China’s answer to Top Gun is a movie called Born to Fly which was to open on September 30, in time for the week-long National Day holiday celebrations starting October 1. However, it was pulled from release with no reason given aside from a vague announcement that it needed to “improve special effects,” according to radii.co.

The feature debut of director Liu Xiaoshi, the trailer shows attractive young pilots from the People’s Liberation Army Airforce undergoing arduous training, swooping across gorgeous landscapes high in the skies, pushing themselves to test a new stealth fighter jet, with subtitles saying ‘Take the Fight to the Skies’ and ‘Be Victorious.’ Actor/singer Wang Yibo, from the k-pop group Uniq, plays the lead.

Radii.co is reporting that comments have popped up on the social media platform Weibo, with posts calling the film ‘plagiarism’ and another user writing “Top Gun is an actual modern action movie, but Born to Fly has been turned into sci-fi. The special effects look too lame.”

The huge advance ticket sales will all be refunded.

On the other hand, the Chinese film Home Coming which opened at No. 1 last weekend with $63 million, and continues to lead the box office for the second week in a row, is getting an international release, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film will be released in North America on October 21 by Chinese distributor CMC, with more international releases starting October 27 in the UK, Australia, and other territories.

More Covid-related lockdowns have hit the Xinjiang region in China since last week.

These are the top ten films at the China box office for the weekend of October 7-9.

As previously mentioned, Home Coming tops the charts again this weekend grossing $171.51 million in ten days with a weekend take of $22.68. The film is about the heroic deeds of a Chinese diplomat and a civil servant who evacuate 125 Chinese from a war-torn North African country. It stars Zhang Yi and Karry Wang and is directed by Rao Xiao Zhi.

The rest of the movies on the chart grossed far below Home Coming.

Ordinary Hero stays at No. 2. It earned $2.27 million over the weekend for a total take of $20.75 over ten days. It is based on a true story of a rescue team racing against time to transport a 7-year-old boy with a severed arm over 1,400 miles from a Hotan village to a hospital in the Xinjian Autonomous Region. It is directed by Tony Chan and stars Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, and Feng Shaofeng.

Give Me Five ended the weekend at No. 3 making $64.07 million in 31 days of release with $1.74 million grossed over the weekend. The time-travel Chinese film tells of a young man who goes back to the 1980s to help his Alzheimer’s-afflicted father remember his life. It is directed by Zhang Luan and stars Chang Yuan.

Steel Will, a patriotic drama based on real-life stories, ended the weekend at No. 4 with $1.43 million, for a total of $9.77 over ten days. The film is about iron and steel production in Liaoning province, the largest Chinese iron and steel base. It is described by china.org as a film revisiting “the historical moment when iron and steel production resumed on the eve of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It will highlight the significance of iron and steel production to New China’s infrastructure and the Chinese forces during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53).” is directed by Ning Haiquiang, and stars Lin Yongjian and Liu Ye.

The animated Xin Shen Bang: Yang Jian (New Gods) stayed at No. 5 making $79.97 million in 52 days of release with a three-day take of $­­­0.76 million. It is directed by Ji Zhao and stars voice actor Kai Wang. Gkids has acquired the rights for both Chinese and English-dubbed versions for theatrical distribution in North America next year.

Moon Man, the Chinese sci-fi blockbuster comedy, stays at No. 6 earning $458.28 million in 73 days. Based on a Korean comic book series “Moon You,” it is the story of a maintenance worker left behind on the moon unintentionally by a lunar crew that was sent to save the earth from an asteroid strike. The worker comes to believe the earth is destroyed and he is the last man alive in the universe. What is actually happening is that the whole world is watching him on live stream, including the woman he secretly loves.

Table for Six climbs to No. 7 for a total gross of $14.35 million in 31 days. This Covid holdover comedy premiered at the Far East Film Festival in April where it was nominated for Best Screenplay and is about the complicated relationships of three brothers played out over a family reunion. It stars Dayo Wong, Stephy Tang, and Louis Cheung and is directed by Sunny Chan.

A new entry from last week Come Back Home (formerly titled Polar Search and Rescue), made it into the top ten this week at No. 8 with $2.3 million in 7 days. The film is a disaster thriller and is produced by and stars action superstar Donnie Yen. It deals with the rescue of an 8-year-old boy who is lost in a blizzard and is directed by Lo Chi Leung.

Space-themed animated entry, the fifth in a franchise, New Happy Dad and Son 5: My Alien Friend, comes it at No. 9 with $10.01 million in nine days. Fifth in the franchise that was started in 1995, it follows the adventures of the ‘small-headed’ father and ‘big-headed’ son.

The drama, Song of Spring, rounds out the top ten with $11.24 million in 30 days. It is about a mother-daughter relationship, with the daughter being the victim of Alzheimer’s. It stars Estelle Wu as the mother and Xi Mei Juan as the daughter and is directed by Yang Lina.