(THR) 20th Century and Disney’s Free Guy, starring Ryan Reynolds, dominated China’s theatrical box office for a third consecutive weekend. The film added $12.3 million, taking its China total to $75.8 million, according to data from Artisan Gateway.
Free Guy already is Hollywood’s third biggest release in the country this year, trailing only Universal’s F9: The Fast Saga ($203.8 million) and Legendary/Warner Bros.’ Godzilla vs. Kong ($188.7 million). Ticketing service and film data company Maoyan currently projects Free Guy to finish its run with approximately $88 million.
Altogether, it was another downbeat weekend at China’s theatrical box office, however, with few appealing new releases and tepid overall sales.
Taiwanese youth romance Stand by Me opened in second with just $11.9 million from Thursday to Sunday. The film has been widely panned by filmgoers — scoring 6.2 on Maoyan and 5.3 on Douban — but with limited new Chinese-language content on offer, the nostalgic teen romance appears to have become the weekend’s date movie of choice.
Donnie Yen’s late summer box office champ Raging Fire, meanwhile, continued to smolder amid the dearth of new content. The film added $5.7 million in its seventh weekend on screens, scoring third place. At $185.4 million and counting, the Benny Chan action flick ranks as the eighth biggest title at China’s box office this year.
Skydance Media’s The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt, slipped to fourth place, earning $3.5 million and totaling $14.4 million. China is the only major market where the action film screened theatrically after Amazon Prime Video acquired it for most of the world over the summer.
Japan’s latest animated Pokemon installment, Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, opened in fifth with $3.4 million. Directed by Tetsuo Yajima, the film is the 23rd title in the Pokemon film series. It earned $16 million in Japan following its local release late last year.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter by Patrick Brzeski September 12, 2021 8:00PM
