Netflix Acquires Chinese Mega-Hit The Wandering Earth for U.S. Release

Netflix has made a splashy international play by acquiring the rights to director Frant Gwo’s The Wandering Earth, which has become a box office smash of epic proportions in China. The feature, being marketed as China’s first truly “international” and mainstream sci-fi epic, has made a truly mind-boggling $603 million at the Chinese box office in only 14 days, and still has weeks left to run. That puts it at #2 in the all-time Chinese gross, behind only 2017’s action spectacle Wolf Warrior 2.
The Wandering Earth is adapted from a 2000 novella of the same name by Chinese author Liu Cixin, and tells the story of a mission to save the planet by moving the entire thing out of range of our dying sun. Netflix’s full synopsis is as follows:
The Wandering Earth tells the story of a close future in which the sun is about to expand into a red giant and devour the Earth, prompting mankind to make an audacious attempt to save planet. The multi-generational heroes build ten-thousand stellar engines in an effort to propel Planet Earth out the solar system, in the hope of finding a new celestial home. During the 2,500 year-long journey, a group of daring heroes emerge to defend human civilization from unexpected dangers and new enemies, and to ensure the survival of humanity in this age of the wandering Earth.