Initial release likely would be on 50 to 60 screens in the U.S. and Canada, and expand to up to 200 screens if there’s strong demand.
[By Dean Napolitano, Wall Street Journal]
The world’s first 3-D erotic film is about to hit American shores. China Lion Film Distribution said Thursday it acquired the U.S. and Canadian rights for “3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy,” a Hong Kong soft-core adult film that opened in parts of Asia and other global markets last month. China Lion Chief Executive Milt Barlow said his company was “still in conversations with its theatrical partners” in the U.S. on a release date, but that “I’d like to think we can get it in the July-August period.”
He said that for the movie’s initial release it likely would be shown on a combined 50 to 60 screens in the U.S. and Canada, and expand to up to 200 screens if there’s strong demand. “The audience will decide,” he said. The Ming Dynasty-era costume sex romp mixes campy humor, orgies and inspired set pieces — a fountain in the shape of the male anatomy — with more intense scenes of rape and sexual sadism. The story focuses on a lustful young scholar who leaves his wife in search of sexual fulfillment.
While the movie serves up plenty of nudity, it is primarily adult erotica and shuns the explicit hard-core sex scenes found in porn films. The 25 million Hong Kong dollar (US$3.2 million) Cantonese-language film is a remake of “Sex and Zen,” a 1991 sex farce that has since reached cult status and earned its place as one of Hong Kong’s most successful Category III films. (Category III is the equivalent of NC-17.) Both films are based on “The Carnal Prayer Mat,” a 17th-century Chinese erotic novel.
The 3-D remake is the brainchild of Stephen Shiu Jr. and his father, Stephen Shiu, who produced the 1991 version. As of MAY 22, the film had pulled in $4.8 million since its opening in Hong Kong on April 14, making it a certified blockbuster in this city of seven million people. In a twist, the film’s ultimate message is that true love — and monogamy — triumphs over promiscuity.
“It’s an Asian take on an erotic movie,” Mr. Barlow said. Reviews of the film have been mixed, and the film’s scenes of sexual violence have met with some controversy. “There are a couple of scenes that are a little more intense,” Mr. Barlow said, “but it’s in the context of the story line.”
He expects the movie to earn an NC-17 rating. China Lion specializes in the distribution of Chinese-language movies in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Its theatrical partner is AMC Theatres in the U.S. and eastern Canada (and Consolidated Theatres in Hawaii) and Cinaplex Odeon in western Canada.
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