(Variety) Chinese hit comedy "Successor" comfortably topped the mainland China box office over the weekend and advanced its haul to over $300 million. But "Deadpool & Wolverine" also enjoyed one of Hollywood's strongest openings in the territory so far this year.
"Successor," a Chinese-produced comedy drama about escape from poverty, earned RMB364 million ($51.3 million) in what was its second official weekend of release and its third in reality, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Its cumulative now stands at $317 million.
"Deadpool & Wolverine" took $23.9 million over the weekend. With previews, it has a total of $24.5 million. Some $5 million of the weekend total came from Imax screens.
That was the second biggest opening weekend performance by any Hollywood film this year and is only bettered by "Godzilla x Kong," a film produced by Wanda-owned Legendary Entertainment and handled by its China subsidiary Legendary East. "Godzilla x Kong" earned an opening $44.6 million in China.
Other Hollywood debuts this year, include $10.2 million for "Inside Out 2"; $11.4 million for "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"; $14.7 million for "Kung Fu Panda 4"; $17.7 million for "Despicable Me 4@; and $19.9 million for "Dune 2."
Chinese title, "The Traveller" earned $12.8 million in third place on its debut weekend.
"A Place Called Silence" earned $5.6 million in fourth place in its fourth weekend on release. The film, which contains brutal depictions of school bullying, has now earned $174 million at the China box office.
CMC Pictures' "Decoded" took fifth place with $5.4 million from previews alone. It opens officially on Aug. 3.
The weekend's total theatrical revenue was worth $113 million. That puts the running total this year over the $4 billion mark. But Artisan Gateway calculates that the $4.07 billion figure is nearly 15% adrift of the 2023 total at the same point last year.
Chinese state media has harshly criticized overseas business news channel Bloomberg for suggesting that the Chinese summer box office season is weak. The Global Times accused Bloomberg of "political bias" and said that its anchors had "attempted to use the current performance of China's film market to cast a shadow over China's economy."
Source: Variety by Patrick Frater
