“The Battle at Lake Changjin II” passed $500 million in total sales and remained unchallenged atop the mainland Chinese box office over the latest weekend.
Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed no positional change among the top five films on a weekend that came a week after the Chinese New Year holiday wound down.
Bona’s “Lake Changjin II” earned $43.5 million over the Friday to Sunday weekend, ahead of comedy “Too Cool to Kill” with $37.3 million over the same three days. In third place over the weekend was drama “Nice View” with $21.6 million and animation “Boonie Bears: Back to Earth” with $14.0 million. The Zhang Yimou- and Zhang Mo-directed “Snipers” was fifth over the weekend with $11 million.
Imax reported that “Lake Changjin II” earned $2.65 million from 730 venues in China over the weekend. That pushed its Imax cumulative to $30.5 million. The film’s overall cumulative stands at $524 million after only 13 days of release.
“Too Cool to Kill” has accumulated $319 million, while “Nice View” stands on $161 million. “Boonie Bears: Back to Earth” reached $127 million, surely guaranteeing that there will be another instalment in time for Lunar New Year 2023. “Snipers,” which is now receiving encouragement from state media, has $69.1 million. All the top titles were released the same day, on Feb. 1, 2022.
Analysis showed total box office over the Lunar New Year at $950 million, lower than in 2021 when the total hit $1.2 billion. But it was still higher than pre-pandemic 2019, when the figure was $881 million. (Box office over the holiday in 2020 was essentially zero, as cinemas were ordered shut and the country went into lockdown.)
The holiday’s status as a moveable feast also makes like-for-like comparison at this stage. Artisan Gateway still has the 2022 year-to-date nationwide aggregate at $1.73 billion, compared with $1.07 billion on the same date in 2021.