Foreign Movies

RealD Inc., the leading supplier of 3-D technology to cinemas, has significantly expanded its footprint in China. The Beverly Hills-based company said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Chinese conglomerate HNA Group to install the company's 3-D technology on up to 500 cinema screens across HNA's new theater circuit. HNA, one of China's Fortune 500 companies, also has investments in the airline, finance and the retail industries. The expansion is among the largest business deals to date for RealD in China, and is the latest evidence of deal-making between companies in the U.S. and the Asian nation.

China's movie business continued its rapid growth in 2012, and for the first time in four years Hollywood imports accounted for the majority of the business. Box office receipts in the world's most populous country surged 28% last year to $2.7 billion (16.8 billion yuan), according to data from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television as reported by the government-controlled People's Daily newspaper. Still, the annual pace of growth slowed a bit; receipts in 2011 had risen 35% from 2010.

Hollywood's chief lobbying arm and federal trade officials are laying the groundwork for negotiations with China that could substantially increase the number of American films allowed in the country -- a long-sought goal of the major studios. Representatives of the Motion Picture Assn. of America and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative have been working on crafting a compromise in a long-running trade dispute with China, which has had a rocky history with Hollywood but has become an increasingly vital market for the media conglomerates.

China is rolling up the red carpet for Hollywood. Just six months after Chinese and American leaders reached a new agreement allowing more foreign movies into the world's most populous nation, officials there are trying to torpedo the box office returns of some of Hollywood's biggest summer films. American studios carefully schedule their pictures' launch dates - often declaring them a year or more in advance - to avoid colliding with similar movies going after similar audiences.

RealD Inc., the world's leading supplier of 3-D technology to cinemas, has significantly expanded its footprint in China. The Beverly Hills company said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Chinese conglomerate HNA Group to install the company's 3-D technology on as many as 500 screens across HNA's new theater circuit. HNA, one of China's Fortune 500 companies, also has investments in the airline, finance and the retail industries. The expansion is among the largest business deals to date for RealD in China, and is the latest between major companies in the U.S. and the Asian nation.

Richard Gordon, a B-moviemaker whose credits as a producer and executive producer of science fiction and horror films included "Fiend Without a Face" and "The Haunted Strangler," has died. He was 85. The British-born Gordon died Tuesday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. He had been hospitalized in recent months for heart problems, said Tom Weaver, a friend. Beginning his more than two-decade career as a producer in the mid-1950s, Gordon executive-produced movies such as "Corridors of Blood" with Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, "The Haunted Strangler" with Karloff, "Island of Terror" with Peter Cushing and "Fiend Without a Face" and "First Man Into Space," both with Marshall Thompson.

No, "The Cyclone" is not a sequel to "Twister." Nor is it yet another expensive American disaster picture in a long line to come. It's actor-director Leonardo Pieraccioni's farce about a troupe of flamenco dancers who raise hell in a small Tuscan village. It has also been the No. 1 box-office draw in Italy for the last two months, making it more popular than such Hollywood movies as "Ransom," "Evita" and "The First Wives Club."

Bill Reid digs deep into a mound of movie ticket stubs atop a table at a McDonald's near Culver City. He randomly pulls one out for instant analysis. " 'Maid in Manhattan,' " he announces. "I thought Jennifer Lopez did a good job with the role. It was one of the better films of that kind. You have to buy the premise of the story, you know. It was done pretty well." Next comes "Dancing at the Blue Iguana," a flick he saw two years ago. "Now, this was a pretty decent movie.

"The Other Conquest," an epic about the 16th century Spanish invasion of Aztec Mexico, got off to an impressive start at the box office, bringing in both Latino and non-Latino audiences, a feat two other recent Hispanic-themed films couldn't accomplish. Mexico's highest-grossing drama, directed by first-timer Salvador Carrasco and released April 21, grossed nearly $400,000 in 74 theaters during its first five days.

In "Lean Times for Foreign-Language Films" (Feb. 25), both Calendar writer Sheila Benson and Gary Meyer, owner of Landmark Theaters, complain that college students do not appreciate foreign cinema and are frightened off by subtitles. I am a 20-year-old student and have seen more than half the films that Benson warmly recalls. Perhaps if Mr. Meyer did not charge $6.50 or $7 a ticket in his theaters, he would see a larger college crowd. Offer a substantial student discount, Mr. Meyer.