• Box Office

China Box Office June 26, 2022

Jurassic World: Dominion continues to make money in China, but it fell out of the No. 1 slot this weekend. That position went to Lighting Up the Stars, a Chinese film that opened in previews last weekend. So JWD’s dominion at the top of the Chinese box office lasted just two weeks.

The rest of the list continues to be moribund, with holdovers and rereleases. While cinemas are slowly opening, the public is not showing up in large numbers with the Chinese economy still dealing with the government’s Covid restrictions. But even when the country emerges from the pandemic, it appears that the landscape has changed for Hollywood movies.

If it’s not a Hollywood blockbuster, the Chinese moviegoer prefers local films, and there is a backlog of those still to be released. China has mastered the art of making local epic blockbusters like The Battle of Lake Changjin, the No. 1 movie of 2021, and its sequel this year that is also still No.1 in 2022. And the rampant online piracy cannot be discounted as a reason to depress moviegoing.

So Hollywood studios have slowly come to the realization that China doesn’t need Hollywood product. While tentpole movies do well internationally without China, those are only a handful a year. In 2021, only 25 Hollywood movies were released in China, many of them lower-budget and indie films. Covid and the deterioration of Sino-US relations have also done their part in the diminishing returns from the world’s (now) second-largest movie territory.

For the weekend of June 24-26, these are the films in the top ten in China.

Lighting Up the Stars, officially released on June 24, has made $36.98 million so far, and beat out JWD every day this weekend, earning $31.57 for three days. The story is about a funeral director’s relationship with a little girl once he gets out of prison.

JWD is at No. 2 with $114.72 million so far in 17 days, grossing $12.4 million over the weekend.

The Bad Guys is still hanging on in the top ten, at No. 3 this weekend. It made $1.85 million for the weekend with a cumulative $49.51 million over 59 days. It remains the second most successful Hollywood movie so far this year in China.

Last week’s new Chinese release One Week Friends comes in at No. 4 earning $12.90 million in nine days of release, with $2.46 million over the weekend. This is another youth romance about a young woman whose amnesia only allows her one week’s memory.

The Japanese film Doraemon: Nobita’s Little Star Wars 2021, came in at No. 5. The animated space opera parody of Star Wars, No. 41 in the Doraemon series, and a remake of the 1985 Doraemon: Nobita’s Little Star Wars, grossed $0.35 million over the weekend with a total of $12.45 in 30 days of release.

Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania is No. 6, earning $17.61 million so far in 85 days of release.

My Blue Summer, a Chinese film about unrequited love among young people, is at No. 7 after 25 days in release with a total gross of $19.75 million.

Chinese drama, The Man of People, originally released in April, came in at No. 8. It has grossed a mere $2.93 million in 66 days of release.

2021’s horror film sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is at No. 9 with $11.43 million in 86 days of release.

Rounding out the top 10 is the 2020 Australian prison film, Escape from Pretoria, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Sam Neill, based on the true story of the escape of political prisoners in 1979 from a South African jail. Its total gross is $1.6 million in 17 days of release.

So far no other Hollywood films have received release dates in China