DISNEY’S “Alice Through the Looking Glass” will open in China on May 27, the same date as its North American debut, the studio announced via Chinese social media Wednesday.

    The release will be the Hollywood studio’s fourth day-and-date release in China this year. Disney is having a terrific 2016 so far in China. Last month, “Zootopia” grossed US$236 million, a record high for the studio in China. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” earned US$125.4 million in January, and “The Jungle Book” has grossed US$107.5 million after 12 days and remains on release.

    The studio’s next outing, “Captain America: Civil War,” is expected to do big business when it opens across the country on May 6.

    Directed by James Bobin, “Alice Through the Looking Glass” is the sequel to “Alice in Wonderland” (2010), Tim Burton’s live-action fantasy adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s beloved fantasy novels. The film stars Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Rhys Ifans, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen and features the voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Timothy Spall.

    Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” earned an impressive US$33 million in China in 2010, a notch above “Iron Man 2,” which grossed US$26 million the same year. But China’s box-office revenue has skyrocketed in the intervening half decade.

    The full-year total in 2010 was just US$1.47 billion. China’s box office last year hit US$6.78 billion last year, and it is projected to reach US$9 billion in 2016.(SD-Agencies)