Genuine 3-D movie Hercules making waves in China

Director Brett Ratner (left) and Hercules' lead actor Dwayne Johnson promote the movie in Beijing last week. The 3-D adventure movie was released in China on Oct 21. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

American adventure movie Hercules, released in China on Oct 21, has come to be associated more with the term 3-D than its lead actor Dwayne Johnson, known among fans as "The Rock".

Director Brett Ratner, while promoting the movie in Beijing with Johnson on Oct 16, said that Hercules was made in 3-D from the very start. It wasn't converted from a 2-D version.

For Chinese moviegoers the distinction was important.

"Please see the movie on the biggest 3-D screen possible because the movie was designed like that," says Ratner. "Unfortunately, some Hollywood movies were made in 2-D and transferred into 3-D just for Chinese audiences. I think that's wrong."

There are many Hollywood movies that cater to the Chinese market by converting them into 3-D from their original formats, given the high degree of interest with which Chinese watch 3-D films.

The sci-fi movie Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson, was one such production that was made in 3-D only for the Chinese market, Ratner mentioned at the news conference.

China's 3-D movie market has witnessed continuous growth during the past decade.

In 2007, there were only 82 3-D screens in the country. But by 2013, the number had grown to more than 10,000.

China has screened 14 more foreign films at 3-D or Imax theaters every year since 2012, bringing the total number to 34. Before that only 20 foreign films were allowed in Chinese theaters.

What followed the box-office boom and favorable policy were the so-called "exclusive for China" 3-D movies.

Some such movies are new releases, while others have been transformed from old films. Some of them have performed poorly at the box office.

Ice Age 2, for example, was recently screened in China in its 3-D version. The movie was released in China eight years ago in 2-D, and made about 50 million yuan. The 3-D version, however, has only grossed 4.6 million yuan since it premiered on Oct 13.

2012, the disaster epic that grossed about 400 million yuan in China in 2009, tried to get a share of the growing market in 2012, but only took in 140 million yuan.

Titanic 3-D has been the most successful conversion worldwide. The movie reprised the glory of the original version, attracting millions of Chinese viewers and earning $145 million at the box office. The 3-D version of the movie made more in China than it did in the US.

Ratner promises that his latest interpretation of the mythical hero is a genuine visual wonder.

"As a filmgoer I prefer to see a movie that planned to be 3-D from the very beginning," he says. "Movies transferred to 3-D in a rush and in an unprofessional way hurts, because that makes audiences not want to watch 3-D anymore. They walk out of the movie with a headache."

Hercules tells the adventures of a mighty Greek hero by the same name in the Kingdom of Thrace. The movie's visual splendor includes a real lion-fighting scene with Johnson and real Greek temple settings that don't use computer-generated graphics.