The Guardian
Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio has said China can be a “hero” for the environmental cause while on a trip to the world’s most populous nation to promote The Revenant.
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s stark and harrowing western scored a hugely impressive $33m on debut at the Chinese box office this weekend, pushing the film’s worldwide debut close to $500m. At a Beijing news conference to promote the film, DiCaprio praised China for moving towards renewable energy in order to reduce carbon emissions.
“As we all know, the United States and China are the two biggest contributors, and I think that China has made radical movements forward as far as alternative energy and ways to be sustainable,” said the actor and green campaigner. “I really think that China can be the hero of the environmental movement, they can be the hero of the climate change movement.
“They have an opportunity to change the world and I have all the confidence in the world that that is their intention.”
DiCaprio is a popular figure in China, largely due to local filmgoers’ fondness for James Cameron’s 1997 romantic disaster epic Titanic. He is known there as Xiao Li, or Little Lee.
The world’s second largest box office after North America, China is one of the final territories to see Iñárritu’s Oscar-winning film. DiCaprio won the best actor prize at February’s Academy Awards, with the Mexican film-maker taking his second best director prize in a row and Emmanuel Lubezki taking his third consecutive best cinematography Oscar.
In related news, China has begun cracking down on box office fraud in the wake of reports last year that the record-breaking homegrown animation Monster Hunt cheated its way to the top of the 2015 annual chart (figures have since been revised downwards). Authorities have banned distributors of the martial arts movie Ip Man 3 from releasing movies for an entire month after a government investigation revealed the firm inflated ticket sales by as much as $8.7m.
The Chinese box office is on course to overtake North America as early as next year, but a series of scandals involving fake reporting of sales have convinced regulators that reform is needed to ensure figures are genuine.