There’s a weird thing going in the film world right now where Hollywood movies set records in China but Chinese movies don’t make so much as a dent at the American box office, if they ever play here at all. For example, we all know about Furious 7. It’s the one where the Fast & Furious characters pretty much turned into unofficial superheroes and Vin Diesel mumbled the word “Family” as much as possible (and it was awesome). It grossed over $1 billion worldwide earlier this year and supplanted the most recent Transformers as the highest-grossing film in China’s history. However, have you ever heard of Monster Hunt? Because it just passed Furious 7 on the country’s record chart. According to China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, by day 58 of its theatrical run Monster Hunt is now sitting at $380.95 million compared to Furious 7‘s $380.67 million. At China’s current rate of growth, Monster Hunt‘s record could conceivably be broken by some other movie later this year or next year. However, for now Monster Hunt is the biggest movie China has ever seen.
So, what the heck is it? One crazy-looking movie, that’s what. It’s like Junior mixed with the Adipose monsters from Doctor Who married to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon:
Here’s the plot synopsis:
In a fantasy world far, far away, monsters ruled the land. Then came human’s all-out war in an attempt to seize the land. In its final days, they outwitted the monsters and succeeded in driving them into the dark mountains. Ever since, monsters were forbidden to step into the land again. If they were found, they would be captured and exterminated. For all these years, the two races have lived in their separate worlds, until the birth of a new monster king who would reshape the balance of power and bring in the new world order.
