China’s film authorities have suspended the license of a distributor that inflated box office figures for Hong Kong martial arts movie Ip Man 3 (葉問3), according to state media.
The third installment of the franchise starring Donnie Yen (甄子丹) opened in China on March 4 and soon attracted allegations of fraud after it reportedly earned more than 500 million yuan (US$77.3 million) in just four days.
The movie’s distributor, Dayinmu, which is also known as Beijing Max Screen, admitted to having bought 56 million yuan’s worth of tickets, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.
“The conspirators fabricated more than 7,600 screenings of the film that they claimed generated 32 million yuan in ticket sales,” it added, citing China’s film bureau under the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
“These kinds of issues could be considered inevitable in a young industry, but box office fraud has become so serious that it is already harming Chinese cinema,” bureau head Zhang Hongsen (張宏森) was quoted as saying.
The bureau ordered the company to suspend distribution for a month while it “rectifies all malpractices” and gave formal warnings to three electronic ticket-selling groups involved in the fraud, as well as 73 cinemas, the agency said.
No telephone number was listed for Dayinmu and it had no immediate statement on its official microblog.
Chinese cinemas and distributors have been accused of faking ticket sales in the past, for example by buying up tickets or counting some of the earnings of one film as those of another. While a distributor would have to fork out money to buy thousands of tickets, the bulk-buying might boost the movie’s profile enough to become a talking-point and attract a bigger audience.
The producers of China’s briefly highest-grossing movie, live-action and animated fantasy Monster Hunt, admitted last year to buying tickets worth 40 million yuan, which it said was for free screenings for senior citizens and others.
After the release of Ip Man 3, which also stars US former boxer Mike Tyson, state media reports soon alleged that its distributor had bought discount tickets in bulk from various cinema chains, which then scheduled “ghost screenings” after midnight at expensive rates.
China’s film market has grown fast in recent years to become the world’s second-largest after the US.
Dozens of cinemas received punishments, including warnings, removal of funding and suspensions, for box office fraud last year, the news agency said.
In January, the administration said it was developing an app to help moviegoers report fake tickets as part of a crackdown against box office fraud.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS