Tom Cruise will fly into Beijing this week to attend the premiere of Oblivion, according to reports in the Chinese media.
Representatives of Universal Pictures, the film's producers, said the actor will be arriving in China to attend the gala screening alongside director Joseph Kosinski, according to a report on the online entertainment news portal of state-backed Xinhua News Agency.
The actor's presence will certainly give the film a crucial boost at the box office, with the Universal Pictures release forced to compete with Django Unchained after seeing its opening date pushed back from April to May 10. Quentin Tarantino's film opens May 12, a month after it was yanked from cinemas on the morning of its April 10 release and re-edited to remove any nudity.
As of yet, The Hollywood Reporter has not been able to reach Universal's representatives for confirmation of Cruise's visit or the exact date of the premiere.
Cruise is one of the most well-known stars in China. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was the second-highest-grossing import film in the country in 2012 with earnings of $104.9 million (646.33 million yuan). But the star will be looking to rejuvenate his box-office pedigree in the country since his last release there, Jack Reacher, barely crossing the important 100-million-yuan threshold when it opened in February.
Cruise already visited Taiwan last month and has endeared himself to the island's public and press alike with unwavering efforts in fulfilling his promotion duties -- including signing autographs for two and a half hours on the red carpet before the film's Taiwanese premiere on April 6.
The film has already been released in Hong Kong, which has its own independent distribution, exhibition and censorship system.
Cruise's visit to the mainland follows that of Robert Downey Jr.'s in early April, when he visited Beijing as part of his international promotional tour for Iron Man 3 nearly a month before its release in the country on May 1.