In its third week of release, Zhang Yimou‘s “Under the Light” maintained its dominant position at the China box office over the weekend, largely due to a scarcity of new film releases.
The contemporary crime drama film generated $13.5 million (RMB97.2 million) in earnings between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Artisan Gateway, a consultancy. Since its debut on September 28, the film has amassed a total gross revenue of $163 million (RMB1.17 billion).
Zhang Yimou will be honored with a lifetime achievement award in Japan next week as the Tokyo International Film Festival screens his record-breaking film from February, “Full River Red,” but not “Under the Light.”
” The Volunteers: To the War,” a propaganda film set in the 1950s and directed by Chen Kaige, claimed the second spot by earning $9.6 million (RMB69.2 million), increasing its total earnings to $93.2 million. Meanwhile, the Chinese comedy franchise film “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan” raked in $8.8 million in its third week of release, pushing its cumulative earnings to $123 million.
Not far behind, “Moscow Mission” earned $8.4 million, increasing its three-weekend total to $76.3 million. Another holiday season release, “Lose to Win,” earned $2.2 million in its third weekend, accumulating a total of $21.1 million since its debut on September 28.
After a robust summer season that nearly restored China’s box office figures to pre-COVID levels, a familiar pattern of seasonality and holiday-driven film releases seems to be reemerging in the Middle Kingdom. The upcoming release of the National Geographic documentary “Jane,” focusing on naturalist Jane Goodall, is anticipated in the coming days. However, the next major Hollywood blockbuster to hit Chinese theaters is “The Marvels,” scheduled for November 10.
The latest weekend witnessed a nationwide box office gross of $47.1 million, bringing the year-to-date total to $6.71 billion. According to Artisan Gateway’s calculations, this is 76% higher than the COVID-impacted 2022 figures and only 10% behind the statistics for the same period in 2019.
