US blockbuster 'Free Guy' hits Chinese theaters

China.org.cn

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Disney and 20th Century Studios' epic adventure-comedy Free Guy hit Chinese theaters on Friday, grossing more than 155 million yuan (US$23.9 million) over the weekend after topping North American box office chart.

In a pre-recorded video ahead of the film's release, lead actor Ryan Reynolds greeted Chinese audiences. Hello, my friends in China. I am super, super excited about my new movie 'Free Guy' which I know you're gonna love. It combines comedy, action, heart, romance... everything you ever want in a movie. It's my favorite movie that I ever made.

The film, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Keery, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Taika Waititi, tells the story of a bank teller named Guy who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game and decides to become the hero of his own story by confronting and saving the only world he's ever known.

I fell in love with the character of Guy, who is looking for some kind of authorship in his life and some semblance of belonging, Reynolds said. He has a childlike innocence to him and a very rote kind of pattern that he goes through each and every day.

Levy said he's been excited about the project ever since Reynolds presented it to him in the summer of 2018, calling the film the perfect combination of a big idea, an actor I admired and wanted to work with and a real opportunity for singularity, originality and fun.

'Free Guy' is very much the journey of a man who has only ever existed in this very kind of curated, fake world and who has the innocence and the goodness of spirit of an innocent, said Levy. As a result, you get the humor that we all love in characters like that, but we also have an incredibly root-able protagonist, a hero who we champion and whose struggles we feel viscerally, and whose ultimate triumphs we celebrate very passionately.

A concept poster for Free Guy [Image courtesy of IMAX China]

For the past weeks beginning Aug. 13, Free Guy has taken the top spot in the North American box office, grossing more than $79.31 million in the market, and $179.61 million worldwide in total, according to Box Office Mojo. The film has also received largely positive reviews with an approval rating of 82% based on 248 reviews and 95% by audience score on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, audiences gave it an A on CinemaScore.

As the last Hollywood blockbuster to be released in China this summer, industry stakeholders are hoping that Free Guy can stimulate the country's fledgling film market, which has been hampered by a COVID-19 resurgence and general lack of tentpole productions during what is otherwise a golden season for Chinese cinemas.