Ne Zha 2 on IMAX in the US? Chinese people unite to make it a community experience for all

A group of Chinese people decided they wanted China’s biggest movie to be big in the United States, literally. So they made it really big.

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And therein lies a story.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, more than 100 people gathered at an IMAX screening room in a cinema outside Baltimore, in the US state of Maryland.

Many were Chinese students and young professionals, while parents took their kids – some of whom dressed as the movie’s main characters. Men and women wore traditional Chinese outfits.

People lined up to sign their names onto a Chinese scroll and get tickets styled like traditional Chinese paintings. Some posed for pictures with spears and swords.

The screening was organised by volunteers among the Chinese community in the Baltimore-Washington area. Ne Zha 2, the movie they came to see, is a Chinese film that replaced Inside Out 2 as the highest-grossing animated film ever at around US$2 billion.