Tenet brought in $53 million-plus from 41 international markets, including Canada, according to Warner Bros. The Eight Hundred's second-weekend single country results highlighted just how fully China's theatrical market has staged a comeback — and how inconsistently other international territories continue to perform as filmgoers remain wary about returning to theaters amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly all of China's approximately 70,000 movie screens are back in operation, although public health officials are maintaining a 50 percent limit on seating capacity for each screening. It was rare for cinemas to exceed 50 percent capacity prior to the pandemic, though, so exhibitors expect the social distancing measures to have a limited impact on earnings potential.
The Eight Hundred has brought in $276.8 million over the past 10 days, according to local box office tracker Artisan Gateway. The war film is expected to march past the $300 million mark in China sometime later this week. Tenet will get its own shot at China's revived theatrical potential when it releases there on Friday.
Directed by Guan Hu and featuring a large ensemble of local stars, The Eight Hundred was the first Chinese film shot entirely on Imax cameras. It has earned $15.6 million to date on the specialty exhibitor's giant screens, including $3.5 million from 633 Imax theaters over the past weekend.
Other Chinese new releases have begun to follow in The Eight Hundred's wake now that the demand for fresh content has been so potently established. Alibaba Pictures and Edko Films' time-travel romance Love You Forever came in second over the weekend with $9.9 million. The movie released last Tuesday, which was Chinese Valentine's Day (also known as Qixi Festival), raking in $38.3 million as the holiday date movie of choice. The impressive haul marked China's biggest single-day performance of 2020 so far. As of Sunday, Love You Forever had earned $60.5 million.
The Hollywood films on offer over the weekend generated limited sales. A rerelease of Nolan's heady sci-fi action film Inception (2010) opened to $2.9 million, while Disney's Onward added $2 million for a $5.9 million total, and Sony's Little Women earned $1.9 million, listing its China gross to $4.7 million.
Source: The Hollywood Reporterby Patrick Brzeski