Hot Topics:

'Red Cliff' sets advance ticket record

Film has 13,500 advance ticket sales

Studios battle for EA game rights

Mike Tollin acquires 'In the Space'

Mike Binder sets up Fox sitcom

Indie sector waiting for digital revolution

Invictus(5710 views)

Football player elbows vampires on Turkey day(3908 views)

'Burn Notice' gets renewal(865 views)

The costs of H�w�d spending(752 views)

'2012' breaks B.O. record in Russia(709 views)

TOKYO -- Advance ticket sales of the John Woo epic "Red Cliff Part I" have set a record for an Asian pic in Japan.

�By Thursday, two days before the pic's bow, distribs Avex Entertainment and Toho-Toho had recorded 13,500 advance ticket sales, compared with 11,410 for the previous record holder, the Zhang Yimou epic "Hero."

The pic, which bows on Nov. 1 on 551 screens, the most of any Asian pic in Japan, is aiming to surpass not only "Hero's" B.O. of $41 million, but also the $58 million take of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," the year's highest foreign B.O. earner.

The pic opened this year's Tokyo Film Festival on Oct. 18. Also, on Thursday helmer Woo attended an opening event for 2,000 guests at Tokyo's Roppongi Hills Arena, attended by numerous Japanese celebs.