How Bait 3D, an Australia-Singapore shark movie co-production, became a monster hit at the Chinese box office
- The film, about sharks terrorising a supermarket after a tsunami, sank down under but soared in China, becoming the most successful Australian film shown there
- The combination of action, a lack of politics, the 3D filming and a weird extra scene shot in Beijing involving a Chinese rescue team made it a hit
When Bait 3D (2012), the first Australia-Singapore co-production, was released down under, it sank without a trace. Yet when this standard-issue shark-attack film was screened in China, a strange thing happened.
Opening at No 1 on 1,700 screens, it took more than US$20 million to become the most successful Australian film released there. It made nearly twice as much in China as its nearest competitors: Sanctum (2011), which was executive produced by James Cameron, and George Miller’s Happy Feet 2 (2011).
Bait 3D, directed by Kimble Rendall, best known for his second-unit work on the Matrix sequels and featuring an Australian cast headed by familiar faces Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), Sharni Vinson (You’re Next) and Julian McMahon (TV’s Nip/Tuck), is serviceable at best, and far from an obvious international smash hit.
Set in a Gold Coast supermarket that has been flooded by a tsunami, it follows a group of stock characters menaced by great white sharks.
Because it was shot in 3D, most of the attacks happen straight to camera – pretty distracting when viewed in any other format – and, amid some tense-but-silly set pieces, there’s the requisite mix of gore, bad CGI and Jaws jokes.
