Chinese Blockbuster ‘Lost in the Stars’ to Release in North America (Exclusive)

The first Chinese blockbuster of summer 2023, Lost in the starsis due out in North America, Australia and New Zealand later this week.

The film will launch July 7 at approximately 60 locations in 30 cities across the United States and Canada, courtesy of Chinese international distributor CMC Pictures. The release in Australia and New Zealand on July 6 and 13, respectively, will be of a similar size.

Lost in the stars launched in China on June 22 and has already earned around $360 million, more than recent Hollywood blockbusters Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse ($343.4 million) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($355 million) domestic gross in North America.

Chinese commercial blockbusters tend to sound more like special releases in the West, however, primarily appealing to the Chinese diaspora market, while racking up earnings more in line with what groundbreaking Asian art house titles earn. Well Go USA has released the Chinese sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth 2 in North America earlier this year and grossed just over $5 million (it made over $600 million in China).

Lost in the stars is an adaptation written and produced by Chinese hitmaker Chen Sicheng, best known for the blockbuster Chinatown Detectives franchise. The film’s source material has a long pedigree. It is based on the 1960 detective play by French writer, director and actor Robert Thomas Trap for one man, to which Albert Hitchcock once bought the rights but never adapted. Russian director Alexey Korenev made a film adaptation in 1990 titled A trap for one manand the Chinese movie is based on that movie.

Co-directed by Rui Cui and Xiang Liu, the Chinese film stars Zhu Yilong as a man whose wife (played by Janice Man) goes mysteriously missing while they are on vacation to celebrate their anniversary. Just as the frantic search for her begins to peter out, she suddenly reappears, but her husband insists that the strange woman in front of him—despite looking just like her—is an imposter and not actually her wife. A lawyer (played by actress Ni Ni) then gets involved in the case and more mysteries slowly emerge.

Lost in the stars it is still doing strong in the Chinese box office, where it is distributed by Alibaba Pictures. Local ticketing app Maoyan expects the film to top $450 million.