Huayi Brothers Media, the Chinese group that pacted with emerging Hollywood studio STX Entertainment, said it is looking forward to its share of revenues from “The Gift.”
The film was the first theatrical release for STX and this weekend opened in third place in North America, behind “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” and the struggling “Fantastic Four.” It beat expectations to gross $11.9 million from 2,503 screens.
"Our collaboration has hit the ground running,” said Huayi in a statement. It congratulated director Joel Edgerton and producer Blumhouse Productions for efficiently managing a $5 million budget. Huayi said that STX had successfully timed the release of the stalker-thriller so as not to compete with other films of the same genre in U.S. theaters.
"This release and its box office success marks the beginning of Huayi Brothers’ international expansion and we look forward to sharing revenue from ‘The Gift’,” the company said.
"This is an exceptional start for our company,” said Kevin Grayson, STX’s domestic distribution group president. “We got to battle test our marketing and distribution groups.”
In April, Huayi and STX agreed that they would jointly invest in a minimum of 18 movies before the end of 2017.