With The Croods: A New Age still lording it over the box office amid no wide releases, the bigger news was overseas. In China, Monster Hunter, director Paul W. S. Anderson’s adaptation of the video game series which is popular in that giant Asian market, was expected to be a blockbuster there.

But a short scene involving rapper-actor MC Jin, aka Jin Au-Yeung, saying an old racist schoolyard rhyme that is derogatory to Asians quickly sparked an outcry in social media. The controversy dashed hopes that Monster Hunter, starring Milla Jovovich as Lt. Artemis, would duplicate or surpass the huge box office success in China of the Resident Alien series, also a collaboration by the actress and Anderson.

The social media uproar over the sequence in the action-adventure-fantasy resulted in Monster Hunter being pulled in China, the world’s largest movie market. With many of its movie houses open, China is a major source of film revenues, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic which shuttered thousands of cineplexes around the world.

France, for example, decreed that cinemas will remain closed until January 7. The French government’s decision to extend the lockdown upset distributors who have been reeling from the impact of closing movie houses. The second lockdown, also enforced in Italy, Germany, Denmark and many European countries, was a blow since audiences started returning to theaters when the first lockdown ended around end of June.

In the United States, AMC, the large theater chain, announced that it was running out of money. The chain, hard hit by theater closures during the pandemic, disclosed that it will raise money through stock sales to stave off bankruptcy.

The lack of wide releases last weekend continued the grim outlook for distributors. With only an estimated 40 percent of movie houses open in North America, it was another slow week for the movie industry.

The Croods 2, enjoying its reign as the only animated film and family fare, grabbed the weekend box office crown again with $3 million. The movie’s $24.3 million total earnings so far made it place second to Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in the overall pandemic period box office rankings.

The rest of the domestic box office top five finishers are, in order, Half Brothers ($490,000), Elf (a re-issue with $390,000), Freaky ($315,000) and The War With Grandpa ($266,900).

In the international market, The Croods 2 also continued to fare well, with $8.44 million for an overseas total of $52.08 million. Monster Hunter may have faltered in China but it was a bright spot for the animated movie. The DreamWorks Animation flick’s cumulative earnings in China have reached $46 million.

Monster Hunter fared better in other countries, where it debuted on top. These territories included Taiwan and Saudi Arabia.

The overseas movie market success story in the COVID-19 era is Japan’s Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train which has taken in $310 million in worldwide ticket sales from mostly Asian countries. Director Haruo Sotozaki’s animated-action-adventure is poised to surpass Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away as Japan’s all-time top grosser.

Back in the North American box office race, Wild Mountain Thyme and Archenemy were among the films that premiered in limited release. John Patrick Shanley’s Wild Mountain Thyme, an Ireland-set romance-drama starring Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan and Jon Hamm, earned $100,466.

Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Archenemy, an action-adventure topbilled by Joe Manganiello, grossed $55,700.

George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky, the post-apocalyptic drama which he also stars in, along with Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo, is expected to liven up the box office scene when it goes into wider release. Also in limited release is Tara Miele’s Wander Darkly, a drama with Diego Luna and Sienna Miller.