Feb 20, 2019

New "Bunny Bears" movie approaches 0 100 million at Chinese box office

The sixth theatrical installment in Fantawild Animation's Boonie Bears franchise has grossed 629 million yuan, around US$93.6 million USD, after two weeks of release in China. The producers had projected a gross of $100 million, and they are now confident that the production will exceed that amount.

The cg animated feature Boonie Bears: Blast Into the Past launched on 10,000 screens on February 5, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday. The film is now guaranteed to surpass the previous franchise-best, Boonie Bears: The Big Shrink, released during the same holiday period in 2018, which brought in a total of US$96.5 million.

Once Blast Into the Past surpasses The Big Shrink, it will become the second-highest-grossing local animated film of all time in China, behind only 2015's Monkey King: Hero is Back, an action-adventure movie that grossed US$153 million. Animated features have proven to be a lucrative business for tech and entertainment conglomerate Fantawild, which has earned over US$400 million in box office with its Boonie Bears theatricals.

Although far from being a household name in the U.S. as it is among Chinese kids, Boonie Bears are gaining traction in the States thanks to Netflix. Last year the streaming company acquired rights to the third film in the series Big Top Secret and one season of the long-running Boonie Bears tv series.

Another locally made animated feature, Light Chaser Animation's White Snake, has also performed well in recent weeks. Co-produced by Warner Bros. (marking its first animation co-production with China), the film has grossed over US$64.5 million since it released in theaters on January 11. The fantasy-adventure is based on the folktale “Legend of the White Snake,” and touches on more mature subjects than average animated fare made in the country.

On the other hand, the toddler-friendly Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year, also released on February 5, has amassed US$17.4 million after two weeks. Co-produced by Canadian company Entertainment One and China's Alibaba Pictures, it's the first feature-length story based on the popular British cartoon and mixes animation with live-action sequences. (Compilations of the episodes have been released theatrically in the U.K.) Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year also had a limited released in the U.S. through STX Entertainment across 32 cities.