Sherlock special will get theatrical release in China

BBC Worldwide has announced that the upcoming Sherlock special will be released in Chinese theaters as part of “a global cinema event.”

The 90-minute special, which sets Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman’s John Watson in Victorian London for a one-off episode, will screen in theaters in China — pending regulatory approval — as a “complement” to the United Kingdom TV broadcast. The series first launched in China in 2010 and has since developed a major following, with more than 98 million views of the last season alone.

The BBC also announced a new partnership between BBC Earth Films and Shanghai Media Group Pictures, which will co-produce a new documentary feature film (working title Earth: One Amazing Day) to be released in theaters in 2017. Earth: One Amazing Day will be the sequel to 2007’s Earth, which was the second highest-grossing nature documentary ever, and it’ll be the first feature film produced under a U.K.-China co-production treaty signed earlier this year.

The Sherlock special will air later this year on PBS in the United States. Season 4 is expected to debut in 2016.