America hearts Love

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Box Office News

Doze NIU 鈕承澤's Love 愛 has turned out to be a strong performer off a narrow platform release in North America.

Released by China Lion Film Distribution Inc on 7 screens in the US and Canada, the film grossed $83,200 over the weekend and is expected to finish its first week on $146,000, including $17,000 of Valentine's Day sneak previews. That gives a per screen average for the week (excluding previews) of $18,900.

Love ranked as the top film at the 20-screen Kennedy Commons complex in Ontario, Canada and at the 18-screen Silvercity Riverport, in Vancouver, Canada.

The release will be expanded to New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and open in Boston, Seattle and Houston on 2 March.

"We couldn't be more pleased with the opening of Love stateside. Audiences are really responding to this very emotional tale and it's something we feel will play well in the upcoming weeks," said China Lion CEO Milt BARLOW.

Barlow was careful to damped excessive short term expectations of the performance of Chinese films in North America. "We are where Bollywood was ten years ago," he said. Distributed by Wrekin Hill Entertainment, China's foreign-language Oscar contender The Flowers of War 金陵十三釵 (2011) had grossed $225,000 after five weeks on American release.

China Lion's The Viral Factor 逆戰 has to date grossed $212,000 in North America since its 20 Jan release. The company expects to open it in a further 12 cities including Atlanta, Bloomington, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Phoenix, from 9 March.

Love has been a rare hit Taiwanese movie in China, where it is distributed by co-producer and China Lion backer Huayi Brothers Media Corporation 華誼兄弟傳媒股份有限公司. In China, Love had made RMB87.5m ($13.9m) by Sunday night after 7 days on release. Previous Taiwan hit You Are the Apple of My Eye 那些年，我們一起追的女孩。 (2011) ended its run in China will a little over RMB71.6 million.

In Taiwan's capital Taipei, Love had grossed NT$51.6m ($1.75m) by Wednesday night after 13 days on release in 21 cinema complexes.

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