It appears the WB's lobbying has fallen on def ears as China still plans to release Dark Knight Rises in the same seven day period as Amazing Spider-Man & Prometheus. Even worse, The Dark Knight Rises will face Amazing Spider-Man on opening night as they will both release on August 27th.
China Film has dated the Ridley Scott-directed science-fiction movie "Prometheus" for Sept. 3, just one week later.
Warner Bros. had been lobbying to delay the release of its "Dark Knight Rises" until September, but that effort failed.
Executives at "Prometheus" studio 20th Century Fox, Warner and "Spider-Man" studio Sony Pictures are undoubtedly frustrated by China Film's decision, which could lower their box-office totals in the second biggest movie market in the world. None would speak publicly, however, for fear of offending officials there.
This isn't something new however as earlier this month, China Film opened the 3-D animated films "Ice Age: Continental Drift" and "The Lorax" on the same day. That worked out okay for Ice Age as it grossed a healthy $51 million in the country but Lorax was killed by this competition, opening to less than $1 million.
Also China Film is considering opening The Bourne Legacy and Total Recall on the same date in September.
Authorities have been matching movies against each other in an effort to reduce their total ticket sales and limit the dominance of American movies at the box office so far this year. The reason for this stems from the fact that in the first six months of 2012, the box-office revenues for Chinese made films dropped 4.3% compared with the same period from last year. Ticket sales for foreign pictures, meanwhile, are up 90%, to $825 million.
"We hope those protective measures will be able to create a space for domestic movies to survive and grow," Zhang Hongsen, deputy head of the film bureau controlled by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, told the state-owned People's Daily newspaper. "We hope the measures can provide domestic movies some fundamental support and enhance their abilities to compete against the imported blockbusters."
Just another reason for us who do not live in China to thank our chosen deity. With the internet block outs and the attempt to limit availability of foreign made films the Chinese Government seems to be doing its best to make life for the Chinese citizens miserable.