As box office sales of Nanking, a US-made film
documentary depicting the massacre of Nanjing in 1937, continue to
be dwarfed by Hollywood blockbuster Transformers, private
enterprises have been giving away tickets at bargain-bucket prices
to Nanjing residents.
Seven private businesses bought 5,000 tickets and sold them to
readers of the Nanjing Daily for only 10 yuan each as part
of an online promotional campaign set up by the city's Heping
Theater and the newspaper.
Ma Renbin, the theater's sales manager, told Xinhua on Wednesday
that more than 15,000 people - including the 5,000 who took
advantage of the deal - had watched Nanking, and that he had
received more requests for group showings.
Ma said the box office revenues hit 400,000 yuan (US$52,840)
over the past two weeks. Transformers amassed more than
200 million yuan in two weeks throughout the whole of China.
Zhang Pimin, a chief film censor from the State Administration
of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), said the documentary, which
remained untouched by the censors, will be shown in the major
cities around China until the end of 2007.
He did not specify how many screenings of the film would be
shown each week and in which cities. The Shanghai New Century
screened Transformers 30 times on July 15 but Nanking was
only screened once at the same cinema on the same day.
Ma Weimin, vice president of the Central Newsreel and
Documentary Film Studio (CNDFS), which sponsored the distribution
of the film in China, told Xinhua, "We thought the documentary
would be less well received by audiences compared with commercial
movies, particularly during the summer vacation period."
The film was released in early July in a few cities such as
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuxi. It was not put on Nanjing's
screens as CNDFS wanted to continue promoting the film in Nanjing
until August 15 when it would debut on the same day as the 70th
anniversary of the massacre.
"We started in early July to try out the film in a few cities
such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuxi," Ma said, "none of
the 60 copies issued by us reached Nanjing."
However, Nanjing residents demanded to see the film at the same
time as residents in the larger cities so Heping Theater borrowed
one copy from the adjacent city of Wuxi and released it to the
public.
"We will continue to show Nanking until the last person wishes
to see it," Ma Weimin said.
Based on a non-fiction best-seller written by late American
author Iris Chang, the documentary featured interviews with Chinese
survivors and Japanese soldiers who were involved in the six-week
massacre. All the pictures, letters and diaries were collected by
the camera crew from six countries including China, Japan and the
US.
"My goal was to have one billion Chinese see my film," director
Ted Leonsis told the US-based National Public Radio.
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(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2007)