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Superman has returned to Chinese screens after an absence of 21 years but anticipated box office sales are well below those achieved by Hollywood blockbusters King Kong and The Da Vinci Code.

 

Superman Returns was released on Tuesday as one of the 20 imported films which are permitted to be screened in China every year.

 

Lai Shen, spokesman of the China Film Group Corporation, one of the movie's two China distributors, told Xinhua News Agency that the Chinese box office sales for the US$250 million film will reach about 60 million yuan (US$7.5 million). It has generated more than US$141 million in North America since its release on June 28.

 

The estimate is well below the sales figures recorded by King Kong and The Da Vinci Code, which both earned over 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million) in China this year.

 

Superman is no stranger to the Chinese audience. The super-hero proved a hit with Chinese after China imported the first installment of the series starring Christopher Reeve by buying its local distribution rights for US$50,000 in 1985.

 

In Superman Returns, Superman (Brandan Routh) returns to Earth after finding no survivors from Krypton, but discovers that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) is in a relationship and has a son, as well as having penned a Pulitzer Prize-winning essay entitled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman".

 

 

He continues to save humans despite being a social outcast and finally wins the love of Lane and the people.

 

Although Superman fights for "truth, justice and the American way" and stands for a part of American culture, the movie will also be enjoyed by a non-American audience for its universal value, Ellen R. Eliasoph, managing director of the China office of Warner Bros. Pictures, told Xinhua.

 

While China accounts for a small fraction of Hollywood's global earnings, American filmmakers have a growing interest in courting the Chinese market. Box office sales hit a record high in China last year, reaching 2 billion yuan (US$247 million).

 

Four of the top ten biggest money-makers were foreign, with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the No. 3 earner, bringing in 93 million yuan (US$11.5 million).

 

But some audience members enjoyed the film as much as Superman takes pleasure from a chunk of kryptonite. Yu Hao, a member of the audience at the premiere, told Xinhua that the stale plot of Superman Returns is not much better than the 1978 installment, barring the visual effects.

 

"The American people think extraterrestrials are the only beings apart from themselves and believe only America can save the world. It's enough for the Chinese people to just watch the fun created by Superman," he said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2006)