Chinese Blockbuster ‘Monster Hunt’ Coming To U.S. Theaters

Monster Hunt, the highest-grossing film in China’s history, will receive an American release on January 22nd.

The film will be distributed by Filmrise and Asia Releasing in a limited number of theaters in 24 American and Canadian cities. Certain theaters will show the newly-produced English-language version, while others will show the original Mandarin-language version with subtitles. A list of theaters and the versions they’re showing can be found here.

Released in China last July, the live-action/animation hybrid grossed a record-breaking 2.438 billion yuan (around US$371 million using current exchange rates). The U.S. release will be targeted to both Chinese-American and Western audiences; many of the theaters that are screening the Mandarin version are located in communities with significant Chinese populations. “We have carefully edited the English language version to be the equivalent of a PG rating,” said FilmRise CEO Danny Fisher. “We believe North American kids and their parents will embrace the film in the same way as Chinese audiences have.”

Monster Hunt is set in a land where monsters rule and humans keep to their own kingdom, but their worlds become entangled when baby monster Wuba is born to a human father and monster queen.

The film marked the directorial debut of Raman Hui, a longtime veteran of Pacific Data Images, who continued working there after the company was acquired by DreamWorks Animation. Hui worked as a supervising animator on films like Antz and Shrek, and co-directed Shrek the Third, before setting out to make Monster Hunt for Edko Films.