While Disney is celebrating the $265 million international opening week numbers for Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, there is no China release for the movie. Deadline is reporting that the denial by the censor board could have been because of the glimpse of a newspaper at a kiosk in the opening fight scenes – a split-second view of the Chinese characters for The Epoch Times which opposes the Communist Party. A social media furor has apparently erupted over it.

China’s May Day holiday, a peak movie-going time with big new releases usually scheduled, fell between April 30 and May 4 this year and was a COVID-related disaster. Cinemas in Beijing and Shanghai remained closed. Al Jazeera reports that entrances to 40 subway stations and 158 bus routes in Beijing were shuttered though the city is not completely locked down like Shanghai as yet. According to Lighthouse, an Alibaba-owned box office tracker, China’s box office was $44 million over the 5-day holiday compared to $250 million in 2021.

“Only about 67 percent of the cinemas in China were open during the May-Day holiday this year due to COVID-19,” said Yin You, a deputy manager of a movie chain in Chengdu, Sichuan province, to the China Global Television Network. “Some leading film companies were worried that the low running rate of the cinemas was not good for revenue, so eight movies for the May Day holiday were canceled. Only four less-popular movies remained for the holiday as there were no more movies to fill the gap. So it is fair to say this May-Day holiday could be the most challenging one for cinemas.”

DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys took the first spot with a total of $2.59 million for the weekend with a cumulative $14.11 million over 10 days. The film continues to dominate internationally with a gross of $148 million and counting.

Stay With Me, last week’s leader fell to No. 2. The Chinese comedy about young people and their long-distance relationships took in $2 million over the weekend for a total of $17.12 million over 10 days.

In third place is Man on the Edge, the Chinese action film that climbed one position since last weekend, knocking out Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore which dropped to fourth. Man made $0.93 million Friday to Sunday, with a total gross of $15.21 million in 24 days of release.

Dumbledore’s total gross in China is now $23.69 million with a weekend take of $0.72 million. It’s now been in release for 31 days.

Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania is in fifth place, earning $13.17 million so far in 36 days of release with $0.46 million over the weekend.

The old Malayalam film from India, 2015, Drishyam, showed surprising staying power, coming in sixth; there was a Chinese remake in 2019, Sheep Without a Shepherd, that was a huge success. Drishyam’s total gross in China is now $4.05 million in 24 days of release.

Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg’s Uncharted fell to seventh place earning $0.32 million Friday to Sunday; its total gross is now $19.41million in 56 days of release.

The Chinese feature Shallow got in the top ten, coming in at No. 8, earning $0.47 million in 9 days. The drama is about a young mother’s fight to get back her child and is targeted at the female audience.

In ninth position is Moonfall, still hanging on after 45 days in release, earning more than half its worldwide gross in China alone. It made $0.22 million over the weekend for a total of $21.57 million.

Horror film sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions rounds out the top ten with a total gross of $8.46 million in 37 days of release. It is a 2021 film.

The Batman fell out of the top ten coming in at 11^th with $0.17 million over the weekend and $23.53 million overall in 52 days of release.

One interesting note: Matt Belloni of Puck News reported that late last year, China’s censor demanded that the Statue of Liberty be edited out of Spiderman: No Way Home’s climactic ending if Sony wanted the film exhibited in China. Studio head Tom Rothman of Sony said no. “But the Chinese weren’t done,” Belloni continues. “Then they asked if the Statute could simply be minimized in the sequence: if Sony could cut a few of the more patriotic shots of Holland standing atop the crown, or dull the lighting so that Lady Liberty’s visage wasn’t so front-and-center. Sony thought about this request . . . but ultimately passed, knowing that it almost certainly meant forfeiting that potentially massive China payday.”