‘Hero’ Tops Labor Day Box Office
LOS ANGELES — Jet Li’s 4-year-old, Chinese martial-arts epic Hero relegated four new movies to the nether regions of the box office during 2004’s Labor Day weekend.
Hero ranked No. 1 by collecting an estimated $11.5 million over the four-day holiday, which is traditionally a slow time at movie theaters as many people try to enjoy their last big summer weekend outdoors.
It was followed by four premiering movies: the Josh Hartnett romantic thriller Wicker Park; the Mel-Gibson-produced Paparazzi; Reese Witherspoon’s Vanity Fair; and the hip hop comedy The Cookout.
Biggest Korean Film Gross in the United States
Korea’s No. 1 box-office hit made history last weekend when it had the highest-grossing opening weekend for a Korean film in the history of American cinema. Tae Guk Gi earned an estimated $364,386 on 29 screens and garnered the highest per screen box-office gross, earning an average of $12,565 per screen — beating out even Hollywood films. Apparently at some cineplexes over the weekend, theater managers were compelled to move the film to their larger theaters in order to accommodate the high demand from the public. There are plans to continue to release the film in other U.S. markets over the next two months.
Barbie Still Lives in Taiwan
TAISHAN, Taiwan — Nearly two decades after U.S. toy maker Mattel Inc. closed its Barbie factory here, the town is trying to keep the legacy alive at the new Doll Museum — more of a shrine, really — devoted to Barbie.
The Barbie in the lacy wedding gown — the first one made in Taishan — is one of only a few original dolls on display. There’s also a “Black Barbie” from 1979 packaged in a slightly battered, pink box that says, “She’s black! She’s beautiful! She’s dynamite!”
Although today Mattel manufactures a Barbie with Chinese features, it didn’t back then.
“Oh look, they even have a black Barbie,” a kindergarten teacher told her students walking through the museum. “But they don’t have a Barbie with a Chinese face like ours.”
Chinese Music for Danish Storyteller
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — American composer Stephen Schwartz, aided by Chinese rock star Cui Jian, will pen part of the score for a new musical about Hans Christian Andersen, one of the many events that will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Danish fairy tale writer.
Cui, who is hugely popular in China, will write the music for the scenes that show Andersen visiting the Chinese emperor in his fairy tale The Nightingale.
The rest of the musical will feature Danish songs and music from Andersen’s lifetime.
Born in 1805, Andersen was the son of a poor shoemaker’s apprentice and a chairwoman. He died in 1875.
Hello Kitty Turns 30
TOKYO — Quintessentially cute, and incredibly lucrative, Hello Kitty is turning 30 and opening herself up to remakes in a new traveling exhibit.
“We asked the artists to create their own version of Kitty because we wanted to create a new dimension,” said Yo Kato of Digital Hollywood Entertainment, which planned the shows that opened July 31 at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum and the Laforet Museum.
American fashion designer Jeremy Scott created “Hello De Milo,” a replica of “Venus de Milo.” Japanese artist Nagi Noda made a stuffed doll with half of its body as Hello Kitty and the other as a panda.
Created in 1974 by Yuko Shimizu, Hello Kitty generated about half of Sanrio’s total $9.5 billion in sales. Every year, there are about 50,000 kinds of Hello Kitty goods sold in about 60 countries.