‘Snow Queen’ Becomes The First Russian Animated Feature Released in China

The Snow Queen will become the first Russian animated feature released in China, the film’s producer Wizart Animation announced today.

The film, which premiered on December 31, 2012, in Russia, before expanding to dozens of international territories, will roll out on 3,400 Chinese screens starting today in Beijing, expanding to Shanghai on August 2, and nationwide on August 3. China is the world’s second-largest movie market after the United States.

The deal to bring the film to the Middle Kingdom took more than 2 years of negotiations with Chinese distributor Flame Node, which also released the record-shattering Monkey King: Hero is Back.

As part of the agreement, Flame Node will also become a co-producer on the third installment of Wizart’s Snow Queen franchise, titled Snow Queen: Fire and Ice and set for 2016 release. Wizart and Flame Node are expected to sign a Deal Memo of Intention to co-produce this film next Friday in Beijing at the Russian Embassy.

Here’s the trailer for Snow Queen 2, directed by Aleksey Tsitsilin, which debuted last December, and opened wide internationally on January 1st of this year: