Following its historical success at home, Taiwanese hit Cape No. 7 topped the Hong Kong box office last weekend, grossing $259,000 (HK$2.01m) in four days (Nov 20-23), with a mid-sized release of 23 screens.

Besides Hong Kong, where the film was released by Lighten Distribution, Cape No. 7 is scheduled to enter other Asian territories starting from this week to December, according to Taipei-based Good Film Workshop, international sales company of the film.

Singapore's Festive Films and Cathay Keris Films will jointly open the film on 11 prints in Singapore on Nov 27.

Good Film also confirmed that All Asia Multimedia Network (AAMN), a content aggregation arm of pan-regional pay-TV group Astro All Asia Networks, has acquired rights to the film in Malaysia and Brunei. AAMN will release the film in Malaysia on Christmas Day.

In mainland China, Chinese state-owned distributor China Film Group is now scheduling the film for the so-called 'year-end season'. It is understood that the film is imported under the warmer relations between the two sides of the straights. The release date is likely to be late December.

China Film Group Import and Export Company imported the film as a flat-fee imported title. It is also the first Taiwanese film to be released in the mainland in 17 years.

Cape No. 7 is the first feature-length film from Tainan-based filmmaker Wei Te-sheng. The film, about a frustrated former rock singer finding his lost passion in music and life in a small southern town of Taiwan, has so far grossed $13.8m (NT$460m) after two months in Taiwanese cinemas.

This makes it thesecond biggest film ever in Taiwanese film history following Titanic with $23.25m (NT$775m).

The film not only gave Wei Te-sheng overnight fame but also raised the stars of actors Van Fan, Tanaka Chie and Shino Lin. The actors will enjoy star treatment during the grand three-day promotion events in Singapore next week.

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