Oddly enough, Netflix has a tendency to drop hit movies onto the streaming service with to no publicity, and Bleeding Cool just realized this week that Chinese box office hit The Wandering Earth is Netflix’s latest without-fanfare, surprise release.
We had learned that Netflix had acquired the film back in February, but no release date was provided.
The Wandering Earth was an insane success in China earlier this year, earning $700 million on a reported $50 million budget, making it one of China’s all-time biggest box office success stories. A limited release in the States earned the film an additional $6 million.
Wikipedia notes, “It became China’s second highest-grossing film of all time, 2019’s third highest-grossing film worldwide, the second highest-grossing non-English film of all time, and one of the top 20 highest-grossing science fiction films of all time.”
In the film, Set in the near future against the backdrop of the imminent destruction of the sun, The Wandering Earth charts a project that’s hatched to move the planet’s residents to a remote star system and save the human race.
Directed and written by Frant Gwo, The Wandering Earth stars Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat and Zhao Jinmai. The film is adapted from Liu Cixin’s novella of the same name.