Stephen Chow’s (周星馳) fantasy epic Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons <西遊•降魔篇> has brought life (and money) back to Huayi Brothers, saving it from its decline after the company suffered a large stump on its stock market value last year. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, directed by Stephen Chow and starring Shu Qi (舒淇), is a loose adaptation of the classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West. Largely regarded as the prequel to Stephen’s 1994 film, A Chinese Odyssey <大話西遊>, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons tells the story of the monk, Tripitaka (Wen Zhang 文章), who is entrusted by Guanyin to retrieve the Buddhist sutras in India. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons grossed a phenomenal 640 million RMB since its opening day on February 10. The comedic flick set three single-day records in a row, being the first film to gross over 122 million RMB in a single day. On February 14 alone, the film grossed over 122 million RMB, surpassing the 112 million RMB record set by Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Due to the lower-than-expected box office performance of Feng Xiaogang’s (冯小刚) Back to 1942 <一九四二> last year, Huayi Brothers suffered a drop in stock market shares. On November 30, 2012, one day after the underwhelming premiere of Back to 1942, Huayi Brothers’ shares dropped 10 percent. The company’s shares dropped another 6 percent a week later. Want China Times reported that the company’s market value dropped 1.3 billion RMB in two days. The release of Journey to the West two months later, however, has brought up Huayi Brothers’ stock by 25 percent. Journey to the West’s lifetime gross in mainland China is expected to exceed 1.3 billion RMB. Creds: QQ
