singer and worldwide fad Psy) — as a start — and the result is the overstuffed, nonsensical and long-dead horse From Vegas to Macau III, the latest in exploitation master Wong Jing’s self-referential (or self-­parodying) gambling romp,” the review adds.
The movie was not well received in some parts of China. Xinhua reported on Saturday that a local cinema in northwest China’s Gansu Province recently broke with traditional partisanship when approaching films, by suggesting its audiences not watch the movie, describing it as a “scam.”
“We want to apologize to those who have watched the film…we sincerely suggest everybody [else] not spend money on it,” said Pingliang China Film Stellar International Theater in a WeChat feed sent to its subscribers, referring to the movie as “The Man from Macau III.”
“We can not understand how a bunch of previous A-list stars have such a poor taste for screenplay and how Hong Kong movies have been reduced to such a status,” continued the post, vowing to arrange only one screening for the movie in the following days.
The post went viral on social media platforms, with many internet users praising the theater manager as conscientious in his actions.
However, the theater later deleted the post, saying that it was only the personal thoughts of its investor rather than being representative of the position of China Film Stellar International Theater Chain, of which it is a franchisee. MDT/Agencies

china is on track to replace u.s.

The results show China is on track to replace the U.S. as the largest movie market in the world by 2017. The market in Asia’s biggest economy grew about 48 percent last year to USD6.8 billion, with locally-made films accounting for more than 61 percent. U.S.-made films generated about $11 billion in revenue in 2015, according to data from boxoffice.com and SNL Kagan.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through to Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada):

1. “Deadpool,” $125 million.
2. “Mei Ren Yu (The Mermaid),” $109 million.
3. “The Monkey King 2,” $38 million.
4. “From Vegas to Macau III,” $36 million.
5. “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip,” $15.3 million.
6. “Kung Fu Panda 3,” $14.6 million.
7. “The Revenant,” $14 million.
8. “A Violent Prosecutor,” $11 million.
9. “Zoolander 2,” $8.5 million.
10. “How to Be Single,” $8.1 million.
Source: comScore